THE TRADE UNION WORLD
[1890-1894]

When we were engaged, between 1890 and 1894, in investigating the history and organisation of all the several Unions, no complete statistics as to the extent of the membership were in existence. We accordingly sought to obtain, not only an analysis of the Trade Union world as it then was, but also a complete census of Trade Unionism from one end of the kingdom to the other. We retain this analysis practically as it stood in the first edition of the book in 1894, as a record of the position as it then was—in subsequent chapters tracing the principal changes and developments of the last thirty years.

To deal first with the aggregate membership, we were convinced in 1894 that, although a certain number of small local societies might have escaped our notice, we had included every Union then existing which had as many as 1000 members, as well as many falling below that figure. From these researches we estimated that the total Trade Union membership in the United Kingdom at the end of 1892 certainly exceeded 1,500,000 and probably did not reach 1,600,000. Our estimate was presently confirmed. Working upon the data thus supplied, the Labour Department of the Board of Trade extended its investigations, and now records a Trade Union membership for 1892 of 1,502,358.[577] The Trade Unionists of 1892 numbered, therefore, about 4 per cent of the Census population.

But to gauge the strength of the Trade Union world of 1892 we had to compare the number of Trade Unionists, not with the total population, but with that portion of it which might conceivably be included within its boundaries. Thus at the outset we had to ignore the propertied classes, the professions, the employers and the brain-workers of every kind, and confine our attention exclusively to the wage-earners engaged in manual work. Even of the working-class so defined we could exclude the children and the youths under twenty-one, who are not usually eligible for Trade Union membership. The women present a greater difficulty to the statistician. The adult female wage-earners engaged in manual labour in 1891 were estimated to number between two and three millions, of which only about 100,000 were even nominally within the Trade Union ranks. To what extent the men’s Trade Unionism was weakened by its failure to enrol the women workers was a matter of dispute. From the industrial point of view the answer depends on complicated economic considerations, such as the extent to which women compete with men in particular industries, or women’s trades with those in which men are employed. Owing to the exclusion of women from the Parliamentary franchise until 1918 their absence from the Trade Union world detracted little from its political force. We have dealt elsewhere[578] with the relation of women workers to the Trade Union organisation. Meanwhile we omit the women as well as the young persons under twenty-one from our estimate of the place occupied by Trade Unionism in working-class life.

We know of no exact statistics as to the total numbers of the manual-working class. The figures collected by Leone Levi, and those of Sir Robert Giffen, together with the inferences to be drawn from the census and from Charles Booth’s works, led us to the conclusion—at best only hypothetical—that of the nine millions of men over twenty-one years of age in 1891, about seven millions belonged to the manual-working class. Out of every hundred of the population of all ages we could roughly estimate that about eighteen are in this sense working men adults. Accepting for the moment this hypothetical estimate, we arrived at the conclusion that the Trade Unionists numbered at this date about 20 per cent of the adult male manual-working class, or, roughly, one man in five.

But this revised percentage is itself misleading. If the million and a half Trade Unionists were evenly distributed among all occupations and through all districts, a movement which comprised only 20 per cent of working men would be of slight economic or industrial importance, and of no great weight in the political world. What gave the Trade Union Movement its significance even thirty years ago and transformed these million and a half units into an organised world of their own, was the massing of Trade Unionists in certain industries and districts in such a way as to form a powerful majority of the working-class world. The Trade Unionists were aggregated in the thriving industrial districts of the North of England. The seven counties of England north of the Humber and the Dee contained at least 726,000 members of trade societies, or almost half of the total for the United Kingdom. At a considerable distance from these followed the industrial Midlands, where the seven counties of Leicester, Derby, Notts, Warwick, Gloucester, Northampton, and Stafford included a total Trade Union membership of at least 210,000, whilst South Wales, including Monmouthshire, counted another 89,000 members of trade societies. The vast agglomeration of the London district, in which we must reckon Middlesex, the subsidiary boroughs of West Ham, Croydon, Richmond, and Kingston, as well as Bromley in Kent, yielded not more than 194,000 Trade Unionists.

