labor unions is to be forwarded to the A. F. of L. The per capita tax from local unions was not increased. Monthly reports are to be made to the Secretary of the A. F. of L. giving the names of members, the Secretary to furnish blanks therefor. The free acceptance of traveling cards is made compulsory. These locals are prohibited from assessing their members or appropriating their funds for any purpose other than for the local union or for A. F. of L. purposes. The dissolution of any local trade or any federal labor union is prohibited so long as seven members desire to retain the charter, and upon dissolution, all funds and property shall revert to the A. F. of L.

The most important single movement during the year to extend organization among the yet unorganized was the campaign to organize wage-earning women. The E. C. made a report upon this special work for which an assessment of one cent was ordered by the Seattle Convention, showing the difficulties in the way of organizing women and the results of the work in various trades. Secretary Morrison's report showed that the receipts from this assessment amounted to $14,675.91, and that $10,857.24 had been expended, leaving a balance on hand of $3.818.67. The conviction is growing among working men and women, and all those who study industrial problems, that real and permanent improvement of conditions for working women will come only through organized self-help and that their problems are not essentially different from the problems of wage-earning men. The concluding statement of the E. C. upon this matter was:

More and more it is realized that women do not live apart from the political, social, and economic organization of society, but that they are responsible members and should share in its burdens and contribute to its progress. What has been done in organization this year is a mere beginning whose results are not yet appreciable. The work should be continued with unremitting vigor. Women wage-earners must be organized or they will retard the progress of all organization.

The Committee on Organization, to which the subject was referred, recommended that the E. C. continue the campaign of organizing women workers, and if necessary levy a one-cent assessment for this purpose during the coming year. This recommendation was unanimously adopted by the con

vention.

In addition to this the Committee on Ways and Means, which recommended a one-cent assessment to defray the expenses of the Hatters' case, suggested that whatever amount remained after paying all indebtedness be transferred to the fund for the organization of women workers.

In making a report upon the results of labor forward movements in various cities, the E. C. urged upon every community the advantages from such special and organized efforts and called particular attention to the value of definite and adequate reports of gains made. Maryland and the District of Columbia, St. Louis, and Philadelphia by resolutions requested assistance from the A. F. of L. in conducting forward movements during the coming year. Philadelphia inaugurated a labor forward movement preparatory for the convention of the A. F. of L., and found the results so gratifying that the Central Labor Union desired to make the Labor Forward Committee a permanent institution, and to have the financial support of internationals and the

A. F. of L. continued. These special efforts have aroused new enthusiasm and ideals in the movement wherever inaugurated. There is much in every community that a labor forward campaign could accomplish.

Resolutions adopted by the convention directed that special efforts be made to organize workers in the following lines of work; newspaper writers, hospital nurses and attendants in government institutions, office workers and stenographers, lumber workers, coopers, household workers, elevator operators school teachers, lastmakers, women workers in the cigar industry. It should be noted that five of these trades in which the convention directed that special organizing work be done have a large percentage of women.

The E. C. was instructed to the extent of the A. F. of L. resources to assist the labor movements in New Orleans, Louisiana, Newark, New Jersey and the South; in fact, wherever effective organizing work can be accomplished.

The convention adopted an amendment to the constitution by which delegates from local, or national, or international organizations, which are not affiliated to the A. F. of L. are prohibited from being seated in state federations or central bodies. The sympathy and support of the American labor movement was ordered telegraphed to the workers of Stockton, California, in their splendid struggle against Labor's enemies on the Pacific Coast, known as the Merchants, Manufacturers, and Employers' Association.

A. F. of L. Departments

The most important action of the convention dealing with internal organization was the adoption of the substitute which the E. C. recommended for Article XV of the constitution dealing with the relations of the Departments of the A. F. of L., and the powers of the Departments in regard to the integrity, entity, and self-government of the international unions. Article XV, as adopted by the convention, is to correct the mistaken course upon which some of the Departments and the A. F. of L. had entered. The first step in this course occurred when the convention of the A. F. of L. first used the word "must" in declaring what affiliated organizations should or should not do. In an editorial in the January, 1903, AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST, just after the close of the New Orleans Convention, we called attention to the fact that a dangerous precedent had been established and a dangerous trespass upon international autonomy had been made. Men and women can be persuaded and induced to do the right thing voluntarily and with good will, but the minute coercion is attempted antagonism and a resentful spirit are engendered.

