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shall pay to the bonded officer of the Union involved, or his order, for a period of six weeks, an amount equal to four ($4) dollars per week for each member. Each Local Union shall require its treasurer to give proper bond for the safekeeping and disbursement of all funds of the Local. No benefit shall be paid for the first two weeks of the srike. The Executive Council shall have the power to authorize the payment of strike benefits for an additional period.

SEC. 6. No member of a Local Union on strike shall be entitled to weekly benefits unless he reports daily to the proper officer of the Local Union while the strike continues, and no member who shall receive a week's work, three days to be a week, shall receive benefits. Any member refusing other work while on strike (providing said work is not in conflict with labor's interests) shall not be entitled to any benefits.

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SEC. 7. Any Union inaugurating strike without the approval of the Executive Council shall not receive benefits on account of said strike.

SEC. 8. In case of lockout the Executive Council shall have power to pay benefits if, upon investigation, it is found that the Local Union whose members are involved did not by their action or demands provoke the lockout by their employer.

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SEC. 9. During the continuance of strike, the executive board of the Local Union shall make weekly reports to the Secretary of the American Federation of Labor, showing the amount of money distributed for benefits, and to whom paid, furnishing individual receipts to the Secretary of the American Federation of Labor from all members to whom such benefits have been paid, and all other facts that may be required.

SEC. 10. Before a strike shall be declared off, a special meeting of the Union shall be called for that purpose, and it shall require a majority vote of all members present to decide the question either

way.

SEC. 11. In the event of the defense fund becoming dangerously low through protracted strike or lockout, the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor shall have the power to levy an assessment of ten cents on each member of Local Trade and Federal Labor Unions, assessments to be restricted to not more than five per year; and, further, that there shall always be a surplus of five thousand ($5,000) dollars in the defense fund.

SEC. 12. That no Local shall be entitled to any of the benefits of the defense fund unless it requires its members to pay not less than fifty (50) cents per month.

SEC. 13. That the Local Trade and Federal Labor Unions set aside for the maintenance of a local defense fund not less than five cents a month from each member.

ARTICLE XIV.-MISCELLANEOUS.

SECTION 1. Certificates of affiliation shall be granted by the President of the Federation, by and with the consent of the Executive Council, to all National

and International Unions and local bodies affiliated with this Federation.

SEC. 2. Seven wage-workers of good character, following any trade or calling, who are favorable to Trade Unions, whose trade or calling is not organized, and are not members of any body affiliated with this Federation, who will subscribe to this Constitution, shall have the power to form a local body to be known as a "Federal Labor Union," and they shall hold regular meetings for the purpose of strengthening and advancing the Trade Union movement, and shall have power to make their own rules in conformity with this Constitution, and shall be granted a local certificate by the President of this Federation; provided, the request for a certificate be indorsed by the nearest Local or National Trade Union officials connected with this Federation, but not more than three Federal Labor Unions shall be chartered in any one city. The President of the American Federation of Labor shall have authority to appoint any person who is a member of any affiliated union to audit the accounts of such Federal Labor or Local Trade Unions as the President of the American Federation of Labor may direct and report the result thereof to the President of the American Federation of Labor. The books and accounts of each Federal Labor and Local Trade Union shall be at all times open to the inspection of auditors appointed under this section.

SEC. 3. The certificate fee for affiliated bodies shall be five ($5) dollars, payable to the Secretary of the Federation, and the fee shall accompany the application.

SEC. 4. The American Federation of Labor shall refer all applications for certificates of affiliation from Local Unions or Federal Labor Unions from a vicinity where a chartered Central Labor Union exists to that body for investigation and approval.

SEC. 5. Certificates of affiliation shall not be granted by State Federations of Labor. That power is vested solely in the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor and the executive officers of National and International Unions affiliated therewith.

SEC. 6. Fraternal delegates attending the Convention of the American Federation of Labor shall be entitled to all the rights of delegates from Central Bodies.

ARTICLE XV.-GENERAL RULES GOVERNING DEPARTMENTS OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR.

SECTION 1. For the greater development of the labor movement, such departments subordinate to the A. F. of L. are to be established from time to time as in the judgment of the A. F. of L., or of its Executive Council, may be deemed advisable. Each department is to manage and finance its own business.

SEC. 2. To be entitled to representation in any department, organizations eligible to join must first be, and remain in affiliation to the A. F. of L.. and to be entitled to representation in local councils of departments, local bodies shall first be and remain in affiliation to central labor unions chartered by the A. F. of L. SEC. 3. The fundamental laws of each

department are to conform to, and be administered in the same manner as, the laws governing the A. F. of L. No department or local council of same shall enact laws, rules or regulations in conflict with laws of the A. F. of L., and in the event of change of laws of the latter, departments and local councils are to change their laws to conform thereto.

