Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/865

 REVIEWS 851

as in municipal and national politics the problem is to combine administrative efficiency with popular control ; and experience in unions shows that the representative must have professional training of one kind, and the administrative officer must have technical knowl- edge of the routine methods of the office. Inter-union relations require organization to promote common interests, while home rule must be given freedom to protect peculiar and local interests.

Part II is given to "Trade-Union Function." The vague aspira- tions of workingmen, as the elevation of life, the promotion of the common good, find expression in their laws. But these common- places are made definite in the regulations of the unions and in the methods employed to enforce these regulations. The methods are mutual insurance, collective bargaining, and legal enactments. The regulations relate to specific ends and grievances : the standard rate, the normal day, sanitation and safety, new processes and machinery, continuity of employment, entrance into a trade, and right to a trade. The method of mutual insurance is a means of holding the union together. The insurance is not a primary purpose and is not so secure as in a friendly society, having no actuarial basis or legal standing. But for union purposes the reserve funds are more valuable than sav- ings banks, because (p. 166) they enable the community of workmen to acquire wealth, and the possession of wealth binds them into a com- pact body.

The method of collective bargaining is vital to trade-unionism. The group makes contracts with the employer through a representative and not as individuals. Slowly employers have been coming to accept this principle. The individual wage-earner is weak, while the union is strong. Only by combination can a contract be made on fairly equal terms with a capitalist. But even collective bargaining has its limitations. In the last resort it may end in failure to agree the strike or lockout. The community may thus be injured. Arbitration is proposed as a help at this point; but arbitration has no sanction. Its chief value lies in conciliation. Compulsory arbitration would mean the fixing of wages by law, and in 1896 the colony of Victoria began an experiment with this policy.

The method of legal enactment is old. The trade unions of the eighteenth century were formed chiefly for the purpose of enforcing legal rules. With the adoption of laissez-faire principles, from 1800 onward, this machinery became useless. Excluded from collective