enties, and the eighties there were local organizations and local strikes in the bituminous coal fields of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; that the demands during that period were recognition of the union, increase in wages, decrease in hours, abolition of company stores, right of unions to supervise the weighing of the coal mined. These demands, the same as those the miners were making in Colorado in 1914, were finally secured, and collective bargaining was established. In 1894 a general business depression interrupted contractural relations between miners and operators, and in the first general strike occurring at that time the miners lost ground. In the second general strike, in 1897, interstate joint conferences with the operators were secured, together with the eight-hour day, an increase in wages, and a system for settling disputes over interpretations of contracts. In 1899-1900, in the coal fields of Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, a strike resulted in the recognition of the union, the establishment of a scale of wages, the inauguration of another interstate joint conference. Between 1899-1914 systems of joint agreements extended to Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Michigan, Iowa, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, and British Columbia. It is against a union with such a regard for establishing collective bargaining that the coal operators of Colorado have waged their war and for the extinction of the union have defied the laws of the state.

The strike of the cloak makers in New York in 1910 resulted in popularizing a modification of the idea of the union shop. As a compromise proposition an agreement based on a preferential shop was adopted. In a preferential shop an employer agrees to give preference to union members. As a matter of fact, the preferential shop is the union shop where a union is strong and it is an open shop where the union

is weak.

CHAPTER IX

THE UNION LABEL

Purpose of the A. F. of L. label-Ground of employers' acceptance Claims for the label as a method of organizationAs used by the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union-Why it is successful in some trades and not in others-Not a business proposition, but a moral obligation-Inter-union label difficulties-Ethical and educational proposition.

THE use of a label as a union emblem is advocated by both the American Federation and the Industrial Workers. It has not been developed by the latter organization, but it has been put to the test as a method of organization by the Federation.

Its purpose in the hands of the Federation is to give an opportunity to every man and woman as a consumer to uphold the organizations of the Federation by demanding union-label goods.

The label is a guarantee to the interested consumer that the goods he purchases are made under union conditions, mutually agreed to by the employer and the union. In exchange for these concessions to the workers, the union promises the employer to encourage the patronage of union members and friends.

The label agreement may follow or precede the organization of workers in a shop. That is, an em

ployer may find himself with his shop full of union workers and not in a position to get non-union members. Under such circumstances he may then consider that he cannot afford to refuse the workers the conditions demanded by the union, and he may accept the use of the proffered label if it seems to him an advantage to do so. Or, where there is an organization, a union official may be successful in convincing an employer that the use of the label will increase his trade. In such cases an employer will notify his workers that in the future he will employ only union members, and if any wish to work for him, they must join the union whose label he desires. In the first instance, the workers created their own organization. In the second instance, organization came from without.

Workers who have become union members through their employers' agreement to employ only union men rather than through their own initiative, may become strong unionists provided their union gives them in future full opportunity to take part in the collective bargaining which fixes their conditions of employment.

The advocates of the label method declare its superiority on the ground that when the representatives of the trade union seek an alliance with an employer without first approaching the workers and subjecting them to the risks of labor union agitation and union membership, the hardships of strikes and the blacklist

are avoided, as well as the development of class feeling.

It is the tendency of some "label unions" of the Federation to push the pure and simple label method until it supersedes all other methods. The label method of organization has taken precedence over other methods in the Cigar Makers' Union, the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union and the Overall Workers' locals of the United Garment Workers.

Certain boot and shoe manufacturers have adopted the label proposition with such enthusiasm and conviction of self-interest that they employ members of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union in the capacity of agents to advertise their special brand of label goods. It is usually understood in union label agreements that the union will carry the advertising end of the contract. But these label agents are sent by the manufacturer throughout the country to preach the label method to union men, and to advertise, incidentally, the goods of the manufacturers who employ them. These joint emissaries of the manufacturers and the union are exhorted to approach capital in the spirit of friendship. With the Boot and Shoe Workers, the label contract is the emblem of peace.

One of the officers of an international union declares that they found the label method of organization barren of results in their particular line of production. He claims that the label cannot be successfully operated where its demand depends upon pur