The telegraph system of England was built up in the main and in its

early stages by private persons and companies. After more than

twenty-five years of competitive development, however, there was

widespread public dissatisfaction with the service. Messages were

expensive and telegraphing inconvenient. Many towns with populations

from three thousand to six thousand were without telegraphic

facilities nearer than five or ten miles, while the offices of

competing companies were numerous in busy centres. In 1870, therefore,

all private telegraph companies were bought up by the government at an

expense of £10,130,000. A strict telegraphic monopoly in the hands of

the government was established, and the telegraph made an integral

part of the post-office system.

In 1878 the telephone began to compete with the telegraph, and its

relation to the government telegraphic monopoly became a matter of

question. At first the government adopted the policy of collecting a

ten per cent royalty on all messages, but allowed telephones to be

established by private companies. In the meantime the various

companies were being bought up successively by the National Telephone

Company which was thus securing a virtual monopoly. In 1892 Parliament

authorized the Postmaster General to spend £1,000,000, subsequently

raised to £1,300,000, in the purchase of telephone lines, and

prohibited any private construction of new lines. As a result, by 1897

the government had bought up all the main or trunk telephone lines and

wires, leaving to the National Telephone Company its monopoly of all

telephone communication inside of the towns. This monopoly was

supposed to be in its legal possession until 1904, when it was

anticipated that the government would buy out its property at a

valuation. In 1898, however, there was an inquiry by Parliament, and a

new "Telegraph Act" was passed in 1899. The monopoly of the National

Company was discredited and the government began to enter into

competition with it within the towns, and to authorize local

governments and private companies under certain circumstances to do

the same. It was provided that every extension of an old company and

every new company must obtain a government license and that on the

expiring of this license the plant could be bought by the government.

In the meantime the post-office authorities have power to restrict

rates. An appropriation of £2,000,000 was put in the hands of the

Postmaster General to extend the government telephone system. It seems

quite certain that by 1925, at latest, all telephones will be in the

hands of the government.

The post-office savings-bank was established in 1861. Any sum from

one shilling upward is accepted from any depositor until his deposits

rise to £50 in any one year, or a total of £200 in all. It presents

great attractions from its security and its convenience. The

government through the post-office pays two and one-half per cent

interest. In 1870 there was deposited in the post-office savings-banks

approximately £14,000,000, in 1880 £31,000,000, and ten years later

£62,000,000. In 1880 arrangements were made by which government bonds

and annuities can be bought through the post-office. In 1890 some

£4,600,000 was invested in government stock in this way.

The parcels post was established in 1883. This branch of the

post-office does a large part of the work that would otherwise be done

by private express companies. It takes charge of packages up to eleven

pounds in weight and under certain circumstances up to twenty-one

pounds, presented at any branch post-office, and on prepayment of

regular charges delivers them to their consignees.

In these and other forms each year within recent times has seen some

extension of the field of government control for the good of the

community in general, or for the protection of some particular class

in the community, and there is at the same time a constant increase in

the number and variety of occupations that the government undertakes.

Instead of withdrawing from the field of intervention in economic

concerns, and restricting its activity to the narrowest possible

limits, as was the tendency in the last period, the government is

constantly taking more completely under its regulation great branches

of industry, and even administering various lines of business that

formerly were carried on by private hands.

*77. BIBLIOGRAPHY*

Jevons, Stanley: _The State in Relation to Labor_.

"Alfred" (Samuel Kydd): _The History of the Factory Movement from the

Year 1802 to the Enactment of the Ten Hours Bill in 1847_.

Von Plener, E.: _A History of English Factory Legislation_.

Cooke-Taylor, R. W.: _The Factory System and the Factory Acts_.

Redgrave, Alexander: _The Factory Acts_.

Shaftesbury, The Earl of: _Speeches on Labour Questions_.

Birrell, Augustine: _Law of Employers' Liability_.

Shaw-Lefevre, G.: _English Commons and Forests_.

Far the best sources of information for the adoption of the factory

laws, as for other nineteenth-century legislation, are the debates in

Parliament and the various reports of Parliamentary Commissions, where

access to them can be obtained. The early reports are enumerated in

the bibliography in Cunningham's second volume. The later can be found

in the appropriate articles in Palgrave's _Dictionary_. For recent

legislation, the action of organizations, and social movements

generally, the articles in _Hazell's Annual_, in its successive issues

since 1885, are full, trustworthy, and valuable.

CHAPTER X

THE EXTENSION OF VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION

Trade Unions, Trusts, And Coöperation

*78. The Rise of Trade Unions.*--One of the most manifest effects of the

introduction of the factory system was the intensification of the

distinction between employers and employees. When a large number of

laborers were gathered together in one establishment, all in a similar

position one to the other and with common interests as to wages, hours

of labor, and other conditions of their work, the fact that they were

one homogeneous class could hardly escape their recognition. Since

these common interests were in so many respects opposed to those of

their employers, the advantages of combination to obtain added

strength in the settlement of disputed questions was equally evident.

As the Statute of Apprentices was no longer in force, and freedom of

contract had taken its place, a dispute between an employer and a

single employee would result in the discharge of the latter. If the

dispute was between the employer and his whole body of employees, each

one of the latter would be in a vastly stronger position, and there

would be something like equality in the two sides of the contest.

Under the old gild conditions, when each man rose successively from

apprentice to journeyman, and from journeyman to employer, when the

relations between the employing master and his journeymen and

apprentices were very close, and the advantages of the gild were

participated in by all grades of the producing body, organizations of

the employed against the employers could hardly exist. It has been

seen that the growth of separate combinations was one of the

indications of a breaking down of the gild system. Even in the later

times, when establishments were still small and scattered, when the

government required that engagements should be made for long periods,

and that none should work in an industry except those who had been

apprenticed to it, and when rates of wages and hours of labor were

supposed to be settled by law, the opposition between the interests of

employers and employees was not very strongly marked. The occasion or

opportunity for union amongst the workmen in most trades still hardly

existed. Unions had been formed, it is true, during the first half of

the eighteenth century and spasmodically in still earlier times. These

were, however, mostly in trades where the employers made up a wealthy

merchant class and where the prospect of the ordinary workman ever

reaching the position of an employer was slight.

The changes of the Industrial Revolution, however, made a profound

difference. With the growth of factories and the increase in the size

of business establishments the employer and employee came to be

farther apart, while at the same time the employees in any one

establishment or trade were thrown more closely together. The hand of

government was at about the same time entirely withdrawn from the

control of wages, hours, length of engagements, and other conditions

of labor. Any workman was at liberty to enter or leave any occupation

under any circumstances that he chose, and an employer could similarly

hire or discharge any laborer for any cause or at any time he saw fit.

Under these circumstances of homogeneity of the interests of the

laborers, of opposition of their interests to those of the employer,

and of the absence of any external control, combinations among the

workmen, or trade unions, naturally sprang up.

*79. Opposition of the Law and of Public Opinion. The Combination

Acts.*--Their growth, however, was slow and interrupted. The poverty,

ignorance, and lack of training of the laborers interposed a serious

obstacle to the formation of permanent unions; and a still more

tangible difficulty lay in the opposition of the law and of public

opinion. A trade union may be defined as a permanent organized

society, the object of which is to obtain more favorable conditions of

labor for its members. In order to retain its existence a certain

amount of intelligence and self-control and a certain degree of

regularity of contributions on the part of its members are necessary,

and these powers were but slightly developed in the early years of

this century. In order to obtain the objects of the union a "strike,"

or concerted refusal to work except on certain conditions, is the

natural means to be employed. But such action, or in fact the

existence of a combination contemplating such action, was against the

law. A series of statutes known as the "Combination Acts" had been

passed from time to time since the sixteenth century, the object of

which had been to prevent artisans, either employers or employees,

from combining to change the rate of wages or other conditions of

labor, which should be legally established by the government. The last

of the combination acts were passed in 1799 and 1800, and were an

undisguised exercise of the power of the employing class to use their

membership in Parliament to legislate in their own interest. It

provided that all agreements whatever between journeymen or other

workmen for obtaining an advance in wages for themselves or for other

workmen, or for decreasing the number of hours of labor, or for

endeavoring to prevent any employer from engaging any one whom he

might choose, or for persuading any other workmen not to work, or for

refusing to work with any other men, should be illegal. Any justice of

the peace was empowered to convict by summary process and sentence to

two months' imprisonment any workmen who entered into such a

combination.

