Chapter IV: The New Spirit and the New Model (3)

[355] Lord Goderich, afterwards the Marquis of Ripon, gave the Executive a cheque for £500 to enable the strike pay to be kept up on a temporary emergency; one of many generous efforts, during a long lifetime, to assist the wage-earning class.

[356] Executive Circular of April 26, 1852, in _Operative_, May 1, 1852. A number of the men refused to sign, and many emigrated. E. Vansittart Neale advanced £1030 to members for this purpose, the whole of which was repaid by the borrowers.

[357] Among the abundant literature on this great struggle may be mentioned the _Account_, by Thomas (afterwards Judge) Hughes, in the _Report on Trade Societies_, by the Social Science Association, 1860; J. M. Ludlow’s lectures, entitled _The Master Engineers and their Workmen_, 1852; a pamphlet, _May I not do what I will with my own?_ by E. Vansittart Neale; _Jubilee Souvenir History of the A.S.E._, 1901; and the evidence given by William Newton (for the men) and Sidney Smith (for the employers) before the Select Committee on Masters and Operatives (Equitable Councils, etc.) in 1856. The employers’ manifestoes will be found in the _Times_ from December 1851 to April 1852; the men’s documents and reports of their meetings in the _Operative_ (edited by Newton), and in the _Northern Star_, then at its last gasp.

[358] It ended the struggle with £700 in hand. Its membership at the end of 1852 had fallen from 11,829 to 9737, but even then it had a balance in hand of £5382, and within three years the members had increased to 12,553, and the accumulated funds to the unprecedented total of £35,695. And unlike all previous trade societies, its record from 1852 down to the present time has been one of continued growth and prosperity, the membership at the end of 1919 being 320,000, with accumulated funds not far short of three million pounds, being greater in aggregate amount than the possessions of any other Trade Union organisation of this or any other country.

[359] Preface to Rules of the Journeymen Steam-Engine, Machine Makers, and Millwrights’ Friendly Society, edition of 1845.

[360] This plan of “equalisation” is, so far as we know, peculiar to Trade Unions, though we understand from Dr. Baernreither’s _English Associations of Working Men_, pp. 283-84, that a few branches of some of the Friendly Societies adopted a somewhat similar system. Its origin is unknown to us, but the device is traditionally ascribed to the Journeymen Steam-Engine and Machine Makers and Millwrights’ Society, established in 1826. It was also in early use by the Steam-Engine Makers’ Society, established in 1824. Until the Trade Union Act of 1871 it had a positive use. Depending, as Trade Unions were obliged to do, upon the integrity of their officers, there were great advantages in the wide distribution of the funds and the local responsibility of each branch for the safe keeping of its share.

[361] That is to say, local differences in the cost of living have always been taken into account.

[362] Such protests were frequent in the evidence before the Royal Commission of 1867-68, and form the staple of the innumerable criticisms on Trade Unionism between 1852 and 1879. A good vindication of the Trade Union position is contained in Professor Beesly’s article in the _Fortnightly Review_, 1867, which was republished as a pamphlet, _The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners_, 1867, 20 pp.

[363] The unique collection of these circulars, containing not only statistical and other information of the society, but also frequent references to the building trades and the general movement, was generously placed at our disposal for the purpose of this work, and we have found it of the utmost value.

[364] See, for instance, the evidence of Mault, Questions 3980 in Second Report and 4086 in Third Report.

[365] Report of Special Committee, 1869.

[366] The National Association of United Trades continued, as we have already seen, in nominal existence until 1860 or 1861, but after 1852 it sank to a membership of a few thousands, and played practically no part in the Trade Union world.

[367] _Times_, June to December 1853.

[368] A more detailed account of these developments will be found in _The Co-operative Movement in Great Britain_ (1891; second edition, 1893), by Beatrice Potter (Mrs. Sidney Webb); _Co-operative Production_, by Benjamin Jones, 1894; and in the Report of the Fabian Research Department on Co-operative Production, published as a supplement to _The New Statesman_, February 14, 1914.

[369] _Address of the Executive Council of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers to their Fellow-Workmen_, 1855.

[370] See _The Strikes, their Extent, Evils, and Remedy, being a Description of the General Movement of the Mass of the Building Operatives throughout the United Kingdom_, by Vindex (1853), 56 pp. One consequence of this renewed outburst of strikes was the appointment in 1858 by the newly formed National Association for the Promotion of Social Science of a Committee to inquire into trade societies and disputes. This inquiry, conducted by able and zealous investigators, resulted in 1860 in the publication of a volume which contains the best collection of Trade Union material and the most impartial account of Trade Union action that has ever been issued. As a source of history and economic illustration this _Report on Trade Societies and Strikes_ (1860, 651 pp.) is far superior to the Parliamentary Blue Books of 1824, 1825, 1838, and 1867-68. Among the contributors were Godfrey Lushington (afterwards Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department), J. M. Ludlow (afterwards Registrar of Friendly Societies), Thomas (afterwards Judge) Hughes, Q.C., Mr. G. Shaw-Lefevre (afterwards Lord Eversley), F. D. Longe, and Frank Hill. The Committee was presided over by the late Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, and amongst its other members may be mentioned W. E. Forster, Henry Fawcett, R. H. Hutton, Rev. F. D. Maurice, Dr. William Farr, and one Trade Union secretary, T. J. Dunning, of the London Bookbinders.

[371] See the account of it in _Labour Legislation, Labour Movements, and Labour Leaders_, by G. Howell, 1902.

[372] Prof. E. S. Beesly, _Fortnightly Review_, 1867.