TRADE UNIONISM AND THE CA' CANNY POLICY.

Evening Star, Issue 11675, 6 February 1902, Page 1

TRADE UNIONISM AND THE CA' CANNY POLICY.

The reply of the Management Committee of ttie General Federation ot Trade Unions of Great Britain to 'The Times's' articles on 'The Crisis in British Industry' is not convincing. After a general denial that the practices specified in the articles form any part of trade unionism the Federation's proceed: "Trade unionism seeks to promote the interests of labor by substituting collective for individual bargaining in the disposal of the labor of its members. . It seeks to fix certain standard minimum conditions in regard to wages and hours, but it does not seek to beat all down to that level. As a matter of fact, it puts no embargo upon its members who may be inclined to get beyond the minimum conditions by special skill, aptitude, or diligence. In sfll trade unions there are men who have risen from the ranks of manual workers and are filling responsible positions in life as architects, consulting engineers, manufacturers, and publicists. The main object of the unions, however, is to obtain and 'maintain minimum conditions of employment. Trade unionism thus seeks to remove labor from the category of mere material commodities, the price of which is determined by their relative scarcity or abundance, and to invest labor with the power to bargain on the plane of reason and justice. . . True, the unions oppose sweating of labor by unscrupulous employers, and resent their members being goaded into abnormal efficiency. They will continue to do, and they claim to be thereby acting in the best interests of the community." The statement that trades unions have prevented the introduction of labor-saving machinery or appliances is further declared to be absolutely the reverse of truth. It would be more to the point if the Federation had delat specifically with the facts and figures given by ' The Times' writer, who, by the way, reminds the British public that he has not yet finished opening his case, and that there is a good deal of what the Committee call "tiresome reiteration and amplification" still to come. The slipshod way in which the Committee of the Federation had prepared their reply is shown by their assertion that the rule quoted in' The Times,'which forbade workmen to do double work in order to gain the smile of a foreman, has been shown to have been dug up from the annals of a small . Yorkshire society defunct for thirty-five years. But (as the writer of the article? points out) the rule was not quoted in 'The Times' at all, but in the 'Daily Mail.' The trade union representatives will have to give the world at large something better than their manifesto if they wish to convince the thinking portion of the public that the assertions of ' The Times' writer was unfounded.