The Building Trades Department through efforts to enforce decisions by compelling obedience created a crisis in the affairs of that Department that jeopardized the effectiveness and the existence not only of that Department but of the A. F. of L. At times during the past three years our faith in the maintenance and the perpetuity of the A. F. of L. was shaken and we dreaded the possibility of revolt or disintegration. But the action of the Philadelphia Convention in adopting emphatically, and as a whole, unanimously, the recommendations of the E. C. for the basic law of the Departments corrected the

mistaken policy that was threatening the future of the organized labor movement. The new Article XV protects and respects the integrity, entity, and self-government of affiliated international unions, while it brings the A. F. of L. and its Departments to a position of greatest unity and solidarity. It maintains the voluntary character of the labor movement- -a character which gives to the movement its great power, but forbids the abuse of that power.

The action of the convention has been endorsed by the Building Trades Department as well as all the other Departments. Thus the workers with wisdom and with a feeling of good fellowship considered the government of internal affairs and relations, and agreed upon a policy of far-reaching importance the most important action of the convention dealing with internal affairs.

Article XV of the constitution of the A. F. of L., to which we have referred, is printed in the official proceedings of the Philadelphia Convention and in the constitution. A copy of the former can be had for 25 cents (postage prepaid), and a copy of the latter can be had for the asking.

Inquiry into the advisability of establishing a legal department to the A. F. of L. is to be continued until some final conclusion is reached.

Urging Affiliation

A resolution was introduced declaring that unless unaffiliated trade unions, locals or nationals became affiliated to the A. F. of L. within a specified time, the Federation would inaugurate a movement to organize bodies of workmen into unions of these trades and callings. The convention, after an intensely interesting discussion, adopted the following resolution:

It is true that the A. F. of L. is a voluntary association of the organized workers of America, and that no compulsory features attach to affiliation, yet it appears to the A. F. of L. that it is the duty and moral obligation upon the men of all organized labor to be in full affiliation to the A. F. of L., to bear their share of the responsibilities and the obligations as well as to share in the achievements and advantages; we hold that it is morally wrong for a wage-earner to remain outside the fold of the union of his trade or calling; that it is morally wrong for a local union of the trade or calling to remain isolated from the national or international union thereof, and it can but be morally wrong for such a national or international union to remain unaffiliated to the A. F. of L.

We therefore recommend that the E. C. of the A. F. of L., in the name of this convention, invite and urge any and all national or international unions to become affiliated to the A. F. of L., and join with our great movement in the achievement of the justice and rights to which the toilers of America are entitled, and that every effort be made to prevail upon such unaffiliated bodies to make common cause with us. We further recommend that the officers and other representatives of our affiliated national or international unions, state federations, and central bodies, organizers, both salaried and unsalaried, and the labor press of America, join in the effort to bring home to the officers and the rank and file of the unaffiliated national and international unions their duty in the premises; that is, to become affiliated to the A. F. of L.

The relations of central bodies to local unions have been an obstacle to unity and progress in several localities. Some of them were the subject-matter of resolutions considered by delegates to Labor's annual conference. These

were:

The four local unions formerly affiliated to the International Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union of North America, which the New York

Central Federated Union dissociated because they seceded from their international. The matter was referred to the President of the A. F. of L. to secure the reaffiliation of these locals to their international.

The delegates of the carpenters' local of Louisville, Kentucky, which the United Trades and Labor Assembly excluded because the carpenter's union was not affiliated to the Building Trades Council of that city. The convention endorsed the decision of the E. C., that the unions were entitled to representation.

In order to bring about greater unity and effectiveness in the labor movement in New York City, the convention called upon the national and international unions to direct all of their local unions of that city to affiliate with the Central Federated Union of Greater New York. A motion to secure uniformity in names of central bodies was referred to the E. C.