The ordinary and necessary action of trade unions was illegal by the

Common Law also, under the doctrine that combined attempts to

influence wages, hours, prices, or apprenticeship were conspiracies in

restraint of trade, and that such conspiracies had been repeatedly

declared to be illegal.

In addition to their illegality, trade unions were extremely unpopular

with the most influential classes of English society. The employers,

against whose power they were organized, naturally antagonized them

for fear they would raise wages and in other ways give the workmen the

upper hand; they were opposed by the aristocratic feeling of the

country, because they brought about an increase in the power of the

lower classes; the clergy deprecated their growth as a manifestation

of discontent, whereas contentment was the virtue then most regularly

inculcated upon the lower classes; philanthropists, who had more faith

in what should be done for than by the workingmen, distrusted their

self-interested and vaguely directed efforts. Those who were

interested in England's foreign trade feared that they would increase

prices, and thus render England incapable of competing with other

nations, and those who were influenced by the teachings of political

economy opposed them as being harmful, or at best futile efforts to

interfere with the free action of those natural forces which, in the

long run, must govern all questions of labor and wages. If the

average rate of wages at any particular time was merely the quotient

obtained by dividing the number of laborers into the wages fund, an

organized effort to change the rate of wages would necessarily be a

failure, or could at most only result in driving some other laborers

out of employment or reducing their wages. Finally, there was a

widespread feeling that trade unions were unscrupulous bodies which

overawed the great majority of their fellow-workmen, and then by their

help tyrannized over the employers and threw trade into recurring

conditions of confusion. That same great body of uninstructed public

opinion, which, on the whole, favored the factory laws, was quite

clearly opposed to trade unions. With the incompetency of their own

class, the power of the law, and the force of public opinion opposed

to their existence and actions, it is not a matter of wonder that the

development of these working-class organizations was only very

gradual.

Nevertheless these obstacles were one by one removed, and the growth

of trade unions became one of the most characteristic movements of

modern industrial history.

*80. Legalization and Popular Acceptance of Trade Unions.*--During the

early years of the century combinations, more or less long lived,

existed in many trades, sometimes secretly because of their

illegality, sometimes openly, until it became of sufficient interest

to some one to prosecute them or their officers, sometimes making the

misleading claim of being benefit societies. Prosecutions under the

combination laws were, however, frequent. In the first quarter of the

century there were many hundred convictions of workmen or their

delegates or officers. Yet these laws were clear instances of

interference with the perfect freedom which ought theoretically to be

allowed to each person to employ his labor or capital in the manner

he might deem most advantageous. Their inconsistency with the general

movement of abolition of restrictions then in progress could hardly

escape observation. Thus the philosophic tendencies of the time

combined with the aspirations of the leaders of the working classes to

rouse an agitation in favor of the repeal of the combination laws. The

matter was brought up in Parliament in 1822, and two successive

committees were appointed to investigate the questions involved. As a

result, a thoroughgoing repeal law was passed in 1824, but this in

turn was almost immediately repealed, and another substituted for it

in 1825, a great series of strikes having impressed the legislature

with the belief that the former had gone too far. The law, as finally

adopted, repealed all the combination acts which stood upon the

statute book, and relieved from punishment men who met together for

the sole purpose of agreeing on the rate of wages or the number of

hours they would work, so long as this agreement referred to the wages

or hours of those only who were present at the meeting. It declared,

however, the illegality of any violence, threats, intimidation,

molestation, or obstruction, used to induce any other workmen to

strike or to join their association or take any other action in regard

to hours or wages. Any attempt to bring pressure to bear upon an

employer to make any change in his business was also forbidden, and

the common law opposition was left unrepealed. The effect of the

legislation of 1824 and 1825 was to enable trade unions to exist if

their activity was restricted to an agreement upon their own wages or

hours. Any effort, however, to establish wages and hours for other

persons than those taking part in their meetings, or any strike on

questions of piecework or number of apprentices or machinery or

non-union workmen, was still illegal, both by this statute and by

Common Law. The vague words, "molestation," "obstruction," and

"intimidation," used in the law were also capable of being construed,

as they actually were, in such a way as to prevent any considerable

activity on the part of trade unions. Nevertheless a great stimulus

was given to the formation of organizations among workingmen, and the

period of their legal growth and development now began,

notwithstanding the narrow field of activity allowed them by the law

as it then stood. Combinations were continually formed for further

objects, and prosecutions, either under the statute or under Common

Law, were still very numerous. In 1859 a further change in the law was

made, by which it became lawful to combine to demand a change of wages

or hours, even if the action involved other persons than those taking

part in the agreement, and to exercise peaceful persuasion upon others

to join the strikers in their action. Within the bounds of the limited

legal powers granted by the laws of 1825 and 1859, large numbers of

trade unions were formed, much agitation carried on, strikes won and

lost, pressure exerted upon Parliament, and the most active and

capable of the working classes gradually brought to take an interest

in the movement. This growth was unfortunately accompanied by much

disorder. During times of industrial struggle non-strikers were

beaten, employers were assaulted, property was destroyed, and in

certain industrial communities confusion and outrage occurred every

few years. The complicity of the trade unions as such in these

disorders was constantly asserted and as constantly denied; but there

seems little doubt that while by far the greatest amount of disorder

was due to individual strikers or their sympathizers, and would have

occurred, perhaps in even more intense form, if there had been no

trade unions, yet there were cases where the organized unions were

themselves responsible. The frequent recurrence of rioting and

assault, the losses from industrial conflicts, and the agitation of

the trade unionists for further legalization, all combined to bring

the matter to attention, and four successive Parliamentary commissions

of investigation, in addition to those of 1824 and 1825, were

appointed in 1828, 1856, 1860, and 1867, respectively. The last of

these was due to a series of prolonged strikes and accompanying

outrages in Sheffield, Nottingham, and Manchester. The committee

consisted of able and influential men. It made a full investigation

and report, and finally recommended, somewhat to the public surprise,

that further laws for the protection and at the same time for the

regulation of trade unions be passed. As a result, two laws were

passed in the year 1871, the Trade Union Act and the Criminal Law

Amendment Act. By the first of these it was declared that trade unions

were not to be declared illegal because they were "in restraint of

trade," and that they might be registered as benefit societies, and

thereby become quasi-corporations, to the extent of having their funds

protected by law, and being able to hold property for the proper uses

of their organization. At the same time the Liberal majority in

Parliament, who had only passed this law under pressure, and were but

half hearted in their approval of trade unions, by the second law of

the same year, made still more clear and vigorous the prohibition of

"molesting," "obstructing," "threatening," "persistently following,"

"watching or besetting" any workmen who had not voluntarily joined the

trade union. As these terms were still undefined, the law might be,

and it was, still sufficiently elastic to allow magistrates or judges

who disapproved of trade unionism to punish men for the most ordinary

forms of persuasion or pressure used in industrial conflicts. An

agitation was immediately begun for the repeal or modification of

this later law. This was accomplished finally by the Trade Union Act

of 1875, by which it was declared that no action committed by a group

of workmen was punishable unless the same act was criminal if

committed by a single individual. Peaceful persuasion of non-union

workmen was expressly permitted, some of the elastic words of

disapproval used in previous laws were omitted altogether, other

offences especially likely to occur in such disputes were relegated to

the ordinary criminal law, and a new act was passed, clearing up the

whole question of the illegality of conspiracy in such a way as not to

treat trade unions in any different way from other bodies, or to

interfere with their existence or normal actions.

Thus, by the four steps taken in 1825, 1859, 1871, and 1875, all trace

of illegality has been taken away from trade unions and their ordinary

actions. They have now the same legal right to exist, to hold

property, and to carry out the objects of their organization that a

banking or manufacturing company or a social or literary club has.

The passing away of the popular disapproval of trade unions has been

more gradual and indefinite, but not less real. The employers, after

many hard-fought battles in their own trades, in the newspapers, and

in Parliament, have come, in a great number of cases, to prefer that

there should be a well-organized trade union in their industry rather

than a chaotic body of restless and unorganized laborers. The

aristocratic dread of lower-class organizations and activity has

become less strong and less important, as political violence has

ceased to threaten and as English society as a whole has become more

democratic. The Reform Bill of 1867 was a voluntary concession by the

higher and middle classes to the lower, showing that political dread

of the working classes and their trade unions had disappeared. The

older type of clergymen of the established church, who had all the

sympathies and prejudices of the aristocracy, has been largely

superseded, since the days of Kingsley and Maurice, by men who have

taken the deepest interest in working-class movements, and who teach

struggle and effort rather than acceptance and contentment.

