In spite of numerous efforts, the legislative approach to the engineers' career crisis was producing no visible results. This lack of progress was one of two reasons that the Btib became increasingly interested in exploring the possibilities of direct action. The other was its exceptionally rapid growth. From a mere 1,600 members at the end of 1904, the engineering union had grown to about 11,000 by the end of 1907, and to some 24,000 on the eve of World War I. This was a mean annual increase of over 37 percent for the ten-year period. The most remarkable growth – averaging 65 percent annually – occurred between 1904 and 1909. Thereafter the rate of increase slowed to an average of 10 percent each year. Despite the slowdown during the second half, this was still the most rapid growth of any of the salaried-employee organizations during the prewar period, a development striking enough to be singled out for attention by Emil Lederer in his 1911 study of the salaried employees. Lederer attributed the Btib's growth to its “modernity,” by which he meant its social progressiveness and its trade-union principle. This was undoubtedly true, but the rapid membership growth in turn encouraged the Btib's leaders to start thinking about translating their tough words into deeds.

THE AFFAIR OF THE BAVARIAN METAL INDUSTRIALISTS

Early in 1908 the Deutsche Industriebeamten-Zeitung first raised the possibility of a strike or a work slowdown.