Excerpt from An Introduction to Trade Unionism: Being a Short Study of the Present Position of Trade Unionism in Great Britain Prepared for the Trade Union Survey of the Fabian Research DepartmentI shall begin with a survey of the numerical strength of the Trade Union movement, and for this purpose it may be useful to institute a comparison between the strength of Trade Unionism to-day and its strength at the time when the only elaborate survey of the movement which has yet been made was taken by Mr. And Mrs. Sidney Webb, in their History of Trade Unionism and Industrial Democracy, In the early 'nineties. During the quarter of a century which has elapsed since Mr. And Mrs. Webb's studies, the growth in Trade Union membership has been enormous. There have been temporary set backs in periods of decline m trade, but these have been insignificant In comparison with the expansion which has taken place in more prosperous years. During the last ten years the total membership has doubled.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.