dustries of the country, the railroads, shipbuilding, cotton,
and coal-mining--all within a few months of one another, _and all
against the advice of the officials of the unions_. The full and exact
significance of this movement was seen when the hitherto conservative
Trade Union Congress, after a very vigorous debate, decided, on the
motion of Ben Tillett, to take a referendum of the unions on the
question of the "practicability of a confederation of all trades" and on
the "_possibility of terminating all trade agreements on a given date
after each year_."

In the same year a great agitation began, led by the most prominent
advocate of industrial unionism in Great Britain, the Socialist, Tom
Mann, who with John Burns had been one of the organizers of the great
dockers' strike in 1886, and who had returned, in 1910, from many years
of successful agitation in Australia to preach the new unionism in his
home country. That this agitation was one of the causes of the great
seamen's, dockers', and railway strikes that followed is indicated by
the fact that Mr. Mann was at once given the chief position in this
movement.

His first principle is that the unions should include _all_ the workers,
in their respective industries:--

"Skilled workers, in many instances doing but little work, receive
from two to seven or eight pounds a week, whilst the laborer,
having the same responsibilities as regards family and citizenship,
is compelled to accept one third of it or less.

"This must not be. We must not preach social equality and utterly
fail to practice it; and for those receiving the higher pay to try
and satisfy the demands of the lower-paid man for better conditions
by telling him it will be put right under Socialism, is on a par
with the parson pretending to assuage the sufferings of the
poverty-stricken by saying, 'It will be better in the next world.'
It must be put right in _this_ world, and we must see to it _now_."

Unions composed exclusively of skilled workers, as many of the present
ones, operate against the interests of the less skilled--often without
actually intending to do so. Mr. Mitchell, for instance, concedes that
the trade unions bring about "the elimination of men who are below a
certain fixed standard of efficiency." This argument will appeal
strongly to employers and believers in the survival of the fittest
doctrine. But it will scarcely appea