The formation of trade unions, even while it has led to higher wages,

shorter hours, and a more independent and self-assertive body of

laborers, has made labor so much more efficient that, taken in

connection with other elements of English economic activity, it has

led to no resulting loss of her industrial supremacy. As to the

economic arguments against trade unions, they have become less

influential with the discrediting of much of the theoretical teaching

on which they were based. In 1867 a book by W. T. Thornton, _On Labor,

its Wrongful Claims and Rightful Dues_, successfully attacked the

wages-fund theory, since which time the belief that the rate of wages

was absolutely determined by the amount of that fund and the number of

laborers has gradually been given up. The belief in the possibility of

voluntary limitation of the effect of the so-called "natural laws" of

the economic teachers of the early and middle parts of the century has

grown stronger and spread more widely. Finally, the general popular

feeling of dislike of trade unions has much diminished within the last

twenty-five years, since their lawfulness has been acknowledged, and

since their own policy has become more distinctly orderly and

moderate.

Much of this change in popular feeling toward trade unions was so

gradual as not to be measurable, but some of its stages can be

distinguished. Perhaps the first very noticeable step in the general

acceptance of trade unions, other than their mere legalization, was

the interest and approval given to the formation of boards of

conciliation or arbitration from 1867 forward. These were bodies in

which representatives elected by the employers and representatives

elected by trade unions met on equal terms to discuss differences, the

unions thus being acknowledged as the normal form of organization of

the working classes. In 1885 the Royal Commission on the depression of

trade spoke with favor cf trade unions. In 1889 the great London

Dockers' strike called forth the sympathy and the moral and pecuniary

support of representatives of classes which had probably never before

shown any favor to such organizations. More than $200,000 was

subscribed by the public, and every form of popular pressure was

brought to bear on the employers. In fact, the Dock Laborers' Union

was partly created and almost entirely supported by outside public

influence. In the same year the London School Board and County Council

both declared that all contractors doing their work must pay "fair

wages," an expression which was afterward defined as being union

wages. Before 1894 some one hundred and fifty town and county

governments had adopted a rule that fair wages must be paid to all

workmen employed directly or indirectly by them. In 1890 and 1893 and

subsequently the government has made the same declaration in favor of

the rate of wages established by the unions in each industry. In 1890

the report of the House of Lords Committee on the sweating system

recommends in certain cases "well-considered combinations among the

laborers." Therefore public opinion, like the formal law of the

country, has passed from its early opposition to the trade unions,

through criticism and reluctant toleration, to an almost complete

acceptance and even encouragement. Trade unions have become a part of

the regularly established institutions of the country, and few persons

probably would wish to see them go out of existence or be seriously

weakened.

*81. The Growth of Trade Unions.*--The actual growth of trade unionism

has been irregular, interrupted, and has spread from many scattered

centres. Hundreds of unions have been formed, lived for a time, and

gone out of existence; others have survived from the very beginning of

the century to the present; some have dwindled into insignificance and

then revived in some special need. The workmen in some parts of the

country and in certain trades were early and strongly organized, in

others they have scarcely even yet become interested or made the

effort to form unions. In the history of the trade-union movement as a

whole there have been periods of active growth and multiplication and

strengthening of organizations. Again, there have been times when

trade unionism was distinctly losing ground, or when internal

dissension seemed likely to deprive the whole movement of its vigor.

There have been three periods when progress was particularly rapid,

between 1830 and 1834, in 1873 and 1874, and from 1889 to the present

time. But before the middle of the century trade unions existed in

almost every important line of industry. By careful computation it is

estimated that there were in Great Britain and Ireland in 1892 about

1750 distinct unions or separate branches of unions, with some million

and a half members. This would be about twenty per cent of the adult

male working-class population, or an average of about one man who is a

member of a trade union out of five who might be. But the great

importance and influence of the trade unionists arises not from this

comparatively small general proportion, but from the fact that the

organizations are strongest in the most highly skilled and best-paid

industries, and in the most thickly settled, highly developed parts of

the country, and that they contain the picked and ablest men in each

of the industries where they do exist. In some occupations, as cotton

spinning in Lancashire, boiler making and iron ship building in the

seaport towns, coal mining in Northumberland, glass making in the

Midland counties, and others, practically every operative is a member

of a trade union. Similarly in certain parts of the country much more

than half of all workingmen are trade unionists. Their influence also

is far more than in proportion to their numbers, since from their

membership are chosen practically all workingmen representatives in

Parliament and local governments and in administrative positions. The

unions also furnish all the most influential leaders of opinion among

the working classes.

*82. Federation of Trade Unions.*--From the earliest days of trade-union

organization there have been efforts to extend the unions beyond the

boundaries of the single occupation or the single locality. The

earliest form of union was a body made up of the workmen of some one

industry in some one locality, as the gold beaters of London, or the

cutlers of Sheffield, or the cotton spinners of Manchester. Three

forms of extension or federation soon took place: first, the formation

of national societies composed of men of the same trade through the

whole country; secondly, the formation of "trades councils,"--bodies

representing all the different trades in any one locality; and,

thirdly, the formation of a great national organization of workingmen

or trade unionists. The first of these forms of extension dates from

the earliest years of the century, though such bodies had often only a

transitory existence. The Manchester cotton spinners took the

initiative in organizing a national body in that industry in 1829; in

1831 a National Potters' Union is heard of, and others in the same

decade. The largest and most permanent national bodies, however, such

as the compositors, the flint-glass makers, miners, and others were

formed after 1840; the miners in 1844 numbering 70,000 voting members.

Several of these national bodies were formed by an amalgamation of a

number of different but more or less closely allied trades. The most

conspicuous example of this was the Amalgamated Society of Engineers,

the formation of which was completed in 1850, and which, beginning in

that year with 5000 members, had more than doubled them in the next

five years, doubled them again by 1860, and since then has kept up a

steady increase in numbers and strength, having 67,928 members in

1890. The increasing ease of travel and cheapness of postage, and the

improved education and intelligence of the workingmen, made the

formation of national societies more practicable, and since the middle

of the century most of the important societies have become national

bodies made up of local branches.

The second form of extension, the trades council, dates from a

somewhat later period. Such a body arose usually when some matter of

common interest had happened in the labor world, and delegates from

the various unions in each locality were called upon to organize and

to subscribe funds, prepare a petition to Parliament, or take other

common action. In this temporary form they had existed from a much

earlier date. The first permanent local board, made up of

representatives of the various local bodies, was that of Liverpool,

formed in 1848 to protect trade unionists from prosecutions for

illegal conspiracy. In 1857 a permanent body was formed in Sheffield,

and in the years immediately following in Glasgow, London, Bristol,

and other cities. They have since come into existence in most of the

larger industrial towns, 120 local trades councils existing in 1892.

Their influence has been variable and limited.

The formation of a general body of organized workingmen of all

industries and from all parts of the country is an old dream. Various

such societies were early formed only to play a more or less

conspicuous rôle for a few years and then drop out of existence. In

1830 a "National Association for the Protection of Labor" was formed,

in 1834 a "Grand National Consolidated Trades Union," in 1845 a

"National Association of United Trades for the Protection of Labor,"

and in 1874 a "Federation of Organized Trade Societies," each of which

had a short popularity and influence, and then died.

