a local having 100 members or less, two votes to locals having from 100 to 500 members, three votes to locals having from 500 to 1,000 members, and four votes to locals having over one thousand members. This system of giving the various locals a number of representatives increasing with their membership, but not increasing in proportion, is somewhat like the representation of the various states of the country in the electoral college, or in the nominating conventions of the Republican and Democratic parties. The conventions, like the meetings of the locals, are conducted in a broad and democratic spirit. The ordinary laws of parliamentary procedure are adhered to, but no attempt is made at “gag" rule, and every opportunity is afforded to all delegates to present fully the wishes and claims of their respective locals. Generally speaking, especially in the older and more firmly established organizations, the expenses of the conventions, including the railroad fares to and from the place of meeting, are defrayed by the national union.

In some organizations, the system of government is even more democratic. In many unions, there is a growing tendency to legislate by means ⚫ of the referendum and to limit as much as possible the frequency of conven⚫tions. Ordinarily, conventions are called annually, but in several unions they are called but once in two, three, four, or five years, and in the case of the Granite Cutters there has been no convention since the year 1880. Legislation in some unions may be proposed by a given number of members or by the executive and may then be acted upon by the vote of the entire membership. Much of the legislation of a number of the unions is carried on in this way, and in a large percentage of organizations, amendments to the constitution are adopted either by a referendum vote alone, or by the action of the convention supplemented by a referendum vote. In other unions, including the Boot and Shoe Workers, the Cigar Makers, the Tailors, the Bakers, and the Mine Workers, officers are elected by referendum vote, with the result that lobbying and electioneering at the convention are done away with and the delegates are permitted to devote themselves exclusively to the more important business of the organization.

The officials of the national trade unions, whether elected in conven- ~ tion or by referendum, consist usually of a president, one or more vicepresidents, a secretary or a secretary-treasurer, and an executive board, who are ordinarily elected for a term of one or two years, but may be, and in many instances are, reëlected. The President of the Carpenters held office. for twenty years, and the late Mr. Arthur remained Chief of the Locomotive Engineers for twenty-nine years. In the United Mine Workers this tendency of constantly reëlecting the same president has been less manifestprior to my incumbency the term of office with one exception never exceeded two years.

The chief officials of the national trade unions are almost invariably on salary and devote their entire time to the work of the organization. In the case of the railroad brotherhoods, the rates of remuneration are high, amounting in some cases to $6,000 per year, but with this exception, I believe, no national officer receives a higher salary than $3,000. The probable range of salaries for trade union presidents lies, at the present time, between : $1,000 and $1,800, although in a number of organizations the pay of officials is still less. Officers' salaries are regulated to a considerable extent by the numerical strength of the unions or by the wages of its members. In a few national unions having a limited membership the executive officers work at their trades, and in these cases their remuneration is purely nominal.

It is impossible in a brief chapter to give a complete account of any one of the one hundred constitutions of national trade unions in the United States. The constitution usually prescribes rules for such matters as eligibility to membership, times for holding meetings, initiation fees, dues and assessments of members, general finances, discipline, laws for expulsion and reinstatement of members, rules for the election of officers, duties of presidents, vice-presidents, secretaries, and treasurers, conduct of strikes, lockouts, and boycotts, work of organizers, character and nature of supplies, use of the label, management of the official journal, times and causes for holding general or special conventions, administration of insurance, order

of business, and a large number of other matters. The member of a trade. union is ordinarily provided with a card to signify his membership and with a button or badge, which in many cases he is expected to wear about his person. Most constitutions prescribe methods for securing and controlling the collection of dues, the usual system being that of stamps affixed to a book.

Although the constitution of the United Mine Workers is supposed to represent the fundamental and organic law of the union, this constitution does not take precedence over the trade agreement. It is specifically stipulated in many contracts with operators that nothing in the national, state, or local constitutions will be allowed to conflict with any provision of the trade agreement.

CHAPTER XI

AMERICAN TRADE UNIONS OF TO-DAY

Various Kinds of Trade Unions. Trade Unions and Respectability. Trade Unions Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Centralized Unions. The Growing Necessity of Centralization. The United Mine Workers of America. Interstate Agreements. A Million Dollar Defense Fund. The Garment Workers, and the Sweated Trades. The Cigar Makers, the Label, and Trade Benefits. The Carpenters and Joiners. Various Other Unions.

M

ANY people speak of trade unionism as though all organizations of wage workers were identical in government, purpose, and action. .\ commendation of one union is interpreted as a commendation of all, and an attack upon one as an attack upon all.

There are almost as many kinds and varieties of unions as there are kinds and varieties of industries. Trade unions differ from one another with differences in the trades or industries which they represent. There is no more similarity between a union of glassblowers and one of waiters, or a union of typesetters and one of street laborers, than there is between the occupations engaged in by these men. Some organizations are formed merely on local, some, on national or international lines; some organizations have but a weak federal government, others are strongly centralized; some organizations are composed of men of the highest skill and training, others, of workmen whose training has been acquired in a few days. Even this does not exhaust the differences. There are unions composed chiefly of native workmen, others, almost entirely of newly landed immigrants; many unions consist chiefly or exclusively of men, others, overwhelmingly of women. Some unions-but these are few-do not admit negroes and make other discriminations, while the great bulk of organizations throw open their doors to men of every race, creed, or nationality; some unions are exclusive

and aristocratic, other organizations-and these are the majority-are allinclusive and extremely democratic.

Unions, moreover, are divided according to the status of their members and to the nature of their industry. There are unions of government employees, such as the letter carriers or, to a less extent, typesetters and pressmen in the government printing office. There are organizations of municipal employces, such as school teachers. There are many organizations which cannot resort to strikes and many which must depend entirely for their success upon the label. There are organizations in trades protected by the monopoly of the employers, and organizations in the superlatively competitive sweated trades. There are organizations with highly developed benefit features, paying their members or their families in case of death, sickness, accident, or loss of employment, and there are others which have no benefit features whatever. There are unions which insist upon strict apprentice rules and others which admit any man capable of carning the standard wage. There are a few unions which adopt the policy of limiting the number of their members or the amount of work which they may do, and there are others, the overwhelming majority, which place no such restriction. There are unions which embrace only persons who perform a particular function or who work at a particular trade or operation, and others which embrace all persons employed in a great and diversified industry. Finally, there are unions, the so-called "federal" unions, which unite into local groups men of diverse and entirely dissimilar occupation and skill, and which serve as a recruiting ground for other and more specialized unions.

Many persons, apathetic or hostile to trade unionism, seem either consciously or unconsciously to divide labor organizations into three classes, respectable, semi-respectable, and disreputable. These people speak of organizations like the Typographical Union or the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, as being model institutions and regret that other trade unions are not of the same type and character. This classification is like dividing men into adults, youths, and children. The child becomes a youth,