These four districts, comprising nearly 21,000,000 inhabitants, or rather more than two-thirds of the population of England and Wales, possessed in 1892 twelve-thirteenths of its Trade Unionists. The total Trade Union membership in the remainder of the country, with its 8,000,000 of population, did not exceed 105,000, largely labourers. The only county in England in which in 1892 we found no trace of Trade Union organisation was Rutland, which did not, at this date, contain a single branch of any Union whatsoever. But Huntingdonshire, Herefordshire, and Dorsetshire, containing together over 350,000 inhabitants, included, according to our estimate, only about 710 Trade Unionists between them. Scotland, with four millions of population, had 147,000 Trade Unionists, nearly all aggregated in the narrow industrial belt between the Clyde and the Forth, two-thirds of the total, indeed, belonging to Glasgow and the neighbouring industrial centres. Ireland, with three-quarters of a million more population, counted but 40,000, nine-tenths of whom belonged to Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and Limerick.

Of particular counties, Northumberland and Durham at that date took the lead, closely followed by Lancashire. The table on following page supplies particulars of this date for the strongest Trade Union counties in England and Wales.

This superficial investigation shows us at once that Trade Unionism coincided in 1892, as it does in 1920, in the main with density of population. The thinly peopled plains of Dorsetshire, the Highlands of Scotland, the West of Ireland, the Cumberland and Westmorland Hills, were practically devoid of Trade Unionism; the valleys of the Tyne and Tees, Lancashire and London, and the busy industrial villages of the Midlands showed a comparatively high percentage. But the correspondence of Trade Unionism with density of population is by no means exact. Oldham, for instance, with a population of 201,153, had 25,000 male Unionists,[579] or 12.43 per cent, whereas Birmingham (including the suburbs of Aston, Handsworth, and Solihull), with 621,253, had only 26,000, or 4.19 per cent. Newcastle (including Gateshead), with 328,066 inhabitants, had 26,500 Trade Unionists, or 8.08 per cent, whilst Leeds (including Wortley, Hunslet, and Burley) had but 16,000 to a population of 415,243, or 3.85 per cent. And, most striking exception of all, the crowded five and a half millions of the Metropolitan area had but 194,000 Trade Unionists, or only 3.52 per cent of its population, whilst Lancashire, even including its northern moorlands and its wide agricultural districts, had 332,000 for less than four millions of people, or 8.63 per cent of its population. Reckoning that 18 out of every 100 of the population are adult male workmen, Trade Unionism thus counted among its adherents in some counties over 50 per cent of the total number of working men.

No other county had 15,000 Trade Unionists, nor as much as 3 per cent of its population in trade societies.

But this percentage itself fails to give an adequate idea of the extent to which Trade Unionism, even in 1892, dominated the industrial centres in which it was strongest. Within the concentration by localities, there was a further concentration by trades—a fact which to a large extent explains the geographical distribution. The following table shows in what proportion the leading industries contributed to the total Trade Union forces:

Table showing the approximate number of members of trade societies in 1892 according to industries, in the different parts of the United Kingdom.

For the general reader, this table, together with the foregoing one showing the geographical distribution of Trade Unionism, completes our statistical survey of the Trade Union world of 1892. To the student of Trade Union statistics a more particular enumeration may be useful. Before we attempt to picture Trade Union life, we shall therefore devote a dozen pages (which the general reader may with a clear conscience skip) to the dry facts of organisation in each of the eight great divisions into which we distributed the Trade Union membership of 1892.

