benefits (other than “unemployed”), 42.5%; on working expenses 22%. The 42.5% of expenditure on friendly benefits is made up of 19.1% on sick and accident, 12.4% on superannuation and 11% on funeral and other benefits.
The mining unions devoted 28.6% of their expenditure to the support of disputes (friendly benefits in this industry being largely provided by other agencies), while the unions in the printing and bookbinding trades only used 3.9% for this object, over three-quarters of their expenditure going to unemployed or friendly benefits. As illustrations of the variation in the expenditure by the same group of unions on a particular object from year to year, it may be stated that within the ten years' period referred to the annual expenditure of the metal, engineering and shipbuilding group on disputes varied from £514,637 in 1897, the year of the great engineering dispute, to £13,266 in 1899. Again, the expenditure of the same group of unions on unemployed benefit varied from £80,512 in 1899 to £303,749 in 1904. The burden of superannuation payments by the 100 unions has steadily increased during the ten years from £137,813 in 1896 to £306,089 in 1906.
At the end of 1906 there were 89 federations, including societies with a gross membership of over a million and three-quarters, but a considerable deduction must be made from this total on account of duplication. In the same year 231 “trades councils” were known to exist, with an affiliated membership of over 895,000.
The number of employers' associations and federations known to exist in the United Kingdom in 1906 was 953, including 60 federations and national associations. Of the total number of associations 398 are in the building trades.
II. Foreign and Colonial
Modern trade unionism has had its chief development in English-speaking countries, and especially in the United Kingdom, where the conditions necessary for its growth have been present to the fullest extent. With some exceptions, such unions as are found elsewhere are either derived or copied from English organizations, or are associations with political objects. It is therefore unnecessary to give more than a brief summary of the position of trade unions in some of the principal countries and colonies outside the United Kingdom (for United States see IV. below).
Germany.—In Germany the majority of trade unions are of a political character, being closely connected with the Social Democratic party. These Socialist trade unions, termed “Gewerkschaften,” were started by a congress held at Berlin in 1868, under the auspices of Fritscher and Schweitzer, two followers of Lassalle. In 1878 many of them were dissolved under the law prohibiting socialistic organizations, but shortly after their place was taken by local unions termed “Fachvereine,” which ostensibly abstained from politics, but which in various ways succeeded in evading the law and carrying on the work of the Gewerkschaften. In 1887 a general committee of the German Gewerkschaften was formed, and in 1890 the General Commission of Trade Unions in Germany was established. Later years of prosperous trade have been marked by a rapid growth in the strength of trade unions in Germany.
The Social Democratic (Gewerkschaften) trade unions included in 1907 a membership of 1,886,147 as compared with 743,296 in 1902 and 419,162 in 1897. Of the total number of members in 1907, 1,865,506 belonged to branches affiliated to central federations; the membership of non-federated local unions being returned as only 20,641. The income of the federated trade unions in 1907 was £2,569,839, or over 27s. per member as compared with £554,887 (or about 15s. per member) in 1902 and £204,185 (or about 10s. per member) in 1897, and the expenditure in the same years to £2,156,126, £500,276 and £177,140 respectively. Of the 61 federations in existence in 1907, 43 paid travelling benefit, 42 paid unemployed benefit, 47 paid sick benefit and 57 paid funeral, removal and special allowance.
Another group of trade unions in Germany, less important as regards number and membership than the above, are the “Gewerkvereine,” or non-political trade unions, sometimes known as “Hirsch-Duncker” unions, from the names of their founders. These unions were first formed in 1868, immediately after the Berlin congress referred to above. They were directly modelled on British trade unions. Since 1876 Social Democrats have been excluded. In their earlier years these unions suffered in membership from a series of unsuccessful strikes, and of late years they have been mostly benefit societies. In 1907 the Gewerkvereine embraced 108,889 members. Their income amounted to £77,068 in 1907 and their expenditure to £71,717.