SEC. 4. Each department to be considered the official method of the A. F. of L.

for transacting that portion of its business.

SEC. 5. All departments of the American Federation of Labor shall have their headquarters located in the City of Washington, D. C., and, if possible, in the same building with the Federation Headquarters.

SEC. 6. All departments of the American Federation of Labor shall hold their conventions, whether annually or less often, during or immediately before or after the conventions of the American Federation of Labor, and in the same city where the conventions of the Federation are held.

SEC. 7. The officers of each department shall report to the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor what action, if any, has been taken by the Department, either through its Executive Council or through conventions upon any and all matters that have been re

ferred to the Department by the Federation.

SEC. 8. The officers of the various departments shall submit a quarterly report to the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor of the work done by their department, and its general conditions.

SEC. 9. At all regular meetings of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor, there shall be present during some period of the Council meeting either the President or Secretary, or both, of each department, to take up with the Council matters that may be of mutual interest.

SEC. 10. A page of each issue of the "American Federationist" to be available to, and to be used by each department for official report or for publication of some subject identified with the Department.

SEC 11. National and International Unions affiliated with the A. F. of L. shall also become affiliated with any department in which they may be eligible. This section does not apply to the Union Label Trades Department.

ARTICLE XVI.-AMENDMENTS.

This Constitution can be amended or altered only at a regular session of the Convention, and to do so it shall require a two-thirds vote.

TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL CONVENTION

OF THE

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

1909

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS

First Day-Monday Morning Session

Massey Music Hall, Toronto, Canada, November 8, 1909.

Pursuant to law, the regular meeting of the Twenty-ninth Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor was called to order by President Gompers at 10 o'clock a.m., in Massey Music Hall, Toronto, Canada, by President Samuel, Gompers.

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President Gompers-On behalf of the city government of Toronto, His Worship, Mayor Oliver, will address convention. I have great pleasure in presenting to you His Worship, Mayor Oliver.

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Mr. President and Gentlemen of American Federation of Labor: It was prior to the advent of the white man on the northern half of this Continent that Toronto earned the soIndeed the briquet "Convention City." assertion is made that the name "Toronto" is a corruption of the Indian word "Taranta," signifying "place of meeting." Legend tells us it was here, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, that the children of the forest foregathered. It was here they held their Great Council. It was here they met to plan raids, to take the war path, or

perhance to smoke the calumet of peace. The red man has long since given place to his white brother. The wigwam has vanished and in its stead stands the monumental brick and granite of a mighty metropolis. Out of the wilderness of those times has arisen this beautiful city, the home of a loyal, progressive and God-fearing people. have the years that have passed in the evolution of an Indian village bedimmed the lustre of our city's fair fame as a place of meeting. It has grown brighter and brighter with the gradual development until Toronto stands today, in fact as in name, the premier Convention City of Canada.

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We are from time to time favored with the presence of delegates to Conventions from the United States, whose aims and objects are perhaps as diversified as it is possible to conceive. It is our invariable custom to welcome them with open arms and to do our utmost to contribute to the pleasure and interest of their visit. But it is seldom indeed that any city is honored with a Convention in whose proceedings the great mass of the people-those we are pleased to term "the working classes"Never beare so intimately concerned. fore in the history of our city have we

been favored with the presence of a delegation representing so vast an army of workers. It is a source of gratification to us that on this occasion we not only welcome our fellow-citizens from every part of this broad Dominion and our kinsmen from the neighboring Republic, but also two honored representatives from the Motherland beyond the sea. As the representative of five millions of English-speaking people, it is with more than ordinary pleasure that I bid you welcome to Toronto. It is with more than ordinary warmth I greet

you.

The American Federation of Labor, as I understand it, is an open organization whose purpose is to maintain the rights and advance the cause of the wageworker-a commendable purpose surely. And when the present status of the wage-earner is compared with that of the past, the necessity for the existence of such an organization is evident. A hundred years since and the position of the wage earner was little better than deplorable. Evil as was his social condition, his industrial plight was even worse. A little earlier, a century and a half ago, and we find no less a personage than the Samuel Johnson protesting against the raising of wages as wrong in principle. "Raising the wages of day laborers is wrong," said he, "for it does not make them live better, but only makes them idler." I cannot believe the great lexicographer's view to be just, even as applied to the laborer of that time, and it would certainly be most cruel and unjust if pronounced to-day. I am happy to say that his is not the prevailing opinion of the present age.

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When one considers the gigantic strides that have been made since Johnson's time toward the wage-earner's industrial and social amelioration-due in some measure to a higher plane of civilization, but primarily to organizations such as yours-one cannot but feel great admiration for those who have contributed so largely to the toiler's present day status. Thanks to them, and, as I have said, to an an advanced civilization, the poorest laborer of today is enabled to live a life of luxury and affulence in comparison with his prototype of that age.

