TRADE-UNIONS 65 



3d. for funeral, in all 1M. a month, will really be sufficient to 

 provide for benefits which would cost on the actuary's estimate 

 o.s. 7|r/., even on a preposterously favourable assumption as to 

 the youth of members when they join the society. The question 

 turns chiefly on the superannuation allowance. We wait with 

 curiosity for Mr. Glen Finlaison's report ; but even this gentle- 

 man can have no statistics as to the number of mechanics who 

 are unable to support themselves in old age by their craft, and 

 how long infirm men live after stopping work. In the absence 

 of data, assumptions are quite worthless. Meanwhile, we venture 

 to remind Mr. Tucker that, for trade purposes, and expenses of 

 management combined, the Engineers' Society does not spend 

 so large a proportion of its receipts as the St. Patrick's and some 

 other friendly societies spend on management alone. Moreover, 

 if the funds do fall short of the calls upon them, trade-societies 

 can call upon their members for extra payments. 1 Sir Daniel 

 Gooch and others suggest that these calls will not be met. No 

 such case has yet arisen, nor in a mutual insurance society do 

 we think it likely to arise, but of course with long practice 

 workmen may emulate the financial morality even of railway 

 directors. Meanwhile, let it be well understood that not a 

 single case of repudiation has been discovered among any of 

 the larger societies. Even assurance companies have met 

 their liabilities with less certainty than trade-unions ; between 

 1844 and 1866, 308 assurance companies have ceased to exist; 

 of these, 59 are winding up in the Court of Chancery. In 

 1867, the total number of companies was 204, so that the 

 failures form a considerable percentage of the whole number. 



Reviewing, as a whole, the conduct of trade-unions, we find 

 that they differ one from another as man differs from man. 

 Among small unions of ignorant uneducated men we find 

 organised villainy of the grossest stamp. In larger unions of 

 better workmen we find narrow views enforced with blind self- 

 ishness, but without violence. In the largest unions, formed 

 by the most skilled artisans, we find few objectionable rules, 

 and few disputes between master and man ; while the strug- 

 gles that do occur are carried on with little bitterness and 



1 The ironfounders are now being severely tested, but they have survived 

 many tests daring the last fifty-seven years. 



VOL. II. F 