Another group of unions, the Christian trade unions (Christliche Gewerkvereine), was formed in 1894. In 1907 the membership of this group was 354,760. The income of these unions
in 1907 was £225,821, and the expenditure £167,867. Besides these groups of unions there were a number of independent societies with a membership of 96,684 in 1907.
It will be seen that German trade unions of one type or another included a membership of nearly two and a half millions in 1907, their membership having more than doubled in the last five years.
France.—In France combinations of workmen as well as of employers were prohibited by the laws of the 14th of June and the 28th of September 1792, which overthrew the old gild or corporation system. They were also penalized under various articles of the Penal Code, and it was not till 1864 that the prohibition was modified by law. At present the status of trade unions in France is regulated by the law of 1884, which repealed that of 1791 and modified the articles of the Penal Code so far as regards professional syndicates of employers or workmen. Since then there has been a considerable growth of workmen's unions, which in 1906 numbered 5322 with a membership of 896,012. Of the unions in existence in 1906, 3675 with a membership of 752,362 belonged to 187 federations. There is, however, some duplication owing to the fact that some unions belong to more than one federation. In 1906 there were 260,869 members of unions in the transport, warehousing, &c., groups of trades, 103,835 in the metal, 73,126 in the mining and quarrying, 78,854 in the textile, 66,678 in the building, 51,407 in the agricultural, forestry, fishing and cattle breeding, 48,353 in the food preparation trades and the remainder in various other trades.
Austria.—Apart from the Austrian gilds, membership of which is compulsory for persons engaged in non-factory handicrafts and trades (under a law of 1883) and in mining (under a law of 1896), there are a certain number of trade unions in Austria, though freedom of combined action among workmen is less complete than in many other European countries. Such right of combination as exists rests on the law of 1870, which removed the restrictions imposed by the Penal Code on combinations for influencing the conditions of labour. The impulse given to the formation of unions by this law, and by the advantages gained for the workmen during the years of prosperous trade that immediately followed, received a severe check during the succeeding depression of trade, when these advantages were mostly lost. Trade unionism did not revive until 1888, from which time the unions formed have mostly been on a Social Democratic basis, the majority being affiliated to a central organization in Vienna.
Since 1901 statistics relating to the trade unions of Austria have been published annually by the Central Trade Union Commission (Gewerkschafts-Kommission) at Vienna. In 1907 there were 5156 trade unions in particular trades, with a membership of 501,094, affiliated to the Social Democratic trade unions (Gewerkschaften). Of the total number of unions, 49 were central unions, 77 were district unions and 5030 were local unions. Of the total number of members 454,693 were males and 46,401 were females. The greatest membership, 84,085 in 1907, is shown to have been in the metal engineering and shipbuilding group of industries, the building trades coming next with 68,543 members. The transport trades showed a membership of 61,744, and the textile trades, 51,632. The chemical, glass and pottery trades included 54,469 members and the wood-working and furnishing group included 36,502 members. Food and tobacco trades accounted for 32,679, and mining and quarrying for 30,715 members.
The total receipts of the trade unions in 1907 amounted to £338,365 and the total expenditure to 297,822, excluding receipts and expenditure for disputes. The expenditure on account of disputes, for which £136,822 was collected by special free organizations of the branch unions, amounted to £76,066 in 1907.
There are besides these unions a number of general unions not confined to one trade, and trade-clubs—educational associations discharging to a greater or less extent trade union functions. These associations have, however, been excluded from the statistics published by the Gewerkschafts Kommission as not being trade unions proper.
Hungary.—The trade union movement in Hungary is of very recent growth. The membership of unions affiliated to the Central Federation at the end of 1907 is given in the Volkwirtschaftliche Mitteilungen aus Ungarn as 130,192, compared with 129,332 at the end of 1906. Independent local unions had a membership of 11,838 at the end of 1907. The largest groups of organized workers are :n the building trade (35,630), metal workers (27,732), railway employees (17,192) and wood-workers (14,665).
Italy. The Bolletino of the bureau of labour for August 1908 states that the membership of trade unions at the beginning of 1908 numbered 191,599 (in 2550 local unions). Included in the
