the National Federation of Women Workers appear several isolated unions that had failed, as well as new unions from hitherto unorganized trades, and for the small assessments of from 1d. to 31d. (2 to 7 cents) weekly besides the 6d. (12 cents) entrance fee, are guaranteed the benefit of a legal department, sick pay, and support in times of trade dispute. Though this federation was organized solely to foster small unions of women, one local branch includes 100 men, which affords the unique spectacle, among all the trade unions in Great Britain, of men organized under a woman unionist executive.

Another type of rehabilitation among apparently extinct unions is found in the women's unions which, wavering upon the verge of dissolution, accepted the form of an auxiliary to a man's society established in the same trade. For example, the Printing and Kindred Trades Federation, organized in 1894, was primarily a militant union composed of women. The attempt at organization arose out of two disputes. In one, the women employed by a certain firm had successfully struck for an increase of wages and against certain conditions of labor; in the second, women had gone out to show their sympathy with the men locked out. In recognition of the women's "courage and loyalty" the men promoted the union. In a month or two its membership stood at 100, and by March, 1896, 350 members had joined. However, the membership began to decline as soon as the stress of militant procedure was relaxed, and in 1902 it had shrunk to 150, and as the reserve fund was under £100 ($486.65) the society approached the Printers and Stationers' Warehousemen, praying to be recognized as a branch of that union. A ballot of the men was taken, 700 voting in favor of granting the request and 334 against it. The women's society has therefore ceased to exist as a separate organization.

The Liverpool Upholsteresses' Union, which appeared in the early record of the Women's Trade Union League as dissolved on account of "lack of interest, fear of dismissal, possibly the outcome of ignorance," is in a flourishing condition. It reasserted itself in 1891 with 26 members, and has since then come to comprise nearly all the upholsteresses employed in Liverpool.

A case of what might be termed partial wreckage occurred in the Women's Trade Union Council of Manchester and Salford district in 1904, when 6 out of the 14 branch unions which composed the council withdrew to form a new society, thus leaving a divided front in the organization of women in this locality.

Manchester is not now so much a center of large industries as a business center for the industries in the outlying districts the cotton exchange for Lancashire being there-and the local trade union leaders represent an advanced type of ambitious methods in organiza

tion.

"Direct labor representation for women should be the object of women's trade unionism," they claim. Therefore, while the "Women's Trade Union Council," founded in 1894, accomplished the work of organizing the small trades, and in several instances, notably among the female leather workers, (a) materially bettered the condition of women engaged in those trades, a gradual cleavage took place among the leaders on the subject of gaining political power for women, which resulted in the resignation of certain trade union officials and in the formation of the Women's Trades and Labor Council with a different form of constitution, as follows:

In view of the present difficult position of trade unions in the country and also of the low wages and want of industrial status of women in the labor market, the local women's trade union leaders have come to the conclusion that political power is absolutely necessary for the protection of the women workers.

This Women's Trades and Labor Council has, after four years, 10 branches each with more than 300 members, and 1, the Weavers' Association of Beswick, with 1,000 enrolled. And it is doing the same sort of benefit and protective work as the original Women's Trade Union Council, which continues its offices in the next street, with the agitation on political questions quite subservient.

Still the national organizers of the Women's Trade Union League regret this division, since the poverty in great centers demands concentration of effort on the part of those who would unite and organize the women workers there in their struggles for a living wage. It was compared by one woman trade union leader to the women's rights agitation in the sixties, when, with much clash of asserted independence, a show was made of forcing open men's trades to women, while in reality this so-called women's movement was altogether secondary in the accomplishment of women's entrance into the printing and other trades, since the subdivision of labor and the application of mechanical power had created simple processes which made the employment of women natural and desirable.

In the investigation of the causes for the dissolution of several small unions for women in London, principally among the clothing trades and cardboard box makers, the following typical cases were found

a In one instance an employer, taking advantage of the prejudice of the men workers against female labor, made a reduction of one-half in the pay of the girls. The girls went out on strike supported by the Women's Trade Council, and, finally, after futile attempts to find skilled labor among nonunion women with which to replace his original force, the employer was obliged, in order to meet a rush order, to take back the women unionists at the old rate. This was in 1905, and there has been no reduction since, but, on the contrary, an increase of rates in one line of piecework.

which cover, with variations of detail, about all the failures that were discovered:

In one case the rents demanded in the district surrounding the workshops were so high, 9s. ($2.19) a week being asked for one room when 4s or 5s. ($0.97 or $1.22) a week is the usual rent for the fourroom brick houses flanking block after block in the factory towns in Lancashire, that the women were obliged to live a long distance from work, and they were too tired to return in the evening for meetings. Interest flagged, and when the employer, who was opposed to organization because of demands it might enforce as provisions against 6 months' slack time, instituted deductions from the nominal wage and reduced the supply of work of certain leaders in the union, it dissolved without an effort for redress.