Another action which had the same general purpose was a decision against the dual central bodies of Detroit, one of which is composed of German speaking workers. Such an organization tends to perpetuate national and racial differences and barriers which interfere with the solidarity of the labor movement. Like all militant organizations, the labor movement has found that unity of policy and direction enables it to make the best defense and hence the best progress. This principle was reaffirmed in the decision directing the A. F. of L. to bring about the amalgamation of the dual central bodies of Detroit.

The convention referred to the E. C. for consideration appeals for assistance for the textile workers of Atlanta, the glove workers of Gloversville, and the Western Federation of Miners in Calumet, Michigan. The appeal has been sent out.

Union Labels

As an instrumentality for making organization more effective the union label has done worthy service in enabling purchasers to know goods made under union conditions. Since there are several trades interested in the manufacture of badges, the convention decided that in each town or city where badges, buttons, banners, regalias, and novelties are manufactured, there shall be formed an allied council composed of a delegate or delegates from each local union interested in the manufacture of these articles. The regulations governing such councils shall be approved by the E. C., which shall, when necessary, assign an organizer to supervise and to organize such councils, and shall approve the official label or device for union-made articles of this character. The Union Label Trades Department shall co-operate with the E. C. Special attention is to be given to improving the wages and conditions of those engaged in the occupations connected with these trades requiring less skilled labor. Patronage of union made and labeled products was urged, for union labels guarantee fair and sanitary conditions and insistence upon the label will necessitate employment of union men and women.

The convention condemned the use of the registered seal of the A. F. of L. or any of its Departments by privately owned labor papers. The A. F. of L. is instructed to notify local councils to take up seals now being used by such

papers. This action is to protect the labor movement against those who would exploit and commercialize its prestige and bring it into disrepute.

Jurisdictional Matters

Questions which affect the labor movement most vitally are the jurisdictional disputes which arise out of the process of development. No friction over questions of this nature would be proof that the labor movement was dead and that individual progress had ceased. Change and readjustment are necessary to continuation of life-they are life itself.

In the labor movement there is no attempt to "settle" disputes arbitrarily. The strength of the whole movement arises out of its voluntary character, its spirit of mutual good will and realization of the value of cooperation in furthering the welfare of all. In the course of time this spirit permeates even the most obstinate organizations and results in agreement. Some of our controversies extending over years have been adjusted during the past year; upon others progress is reported and adjustment must wait upon the consent of all parties concerned. The treatment given jurisdictional matters demonstrates the true spirit of self-government that controls the affairs of the A. F. of L.

In several instances report was made that agreements had been effected and amalgamation accomplished. In other cases the negotiations and conferences were continued; in all of them the hope was held out that some adjustment mutually agreeable may be effected in the near future. In any event the effort to bring about more harmonious relations, co-operation, and, in other instances, amalgamation, should be continued, and the convention so directed.

Well-Being and Safety

The labor movement seeks to protect the workers physically and personally as well as economically. The primary step in securing that end is the shorter workday. The shorter workday affords the worker a longer period for recuperation and enables him to be something more than a weary drudge. The most advanced ideal for a workday was proposed in the convention by the carpenters, who proposed a campaign for the establishment of a six-hour workday. The convention adopted the following, submitted by the Committee on Shorter Workday:

WHEREAS, The reduction of the hours of labor stimulates the business of all legitimate industries, and brings a wave of beneficence, particularly to those who toil; and

WHEREAS, The trades unions have not only increased wages and forced better factory acts, but have immeasurably reduced the hours of labor, which in turn has enabled millions of workers to provide better and more comfortable homes for their wives and families; and

WHEREAS, There is still room for improvement in many industries that have not yet secured the eight-hour workday, employment in which calls for a larger expenditure of muscular and nervous energy than ever before; and

WHEREAS, The A. F. of L. has ever been alert in championing the cause of social and moral betterment, we most heartily commend to the delegates in attendance at this convention the principles contained in the resolution, urging the agitation for a still further reduction in the hours of labor from eight to six hours; therefore, be it