SgO 7 HE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
not observed. The actual carrying out of policies is left unreservedly to the executive committee. The discredit into which such expedients as the mass meeting, rotation of office, referendum and initiative, and restriction of delegates by imperative mandate have fallen is leading to the gradual adoption of the representative form of govern- ment throughout the trade-union world. A representative body having its own cabinet can sufficiently check the executive, but a representative executive affords no such advantages. The cotton operatives and miners enjoy special advan- tages in having their membership within a small radius ; but a union extending throughout the kingdom cannot have a large representative body which can meet frequently. But with the increasing uniformity of working conditions throughout the country, the growing facilities of travel, and the steady multiplication of salaried local officials, the geographical difficulty is not insuperable. The function of the representa- tive is still to express the mind of the average member, but unlike the delegate he is not a mechanical vehicle of votes on particular subjects. The representative acts as an interpreter between the people, who have little facility in expressing their desires and no conception as to how they can be satisfied, and the expert officials who tend to grow away from the unions. To secure representatives adequate to the task is much more difficult than it would be among bankers or merchants; for as the labor representative becomes equipped for his duties he gets out of touch with the manual workers. Failure on the part of a union to specialize the executive function leads to extinction ; and failure to specialize the legislature leads to the domination of an irresponsible executive. The referendum fails because of the inability of the ordinary man to estimate what will be the effect of a proposal. For example, many unions have persistently voted themselves into bankruptcy. The referendum may be valuable, not as a legislative act, but as an index of the probability that all members will do what is required of them, as when a decision to strike is made. Any effective participation of the wage-earning class in the national legisla- ture involves the establishment of the professional representative ; for the facts that confront a representative in parliament are foreign to his whole experience and train- ing. The tendency will be to exalt the real power of the representative, and to differ- entiate his functions from those of the ordinary citizen on the one side and of the expert administrator on the other. SIDNEY and BEATRICE WEBB, Political Science Quarterly, December 1896. F.
On Changes in Trade Organization. The effect of trade combinations upon prices is twofold : direct, so far as the primary object of the combination is to obtain higher prices ; indirect, inasmuch as they affect the cost of production. A dis- tinction must be observed between the effect of trades unions and of syndicates or capitalistic organizations. The direct object of the former has been to raise wages or shorten hours, or improve conditions ; the general effect is increase of cost, though not always of price. No trades union has ever professed to concern itself with reduction of cost, though this has sometimes resulted from the discipline and corpo- rate feeling fostered in the best unions. The direct object of syndicates is to make a profit. This desire tends to reduction of cost ; while the desire for a large trade fre- quently tends to reduction of prices. Not only is the organization of a syndicate less expensive than the sum of the organizations of small firms of the same aggregate potentiality, but it is more effective and tends to economy in production. The larger quantities of raw materials used by a syndicate induce sellers to compete more keenly to supply them. The statistical experience in a very large business leads to further economy. In a small firm there is no standard of comparison except such as is gathered by hearsay from competitors. The small manufacturer attempts to be an expert in everything, whereas the syndicate can employ an expert in each department. There is also economy in labor when production attains a certain magnitude, both in the better organization of labor and in the lower average of inspection and control required. The advantages of large organizations also appear in distribution. They tend to place themselves in more direct contact with their markets. The cost of transportation is lessened, especially when ships are employed. There are also advantages in advertisement and commercial traveling. No small firm can afford to