In the meantime, however, a more practicable if less ambitious plan of

unification of interests had been discovered in the form of an "Annual

Trade Union Congress." This institution grew out of the trades

councils. In 1864 the Glasgow Trades Council called a meeting of

delegates from all trade unions to take action on the state of the law

of employment, and in 1867 the Sheffield Trades Council called a

similar meeting to agree upon measures of opposition to lockouts. The

next year, 1868, the Manchester Trades Council issued a call for "a

Congress of the Representatives of Trades Councils, Federations of

Trades, and Trade Societies in general." Its plan was based on the

annual meetings of the Social Science Association, and it was

contemplated that it should meet each year in a different city and sit

for five or six days. This first general Congress was attended by 34

delegates, who claimed to represent some 118,000 trade unionists. The

next meeting, at Birmingham, in 1869, was attended by 48 delegates,

representing 40 separate societies, with some 250,000 members. With

the exception of the next year, 1870, the Congress has met annually

since, the meetings taking place at Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield, and

other cities, with an attendance varying between one and two hundred

delegates, representing members ranging from a half-million to eight

or nine hundred thousand. It elects each year a Parliamentary

Committee consisting of ten members and a secretary, whose duty is to

attend in London during the sittings of Parliament and exert what

influence they can on legislation or appointments in the interests of

the trade unionists whom they represent. In fact, most of the activity

of the Congress was for a number of years represented by the

Parliamentary Committee, the meetings themselves being devoted largely

to commonplace discussions, points of conflict between the unions

being intentionally ruled out. In recent years there have been some

heated contests in the Congress on questions of general policy, but on

the whole it and its Parliamentary Committee remain a somewhat loose

and ineffective representation of the unity and solidarity of feeling

of the great army of trade unionists. As a result, however, of the

efforts of the unions in their various forms of organization there

have always, since 1874, been a number of "labor members" of

Parliament, usually officers of the great national trade unions, and

many trade unionist members of local government bodies and school

boards. Representative trade unionists have been appointed as

government inspectors and other officials, and as members of

government investigating commissions. Many changes in the law in which

as workingmen the trade unionists are interested have been carried

through Parliament or impressed upon the ministry through the

influence of the organized bodies or their officers.

The trade-union movement has therefore resulted in the formation of a

powerful group of federated organizations, including far the most

important and influential part of the working classes, acknowledged by

the law, more or less fully approved by public opinion, and

influential in national policy. It is to be noticed that while the

legalization of trade unions was at first carried out under the claim

and with the intention that the workingmen would thereby be relieved

from restrictions and given a greater measure of freedom, yet the

actual effect of the formation of trade unions has been a limitation

of the field of free competition as truly as was the passage of the

factory laws. The control of the government was withdrawn, but the men

voluntarily limited their individual freedom of action by combining

into organizations which bound them to act as groups, not as

individuals. The basis of the trade unions is arrangement by the

collective body of wages, hours, and other conditions of labor for all

its members instead of leaving them to individual contract between the

employer and the single employee. The workman who joins a trade union

therefore divests himself to that extent of his individual freedom of

action in order that he may, as he believes, obtain a higher good and

a more substantial liberty through collective or associated action.

Just in as far, therefore, as the trade-union movement has extended

and been approved of by law and public opinion, just so far has the

ideal of individualism been discredited and its sphere of

applicability narrowed. Trade unions therefore represent the same

reaction from complete individual freedom of industrial action as do

factory laws and the other extensions of the economic functions of

government discussed in the last chapter.

*83. Employers' Organizations.*--From this point of view there has been

a very close analogy between the actions of workingmen and certain

recent action among manufacturers and other members of the employing

classes. In the first place, employers' associations have been formed

from time to time to take common action in resistance to trade unions

or for common negotiations with them. As early as 1814 the master

cutlers formed, notwithstanding the combination laws, the "Sheffield

Mercantile and Manufacturing Union," for the purpose of keeping down

piecework wages to their existing rate. In 1851 the "Central

Association of Employers of Operative Engineers" was formed to resist

the strong union of the "Amalgamated Engineers." They have also had

their national bodies, such as the "Iron Trade Employers'

Association," active in 1878, and their general federations, such as

the "National Federation of Associated Employers of Labor," which was

formed in 1873, and included prominent shipbuilders, textile

manufacturers, engineers, iron manufacturers, and builders. Many of

these organizations, especially the national or district organizations

of the employers in single trades, exist for other and more general

purposes, but incidentally the representatives of the masters'

associations regularly arrange wages and other labor conditions with

the representatives of the workingmen's associations. There is,

therefore, in these cases no more competition among employers as to

what wages they shall pay than among the workmen as to what wages they

shall receive. In both cases it is a matter of arrangement between the

two associations, each representing its own membership. The liberty

both of the individual manufacturer and of the workman ceases in this

respect when he joins his association.

*84. Trusts and Trade Combinations.*--But the competition among the

great producers, traders, transportation companies, and other

industrial leaders has been diminished in recent times in other ways

than in their relation to their employees. In manufacturing, mining,

and many wholesale trades, employers' associations have held annual or

more frequent meetings at which agreements have been made as to

prices, amount of production, terms of sale, length of credit, and

other such matters. In some cases formal combinations have been made

of all the operators in one trade, with provisions for enforcing trade

agreements. In such a case all competition comes to an end in that

particular trade, so far as the subjects of agreement extend. The

culminating stage in this development has been the formation of

"trusts," by which the stock of all or practically all the producers

in some one line is thrown together, and a company formed with regular

officers or a board of management controlling the whole trade. An

instance of this is the National Telephone Company, already referred

to. In all these fields unrestricted competition has been tried and

found wanting, and has been given up by those most concerned, in favor

of action which is collective or previously agreed upon. In the field

of transportation, boards of railway presidents or other combinations

have been formed, by which rates of fares and freight rates have been

established, "pooling" or the proportionate distribution of freight

traffic made, "car trusts" formed, and other non-competitive

arrangements made. In banking, clearing-house agreements have been

made, a common policy adopted in times of financial crisis, and

through gatherings of bankers a common influence exerted on

legislation and opinion. Thus in the higher as in the lower stages of

industrial life, in the great business interests, as among workingmen,

recent movements have all been away from a competitive organization of

economic society, and in the direction of combination, consolidation,

and union. Where competition still exists it is probably more intense

than ever before, but its field of application is much smaller than it

has been in the past. Government control and voluntary regulation have

alike limited the field in which competition acts.

*85. Coöperation in Distribution.*--Another movement in the same

direction is the spread of coöperation in its various forms. Numerous

coöperative societies, with varying objects and methods, formed part

of the seething agitation, experimentation, and discussion

characteristic of the early years of the nineteenth century; but the

coöperative movement as a definite, continuous development dates from

the organization of the "Rochdale Equitable Pioneers" in 1844. This

society was composed of twenty-eight working weavers of that town, who

saved up one pound each, and thus created a capital of twenty-eight

pounds, which they invested in flour, oatmeal, butter, sugar, and some

other groceries. They opened a store in the house of one of their

number in Toad Lane, Rochdale, for the sale of these articles to their

own members under a plan previously agreed to. The principal points of

their scheme, afterward known as the "Rochdale Plan," were as follows:

sale of goods at regular market prices, division of profits to members

at quarterly intervals in proportion to purchases, subscription to

capital in instalments by members, and payment of five per cent

interest. There were also various provisions of minor importance, such

as absolute purity and honesty of goods, insistance on cash payments,

devoting a part of their earnings to educational or other

self-improvement, settling all questions by equal vote. These

arrangements sprang naturally from the fact that they proposed

carrying on their store for their own benefit, alike as proprietors,

shareholders, and consumers of their goods.

The source of the profits they would have to divide among their

members was the same as in the case of any ordinary store. The

difference between the wholesale price, at which they would buy, and

the retail market price, at which they would sell, would be the gross

profits. From this would have to be paid, normally, rent for their

store, wages for their salesmen, and interest on their capital. But

after these were paid there should still remain a certain amount of

net profit, and this it was which they proposed to divide among

themselves as purchasers, instead of leaving it to be taken by an

ordinary store proprietor. The capital they furnished themselves, and

consequently paid themselves the interest. The first two items also

amounted to nothing at first, though naturally they must be accounted

for if their store rose to any success. As a matter of fact, their

success was immediate and striking. They admitted new members freely,

and at the end of the first year of their existence had increased in

numbers to seventy-four with £187 capital. During the year they had

done a business of £710, and distributed profits of £22. A table of

the increase of this first successful coöperative establishment at

succeeding ten years' periods is as follows:--

------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------

| | | |

Date | Members | Capital | Business | Profits

| | | |

------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------

1855 | 1,400 | £ 11,032 | £ 44,902 | £ 3,109

1865 | 5,326 | 78,778 | 196,234 | 25,156

1875 | 8,415 | 225,682 | 305,657 | 48,212

1885 | 11,084 | 324,645 | 252,072 | 45,254

1898 | 12,719 | -------- | 292,335 | -------

------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------

They soon extended their business in variety as well as in total

amount. In 1847 they added the sale of linen and woollen goods, in

1850 of meat, in 1867 they began baking and selling bread to their

customers. They opened eventually a dozen or more branch stores in

Rochdale, the original Toad Lane house being superseded by a great

distributing building or central store, with a library and reading

room. They own much property in the town, and have spread their

activity into many lines.

