self-government; a microcosm reproducing the experience of political democracy in the past and prophetic of the phases through which political democracies will pass in time to come. Second, that the essence of Trade Unionism is a concerted effort to substitute the true compulsory freedom of "collective bargaining" for the illusory liberty of individual contract and competitive inequality, which “invariably tends, for the mass of workers, towards the worst possible conditions of labor - ultimately, indeed, to the barest subsistence level"; that it is a united effort to lift from the isolated workman the crushing and degrading weight of that long "chain of bargainings' inevitably forged by "the anarchic irresponsibility of the private customer" and the competitive "system of natural liberty"; that it is a legitimate insistence on the right of the wage-earner to a progressive participation in the fruits. of industrial civilization, and an indispensable protection to his standard of life. Third, that Trade Unionism is a permanent, and not a transitory, feature of democratic society, destined to endure under any possible form of industrial organization consistent with a democratic state; that it rests not merely upon a sound basis of economic theory, but is inherent in human nature; that it is, therefore, not an artificial contrivance, but a natural and instinctive manifestation of industrial psychology, and in its contemporary aspects simply a conscious evolution of what was first unconsciously involved.

The bare statement of these views is sufficient answer to the preliminary objection that the ambitious title Industrial Democracy has no more applicability to an analysis of trade union practices, principles, and implications than it would have to a similar study of the co-operative movement or of Friendly Societies. Doubtless the splendid achievements of the English co-operators admirably exemplify democratic self-control in industrial affairs, and it is no less certain that the elaborate self-help organiza

tion of English Friendly Societies clearly illustrates the general principles of democratic administration. But he would be a bold champion who should claim for these movements that enduring combination of political, industrial, and psychological significance ascribed to Trade Unionism; not to mention the added defect that they are probably less typical than Trade Unions are of that alleged democracy of the future, which is here regarded as democracy par excellence, the democracy of the hired

man.

Moreover, with these general theses (and hypotheses) in mind, the arrangement and sequence of the treatise more readily explains itself. The analysis of Trade Union Structure, in Part I., indicates with comparative brevity the kind of electoral machinery which trade unions have gradually developed in their efforts to cope with the universal democratic problem of combining administrative efficiency and popular control, the successive phases through which these typical industrial democracies have passed, and the lessons which their isolated experiments bequeath to political democracy and society at large. The discussion of Trade Union Function, in Part II., is an exhaustive, four-hundred-and-fifty-page account of what Trade Unionism really is in practice, of the ends it has in view and the means adopted to attain these ends, of the assumptions upon which it proceeds and the general principles involved in its rules and regulations. Finally, the discussion of Trade Union Theory, in Part III., is a critical examination of the theoretical wisdom and practical expediency of all these phases of trade union policy, vindicating Trade Unionism against the criticisms of "obsessed" orthodox economists, planting it on the firm foundation of sound theory, practical experience, and human nature, and concluding with an apocalyptic vision of the democratic future, when compulsory trade unionship and compulsory citizenship shall be coextensive with the Collectivist State.

Turn now to the lessons which this searching investigation of Trade Union Structure reveals to the student of democracy. Those who are simply concerned with the practical value and efficiency of trade unions are warned that this part of the book has little interest for them. On the other hand, the student of democracy is assured that the literature of cash accounts, monthly and yearly reports, pamphlets, and trade documents, "poured out to the extent of hundreds of volumes annually-is of fascinating interest," because "it lays bare, more completely than any records known to us, the real nature and action of democratic organization in the Anglo-Saxon race." Those who view with apprehension the participation of manual working wage-earners in modern politics can here reassure themselves by a study of thousands of typical and untrammelled working class democracies, illustrating the manner in which the workingman copes with the problem of combining administrative efficiency with popular control. And, obviously, if we assume "that the manual workers, who number four-fifths of the population, will gradually become the dominant influences in the electorate, and will contribute an important and increasing section of the representatives, the governing assemblies of the Coal-miners or Cotton Operatives to-day may be to a large extent prophetic of the future legislative assembly in any English-speaking community."

Granting for the moment the validity of thus reasoning from the conduct of a voluntary trade organization to the conduct of a nation, what light has this investigation thrown on the political instincts of that small and select minority of English workingmen who have constituted the trade union movement? What prophetic forecast does the workingman's "industrial statesmanship" give of the future of a workingman's political democracy? In short, what lesson does government of the workman, by the workman, for the workman, bring to government of the people, by the people, for the people?

It would be difficult to exaggerate the faithful enthusiasm with which the answer to these questions is sought. Beginning with an ambitious comparison of the local trade clubs of the eighteenth century to the general meetings of the Swiss cantons of Uri and Appenzell, there is throughout the whole discussion a persistent and ingenious effort to use the language of political analogy, and thus lift into significance the most commonplace details of trade union methods of election, representation, and administration. The gradual evolution of administration and control is traced through the slow and painful process of experiment, failure, and survival of the fit, all the way from the rudimentary aspects of a pothouse democracy, chiefly concerned in securing equality of drinks and rotation in the office of president ("accommodated with his own choice of liquors, wine only excepted"), to the constitutional perfection of such "a fully equipped democratic state of the modern type" as the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton-spinners. The lessons of a whole century of painful and incessant experiment, the results of this "long and inarticulate struggle of unlettered men," are summarized in a single word. "If, therefore, democracy means that everything which 'concerns all should be decided by all,' and that each citizen should enjoy an equal and identical share in the government, Trade Union history indicates clearly the inevitable result. Government by such contrivances as Rotation of Office, the Mass Meeting, the Referendum and Initiative, or the Delegate restricted by his Imperative Mandate, leads straight either to inefficiency and disintegration or to the uncontrolled dominance of a personal dictator or an expert bureaucracy. Dimly and almost unconsciously, this conclusion has, after a whole century of experiment, forced itself upon the more advanced trades. The old theory of democracy is still an article of faith, and constantly comes to the front when any organization has to be formed for

brand-new purposes; but Trade Union constitutions have undergone a silent revolution."

But this is only the negative side of the conclusion. Trade union experience points with no less clearness to the positive necessity of replacing these naïve, crude, and obsolete methods of undeveloped democracy by a new type of representative assembly, composed of "experts or "professional representatives," such as we already find in the recently developed and prophetic "parliaments" of cotton-spinners and coalminers. Trade union history, therefore, points to "government by a Representative Assembly as the last word of democracy." But, if the Cotton Parliament is really prophetic, we are assured that the typical English-speaking representative assembly of the progressive future will advance as much beyond the existing House of Commons and other such adventitious aggregates as such legislative bodies have advanced beyond a mere delegate meeting. For the "expert" or "professional representative" will resemble neither the irresponsible middle-class parliamentary representative of to-day nor the instructed delegate of the primitive trade union assemblies. He will be the paid expert adviser, counsellor, and persuader of his constituents, and, even when advice and counsel are rejected, the holder of his constituents' brief and the exponent of their views.

As already intimated, the nearest approximations to these ideals of representative government are found in the two great modern federal associations of coalminers and cotton operatives, comprising one-fifth of the total trade union membership and pre-eminent in point of numbers, political influence, and annual income. Both these trades have solved the fundamental problem of administrative efficiency and popular control by the combination of an expert civil service and representative institutions. The Amalgamated Association of Cotton-spinners is free from all those naïve and obsolete expedients of popular