Another case was a union among cardboard box makers which was not able to withstand the drain on its slender resources necessitated by strike pay in a dispute with the employers over fines and deductions. This tendency of women's trade unions to undertake a strike in the first flush of enthusiasm, before they are in a position to carry it to a successful conclusion, is given by one writer as a generalization in stating causes of failure of the women's organization throughout England. And yet while few women's unions have been able to survive the expense of an unsuccessful strike early in the life of the organization, a trade dispute has been more often than not the basis of formation of the strongest unions. The most successful organizations recently formed among women have been the result of some sudden encroachment on the rights of the workers.

The failure of a union started among female cigarette makers was attributed to the fact that the majority of its members were young girls whose pay was only contributive toward their living expenses and who looked upon their occupation as more or less temporary. It was given as the opinion of the labor leader interested in this instance that unionism among cigarette makers failed because the work is not conducive to steady, thoughtful habits of women. the contrary, in another division of the tobacco trade (the female cigar makers) a permanent organization was accomplished in 1889, and the London branch, with a membership of over 1,000, is considered one of the most successful organizations of women.

On

A general cause for the failure of women's unions throughout the provinces as well as in London is that where the organization is started and managed by men, the women have not been encouraged to take leading parts in the administration of their organizations. They are not as a rule sent as delegates to the trade union congress, and it is the rare exception (though they are eligible) for them to become secretaries of branches, so that they lose interest, fail to make pay

ments of dues, and finally relax all effort and wait for the conditions of their work and pay to be benefited by their inclusion in any general advance gained by the male unionists.

The case of the textile organizations in Lancashire is an exception to this general rule, for there-although the women are not usually officials nor do they display any great degree of enthusiasm-the fact that the majority of members in these unions are women has acted as a spur on the men officials in seeing that the women workers are looked after and not allowed to relinquish membership through any want of attention. But back of this apparent apathy on the part of the women unionists lies the fact that in Great Britain the women have been temperamentally slow to make trade-unionist members.

One of the most capable and experienced men unionists in the Kingdom said: "England has, of course, a differential advantage over America (") and her colonies in the presence of a mass of cheap female labor, but to the labor organizer looking to the protection of workers in the industries which require skill and cultivate independence this character of factory worker presents great difficulties."

GROWTH OF ORGANIZATION AMONG WOMEN
WORKERS.

To show the extent of lost endeavor in the women's trade union movement, a statement of the numerical progress of organization among industrial women as compared with that of men throughout the country is necessary.

In 1896, which is the first year for which comparative figures of female trade union membership are available, 149 unions included women and girls as members out of a total of 1,302 trade unions; while the female membership was at that time 117,030, or 7.8 per cent of the membership of all unions. During the years 1896 to 1904 the male membership of all trade unions rose from 1,386,709 to 1,768,767, or a gain of 27.6 per cent, while the female membership during this period accomplished a gain from 117,030 to 126,285, or 7.9 per cent. While the membership of women in the unions is insignificant in comparison with the large enrollment of male trade-unionists, the percentage of gains among male and among female trade-union members since 1904 has been to a large extent reversed. In 1907 the number of organized women had increased to 201,709, a gain from 1904 to 1907 of 75,424, or 59.7 per cent, while the gain in male mem

a In 1900, 20.6 per cent of women 15 years of age and over in the United States were engaged in gainful occupations, and in 1901 the corresponding percentage for England and Wales was 34.5 and for Scotland 36.1.

bership of trade unions, although amounting to 436,270 new members, represented a relative increase of only 24.7 per cent. (a)

This condition as to membership of women in trade unions was stated thus forcibly in round numbers in 1905:

When it is considered that hereditary training and environment have left women far behind men in development, the fact that there are now about 160,000 women organized out of a possible 5,000,000, while there are 2,000,000 men trade-unionists out of a possible 11,000,000, it is not so discouraging as it appears on the surface. Indeed, when these figures were quoted to me by a well-known tradeunion leader, whose views on women's organization are notoriously pessimistic, I was struck less by the percentage of women unorganized than by the fact that a great deal still remains to be done in the tradeunion organization of men. (")

And when it is considered that in 1885 there were only 19 unions. admitting women and girls to membership (*) and that all the women trade-unionists in Great Britain numbered only a few thousand, (") and that as late as 1894 there were signs posted in a mill in the Midlands, where the majority of operatives were women, threatening "instant dismissal to anyone found to belong to a trade union or any kindred organization," the expansion of the movement to 182 unions in 1907, with a female membership of 201,709, seems significant, if not phenomenal.

In 1903 the Women's Trade Union League had an affiliated membership of 40,000 women members. At present its membership approaches 140,000 and includes a large proportion of organized women in the country. Of course these figures do not mean that there are 100,000 more women trade-unionists now than there were in 1903; it means that unionists outside the Women's Trade Union League before have come into line of national organization during the intervening years, and this is considered significant of a desire for a firmer combination of women trade-union power than is afforded by membership in the local branches alone.

a Figures for 1896 from Report of the Labor Department of the Board of Trade on Trade Unions in 1902-1904, pp. lxi, lxvi; figures for 1904 and 1907 from report of the same department on trade unions in 1905-1907, pp. lxiii, lxix.

Miss Mary R. Macarthur in The Labor Record, June, 1905.

Ten of these unions were in London, which presents a marked contrast to the present preponderance of women's trade unions in the provinces. Annual reports of Women's Trade Union League for 1885 and 1894.