for a while, in misleading the working classes. The promotion and maintenance of the organizations of wage workers and the advancement of our cause being the chief aim of labor editors, the latter, taught by experience, are today fighting a clearer-cut trade union battle. The news matter furnished from the headquarters of the American Federation of Labor has been generally reprinted to a considerable extent in the labor press of the country. We renew our recommendation to trade unionists thoroughly to support their local labor paper. Every industrial center is the better off for having an organ representing the sentiment of the organized wage-workers, ever ready to be the defender of the trade unionists in any dispute which may break out with the employing classes. The work done for the cause of the trade unions by a good labor paper can never be fully repaid. The labor press of America is a credit to the movement. Without it, education, not only in trade unionism but with respect to all the various classes of social reform, would be sadly incomplete. In a number of instances during the last year, labor papers have been the courageous exponents and champions of the rights of the people. They should not be forgotten by their constituents. Thousands of labor men have been brought into the movement through what they have read in the labor press, and thousands in the ranks could never obtain a correct impression of current labor topics were they to depend on periodicals other than the labor press. It is to be said today of the hundreds of labor newspapers in this country that never were they more deeply united, never had they a better understanding with one another and their readers, and never were they held in higher esteem by the rank and file of the wage-workers in their respective territories. AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST. I believe we can point with pardonable pride to the contents of the Labor Day edition in September of the American Federationist. The number of men prominent throughout the country who contributed articles or sentiments for that edition is remarkable. It is to be remembered that many men of the professional and business classes run the risk of injury to their personal interests in expressing sentiments favorable to trade unionism in the national organ of the trade unions. The many able articles contributed during the year to the pages of our official organ, taken together, form a body of literature relating to labor topics such as few other publications have endeavored to command. Any one who has read the last twelve numbers must have received a fair education with regard to the labor movements of the world. It was never expected that the publication of an organ for our national movement would result in declaring dividends. Its purpose is educational. That is, it has been, and is intended to be, the medium by which the earnest and serious reader may be educated in the principles of trade unionism, and may obtain the views of prominent trade unionists and of qualified writers regarding the events of the day. The splendid work of our organizers from month to month is duly recorded in the American Federationist, giving an insight into the details of advancing the cause in all parts of the great territory in which our Federation is at work. It has come to our knowledge that on several occasions the contents of the American Federationist during the past year has caused our opponents to change the conduct of their campaign or to give up contemplated moves against trade unionism. We have also been informed quite frequently of alteration in the opinions of employers who have been prejudiced against our movement. It is our endeavor, in conducting our national magazine, to present the cause of labor in such form and in such manner as to commend it to the minds of reasoning men. We feel sure that this policy has been appreciated by our trade union readers. While it is true that it has never been expected to be a paying venture in the sense of making sufficient money above expenses to add anything to our treasury, the magazine ought at least to pay for itself. The delegates are therefore asked to do what lies in their power on their return home in obtaining new subscriptions for their own magazine, the American Federationist. CONCLUSION. Despite all opposition of the most relentless kind the American labor movement grows and thrives; its beneficent influence for the common uplift of labor and of all our people extends to all fields of useful activity and is becoming more generally recognized. The power which labor holds within its grasp is understood by our opponents as well as-aye, perhaps better than by many of the toilers themselves. The fact is that labor's opponents, like the Tories of the past, many of whom are still with us, are afraid to trust the people, forgetful of the fact (and some never learn) that the entire history of the human race has been, as particularly exemplified by the people of our country, that power vested in a free people is safer, more progressive, and humanizing than power vested in a few or in an autocrat. With power in the hands of labor and of the people generally comes a quickening sense of responsibility. And though errors are liable to occur, they bring experience and an avoidance of recurrence. The errors or encroachments of the few or of an autocrat teach them no lessons and are rectified only by the people's revolt. How perfectly safe freedom is, is a truth not yet fully understood. I have sincere