The example of the Rochdale society was followed by many others,

especially in the north of England and south of Scotland. A few years

after its foundation two large and successful societies were started

in Oldham, having between them by 1860 more than 3000 members, and

doing a business of some £80,000 a year. In Liverpool, Manchester,

Birmingham, and other cities similar societies grew up at the same

period. In 1863 there were some 454 coöperative societies of this kind

in existence, 381 of them together having 108,000 members and doing an

annual business of about £2,600,000. One hundred and seventeen of the

total number of societies were in Lancashire and 96 in Yorkshire. Many

of these eventually came to have a varied and extensive activity. The

Leeds Coöperative Society, for instance, had in 1892 a grist mill, 69

grocery and provision stores, 20 dry goods and millinery shops, 9 boot

and shoe shops, and 40 butcher shops. It had 12 coal depots, a

furnishing store, a bakery, a tailoring establishment, a boot and shoe

factory, a brush factory, and acted as a builder of houses and

cottages. It had at that time 29,958 members. The work done by these

coöperative stores is known as "distributive coöperation," or

"coöperation in distribution." It combines the seller and the buyer

into one group. From one point of view the society is a store-keeping

body, buying goods at wholesale and selling them at retail. From

another point of view, exactly the same group of persons, the members

of the society, are the customers of the store, the purchasers and

consumers of the goods. Whenever any body of men form an association

to carry on an establishment which sells them the goods they need,

dividing the profits of the buying and selling among the members of

the association, it is a society for distributive coöperation.

A variation from the Rochdale plan is that used in three or perhaps

more societies organized in London between 1856 and 1875 by officials

and employees of the government. These are the Civil Service Supply

Association, the Civil Service Coöperative Society, and the Army and

Navy Stores. In these, instead of buying at wholesale and selling at

retail rates, sharing the profits at the end of a given term, they

sell as well as buy at wholesale rates, except for the slight increase

necessary to pay the expenses of carrying on the store. In other

words, the members obtain their goods for use at cheap rates instead

of dividing up a business profit.

But these and still other variations have had only a slight connection

with the working-class coöperative movement just described. A more

direct development of it was the formation, in 1864, of the Wholesale

Coöperative Society, at Manchester, a body holding much the same

relation to the coöperative societies that each of them does to its

individual members. The shareholders are the retail coöperative

societies, which supply the capital and control its actions. During

its first year the Wholesale Society possessed a capital of £2456 and

did a business of £51,858. In 1865 its capital was something over

£7000 and business over £120,000. Ten years later, in 1875, its

capital was £360,527 and yearly business £2,103,226. In 1889 its sales

were £7,028,994. Its purchasing agents have been widely distributed in

various parts of the world. In 1873 it purchased and began running a

cracker factory, shortly afterward a boot and shoe factory, the next

year a soap factory. Subsequently it has taken up a woollen goods

factory, cocoa works, and the manufacture of ready-made clothing. It

employs something over 5000 persons, has large branches in London,

Newcastle, and Leicester, agencies and depots in various countries,

and runs six steamships. It possesses also a banking department.

Coöperative stores, belonging to wholesale and retail distributive

coöperative societies, are thus a well-established and steadily, if

somewhat slowly, extending element in modern industrial society.

*86. Coöperation in Production.*--But the greatest problems in the

relations of modern industrial classes to one another are not

connected with buying and selling, but with employment and wages. The

competition between employer and employee is more intense than that

between buyer and seller and has more influence on the constitution of

society. This opposition of employer and employee is especially

prominent in manufacturing, and the form of coöperation which is based

on a combination or union of these two classes is therefore commonly

called "coöperation in production," as distinguished from coöperation

in distribution. Societies have been formed on a coöperative basis to

produce one or another kind of goods from the earliest years of the

century, but their real development dates from a period somewhat later

than that of the coöperative stores, that is, from about 1850. In this

year there were in existence in England bodies of workmen who were

carrying on, with more or less outside advice, assistance, or control,

a coöperative tailoring establishment, a bakery, a printing shop, two

building establishments, a piano factory, a shoe factory, and several

flour mills. These companies were all formed on the same general plan.

The workmen were generally the members of the company. They paid

themselves the prevailing rate of wages, then divided among themselves

either equally or in proportion to their wages the net profits of the

business, when there were any, having first reserved a sufficient

amount to pay interest on capital. As a matter of fact, the capital

and much of the direction was contributed from outside by persons

philanthropically interested in the plans, but the ideal recognized

and desired was that capital should be subscribed, interest received,

and all administration carried on by the workmen-coöperators

themselves. In this way, in a coöperative productive establishment,

there would not be two classes, employer and employee. The same

individuals would be acting in both capacities, either themselves or

through their elected managers. All of these early companies failed or

dissolved, sooner or later, but in the meantime others had been

established. By 1862 some 113 productive societies had been formed,

including 28 textile manufacturing companies, 8 boot and shoe

factories, 7 societies of iron workers, 4 of brush makers, and

organizations in various other trades. Among the most conspicuous of

these were three which were much discussed during their period of

prosperity. They were the Liverpool Working Tailors' Association,

which lasted from 1850 to 1860, the Manchester Working Tailors'

Association, which flourished from 1850 to 1872, and the Manchester

Working Hatters' Association, 1851-1873. These companies had at

different times from 6 to 30 members each. After the great strike of

the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, in 1852, a series of iron

workers' coöperative associations were formed. In the next twenty

years, between 1862 and 1882, some 163 productive societies were

formed, and in 1892 there were 143 societies solely for coöperative

production in existence, with some 25,000 members. Coöperative

production has been distinctly less prosperous than coöperative

distribution. Most purely coöperative productive societies have had a

short and troubled existence, though their dissolution has in many

cases been the result of contention rather than ordinary failure and

has not always involved pecuniary loss. In addition to the usual

difficulties of all business, insufficiency of capital, incompetency

of buying and selling agents and of managers, dishonesty of trusted

officials or of debtors, commercial panics, and other adversities to

which coöperative, quite as much as or even more than individual

companies have been subject, there are peculiar dangers often fatal to

their coöperative principles. For instance, more than one such

association, after going through a period of struggle and sacrifice,

and emerging into a period of prosperity, has yielded to the

temptation to hire additional employees just as any other employer

might, at regular wages, without admitting them to any share in the

profits, interest, or control of the business. Such a concern is

little more than an ordinary joint-stock company with an unusually

large number of shareholders. As a matter of fact, plain, clear-cut

coöperative production makes up but a small part of that which is

currently reported and known as such. A fairer statement would be that

there is a large element of coöperation in a great many productive

establishments. Nevertheless, productive societies more or less

consistent to coöperative principles exist in considerable numbers and

have even shown a distinct increase of growth in recent years.

*87. Coöperation in Farming.*--Very much the same statements are true of

another branch of coöperative effort,--coöperation in farming.

Experiments were made very early, they have been numerous, mostly

short-lived, and yet show a tendency to increase within the last

decade. Sixty or more societies have engaged in coöperative farming,

but only half a dozen are now in existence. The practicability and

desirability of the application of coöperative ideals to agriculture

is nevertheless a subject of constant discussion among those

interested in coöperation, and new schemes are being tried from time

to time.

The growth of coöperation, like that of trade unions, has been

dependent on successive modifications of the law; though it was rather

its defects than its opposition that caused the difficulty in this

case. When coöperative organizations were first formed it was found

that by the common law they could not legally deal as societies with

non-members; that they could not hold land for investment, or for any

other purpose than the transaction of their own business, or more than

one acre even for this purpose; that they could not loan money to

other societies; that the embezzlement or misuse of their funds by

their officers was not punishable; and that each member was

responsible for the debts of the whole society. Eight or ten statutes

have been passed to cure the legal defects from which coöperative

associations suffered. The most important of these were the "Frugal

Investment Clause" in the Friendly Societies Act of 1846, by which

such associations were allowed to be formed and permitted to hold

personal property for the purposes of a society for savings; the

Industrial and Provident Societies Act, of 1852, by which coöperative

societies were definitely authorized and obtained the right to sue as

if they were corporations; the Act of 1862, which repealed the former

acts, gave them the right of incorporation, made each member liable

for debt only to the extent of his own investment, and allowed them

greater latitude for investments; the third Industrial and Provident

Societies Act of 1876, which again repealed previous acts and

established a veritable code for their regulation and extension; and

the act of 1894, which amends the law in some further points in which

it had proved defective. All the needs of the coöperative movement, so

far as they have been discovered and agreed upon by those interested

in its propagation, have thus been provided for, so far as the law can

do so.