The first division, comprising all the numerous ramifications of the engineering, metal-working, and shipbuilding trades, was then characterised by old-established and highly developed national Unions, with large membership, centralised administration, and extensive friendly benefits. The 287,000 Trade Unionists in this division were enrolled in over 260 separate societies, but almost one-half belonged to one or other of four great national organisations, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (established 1851), the United Society of Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders (established 1832),[583] the Friendly Society of Ironfounders of England, Ireland, and Wales (established 1809), and the Associated Society of Shipwrights, a belated amalgamation formed in 1882 by the many ancient local Unions of wooden shipbuilders. Of these great Unions, that of the Boilermakers, with 39,000 members, was incomparably the strongest, having no rival for the allegiance of its trade and including practically the whole body of skilled workmen engaged in iron shipbuilding and boilermaking from one end of the United Kingdom to the other. The great Unions of Ironfounders and Shipwrights, with respectively 15,000 and 14,000 members, were not quite so universal as the Boilermakers. The Associated Society of Ironmoulders (Ironfounders) of Scotland (established 1831), with 6000 members and a few minor Unions of less skilled ironfounders, maintained separate organisations; whilst the Shipwrights’ Provident Union of the Port of London (established 1824, 1400 members), the Liverpool Trade and Friendly Association of Shipwrights (established 1800, 1400 members), and a few other old-fashioned port Unions still held aloof from the Shipwrights’ amalgamation.[584] The Amalgamated Society of Engineers, the largest centralised Trade Union in the kingdom, with 66,000 members at home and 5000 abroad, towered over all its rivals, but had to compete with compact sectional or local Unions, admitting one or more of the numerous classes of workmen in the engineering and machine-making trade.[585] Among the actual producers of iron and steel, the British Steel Smelters’ Association (established 1886), with 2400 members, originally a Scotch Union, was extending all over the kingdom; whilst the Associated Society of Iron and Steel Workers (established 1862), with 1250 members.

7800 members, occupied a unique position in the Trade Union world from its long and constant devotion to the sliding scale. The tin and hollow-ware workers,[586] the chippers and drillers, the Sheffield cutlers, and the craftsmen in precious metals were split up into innumerable local societies, with little federal union.

It is interesting to notice the large proportion which this division of Trade Unionists in Scotland bore to the total for that country. Whilst in England and Wales it formed only one-sixth of the aggregate number, in Scotland it measured nearly one-third, almost entirely centred about Glasgow.

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists in each group of the Engineering and Shipbuilding Trades.

The organisation of Builders and Furniture Makers resembled in many respects that of the Engineers and Shipbuilders. The 148,000 Trade Unionists in this division were sorted into 120 separate Unions; but again we find one-half of them belonging to one or other of three centralised Trade Friendly Societies of national scope. Of these the Friendly Society of Operative Stonemasons (established 1832, 16,000 members) was the most powerful, having practically no rival throughout England or Ireland, and maintaining friendly relations with the corresponding United Operative Masons’ Association of Scotland (established 1831, 5000 members). But the largest and richest Union in this division was the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (established 1860, 34,000 members at home and 4000 abroad). Although this Society could count but a small proportion of the total number of carpenters in the kingdom, it included three-fourths of those who were Trade Unionists, the remaining fourth being divided between the Associated Carpenters and Joiners of Scotland (established 1861, 6000 members), the old General Union of Carpenters and Joiners of England (established 1827, 4000 members), and a few tiny trade clubs in the Metropolis which had refused to merge themselves in either of the national organisations. The Bricklayers were in much the same position as the Carpenters. The Operative Bricklayers’ Society (established 1848, 22,000 members) included three-fourths of the Trade Unionists, the remainder being found either in the United Operative Bricklayers’ Trade, Accident, and Burial Society (established 1832, 2500 members), or in a few isolated local trade clubs in Scotland and Ireland. Of the other Unions in the Building Trades, the United Operative Plumbers’ Association of Great Britain and Ireland (established 1832, reorganised 1865, 6500 members) was by far the most effective and compact, and was specially interesting as retaining practically the federal constitution of the Builders’ Union of 1830-34. With the exception of the United Operative Plumbers’ Association of Scotland (established 1872, 700 members), a small society resulting from a secession, no rival organisation existed. On the other hand, the Painters, Slaters, Packing-case Makers, Upholsterers, and French Polishers were split up into numberless small Unions, whilst the Cabinetmakers and Plasterers had each one considerable organisation[587] and several smaller societies, which, however, included but a small proportion of the trade.

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists in the various branches of the Building and Furniture Trades.

