Industrial Democracy - Sidney Webb

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found quite clever enough to do all that is needful. … Let all officials be retired after one year's services, and fresh ones elected in their place,'

      Primitive Democracy 37

      been tacitly given up in all complicated issues, and gradually limited to a few special questions on particular emergencies. The delegate finds himself every year dealing with more numerous and more complex questions, and tends therefore- inevitably to exercise the larger freedom of a representative. Finally, we have the appearance in the Trade Union world of the typically modern form of democracy, the elected repre- se ntative assembly, appointing and controlling an executive committee under whose direction the permanent official staff pertorms its work.

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      The two organisations in the Trade Union world enjoying the greatest measure of representative institutions are those which are the most distinctly modern in their growth and pre- eminence. In numbers, political influence, and annual income the great federal associations of Coalminers and Cotton Operatives overshadovii all others, and now comprise one-fifth of the total Trade Union membership. We have elsewhere pointed out that these two trades are both distinguished by their establishment of an expert civil service, exceeding in numbers and efficiency that possessed by any other trade.' They resemble each other also, as we shall now see, in the success with which they have solved the fundamental problem of democracy, the combination of administrative efficiency and popular contro l. In each case the solution has been found in the frank acceptance of representative institutions.

      In the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton- spinners, which may be taken as typical of cotton organisa- tions, the "legislative power" is expressly vested " in a meeting comprising representatives from the various provinces and dis- tricts included in the association." * This " Cotton-spinners' Parliament" is elected annually in strict proportion to

      > History of Trade Vnionhm, p. 298 ; see also the subsequent chapter on " The Method of Collective Bargaining." -^

      2 Rules of the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton-spinners (Man- chester, 1894), p. 4, Rule 7.

      Representative Institutions 39

      membership, and consists of about a hundred representatives. It meets in Manchester regularly every quarter, but can be called together by the executive council at any time. Once elected, this assembly is, like the British Parliament, abso- lutely supreme. Its powers and functions are subject to no express limitation, and from its decisions there is no appeal. The rules contain no provision for taking a vote of the members ; and though the agenda of the quarterly meeting is circulated for information to the executives of the district associations, so little thought is there of any necessity for the representatives to receive a mandate from their constituents, that express arrangements are made for transacting any other business not included in the agenda.^

      The actual " government of the association is conducted by an executive council elected by the general representative meeting, and consisting of a president, treasurer, and secretary, with thirteen other members, of whom seven at least must be working spinners, whilst the othef six are, by invariable custom, the permanent officials appointed and maintained by the principal district organisations. Here we have the " cabinet " of this interesting constitution—the body which practically directs the whole work of the association and exercises great weight in the counsels of the legislative body, preparing its agenda and guiding all its proceedings. For the daily work of administration this cabinet is authorised by the rules to appoint a committee, the " sub-council," which consists in practice of the six " gentlemen," as the district officials are commonly called. The actual executive work is performed by a general secretary, who himself engages such office assistance as may from time to time be necessary. In marked contrast with all the Trade Union constitutions which we have hitherto described, the Cotton-spinners' rules do not

      ' Rule 9, p. S- The general representative meeting even resembles the British Parliament in being able itself to change the fundamental basis of the constitution, mcluding the period of its own tenure of office. The rules upon which the Amalgamated Association depends can be altered by the general representative meeting in a session called by special notice, without any confirmation by the constituents. — Rule 45, pp. 27–28.

      40 Trade Union Structure

      ■ give the election of this chief executive officer to the general body of members, but declare expressly that " the sole right of electing a permanent general secretary shall be vested in the provincial and district representatives when in meeting assembled, by whom his salary shall be fixed and deter- mined." ^ Moreover, as we have already mentioned, the candidates for this office pass a competitive examination, and when once elected the general secretary enjoys a permanence of tenure equal to that of the English civil service, the rules providing that he " shall be appointed and continue in office so long as he gives satisfaction."^

      The Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton- spinners is therefore free from all the early expedients for securing popular government. The general or aggregate meeting finds no place in its constitution, and the rules con- tain no provision for the Referendum or t he Initia tivg. _ No countenance is given to the idea of RotatiOT_of Officgj^ No officers are elected by the members themselves. Finally, we have the complete abandonment of the delegate, and the sub- stitution, both in fact and in name, of the representat ive. On' the other hand, the association is a fully-equipped democratic state of the modern type. It has an elected parliament, exercising supreme and uncontrolled power. It has a cabinet appointed by and responsible only to that parliament. And its chief executive officer, appointed once for all on grounds of efficiency, enjoys the civil-service permanence of tenure.^

      > Rule 12, p. 6. , 2 Tiid.

      ^ The other branches of the cotton trade, notably the federations of weavers and cardroom hands, are organised on the same principle of an elected repre- sentative assembly, itself appointing the officers and executive committee, though there are minor differences among them. The United Textile Factory Workers' Association, of which the spinners form a part, is framed on the same model, a "legislative council," really an executive committee, being elected by the "conference," or representative assembly. (This organisation temporarily suspended its functions in 1896.) Moreover, the rules of the several district associations of the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton-spinners exhibit the same formative influences. In the smaller societies, confined to single villages, we find the simple government by general meeting, electing a committee and officers. Permanence of tenure is, however, the rule, it being often expressly provided that the secretary and the treasurer shall each "retain office as long as he gives satisfaction." More than half the total membership, moreover, is

      Representative Institutions 41

      We have watched the working of this remarkable consti- tution during the last seven years, and we can testify to the success with which both efficiency and popular control are secured. jThe efficiency we attribute, to the existence of the adequate, highly-trained, and relatively well-paid and permanent civil service.^ But that this civil service is effectively under public control is shown by the accuracy with which the cotton . officials adapt their political and industrial policy to the developing views of the members whom they serve. This sensitiveness to the popular ' desires is secured by the reaL sup remacy of th e elected r epresentativesj For the " Cotton-spimTerJ^ParliaSient *'^is no formal gathering of casual members to register the decrees of a dominant bureaucracy. It is, on the contrary, a highly -organised deliberative assembly, with active repre- sentatives from the different localities, each alive to the distinct, and sometimes divergent, interests of his own constituents. Their eager participation shows itself in constant " party meetings " of the different sections, at which the officers and workmen from each district consult together as to the line of policy to be pressed upon the assembly. Such consulta- tion and deliberate joint action is, in the case of the Oldham representatives at any rate, carried even further. The consti- tution of the Oldham Operative Cotton-spinners' Provincial Association is, so far as we know, unique

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