Coöperation has always contained an element of philanthropy, or at

least of enthusiastic belief on the part of those especially

interested in it, that it was destined to be of great service to

humanity, and to solve many of the problems of modern social

organization. Advocates of coöperation have not therefore been content

simply to organize societies which would conduce to their own profit,

but have kept up a constant propaganda for their extension. There was

a period of about twenty years, from 1820 to 1840, before coöperation

was placed on a solid footing, when it was advocated and tried in

numerous experiments as a part of the agitation begun by Robert Owen

for the establishment of socialistic communities. Within this period a

series of congresses of delegates of coöperative associations was held

in successive years from 1830 to 1846, and numerous periodicals were

published for short periods. In 1850 a group of philanthropic and

enthusiastic young men, including such able and prominent men as

Thomas Hughes, Frederick D. Maurice, and others who have since been

connected through long lives with coöperative effort, formed

themselves into a "Society for promoting Working Men's Associations,"

which sent out lecturers, published tracts and a newspaper, loaned

money, promoted legislation, and took other action for the

encouragement of coöperation. Its members were commonly known as the

"Christian Socialists." They had but scant success, and in 1854

dissolved the Association and founded instead a "Working Men's

College" in London, which long remained a centre of coöperative and

reformatory agitation.

So far, this effort to extend and regulate the movement came rather

from outside sympathizers than from coöperators themselves. With 1869,

however, began a series of annual Coöperative Congresses which, like

the annual Trade Union Congresses, have sprung from the initiative of

workingmen themselves and which are still continued. Papers are read,

addresses made, experiences compared, and most important of all a

Central Board and a Parliamentary Committee elected for the ensuing

year. At the thirty-first annual Congress, held in Liverpool in 1899,

there were 1205 delegates present, representing over a million members

of coöperative societies. Since 1887 a "Coöperative Festival," or

exhibition of the products of coöperative workshops and factories, has

been held each year in connection with the Congress. This exhibition

is designed especially to encourage coöperative production. At the

first Congress, in 1869, a Coöperative Union was formed which aims to

include all the coöperative societies of the country, and as a matter

of fact does include about three-fourths of them. The Central

Coöperative Board represents this Union. It is divided into seven

sections, each having charge of the affairs of one of the seven

districts into which the country is divided for coöperative work. The

Board issues a journal, prints pamphlets, keeps up correspondence,

holds public examinations on auditing, book-keeping, and the

principles of coöperation, and acts as a statistical, propagandist,

and regulative body. There is also a "Coöperative Guild" and a

"Women's Coöperative Guild," the latter with 262 branches and a

membership of 12,537, in 1898.

The total number of recognized coöperative societies in existence at

the beginning of the year 1900 has been estimated at 1640, with a

combined membership of 1,640,078, capital of £19,759,039, and

investments of £11,681,296. The sale of goods in the year 1898 was

£65,460,871, and net profits had amounted to £7,165,753. During the

year 1898, 181 new societies of various kinds were formed.

*88. Coöperation in Credit.*--In England building societies are not

usually recognized as a form of coöperation, but they are in reality

coöperative in the field of credit in the same way as the associations

already discussed are in distribution, in production, or in

agriculture. Building societies are defined in one of the statutes as

bodies formed "for the purpose of raising by the subscription of the

members a stock or fund for making advances to members out of the

funds of the society." The general plan of one of these societies is

as follows: A number of persons become members, each taking one or

more shares. Each shareholder is required to pay into the treasury a

certain sum each month. There is thus created each month a new capital

sum which can be loaned to some member who may wish to borrow it and

be able and willing to give security and to pay interest. The borrower

will afterward have to pay not only his monthly dues, but the interest

on his loan. The proportionate amount of the interest received is

credited to each member, borrower and non-borrower alike, so that

after a certain number of months, by the receipts from dues and

interest, the borrower will have repaid his loan, whilst the members

who have not borrowed will receive a corresponding sum in cash.

Borrowers and lenders are thus the same group of persons, just as

sellers and consumers are in distributive, and employers and employees

in productive coöperation. The members of such societies are enabled

to obtain loans when otherwise they might not be able to; the

periodical dues create a succession of small amounts to be loaned,

when otherwise this class of persons could hardly save up a sufficient

sum to be used as capital; and finally by paying the interest to

their collective group, so that a proportionate part of it is returned

to the borrower, and by the continuance of the payment of dues, the

repayment of the loan is less of a burden than in ordinary loans

obtained from a bank or a capitalist. Loans to their members have been

usually restricted to money to be used for the building of a

dwelling-house or store or the purchase of land; whence their name of

"building societies." Their formation dates from 1815, their

extension, from about 1834. The principal laws authorizing and

regulating their operations were passed in 1836, 1874, and 1894. The

total number of building societies in England to-day is estimated at

about 3000, their membership at about 600,000 members with £52,000,000

of funds. The history of these societies has been marked by a large

number of failures, and they have lacked the moral elevation of the

coöperative movement in its other phases. The codifying act of 1894

established a minute oversight and control over these societies on the

part of the government authorities while at the same time it extended

their powers and privileges.

The one feature common to all forms of coöperation is the union of

previously competing economic classes. In a coöperative store,

competition between buyer and seller does not exist; and the same is

true for borrower and lender in a building and loan association and

for employer and employee in a coöperative factory. Coöperation is

therefore in line with other recent movements in being a reaction from

competition.

*89. Profit Sharing.*--There is a device which has been introduced into

many establishments which stands midway between simple competitive

relations and full coöperation. It diminishes, though it does not

remove, the opposition between employer and employee. This is "*profit

sharing.*" In the year 1865 Henry Briggs, Son and Co., operators of

collieries in Yorkshire, after long and disastrous conflicts with the

miners' trade unions, offered as a measure of conciliation to their

employees that whenever the net profit of the business should be more

than ten per cent on their investment, one-half of all such surplus

profit should be divided among the workmen in proportion to the wages

they had earned in the previous year. The expectation was that the

increased interest and effort and devotion put into the work by the

men would be such as to make the total earnings of the employers

greater, notwithstanding their sacrifice to the men of the half of the

profits above ten per cent. This anticipation was justified. After a

short period of suspicion on the part of the men, and doubt on the

part of the employers, both parties seemed to be converted to the

advantages of profit sharing, a sanguine report of their experience

was made by a member of the firm to the Social Science Association in

1868, sums between one and six thousand pounds were divided yearly

among the employees, while the percentage of profits to the owners

rose to as much as eighteen per cent. This experiment split on the

rock of dissension in 1875, but in the meantime others, either in

imitation of their plan or independently, had introduced the same or

other forms of profit sharing. Another colliery, two iron works, a

textile factory, a millinery firm, a printing shop, and some others

admitted their employees to a share in the profits within the years

1865 and 1866. The same plan was then introduced into certain retail

stores, and into a considerable variety of occupations, including

several large farms where a share of all profits was offered to the

laborers as a "bonus" in addition to their wages. The results were

very various, ranging all the way from the most extraordinary success

to complete and discouraging failure. Up to 1897 about 170

establishments had introduced some form of profit sharing, 75 of which

had subsequently given it up, or had gone out of business. In that

year, however, the plan was still in practice in almost a hundred

concerns, in some being almost twenty years old.

A great many other employers, corporate or individual, provide

laborers' dwellings at favorable rents, furnish meals at cost price,

subsidize insurance funds, offer easy means of becoming shareholders

in their firms, support reading rooms, music halls, and gymnasiums, or

take other means of admitting their employees to advantages other than

the simple receipt of competitive wages. But, after all, the entire

control of capital and management in the case of firms which share

profits with their employees remains in the hands of the employers, so

that there is in these cases an enlightened fulfilment of the

obligations of the employing class rather than a combination of two

classes in one.