The Miners and Quarrymen, comprising about sixty-five societies, were in 1892 the best organised of the eight great divisions into which we classified the Trade Union forces. Among the coalminers the “county,” or district Union, without friendly benefits, was the predominating type. Nearly two-thirds of the whole 347,000 Trade Unionists in this division were gathered into the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain (established 1888), a federal Union comprising about twenty independent organisations, some of which, like the Yorkshire Miners’ Association (established 1858, 55,000 members), were highly centralised, whilst others, like the Lancashire Miners’ Federation (established 1881, 43,000 members), were themselves federal bodies. The Miners’ Federation, whilst not interfering with the financial autonomy or internal administration of its constituent bodies, effectively centralised the industrial and Parliamentary policy of the whole army of its members from Fife to Somerset. Outside the Federation at this date stood the powerful and compact Northumberland Miners’ Mutual Confident Association (established 1863, 17,000 members), and Durham Miners’ Association (established 1869, 50,000 members), together with the solid little Mid and West Lothian Miners’ Association (established 1885, 3600 members), and the loose organisations of Sliding Scale contributors which then figured as Trade Unions in South Wales.[588] The coal and iron miners of the West of Scotland had scarcely got beyond the ephemeral pit club and occasional Strike Union. Among the tin, lead, and copper miners Trade Unionism, as far as we can ascertain, was absolutely unknown.

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists among the persons engaged in or about Mines and Quarries.

The salient fact of Trade Unionism among the textile operatives in 1892 was that effective organisation was nearly confined to the workers in cotton, who contributed at least two-thirds of the 200,000 Trade Unionists in this division. Like the Miners the Cotton Operatives have always shown a strong preference for federal Associations with exclusively trade objects. The powerful Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton-spinners (established 1853), a federal Union of 19,500 members comprising forty separate district associations, joined with its sister federations, the Northern Counties Amalgamated Association of Weavers (established 1884, 71,000 members) and the Amalgamated Association of Card and Blowing Room Operatives (31,000 members, established 1886), in the United Textile Factory Workers’ Association (established 1886). This Association formed exclusively for Parliamentary purposes, focussed the very considerable political influence of 125,000 organised cotton operatives in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, and was, next to the Miners’ Federation, by far the most powerful Trade Union organisation in the country. [589]

The highly developed organisation of the Cotton Operatives contrasted with the feebleness of the Woollen-workers. In the other branches of textile manufacture the extreme localisation of the separate industries had given rise to isolated county or district organisations of lace, hosiery, silk, flax, or carpet-workers usually confined to small areas, and exercising comparatively little influence in the Trade Union world. Incomparably the strongest among them was the Amalgamated Society of Operative Lacemakers (3500 members), which comprised practically all the adult male workers in the Nottingham machine-lace trade. If we exclude the constituent organisations of the United Textile Factory Workers’ Association, the separate Unions in the various branches of the textile industry numbered 115.

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists in the various branches of the Textile Manufacture.

The large section of workers engaged in the manufacture of clothing and leather goods was, perhaps, the least organised of the skilled trades. One society, indeed, the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives (established 1874), counted almost 43,000 members, and exercised a very real control over the machine boot trade. And although the hand industry was in this case rapidly declining, the Amalgamated Association of Boot and Shoemakers (established 1862) maintained and even increased the earnings of this body of 4700 skilled handicraftsmen. The Tailors, on the other hand, had succeeded neither in controlling the new machine industry, nor in upholding the standard earnings of the hand-workers. The Amalgamated Society of Tailors (established 1866, 17,000 members), together with the Scottish National Operative Tailors’ Society (established 1866, 4500 members), had absorbed all the local Unions, but included only a small proportion of those at work in the trade. The Felt Hatters and Trimmers’ Union (established 1872) had 4300 members, together with a women’s branch (established 1886) numbering nearly as many. In other branches of this division some strong organisations existed in the smaller industries, but the workers for the most part formed only feeble local clubs or else were totally unorganised. There were altogether over sixty separate Unions in this division.

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists in the Clothing and Leather Trades.

The 46,000 Trade Unionists in the paper and printing trades were divided between four considerable Unions with 27,000 members, and forty-five little societies numbering not more than 19,000 altogether. The compositors lead off with three extensive organisations, the London Society of Compositors, confined to the Metropolis (established 1848, 9800 members), the Typographical Association (established 1849, 11,500 members), which had absorbed all but four of the Irish and four of the English local societies outside the Metropolis, and the Scottish Typographical Association (established 1852, 3000 members). The Bookbinders and Machine Rulers’ Consolidated Union (established 1835, 3000 members), mainly composed of provincial workers, far exceeded the London Consolidated Bookbinders’ Society, the largest of half-a-dozen Metropolitan Unions in this trade.

