International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths and Helpers, No. 110, Chicago. German Central Labor Union. Switchmen's Union No. 29.* Bohemian Musicians Union. Hotel and Restaurant Workers.* Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees, Division No. 288, Chicago.* Barbers Union No. 225, Sharon, Pa.* United Labor League, Sharon, Pa. Utah State Federation of Labor, Salt Lake City. Cloak Makers and Tailors, Montreal. American Flint Glass Workers Union, Toledo. Commercial Men's Association, Court No. 1093, Milwau kee. Street Laborers Union, Chicago. Machinists, District Lodge No. 8.* International Protective Laborers Union, Dayton, Ohio. Central Labor Union, North Adams, Mass. International Longshoremens' Union No. 271, Hoboken, Iron and Brass Molders, Schenectady. Aside from the occupations represented above, the following were each represented by one or more individuals: machinists, tanners, electrical workers, bookbinders, editors, teachers, authors, printers, and shoe workers. An attorneyat-law from New York City presented himself at the convention. The committee on credentials recommended that he be seated as a fraternal delegate, on account of the mitigating circumstances that he wrote for several newspapers and was a "friend and sympathizer" of labor. After considerable debate the report of the committee was adopted * Affiliated with American Federation of Labor at the time. "with the exception of that portion which refers to the attorney." 1 This array of occupational or trade types was scarcely more extensive than that of the structural types here grouped together. Of these there were the following types. (1) The simple industrial union, wherein all workers engaged, in whatsoever capacity, in any particular industry are members of the same union. This type was represented by the Western Federation of Miners 2-really the strongest taproot of the I. W. W. (2) The multi-industrial type, a federation of industrial unions, such as the American Labor Union, which included railway employees, engineers, and musicians. (3) The so-called " international" union, rarely more than national in scope, and merely a national association of local unions of a given trade. This type was represented by the United Metal Workers International Union of America. (4) The non-federative industrial union, like the United Mine Workers of America with industrial rather than trade units, an industrial organization which excludes federation with similar organizations in other industries, or with employers. (5) The ordinary non-federative trade unions, here seen in two types: (a) the trade amalgamation, a federation of unions wherein the constituent bodies are so united as to preserve their individuality, although trade autonomy is thereby destroyed. This type is illustrated here by the Amalgamated Society of Engineers; (b) national unions of any particular trade like the iron molders, wherein the constituent unions are more subordinated to the national body than in the amalgamation. (6) The state federation-as typified by the Utah State Federation of Labor. And finally (7) the rather unconventional type of "union," represented by the Industrial Workers' clubs and the United Labor League. 1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 70. 2 Now called The International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. It should be understood that but a small part of the "international" or national bodies was represented as a whole. The greater number were represented by one or two locals. A number of them were affiliated with the American Federation of Labor at the time, but had become dissatisfied with the policies of that body.1 However, some of the unions most prominent in the activities of the convention were represented as central or national bodies with all their constituent local unions. Such were the American Labor Union and the United Metal Workers. Those of the unions present which were affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, though forming a fairly large group numerically, represented no material defection from the ranks of the Federation and, generally speaking, played but a passive rôle in the work of the convention. Of the forty-three organizations seated by the credentials committee sixteen were affiliated with the Federation, but at least eleven of these were represented by but one local union. Of all these organizations which had merely local rather than national representation, the United Mine Workers of America was most widely represented, delegates from nine of its local unions being present. A little study of the list of the organizations seated and the localities from which their delegates came, makes it quite evident that on the whole the strong delegations from powerful local bodies, located at strategic points, were those having no connection with the American Federation of Labor, and, conversely, that the fourteen American Federation of Labor unions just referred to were represented as a rule by small and solitary locals of doubtful strength. The insignificant position of 3 1 Among these were the Bakers and Confectioners, and the Carpenters and Joiners. 'The Journeymen Tailors and the Switchmen each had delegates from two locals. The United Metal Workers International Union was at least the American Federation of Labor bodies in the convention will become still more manifest by an inspection of the lists given above.1 It will be seen that only five of the sixteen local unions of the American Federation of Labor which were present had empowered their delegates to install their respective local unions in the new organization: two locals of the United Mine Workers and one local each in the Bakers and Confectioners, the Brewery Workers and the Journeymen Tailors unions. All the locals of the United Metal Workers were so empowered. The American Federation of Labor was represented in no direct way among the five great powers of this industrialist convention.2 It was confidently expected by many members of the January conference that there would be an immediate secession of a number of national unions from the American Federation of Labor. But whatever may have been the hopes of the originators of the movement, the constitutional convention proved by its very make-up that this new insurgent labor body could not, at the outset at least, build a new organization out of disaffected parts of an old organization. It has been seen that not all organizations were present on equal footing. In the first place, no union could have any influence or any active part in the proceedings of the convention unless it sent its delegates with full power to install. The January conference had drawn up certain rules governing representation in the forthcoming convention: nominally affiliated with the A. F. of L. at the time of the January conference, but Secretary St. John writes "that the United Metal Workers . . . as a matter of fact was out of existence before the I. W. W. convention, but existed on paper for the purpose of giving its old officials a standing in the new organization." 1 Supra, pp. 68-69. Cf. also Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, P. 80. 2 Vide infra, p. 74. Representation in the convention shall be based upon the number of workers whom the delegate represents. No delegate, however, shall be given representation in the convention on the numerical basis of an organization, unless he has credentials . . . authorizing him to install his union as a working part of the proposed economic organization in the industrial department to which it logically belongs. . . . Lacking this authority, the delegate shall represent himself as an individual.1 The delegates to the convention were in this way grouped into two classes: representative delegates, with voting power proportional to the number of members represented, and individual delegates with merely their own vote, and in some cases not representing any union even as uninstructed delegates. This separation of the two hundred and three delegates, according to the character of their credentials, may be shown as follows: According to St. fact that "all who 1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 6. John this provision was drawn up on account of the were present as delegates were not there in good faith. Knowledge of this fact caused the signers of the Manifesto to constitute themselves a temporary committee on credentials."—I. W. W., History, Structure and Methods, revised 1917 edition, p. 3. "The figures here given are those cited by William D. Haywood (Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 204), but cf. St. John (The I. W. W., History, etc., pp. 3, 4), whose figures are somewhat lower. Among the “individual" delegates were “Mother” Mary Jones, A. M. Simons, Eugene V. Debs, and Robert Rives LaMonte. It was assumed that individual delegates were in duty bound to become a part of the revolutionary organization. (Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 54.) |