With the exception of profit sharing, however, all the economic and

social movements described in this chapter are as truly collective and

as distinctly opposed to individualism, voluntary though they may be,

as are the various forms of control exercised by government, described

in the preceding chapter. In as far as men have combined in trade

unions, in business trusts, in coöperative organizations, they have

chosen to seek their prosperity and advantage in united, collective

action, rather than in unrestricted individual freedom. And in as far

as such organizations have been legalized, regulated by government,

and encouraged by public opinion, the confidence of the community at

large has been shown to rest rather in associative than in competitive

action. Therefore, whether we look at the rapidly extending sphere of

government control and service, or at the spread of voluntary

combinations which restrict individual liberty, it is evident that

the tendencies of social development at the close of the nineteenth

century are as strongly toward association and regulation as they were

at its beginning toward individualism and freedom from all control.

*90. Socialism.*--All of these changes are departures from the purely

competitive ideal of society. Together they constitute a distinct

movement toward a quite different ideal of society--that which is

described as socialistic. Socialism in this sense means the adoption

of measures directed to the general advantage, even though they

diminish individual freedom and restrict enterprise. It is the

tendency to consider the general good first, and to limit individual

rights or introduce collective action wherever this will subserve the

general good.

Socialism thus understood, the process of limiting private action and

introducing public control, has gone very far, as has been seen in

this and the preceding chapter. How far it is destined to extend, to

what fields of industry collective action is to be applied, and which

fields are to be left to individual action can only be seen as time

goes on. Many further changes in the same direction have been

advocated in Parliament and other public bodies in recent years and

failed of being agreed to by very small majorities only. It seems

almost certain from the progress of opinion that further socialistic

measures will be adopted within the near future. The views of those

who approve this socialistic tendency and would extend it still

further are well indicated in the following expressions used in the

minority report of the Royal Commission on Labor of 1895. "The whole

force of democratic statesmanship must, in our opinion, henceforth be

directed to the substitution as fast as possible of public for

capitalist enterprise, and where the substitution is not yet

practicable, to the strict and detailed regulation of all industrial

operations so as to secure to every worker the conditions of efficient

citizenship."

There is a somewhat different use of the word socialism, according to

which it means the deliberate adoption of such an organization of

society as will rid it of competition altogether. This is a complete

social and philosophic ideal, involving the consistent reorganization

of all society, and is very different from the mere socialistic

tendency described above. In the early part of the century, Robert

Owen developed a philosophy which led him to labor for the

introduction of communities in which competition should be entirely

superseded by joint action. He had many adherents then, and others

since have held similar views. There has, indeed, been a series of

more or less short-lived attempts to found societies or communities on

this socialistic basis. Apart from these efforts, however, socialism

in this sense belongs to the history of thought or philosophic

speculation, not of actual economic and social development. Professed

socialists, represented by the Fabyan Society, the Socialist League,

the Social Democratic Federation, and other bodies, are engaged in the

spread of socialistic doctrines and the encouragement of all movements

of associative, anti-individualistic character rather than in efforts

to introduce immediate practical socialism.

*91. BIBLIOGRAPHY*

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: _The History of Trade Unionism_. This

excellent history contains, as an Appendix, an extremely detailed

bibliography on its own subject and others closely allied to it.

Howell, George: _Conflicts of Labor and Capital_.

Rousiers, P. de: _The Labour Question in Britain_.

Holyoake, G. I.: _History of Coöperation_, two volumes. This is the

classical work on the subject, but its plan is so confused, its style

so turgid, and its information so scattered, that, however amusing it

may be, it is more interesting and valuable as a history of the period

than as a clear account of the movement for which it is named. Mr.

Holyoake has written two other books on the same subject: _A History

of the Rochdale Pioneers_ and _The Coöperative Movement of To-day_.

Pizzamiglio, L.: _Distributing Coöperative Societies_.

Jones, Benjamin: _Coöperative Production_.

Gilman, N. P.: _Profit Sharing between Employer and Employee_; and _A

Dividend to Labor_.

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: _Problems of Modern Industry_.

Verhaegen, P.: _Socialistes Anglais_.

A series of small modern volumes known as the Social Science Series,

most of which deal with various phases of the subject of this chapter,

is published by Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., London, and the list of

its eighty or more numbers gives a characteristic view of recent

writing on the subject, as well as further references.

INDEX

Acres, 33.

Adventurers, 164.

Agincourt, 97.

Agricultural Children's Act, 262.

Agricultural Gangs Act, 262.

Agricultural Holdings Acts, 268.

Alderman, 63.

Ale-taster, 49.

Alfred, 13.

Alien immigrants, 90.

Allotments and Small Holdings Association, 269.

Amalgamated Society of Engineers, 290.

Angevin period, 22.

Anti-Corn Law League, 231.

Apprentice, 65.

Apprentice houses, 246.

Apprentices, Statute of, 156, 228.

Arkwright, Sir Richard, 209.

Armada, 141.

Army and navy stores, 299.

Arras, 81, 87.

Ashley, Lord, 254.

Assize of Bread and Beer, 68, 228.

Assize, rents of, 41, 49.

Bailiff, 40, 141.

Balk, 35.

Ball, John, 112.

Bank of England, 194.

Barbary Company, 166.

Bardi, 91.

Berkhamstead Common, 264.

Beverly, 71.

Birmingham, 189.

Black Death, 99.

Blackheath, 115.

Bolton, 189.

Boon-works, 41.

Boston, 76.

Bridgewater Canal, 216.

Bristol, 80, 148, 162.

Britons, 4.

Bryan, Chief-Justice, 143.

Building Societies, 306.

Burgage Tenure, 59.

Burgesses, 59.

Calais, 89, 97.

Cambridge, 117.

Canterbury, 11, 115.

Canynges, William, 162.

Carding, 205, 210.

_Carta Mercatoria_, 81.

Cartwright, Edmund, 210.

Cavendish, John, 117.

Chaucer, 98.

Chester, 70.

Chevage, 44.

Children's Half-time Act, 255.

Children's labor, 237, 246.

Church, organization of the, 11.

Civil Service Supply Association, 299.

Climate, 2.

Clothiers, 153.

Coal, 3, 214.

Coal mines, labor in, 257.

Cobden, Richard, 231.

Cologne, 80.

Colonies, 178, 190.

Combination Acts, 279.

Combinations, legalization of, 282.

Commerce, 81, 134, 161, 189.

Common employment, doctrine of, 261.

Commons, 37, 263.

Commons Preservation Society, 264.

Commutation of services, 125.

Competition, 226, 233, 311.

Coöperation in credit, 306.

Coöperation in distribution, 295.

Coöperation in farming, 302.

Coöperation in production, 300.

Coöperative congresses, 305.

Coöperative legislation, 303.

Copyholders, 143.

Corn Laws, 185, 223, 230.

Corpus Christi day, 70.

Cotters, 40.

Cotton gin, 211.

Cotton manufacture, 188, 203.

County councils, 243.

Court of Assistants, 150.

Court rolls, 46.

Coventry, 70, 148.

Craft gilds, 64, 147.

Crafts, 64, 147.

Crafts, combination of, 160.

Crécy, 97.

Crompton, Samuel, 210.

Cromwell, 179.

_Cry of the Children_, 251.

Currency, 169.

Customary tenants, 41, 143.

Danes, 12.

Dartford, 115.

Davy, Sir Humphry, 215.

Dean, 63.

Decaying of towns, 144, 154.

Demesne farming, abandonment of, 128, 141.

Demesne lands, 39, 104, 131.

Dockers' strike, 287.

Domesday Book, 18, 29.

Domestic system, 153, 185, 188, 220.

Drapers, 149, 161.

Droitwich, 155.

Eastern trade, 84, 164.

East India Company, 166, 190.

Employer's Liability Acts, 260.

Enclosure commissioners, 218, 263.

Enclosures, 141, 216.

Engrossers, 68.

Epping Forest, 266.

_Essay on Population_, 232.

Essex, 114.

Evesham, 155.

Fabyan Society, 311.

Factory Acts, 244.

Factory and Workshop Consolidation Act, 258.

Factory system, 212.

Fairs, 75.

Farmers, 129, 144.

Federation of trade unions, 289.

Fens, 184.

Feudalism, 20.

Finance, 169, 193.

Flanders, 163.

Flanders fleet, 86, 167.

Flanders trade, 87, 168.

Flemish artisans in England, 94, 116.

Flemish Hanse of London, 88.

Florence, 90, 168.

Forestallers, 68.

Foreign artisans in England, 94.

Foreign trade, 81, 134, 161, 189, 203, 230.

Forty-shilling freeholders, 241.