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists in the various branches of the Paper and Printing Trades.

There remained a number of trades which it was difficult to classify. These miscellaneous crafts furnished over 130 societies and 58,000 Trade Unionists. Some, like the Coopers, Cigarmakers, Brushmakers, Basketmakers, and Glassworkers, were usually well organised; others, like the Coachbuilders, Potters, Bakers, and Ropeworkers, included but a small percentage of their trades. [590]

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists in the Miscellaneous Trades.

The great army of labourers, seamen, and transport workers of every kind we enclosed in a single division. Out of the 120 organisations belonging to this group the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (established 1872), with its permanent membership of 31,000, its high contributions, extensive friendly benefits, and large accumulated funds, resembled in character the large national societies of the engineering and building trades. Alongside this stood the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (established 1880, 7000 members). Some other Unions in this group, such as the London and Counties Labour League (established 1872, 13,000 members), and the National Agricultural Labourers’ Union (established 1872, 15,000 members), had become essentially friendly societies. But the predominating type in this division was, as might have been expected, the new Union, with low contributions, fluctuating membership, and militant trade policy. Of these the strongest and apparently the most stable was the National Union of Gas-workers and General Labourers (established 1889), with 36,000 members on the books. Next in membership came the Dock, Wharf, and Riverside Labourers’ Union (established 1889), the Tyneside and National Labour Union (established 1889), and the National Amalgamated Sailors and Firemen’s Union (established 1887), each with a membership fluctuating between 20,000 and 40,000. Other prominent Unions in this division were the General Railway Workers’ Union (established 1889), the National Union of Dock Labourers (established 1889), the National Amalgamated Coalporters’ Union (established 1890), and the Navvies, Bricklayers’ Labourers, and General Labourers’ Union (established 1890). The builders’ labourers and the carmen were organised in numerous local Unions, which, in some cases, such as the Mersey Quay and Railway Carters’ Union (established 1887), and the Leeds Amalgamated Association of Builders’ Labourers (established 1889), were effective trade societies. The chief exponent of New Unionism among the agricultural labourers was then the Eastern Counties Labour Federation (established 1890), which had enrolled 17,000 members in Suffolk and the neighbouring counties. But any statistical estimate of the ill-defined and constantly fluctuating membership of the Unions in this division must necessarily be of less value than in the more definitely organised trades. [591]

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists among the Labourers and Transport Workers of every kind.

