INDUSTRIAL PEACE OR CLASS WAR? 75
To such Trade Union workers as are openly or
covertly disposed towards revolutionary policies, or
even such as still believe in the efficacy of the strike
and lockout method of industrial adjustment, the
facts and figures of this chapter are presented much
more as a warning than an accusation.
The outstanding feature of the situation is
expressed in the growth of the administrative
charges which are the inevitable concomitant of
excessive officialism, and the outstanding feature
of that officialism is its general incapacity. After
all there should be some relation between growth
of numerical strength and financial stability, and
the amount of funds expended in organisation and
administration. Taken from the Chief Registrars
Report, here is the case simply stated:
British Registered Trade Unions
Expenses of
Members. Management. Funds.
1918 5,250,000 £2,100,000 £12,650,000
1923 4,368,877 £3,224,588 [9,778,791
The above table tells its own story of the de-
creased membership and vanishing funds of the
British Trade Unions.
Since the end of 1923 there has been little
increase in numbers of the rank and file of the
unions and as little decrease in the officialism. It
is rather sad to observe, too, that the growth of
the official staffs is apparently in inverse ratio to
the fall in the finances. But it is abundantly clear
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