pleasure in reporting that my relations with my colleagues of the Executive Council have continued to be all that could be desired as between men engaged at serious work for an honorable cause. The Council is as one man with respect to the policies and operations of the labor movement as exemplified in the American Federation of Labor. Its sessions during the year have been business-like and harmonious. I also am enabled by the facts to report that in our work at headquarters we have been gratified throughout the last year at the testimony, reaching us from all parts of the country, of the satisfaction of the masses of the wage-workers with the continual progress of trade unionism. That satisfaction is usually entertained to the highest degree and expressed most emphatically by the veterans whose experience has covered decades; though, on the other hand, the enthusiasm of the newer recruits is frequently boundless in consequence of their sharing for the first time in the helpfulness of their organized fellow-workers. In either case, the recognition and appreciation of our movement is a source of encouragement, than which none could be better in character. This report, naturally, considering the large number of matters constantly coming up for discussion by the wage-workers on a national scale, leaves many subjects either untouched or inadequately presented under its various headings. A question in preparing it has at every stage been the selection of the more pressing phases of our labor problem. I have endeavored to put before you the points which, to my mind, are most necessary for your consideration. That the task might be better done I am only too deeply sensible. But, in the stress of my daily routine, with the time I am called upon to employ in traveling, and the endless special work of adjudicating cases referred to me in jurisdictional controversies and the like, my days for preparing the annual report are none too many. Such as the report is, I turn it over to your hands for your consideration, feeling that under the circumstances I have done my best to render it worthy of MEMBERSHIP OF THE A. F. OF L. 1881 TO 1911. [Excerpt from Secretary Morrison's Report] A résumé of the growth of the American Federation of Labor, numerically, during the past thirty-one years can not but encourage the trade unionists to redouble their efforts to educate, organize, and federate the wage-workers of the world. The growth of the American Federation of Labor from 1881 to 1893 was gradual. During that time it increased from 50,000 to 275,000, and remained about that number up to 1899. In 1899 it reached very nearly 350,000; in 1900 it passed the 500,000 mark; in 1901, 750,000; in 1902 it passed the million mark, and in 1903 very nearly reached the million and a half point, and in 1904 shot up above the million and a half, reaching a membership of 1,676,200. Thus the growth of the American Federation of Labor from 1899 up to and including 1904 was phenomenal. This marked increase in membership could not occur other than by organizations being formed rapidly within a short period, and as a natural consequence it must be expected that in adjusting the membership of the unions the membership must decrease somewhat from the high-water mark which it reached while the organization wave held sway. There was a decrease in the membership in 1905 and 1906 from the high-water mark of 1904. This decrease was almost entirely caused by internal strife which led to secession and a number of ill-advised and unsuccessful strikes of a few international organizations. During 1907 and 1908 the membership climbed up over 1,500,000 and receded again to a little below the 1,500,000 mark, when the tide again changed, and in 1910 it passed the 1,500,000 mark, and this year the increase in the membership of the international organizations and the addition of the 51,300 which came with the affiliation of the Western Federation of Miners, forced the average paid-up and reported membership of the international organizations to 1,761,835, which is an increase of 199,723 over the membership of last year, and 85,635 members over the high-water mark of 1904. That the membership of the international unions is steadily on the increase is indicated by the fact that the paid-up and reported membership of the directly affiliated local unions and international organizations for the month of September of this year is 1,768,614, which indicates that notwithstanding the hostile forces that are working against the labor unions, that the coming year will show an increase over the membership reported upon this year. The following is the average membership reported or paid upon for the past fifteen years: So that the delegates and the membership at large may, at a glance, realize the marvelous growth in membership of the American Federation of DIAGRAM SHOWING MEMBERSHIP A. F. OF L., 1881-1911 Labor, I have prepared a chart to indicate the membership for each year since 1881, up to and including 1911-thirty-one years. The column for 1911 has passed over the 1,750,000, and has started on its way upward to the 2,000,000 mark, which I feel sure will be reached within a few years. T British Labor Exchanges. By THOMAS REECE. HE institution of government employment bureaus in the form of labor exchanges in this country has been watched with interest and some apprehension by organized labor, and it can be said now that trade unionists regard them with suspicion tempered by friendliness. They have been discussed at the various Trade Union