54 POLITICAL ECONOMY 



rules determining who may and who may not become an 

 apprentice. It is a pity he should have used an argument so 

 easily answered. All rules, all laws, however beneficial on the 

 whole, work hardly in individual cases, and workmen know this 

 as well as Mr. Roebuck ought to know it. 



We have now discussed the main rules of trade-unions some 

 bad, some indifferent, some good. There are minor regulations 

 about which a great fuss has been made. Here and there a 

 rule is found that members shall not speak to employers, which 

 simply is an endeavour to stop talebearing ; there is here and 

 there a rule against chasing, which means that some men have 

 been suspected of maliciously, or for extra pay, driving their 

 mates to work harder than was pleasant, by showing what they, 

 the chasers, could do ; wrong, no doubt, and meaning that work- 

 men squabble sometimes in an undignified manner, but having 

 no reference whatever to the really skilled workman, who is 

 honoured in and out of unions by all men. Then there are 

 lists of black sheep here and there. Some masters copied this 

 practice by the way, but explained that their black sheep got 

 white in time, whereas the men's black sheep were dyed in 

 grain ; but the men explained that their black sheep would be 

 bleached by the payment of a fine ; and indeed, that these por- 

 tentous lists mean that if a sinner is repentant, he must pay a 

 fine varying say from 2s. 6d. to 21., according to the enormity 

 of his offence, before be can once again be admitted as a lamb 

 into the fold many of those fines being simply safeguards 

 against the intermission of the weekly payments whenever the 

 said sheep preferred not to pay them. It is preposterous to 

 make a fuss about these trivial matters. Let us settle on some 

 rational principle, how far the action of unions may extend on 

 really important points, and leave the management of brick- 

 layers' etiquette to bricklayers, and smile rather than frown 

 when we hear that a man may be fined 6d. for tattling. 



Passing from the examination of the rules, with their merits 

 and demerits, we will say a few words as to their administration. 

 On this point there is as great a difference between the practice 

 of vainous unions and various trades as between man and man. 

 Such societies as the Amalgamated Engineers or the Amalga- 

 mated Joiners and Carpenters fight with courtesy when they 