Frank pledge, 46.

Fraternities, 62, 71.

Freeholders, 41, 124, 241.

Free-tenants, 41.

Free trade in land, 231.

French Revolution, 200.

Fugitive villains, 59, 130.

Fulling mills, 229.

Furlong, 34.

Gascony, 90, 94, 169.

Geography of England, 1.

Ghent, 87.

Gildhall, 69, 92.

Gild merchant, 59.

Gilds, craft, 64.

Gilds, non-industrial, 71.

Government policy toward gilds, 65, 154.

Greater Companies of London, 153.

Grocyn, 136.

Groningen, 166.

Guienne, 90, 169.

Guinea Company, 166.

Hales, Robert, 116.

Hamburg, 89, 166, 230.

Hamlet, 31.

Hand-loom weavers, 188, 203, 220.

Hanseatic League, 89, 163.

Hanse trade, 89, 167.

Hargreaves, James, 207.

Health and Morals Act, 247.

Heriot, 41.

Hospitallers, 91, 116.

Hostage, 81.

Houses of the Working Classes Act, 271.

Huguenots, 185.

Hull, 160.

Hundred Years' War, 96.

Iceland, 168.

Individualism, 232.

Industrial revolution, 213.

Insular situation of England, 2.

Insurance, 196.

_Intercursus Magnus_, 168.

Interest, 171.

Ireland, conquest of, 24.

Irish union, 203.

Iron, 3, 214.

Italian trade, 84, 164, 167.

Italians in England, 90.

Jack Straw, 116.

Jews, 59, 91.

John of Gaunt, 114.

Journeymen, 66, 147.

Journeymen gilds, 148.

Kay, 206.

Kempe, John, 94.

Kent, 9, 114.

Kidderminster, 155.

Laborers, Statutes of, 106.

Laissez-faire, 224, 228.

Land, reclamation of, 6.

Latimer, Hugh, 145.

Law merchant, 78.

Law of wages, 226.

Lawyers, hostility to, 124.

Lead, 3, 83, 88.

Leather, 83, 88.

Leeds, 189.

Leet, 46.

Leicester, 62, 79.

Lesser Companies of London, 151.

Levant Company, 166.

Leyr, 44.

Lister, Geoffrey, 117.

Livery Companies, 149.

Location of industries, change of, 151.

Lollards, 98, 111.

London, 149.

Lord of manor, 39, 103, 125, 143.

Lubeck, 89.

Lynn, 93.

Lyons, Richard, 117.

Macadam, 215.

_Magna Carta_, 26.

Malthus, 232.

Manchester, 189, 247, 284.

Manor, 31.

Manor-courts, 123, 141.

Manor-house, 31, 123.

Manufacturing towns, 189, 238.

Manumissions, 120, 129.

Markets, 75.

Market towns, 75.

Masters, 65.

Mechanical inventions, 203.

Mercers, 147, 150, 166.

Merchant gilds, 59.

Merchants adventurers, 164.

Merchet, 44.

Methuen Treaty, 190.

Mile End, 120.

Mill-hands, 213, 221.

Misteries, 64.

Monopolies, 187.

More, Sir Thomas, 145.

Morocco Company, 166.

Morrowspeche, 63.

Mule spinning, 210.

Muscovy Company, 166.

Mushold Heath, 117.

Mutiny Act, 182.

Mystery plays, 70.

Napoleon, 200.

National debt, 196.

Native commerce, 161.

_Nativus_, 43.

Navigation laws, 169, 189, 192, 229.

Newcastle-on-Tyne, 164.

Non-industrial gilds, 71.

Norman Conquest, 15.

Norway, 163.

Norwich, 117.

Novgorod, 163.

Open-fields, 33, 142, 217.

Origin of the manor, 55.

Owen, Robert, 248, 311.

Oxford, 102, 147.

Pageants, 159.

Parcels post, 275.

Parish councils, 243, 269.

Parliament, foundation of, 26.

Paternal government, 173.

Peasant proprietorship, 270.

Peasants' rebellion, 111.

Peel, Sir Robert (the elder), 247.

Peel, Sir Robert (the younger), 230.

Peruzzi, 91.

Pie Powder Courts, 78.

Pilgrimage of Grace, 146.

Plymouth Company, 190.

Poitiers, 97.

Poll tax, 113.

Poor Priests, 112.

Portugal, 83, 190.

Post-office Savings Bank, 274.

Power-loom, 210.

Prehistoric Britain, 4.

Private Enclosure Acts, 217.

Privy Council, 138.

Profit-sharing, 307.

Puritans, 140, 178.

Railway Regulation Act, 260.

Reaper, 49.

Reeve, 40.

Reformation, 138.

Reform of Parliament, 241.

Regrators, 68.

Regulated Companies, 174.

Relief, 21, 41.

Religious gilds, 71, 158.

Rents of Assize, 41.

Reorganized Companies, 187.

Restoration, 180.

Revolution, Industrial, 213.

Revolution of 1688, 181.

Ricardo, David, 226.

Rochdale Pioneers, 296.

Rochdale plan, 296.

Romans in Britain, 5.

Roses, Wars of the, 99.

Russia Company, 166.

_Rusticus_, 43.

St. Albans, 118.

St. Edmund's Abbey, 117.

St. Helen of Beverly, 71.

St. Ives' Fair, 76, 79.

Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 273.

Savoy Palace, 116.

Saxon invasion, 8.

Scattered strips, 38.

Scotland, contest with, 24.

Serfdom, 43, 120, 124.

Serfdom, decay of, 129.

_Servus_, 43.

Sheep-raising, 142.

Sheffield, 189, 284.

Shop Hours Act, 260.

Shrewsbury, 147.

Skevin, 63.

Sliding scale, 231.

Small Dwellings Acquisition Act, 272.

Small holdings, 269.

Smith, Adam, 224.

Smithfield, 121.

Social Democratic Federation, 311.

Social gilds, 71, 158.

Socialism, 310.

Socialist League, 311.

Sources, 54.

Southampton, 61.

South Sea Bubble, 195.

Spain, 82, 168.

Spencer, Henry de, 122.

Spices, 84.

Spinning, 205.

Spinning-jenny, 207.

Stade, 166.

Staple, 87.

Statute of Apprentices, 156, 228.

Statutes of Laborers, 106.

Steelyard, 92, 167.

Sterling, 89.

Steward, 40, 46.

Stourbridge Fair, 76.

Sturmys, 162.

Sudbury, 116.

Sweating, 260.

Tallage, 44.

Taverner, John, 162.

Taxation, 194.

Telegraph, government, 273.

Telephone, government, 273.

Telford, 215.

Temple Bar, 116.

Ten-hour Act, 256.

Three-field system, 36.

Tin, 3, 83, 88, 91, 93.

Tolls, 57, 78, 82.

Town government, 57.

Towns, 57, 79, 154.

Trade combinations, 294.

Trade routes, 84.

Trade unions, 279.

Trades councils, 289.

Transportation, 214.

Trusts, 294.

Turkey Company, 166.

Ulster, Plantation of, 190.

Usury, 171.

Utopia, 145.

Venice, 84.

Venturers, 164.

Vill, 31.

Village community, 54.

Villages, 31, 114.

Villain, 40, 111, 125.

Villainage, 130.

_Villanus_, 43.

Virgate, 38.

Virginia Company, 190.

_Vision of Piers Plowman_, 98, 111.

Wages in hand occupations, 220.

Wages, law of, 226.

Wales, conquest of, 24.

Walloons, 185.

Walworth, Sir William, 121.

Wardens, 69, 161.

Watt, James, 212.

Wat Tyler, 116, 121.

_Wealth of Nations_, 225.

Weavers, 65, 152, 188.

Weaving, 205.

Week-work, 42.

Whitney, Eli, 211.

Wholesale Coöperative Society, 299.

Wilburton, 128.

Wimbledon Common, 264.

Winchester Fair, 76.

Wolsey, Cardinal, 145.

Women's labor, 237.

Woodkirk, 70.

Wool, 83, 87, 142, 205, 210, 216.

Worcester, 155.

Wycliffe, 97.

Yeomen, 129, 221, 237.

Yeomen gilds, 148.

York, 65, 70.

Young, Arthur, 225.

Ypres, 87.

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* * * * *

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By *GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD*, Ph.D.

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"Dr. Botsford's 'History of Greece' has the conspicuous merits which

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