TRADE-UNIONS 67 



applied to the gangrene spots found here and there, and what 

 restrictions are really necessary in the interests of society and 

 in protection of the rights of the minority. 



Admitting that total abolition is out of the question as im- 

 politic, undeserved, and impossible, we must insist that the 

 great power granted to the bodies of workmen shall be adminis- 

 tered under stringent regulations, clearly defining the rights 

 and duties of the workmen, securing masters against extortion, 

 independent workmen against coercion, and individual members 

 of the unions against fraud or oppression by the majority. The 

 better unions may complain that they have deserved no penal 

 enactments, but laws are made for good and bad alike, the good 

 man differing from the bad, not as living under a different law, 

 but as never incurring its penalties. In treating of the legal 

 action required, we have to consider simply how to prevent these 

 crimes and misdemeanours which some unions have been shown 

 to foster. 



First, it will be necessary to give the unions a corporate 

 existence, enabling them to sue and be sued ; not but that the 

 better unions are almost indifferent upon this point, finding 

 expulsion an ample remedy against defaulting subscribers, as is 

 the case with clubs ; nor yet is a corporate existence necessary 

 to allow the unions securely to possess property the device of 

 trustees would meet, and has met this want. Giving a legal 

 remedy against debtors will remove that shadow of justification 

 which has been quite falsely pleaded in extenuation of rattening 

 (i.e. coercion by theft), in the case of the grinding trades ; but 

 removing the excuse will not prevent the crime. We advise 

 legalizing not on the above grounds, but in order that the whole 

 body of workmen, may be responsible for their conduct to in- 

 dividual members and to society; in order that any benefits 

 promised may be secured ; in order that no unjust expulsion or 

 illegal levy of funds may be enforced by an irresponsible body, 

 and in order that the unions may suffer as a body when they 

 transgress the law. There is so clear an agreement between all 

 parties on this point that arguments in support of legalizing 

 are unnecessary, and we need only discuss the conditions under 

 which a corporate capacity may be granted. 



The conditions on which unlimited joint-stock companies 



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