Trade.England
and Wales.		Scotland.Ireland.Total.
Coal and Iron Miners301,00017,500...318,500
Colliery Enginemen5,0001,500...6,500
Cokemen, Overmen, Colliery Mechanics, &c.9,250500...9,750
Quarrymen10,500......10,500
Shale Oil Workers...1,750...1,750
——————————————
Totals325,75021,250...347,000

The salient fact of Trade Unionism among the textile operatives in 1892 was that effective organisation was nearly confined to the workers in cotton, who contributed at least two-thirds of the 200,000 Trade Unionists in this division. Like the Miners the Cotton Operatives have always shown a strong preference for federal Associations with exclusively trade objects. The powerful Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton-spinners (established 1853), a federal Union of 19,500 members comprising forty separate district associations, joined with its sister federations, the Northern Counties Amalgamated Association of Weavers (established 1884, 71,000 members) and the Amalgamated Association of Card and Blowing Room Operatives (31,000 members, established 1886), in the United Textile Factory Workers’ Association (established 1886). This Association formed exclusively for Parliamentary purposes, focussed the very considerable political influence of 125,000 organised cotton operatives in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, and was, next to the Miners’ Federation, by far the most powerful Trade Union organisation in the country. [589]

The highly developed organisation of the Cotton Operatives contrasted with the feebleness of the Woollen-workers. In the other branches of textile manufacture the extreme localisation of the separate industries had given rise to isolated county or district organisations of lace, hosiery, silk, flax, or carpet-workers usually confined to small areas, and exercising comparatively little influence in the Trade Union world. Incomparably the strongest among them was the Amalgamated Society of Operative Lacemakers (3500 members), which comprised practically all the adult male workers in the Nottingham machine-lace trade. If we exclude the constituent organisations of the United Textile Factory Workers’ Association, the separate Unions in the various branches of the textile industry numbered 115.

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists in the various branches of the Textile Manufacture.

Trade.England
and Wales.		Scotland.Ireland.Total.
Cotton-spinners19,500......19,500
Cotton-weavers82,500500...83,000
Cotton Card-room Operatives31,000......31,000
Woollen-workers6,0009,500...15,500
Woolsorters, Combers, &c.2,500......2,500
Silkworkers2,500...602,560
Flax and Linen-workers1503002,9403,390
Carpet-weavers2,600400...3,000
Hosiery-workers6,350100506,500
Lacemakers4,500......4,500
Elastic Webworkers700......700
Dyers, Bleachers, and Finishers11,82018010012,100
Overlookers4,8502002005,250
Calico-printers and Engravers1,950500502,500
Miscellaneous Textiles7,350650...8,000
——————————————
Totals184,27012,3303,400200,000

The large section of workers engaged in the manufacture of clothing and leather goods was, perhaps, the least organised of the skilled trades. One society, indeed, the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives (established 1874), counted almost 43,000 members, and exercised a very real control over the machine boot trade. And although the hand industry was in this case rapidly declining, the Amalgamated Association of Boot and Shoemakers (established 1862) maintained and even increased the earnings of this body of 4700 skilled handicraftsmen. The Tailors, on the other hand, had succeeded neither in controlling the new machine industry, nor in upholding the standard earnings of the hand-workers. The Amalgamated Society of Tailors (established 1866, 17,000 members), together with the Scottish National Operative Tailors’ Society (established 1866, 4500 members), had absorbed all the local Unions, but included only a small proportion of those at work in the trade. The Felt Hatters and Trimmers’ Union (established 1872) had 4300 members, together with a women’s branch (established 1886) numbering nearly as many. In other branches of this division some strong organisations existed in the smaller industries, but the workers for the most part formed only feeble local clubs or else were totally unorganised. There were altogether over sixty separate Unions in this division.

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists in the Clothing and Leather Trades.

Trade.England
and Wales.		Scotland.Ireland.Total.
Boot and Shoemakers46,2502,25050049,000
Other Leather Workers5,9005501006,550
Tailors and other Clothing Makers16,1005,5002,30023,900
Hatmakers, Glovers, &c.10,4001005010,550
—————————
Totals78,6508,4002,95090,000

The 46,000 Trade Unionists in the paper and printing trades were divided between four considerable Unions with 27,000 members, and forty-five little societies numbering not more than 19,000 altogether. The compositors lead off with three extensive organisations, the London Society of Compositors, confined to the Metropolis (established 1848, 9800 members), the Typographical Association (established 1849, 11,500 members), which had absorbed all but four of the Irish and four of the English local societies outside the Metropolis, and the Scottish Typographical Association (established 1852, 3000 members). The Bookbinders and Machine Rulers’ Consolidated Union (established 1835, 3000 members), mainly composed of provincial workers, far exceeded the London Consolidated Bookbinders’ Society, the largest of half-a-dozen Metropolitan Unions in this trade.

Table showing the approximate number of Trade Unionists in the various branches of the Paper and Printing Trades.