33. BRITISH TRADE UNIONISM. English Trade Unionism is an indigenous prod uct, which has remained singularly uninfluenced by any foreign movements or ideas. Disregard ing the analogous combinations among jour neymen during the Middle Ages, which in Eng land seem to have been usually intermittent and temporary, and also the mediaeval guilds of master-craftsmen and merchants—between which and modern Trade Unionism no actual affiliation or connection has yet been traced — we may say that Trade Unionism, in the sense of durable combinations of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment, have existed continuously from the latter part of the 17th century. The earliest actual records known to us of such a combination is that of the woolen workers of the southwest of England, which is mentioned as existing in 1700, and frequently referred to in Devonshire, Somerset, Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire throughout the 18th cen tury. The London tailors, too, can be shown to have been in continuous combination from at least 1720, when an Act of Parliament was passed to restrain them. Other Trade Unions known to have existed in the first half of the 18th century were those of the woolcombers, woolstaplers, and silkweavers. It was, how ever, apparently during the last quarter of the 18th century, when industrial conditions were being revolutionized in so many trades by the introduction of machinery, the factory system, production for export and the use of water or steam power, that Trade Unionism first became widely prevalent. Since that date, it is notable that the aggregate membership of Trade Unions in the United Kingdom has, with a number of temporary suspensions, persistently increased, until it now (1917) exceeds 4,000,000; organ ized in 1,100 different societies, possessing funds exceeding f6,000,000. As an institution Trade Unionism has, during the whole two centuries, and especially since 1824, when the first legalizing statute was passed, steadily increased in solidity, and continuously improved in its temper toward society and in the economic character of the methods employed to gain its end. In all these respects the improvement during the last 40 years has been most marked. Whatever may be the casual connection, if any, the his torian cannot but record the fact that the char acter of English Trade Unionism has varied from decade to decade in close correspondence with the variations of the treatment which the community accorded to it. So rapidly and certainly has an improvement in Enghsh Trade Unionism followed upon measures of legaliza tion and tolerance that were it not that it would seem to palliate inexcusable outrages of past times, we should be tempted to the epigram that each generation of citizens and the em ployers in each trade in each generation have the Trade Unionism that they deserve! The form which Trade Unionism takes among the English wage-earners (and we may ignore for present purposes the Trade Union ism of other classes, such as lawyers, doctors, architects, accountants, surveyors, actuaries, teachers, etc.), is that of a voluntary associa
tion among the persons engaged in a particu lar trade, based upon the payment of weekly contributions— varying from two pence to two shillings — to a common fund which is admin istered by an elected executive, bound by an elaborate code of rules, and controlled by refer endum votes of the entire membership, in such ways as are believed to promote the objects of the members. These objects are, first and fore most, the maintenance and progressive improve ment of the conditions of employment of the wage-earners in the trade concerned, including not only the amount of wages, but also the method of remuneration, the form of the agree ment, the hours of labor, the sanitation, safety and comfort of the operatives, and all the other conditions, explicit or implicit, of the wage contract. Auxiliary to this fundamental object, and always subordinate to it, are the various riendly benefits° afforded to members, which may include maintenance payments to members out of work, whether from strikes or lockouts, or merely from slackness of trade; funeral benefit on death of member or member's wife; accident benefit; insurance of tools against loss by fire or otherwise; legal assist ance to members in litigation especially as re gards compensation for accidents, and so forth. It is especially in the durability and financial solidity of the association, the multiplicity and amount of their friendly benefits, and the magnitude of their accumulated funds, that the principal English Trade Unions surpass those of all other countries. There are great Trade Unions (such as the Amalgamated Society of Engineers) which habitually enjoy an annual income of i4 per member; there are others (such as the Amalgamated Cotton Spinners) which possess accumulated funds exceeding #23 per member; there are others, again (such as the Boilermakers), which disburse on sick pay and medical attendance alone, more than 150,000 a year, including no less than 1.8,000 as salaries to the doctors in their employment. Among them all, the Trade Unions expend more than i400,000 annually in pensions of 5 to 12 shillings a week to their aged members, and nearly 1120,000 in payment of their funer als; while a sum varying according to the state of trade from f400,000 to i1,000,000 is annually paid to members out of work, only from one sixth to two-fifths of this according to the state of the labor market, being for anything that can be called strikes or industrial disputes. But this strong financial position and these substantial friendly benefits are confined to the well-known leading Trade Unions. Out of the 1,100 separate trade unions, there are 24 own ing more than i50,000, which together possess three-eighths of the aggregate total of mem bers and four-fifths of the accumulated funds of the whole movement.