But the struggle of the wage-worker for that meed of recognition which is

his has proved a never-ending task. It has continued for centuries, and must still continue. His condition is steadily improving, but the end is not yet. He must fight on. Let his leaders find comfort and consolation in the fact that the odds against which they are pitted have steadily decreased from century to century, from decade to decade, and from year to year.

Despite the laws that have been enacted to protect it, Labor continues to be the only commodity, if such it may be termed, that may be stolen with impunity. If the product of labor be pilfered, the act is termed "theft," and he who is guilty of it is committed to the common jail. But if labor be stolen by the payment of an unfair wage, it is possible only to exact redress by means of perfectly organized labor bodies. This, unfortunately, involves great financial loss and hardship and not infrequently the sacrifice of human life. It remained for Abraham Lincoln, foremost of Americans, dead or living, to amend the old commandment. He made it read: "Neither shalt thou steal the product of labor, nor shalt thou steal labor itself." It was Lincoln, too, who said that "to secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government."

It may be of interest to you to know that in Toronto the municipality regards the laborer as worthy of his hire. Not only does he receive the prevailing union wage for an eight-hour day, when employed by the city directly, but all city contractors must engage to mete out to him the same liberal treatment.

It may also interest you to learn that the employees of the Toronto Railway Company are amply protected under the terms of agreement entered into in 1891 between the Corporation of the City of Toronto and the Company. The Company is neither permitted to pay any adult employee a less wage than fifteen cents per hour, nor to compel him to work for a longer period than ten hours per day, or on more than six days per week.

I venture the assertion, without fear of successful contradiction, that as a result of the fair wage rate paid the artisan and laborer in Toronto, our city contains a greater percentage of wageearning home-owners than any other

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wage-earner.

And now, gentlemen, I desire to say a word to you concerning what you, on your part, as representing the true interests of labor, owe-not to capitalIt would be but to good citizenship. wisdom on your part to refrain from countenancing the The demagogue. domination of the demagogue does more to create an unfavorable impression of the conscientious trades and labor advocate than all other causes combined. I allude to the blatant work-dodging agitator, who delights in beguiling and parading those unfortunates, chiefly recent importations, who are to be found of population. in every large centre While I am free to admit that there are always in evidence many cases of actual hardship, especially during the winter season, I am satisfied that if such unfortunates-and I fear we shall ever have them with us despite our best endeavors to remedy their conditionwere to divorce themselves from the self-appointed leaders under whose banner they are led to enroll themselves, their interests would be better served. The true leader of labor is remiss in his plain duty when he lends countenance to the self-chosen misrepresentative of labor whose office is to incite the unemployed by impassioned appeals to demand what he is pleased to term "their rights." of Advocating the doctrine anarchy, too-and by anarchy I mean the utter disregard of properly constituted those government-to among whom are many human derelicts who have become embittered against society and who are therefore prone to yield all too readily to such an influence, is to propagate an evil that is destructive alike to the true principles of labor, to the individual, and to the community at large. Who among you can calculate, the even estimate mischief that conmust inevitably result from the Inteltinued pursuit of such a course?

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ligent organization, education, agitation, and the ballot box are the true correctives for such evils as exist. It is by these means and by these means alone that you can hope to achieve success in the advancement of your cause. It is not my intention to dictate to you. You are undoubtedly more capable of safeguarding your Own interests than I am of advising you. Nevertheless it does seem to me that some means should be adopted by organized labor to discourage those acts which tend to lower its dignity in the eyes of the people, to whom after all you must appeal for that moral and tangible support without which you can hope to accomplish very little.

Let me once more assure you, gentlemen, that it is a pleasure to welcome to Toronto a gathering so thoroughly representative of labor as that which is assembled here to-day. The five millions of wage-earners identified with your organization, in every conceivable branch of labor, will watch with deep interest the reports of your proceedings, and will discuss with no little animation the results of your deliberations. Let us hope that they will be such as will meet with their entire approbation and that they make for the continued and increasing success of your Federation.

It is my earnest desire that your stay among us may prove a most interesting and profitable one. I trust that when your visit draws to a close you may feel that nothing has been left undone to contribute to your enjoyment; that our people are not unlike their cousins of the Great Republic to the south of us in their warmth of welcome and the generosity of their hospitality, and that each and every one of you will look forward to a repetition of your visit to Toronto in the not distant future.

President Gompers-Representing the Premier and the Government of the Province of Ontario, we have with us this morning a gentleman who will speak for them to you. I therefore have the pleasure of presenting to you Dr. Reaume, Minister of Public Works for the Province of Ontario.

Dr. J. O. Reaume-Ladies and Gentlemen: I can assure you that it affords me great pleasure to be present and to voice the sentiments already expressed in welcoming you to this Province. T

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