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 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY from a membership of more than eleven thousand in 1900 to rather less than half that number at the end of 1904. Within the same period at least five unions have been dissolved, including two associated with the Wolver- hampton hollow-ware trade. 817 Among the potters, unionism has never been very strong, the member- ship having never reached more than 10 per cent, of the total number of working potters. In the 400 earthenware manufactories of North Stafford- shire 50,000 operatives were employed in 1901, of whom about 27,000 were males, but only 5,000 were enrolled members of the various branch unions, and these were chiefly males." 8 It has been suggested that the fact that the potters are concentrated in one district has made them feel that a trade union is not so necessary as in other industries and with different circumstances. Doubtless, too, the old custom of fixing wages for the whole year at Martinmas has made it difficult to keep up interest in the union during the other parts of the year when the question of wages was no longer open to discussion. Between the years 1868 and 1891 questions in dispute between the masters and the men were settled by the ' Potteries Board of Arbitration and Conciliation,' a body composed of representatives of employers and employed, which did excellent work in its time calling in an outside arbitrator or umpire to give a final verdict on special occasions, notably in 1877, 1879, 1880, and 1 89 1. 219 With regard to methods of fixing wages, that of a sliding scale, according to which wages vary with the selling price of coal, has now fallen into disfavour, and wages are now arranged by means of conciliation boards composed of representatives of the masters and the men. In the South-east Staffordshire and East Worcestershire district, after the great strike of 1874 which ended in the masters' favour, the system of a sliding scale was introduced. This was, however, abandoned in 1899 when a Wages and Conciliation Board was formed, which still decides on any changes made in rates of wages in the district. Similarly in that part of Staffordshire which belongs to the ' Federated Districts,' changes in rates of wages are arranged by a joint Conciliation Board, of which Lord James of Hereford is chairman. 220 In North Staffordshire a sliding scale for colliers' wages has never been in use. A sliding scale was established in 1899 for blast-furnacemen, but the wages of those in South Staffordshire are regulated by the Midland Iron and Steel Wages Board. With regard to the rates of wages in various industries in Staffordshire certain general tendencies may be indicated. The years between 1900 and 1904 were characterized by a general decline in wages in coal-mining, iron- mining, iron and steel manufacture, and building trades, and the wages in Staffordshire in these industries shared the general downward movement. In the mining industry the period between 1894 and 1896 was one of declining wages; then came a rise between 1897 and 1900, and another "' S. and B. Webb, Hist, of Trade Unionism, 413; Rep. of Trade Unions, 1902-4, Board of Trade Labour Dept. 6-27. " 3 Harold Owen, op. cit. 334. " 9 Ibid. 150, 160, 180, 23461 seq. " Rep. on Changes in Rates of Wages and Hours of Labour, 1904, Board of Trade Labour Dept. I 5. i 3'3 40