It would have been an interesting addition to our statistics if we could have added to these tables a column showing the proportion which the Unionists in each trade bore to the total number of workers in it. Unfortunately the classification of the census[592] is not sufficiently precise to enable this to be done. We were therefore thrown back upon such information on the point as we can obtain from other sources. We knew, for instance, that in Lancashire the Amalgamated Association of Cotton-spinners included practically every competent workman engaged in the trade. The same might be said of the Boilermakers’ Society in all the iron shipbuilding ports, though not in some of the Midland districts. And to turn to an even larger industry, 80 per cent of the coalminers were in union, some districts, such as Northumberland and parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, having practically every hewer in the society. And in other industries and localities the Union was sometimes equally inclusive. Among the Dublin Coopers or the Midland Flint Glass Makers, the Nottingham Lacemakers or the Yorkshire Glass Bottle Makers, non-Unionism was practically unknown. We see, therefore, that instead of numbering only 4 per cent of the total population, the Trade Union world was in certain districts and in certain industries, already in 1892 practically co-extensive with the manual labour class. On the other hand, there were many occupations in which Trade Unionism was non-existent. Whole classes of manual workers were practically excluded from the Trade Union ranks by the fact that they were not hired workers at wages. In the nooks and crannies of our industrial system were to be found countless manual workers who obtained a precarious livelihood by direct service of the consumer. Every town and village had its quota of hawkers, costermongers, tallymen, and other petty dealers; of cobblers, tinkers, knifegrinders, glaziers, chairmenders, plumbers, and other jobbing craftsmen; of cab-runners, “corner boys,” men who “hang about the bridges,” and all the innumerable parasites of the life of a great city. When we passed from these “independent producers” to the trades in which the small master survived, or in which home work prevailed, we saw another region almost barren of Trade Unionism. The tailors and cabinetmakers, for instance, though often highly-skilled craftsmen, had only a small minority of their trades in Union, whilst the chain and nailmakers were almost unorganised. The effect upon Trade Unionism of a backward type of industrial organisation was well seen in the manufacture of boots and shoes. In Leicestershire and Stafford, where the work was done in large factories, practically every workman was in the Union. In the Midland villages, where this was carried on as a domestic industry, and in East London, where it was only passing out of that phase, the National Society of Boot and Shoe Operatives counted but a small proportion of members. And in those districts in which the small master system still held its own it cast a blight even on other trades. Thus the Birmingham district and East London were bad Trade Union centres, not only for the sweated trades, but also for those carried on in large establishments. But the great bulk of non-Unionism was to be found in another field. The great army of labourers, as distinguished from mechanics, miners, or factory operatives, were in normal times as unorganised as the women workers. Except in certain counties, such as Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, and the Fen districts, Trade Unionism among the farm labourers could scarcely be said to exist. Of the three-quarters of a million of agricultural labourers in the United Kingdom, not more than 40,000 were then in union. Nor were the other classes of labour in much better plight. The two hundred thousand workers in the traffic department of the railways contributed only 48,000 Trade Unionists, mostly from such grades as guards and engine-drivers. The large class of tramway and omnibus workers had, after a brief rally, reverted to a state of disorganisation. The great army of warehousemen, porters, and other kinds of city labourers counted only a few hundred Trade Unionists in all the kingdom.

The Trade Union world was, therefore, in 1892, in the main composed of skilled craftsmen working in densely populated districts, where industry was conducted on a large scale. About one-half of the members belonged to the three staple trades of coalmining, cotton manufacture, and engineering, whilst the labourers and the women workers were, at this date, on the whole, non-Unionists.

But the influence of Trade Unionism on working-class life cannot be measured by the numbers actually contributing to the Union funds at any one time. Among the non-Unionists in the skilled trades a large proportion have at one time or another belonged to their societies. Though they have let their membership lapse for one reason or another, they follow the lead of the Union, and are mostly ready, on the slightest encouragement from its members, or improvement in their own position, to rejoin an organisation to which in spirit they still belong. In the Labour Unions the instability of employment and the constant shifting of residence caused the organisation, in 1892, to resemble a sieve, through which a perpetual stream of members was flowing, a small proportion only remaining attached for any length of time. These lapsed members constitute in some sense a volunteer force of Trade Unionism ready to fight side by side with their old comrades, provided that means can be found for their support. Moreover, the Trade Unionists not only belong to the most highly-skilled and best-paid industries, but they include, as a general rule, the picked men in each trade. The moral and intellectual influence which they exercise on the rest of their class is, therefore, out of all proportion to their numbers. In their ranks are found, in almost every industrial centre, all the prominent leaders of working-class opinion. They supply the directors of the co-operative stores, the administrators of clubs and friendly societies, and the working-class representatives on Parish, District, and Town Councils. Finally we may observe that the small but rapidly increasing class of working-men politicians invariably consists of men who are members of a trade society. We may safely assert that, even in 1892, no one but a staunch Trade Unionist would have had any chance of being returned as a working-class member to the House of Commons, or elected to a local governing body as a Labour representative.

It is therefore impossible by a statistical survey to give any adequate idea of the Trade Union world of 1892. We may note the fact that the thousand separate unions or branches between Blyth and Middlesborough numbered some 200,000 members. We may ascertain that within fifteen miles of the Manchester Exchange at least as many Trade Unionists lived and worked. But no figures can convey any real impression of the place which the Trade Union, even then, filled in the every-day life of the skilled artisans of the United Kingdom. We are therefore fortunate in being able to supplement our statistics by a graphic description of Trade Union life supplied to us in 1893 by a skilled craftsman, who joined his Union on the expiration of his apprenticeship, and served for some time in various official capacities.