Congresses and in the trade union papers, and it is perceived that continual vigilance is required in case they should be turned into instruments for providing supplies of cheap blackleg labor. As a sideline it should also be noted that the whole system of labor exchanges is still a party question in this country, the Conservatives (who now call themselves Unionists, but on which account they must in no way be compared with the trade unionists missing no opportunity of pointing out their defects and using them as a stick with which to beat the Liberal party, or "government." The Labor Exchanges act received the royal assent on September 20, 1909. At the time it was, and is still to a degree, regarded as a very considerable step forward in the solution of the difficult problem of the unemployed. The act provided for the establishment by the Board of Trade in such places as that board thought fit, of labor exchanges or employment registry offices. The necessary staff was to be controlled by a Director and a General Manager. The whole country was mapped out into eleven divisions, ten in Great Britain and one covering Ireland. At the head of each of these was a Divisional Inspector. In all the smaller towns the act provided that one or more exchanges were to be opened, classified as class A, B, or C, according to the population of the town or city. In the smaller towns there were to be established sub-offices, while eventually it is intended that each village post-office shall keep an employment register. All these exchanges were to be in telephonic or telegraphic communication with each other or with a divisional clearing house, these divisional clearing houses in turn being in direct communication with the central clearing house in London. The machinery was modelled to a very great extent on the German. As far back as 1902 a first attempt had been made to establish labor exchanges in London under the Labor Bureaus (London) act, which gave the various Metropolitan boroughs power to establish and maintain offices to be paid for out of the general rate. Very few were established, however, and that act rapidly became a dead letter. The Unemployed Workmen's act of 1905 gave somewhat extended powers, and under the control of a central body for London some twenty exchanges were established in the Metropolis. These filled between five and six hundred situations weeklya very poor showing in view of Greater London's seven millions of population. These exchanges were also tainted with the fact that they owed their existence to an act passed for the relief of distress. Employers feared that they would provide only the incapable, and the better class of workman objected to the inquisitorial methods of the distress committees which controlled them. Furthermore, nothing was done in the way of helping a man from one part of London to find his way to another part where a job might be offering. In view of London's tremendous area a journey of twelve or fifteen miles might easily result in this way. The Labor Exchanges act introduced a new feature, under which it authorized advances to be made by way of loan toward meeting the expenses of work-people traveling from the exchange to a place where employment had been found for them through the exchanges. Furthermore, through the action of the Labor Party in Parliament, a clause was inserted for the establishment of advisory committees for the purpose of giving advice and assistance in connection with the management of any exchange. This was an important provision in view of the trade union opinion, strongly expressed, that the exchanges should not be used to the detriment of organized labor by preference of employment being given to nonunion men, nor by the supplying of workmen during any industrial lockout or dispute, nor by the providing of labor at less than the recognized rate of wages, nor under conditions of employment other than those obtaining in each particular trade in a district. On the whole, the exchanges appear to have remained neutral with regard to trade disputes, but have adopted the attitude that as everybody contributes toward the upkeep of the exchanges in the shape of rates it would be impossible to impose conditions of any kind, and that once employer and employed are brought into contact it must be left to them to do their own bargaining. The appointment of an Advisory Committee, half trade union representatives and half employers' representatives, was expected to be a satisfactory safeguard to the interests of organized labor. Among the divisional officers, whose salary begins at $2,000 per annum, rising to $3,000, it was expected that many prominent labor officials would be appointed. One only, however, received such an appointment-Richard Bell, the once well-known railwaymen's leader and ex-Liberal Labor Member of Parliament. The Trade Union Congress held last September debated a resolution condemning the existing method of patronage of appointments in connection with the general organization of the labor exchanges. This was the only resolution before the Congress upon which the whole question of labor exchanges could be raised, and so the debate went much wider than the opener proposed. This delegate, representing the National Union of Clerks, objected to the small commencing salary of $30 per annum paid to male clerks in the labor exchanges, and the $260 paid to female clerks. In the debate J. W. Clark, of the Scientific Instrument Makers, declared that the whole system of the exchanges wanted reorganizing. The irritation |