Every local union affiliated directly or indirectly with an international union is expected and entitled to affiliate with the Central Labor Union, chartered by the American Federation, in the city in which it is located. These city organizations exist to look after matters of local concern to all the local unions affiliated with them.

The city organization is not supposed to interfere in a trade situation where local trade organization exists, except at the invitation of the local union of the trade, and it is not expected to organize in a trade locally unorganized, except under the direction or in coöperation with the national union which holds jurisdictional rights over the trade. A city central may not coöperate with a local union if the national union offers objections. If it does so, it may suffer the penalty of losing its own A. F. of L. charter. As was noted above, certain city central unions have defied the international unions in backing up a rebellious local without losing their connection with the Federation, but such defiance is based on exceptional strength and unusual local vitality.

Many city central unions have taken part in local politics, usually unofficially, and have given important support to a political measure or political candidate for office. They undertake to secure the employment of union labor in city contracts and the passage of city ordinances of interest to organized labor.

The thirty-two State Branches are chartered by

the Federation, primarily to secure the enactment of laws for the protection and advancement of labor in the state through the state legislatures.

These branches are made up from the local unions and the city central organizations within the state, chartered by the Federation. The branches usually hold annual or biennial conventions, when legislative programs are drawn up, and a campaign is organized for the coming session of the state legislature. The bulk of the laws for the protection of labor have been secured through these agencies. (See Chapter on Legislation.)

There is no means of measuring the value or the extent of the educational work of the American Federation. For thirty-three years it has been teaching the lessons of collective action and organization to labor in every state in the country. The 2,000,000 men and women who are members are only a small fraction of the workers who have learned through the Federation the futility of competing against others for a wage. The membership represents workers who have gained a sufficient foothold in a trade or industry to make it possible for them to declare their allegiance to their union without paying the penalty of losing their jobs.

Through association, the union men and women have learned to guard jealously respect for workers as a class; they resent the position of ignominy and degradation to which their class is assigned.

It would be difficult to measure the economic gains which the trade organizations have secured, or realize what labor's position would be to-day without them. If each union reported the wage gains directly conceded the union, the real gain could not be determined without fixing in terms equally exact the proportional increase in cost of living which fell to organized workers, if not to labor in general. Even were such computations possible, a still more important factor would need to be determined, namely, the effect on the general wage rate in the whole labor market which the potentiality of labor organization exerts.

The report of the Secretary of the Federation for 1913 showed that forty-five international unions had made 3,190 settlements for improved conditions without striking. These figures give no idea of existing agreements, as unions in several cases reported that "a great number " or " many " settlements were made during the year, and no union reported the still greater number of contracts or agreements which were operative either through an unexpired term, or which were indeterminate, or the still greater gains which thousands of union workers were enjoying by tacit understanding without resorting to formal con

tract.

The same report shows that 974 strikes in 67 international unions occurred during the year. This report, together with the foregoing, gives some idea of the policy of the Federation, and its determination to

establish by methods of peace, rather than war, labor's part in fixing conditions of work.

If the Federation is tenacious in relation to methods; if it hesitates to change old forms for new, it is because its unions have made present and heavy sacrifices for future gains. When revolutionary unionists demand that trade unions withdraw all restrictions it is in many cases equivalent to a demand on men who own more tangible forms of private property that they surrender the keys. It is important to keep clearly in mind the purposes of conservative and revolutionary unionism to realize the integrity of each.

NOTE.-Before a recent hearing of the Commission on Industrial Relations, the President of the A. F. of L. seemed to deny the Socialist position that the A. F. of L. acknowledged the mutual obligations and interests of capital and labor. But his statement that he did not consider the interests of the two classes "harmonious" was not a refutation of the Socialist criticism nor an endorsement of the Socialist position that there is no basis for agreement. (See p. 12.)

CHAPTER III

THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS

Conservatism-Common characteristics of the four organizations -Mutual insurance associations-" Protective policy "Arbitration as a substitute for strikes-The Erdman ActDevelopment of "protective policy "-Territorial divisions and concerted movements-Standardization-Federation

Repudiation of coercive methods.

THERE are unions of railroad workers which are a part of the American Federation of Labor, such as the car builders, shop and road builders and repairers, telegraphers, machinists, and, in a limited district, switchmen. But the most important unions of railroad workers are independent of the American Federation, and represent a distinct type of labor organization. These unions are: The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, which includes conductors, baggagemen, brakemen, flagmen, switchmen in yard and train service, and the Order of Railway Conductors.

These four organizations with their common characteristics and their independence of the general union movement, are often briefly characterized as conservative by labor union men whose own organizations are as conservative in purpose and in administration as