Typographia have adopted the policy of requiring this method. Such a policy can only be enforced, of course, where the union has thorough control of the trade.

In many cases, where there is no regular bureau, and perhaps no formal registry of names, it is the duty of some officer of the union to know who is unemployed and to know where places are to be found, and to put the men into the vacancies. Where walking delegates or business agents are employed this is one of their regular duties. Trades which do not employ business agents sometimes have shop stewards, who are expected to report to the officers of the union any vacancies in their shops.

Many unions have devices for a broader dissemination of knowledge of opportunities for employment. Sometimes the official journals of the national organizations publish reports which have this purpose. The Stone Cutters' Journal fills much of its space with reports of the condition of trade in various localities, and with announcements of new undertakings which will make work for stonecutters. The Wood Carvers publish a monthly statistical report, which gives the working hours per week in each town where the union has a branch, the pay per hour, and the number of shops in each town in which trade is good, the number in which it is fair, and the number in which it is dull.

Several unions, when trade is dull, divide the available employment equally among their local members. It is a rule of the Tailors that work shall be equally divided among the members in slack times by means of a "turn list." The Ladies' Garment Workers and the Laundry Workers have similar rules. Among the Plate Printers also it is customary to give each member an equal share of the work in union shops. The German-American Typographia compels employers to take the men in the order of their registration on the union's book of unemployed. It has also adopted a 5-day week in some places, in order that more of its members may have work. The lithographers of New York lie idle on Saturday whenever work is dull, for the same purpose.

One of the most curious efforts to increase employment in a trade is that which was made a year or two ago by the Elastic Goring Weavers. Their trade is the weav ing of the elastic web which is put in the sides of congress gaiters. The union is a small and compact one, absolutely controlling the trade; but congress gaiters are so much out of fashion that work has for several years been dull with them. Their constitution requires every member to wear congress shoes; and in 1899 the union sent two members traveling through the country, to induce trade unionists of other occupations to buy congress gaiters in order to help the trade.

STRIKES, LOCKOUTS, AND BOYCOTTS.

Necessity of strikes.—The Union Boot and Shoe Worker of September, 1900, in advocating arbitration and deprecating strikes, said: "In arriving at a decision as to permitting a strike it should always be remembered that a strike is a dead loss to employer, to employee, and to the community." It is not often that so decided a condemnation of the policy of strikes can be found among expressions of trade-union opinion. Many written constitutions of national unions contain statements to the effect that strikes are to be regarded as a last resort, and are only to be undertaken when it is not possible by any honorable means to avoid them. No doubt the necessity of a strike is always regretted, so far at least that the union would prefer to secure its demands otherwise. That strikes are a necessary part of trade-union procedure, however, is an article of the faith of every union man.

The theory of bargaining assumes that the seller will refuse to sell unless he can get a satisfactory price. There is no other means by which a satisfactory price can be got. It is assumed, as a matter of course, that the buyer will give no more than the lowest price at which he can get the commodity. The workman, whether standing alone or organized in a union, appears in the market as a seller of a particular

commodity-labor. He supposes that he has the same right as a seller of steel to determine for himself the price that his commodity ought to bring. He supposes that he has the same right as the seller of steel to refuse to sell unless he can get his price. But the strike is neither more nor less than the refusal of a number of sellers of labor, acting, for the time being, in agreement, to sell their labor below the price which they consider just.

Inauguration of strikes.-The whole tendency of the union rules, as they develop with the increasing strength of the organizations, is to put a check upon rash and hasty strikes. Many of the national unions have made no attempt to remove the question in any degree from the control of the local unions. Even where this is the case, or where national organizations do not exist, the local constitutions usually require proper deliberation, and a vote of a majority, often a two-thirds or threefourths majority, before a strike may begin. The more highly organized national bodies have rules of the following general character: Before any action is taken looking toward a strike, the officers of the local union, or a committee chosen for the purpose, must approach the employers and try to reach a settlement of the existing difference by negotiation. Some unions direct that an effort be made for arbitration, if necessary, with the aid of an umpire. If these primary negotiations are unsuccessful, the local union votes on the question of sustaining the claim of its members, and resorting, if necessary, to a strike. A very large proportion of the national unions which have any elaborate rules at all upon the subject provide that a strike shall not be ordered except by a vote of two-thirds or three-fourths of the members present at the meeting. It is often required that every member be notified of the meeting, and in many unions it is specially provided that the vote be taken by secret ballot. The purpose of this is to leave every member free to vote against a strike if his judgment is against it. If the vote were open men might be ashamed to seem to shrink from standing by their comrades. In some unions no one can vote on the question of declaring a strike until he has been a member of the union three, or four, or six months. In a few a local can not go on strike until it has been affiliated with the national organization for six months, and in one case this period is extended to a year.

If the local votes for striking, its action must be reported to the national headquarters. It is often required that the report not only state in full the reasons for the action of the local, but also give in detail the number of members, the number who would be affected by the proposed strike, the number of nonunion men in the place, the state of the finances of the local, and other detailed information. On receipt of this report it is in many unions the duty of the national president to go to the place where the trouble exists, or send a personal representative there, and join with the local officers in renewing negotiations with the employers and trying once more to effect a peaceful settlement. Only after this renewed effort has failed is it permitted by the constitution of many unions that the national executive board approve by vote the action of the local. In some half dozen unions this power does not rest with the executive board, but with the members at large, and the local strike can be approved only by a referendum vote.

In the Knights of Labor, strikes, like every other important decision of the organization, are under the absolute control of the central authority. The Knights of Labor, however, differ in their centralized form of government from labor organizations in general. The rule is almost universal among the national trade unions that the affirmative decision to declare a strike can be made only by the local body immediately concerned. Only a veto is usually reserved to the central authority.

The national executive board of the Stove Mounters has power to order any local on strike on pain of a fine of not less than $25. The Broom Makers lodge power to order a strike in the president. In the United Mine Workers the primary decision of strike questions lies with the district officers, or, in case the trouble extends beyond

the limits of a district, in the hands of the national president; subject, in either case, to an appeal to the executive board. The Tin Plate Workers and the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers lodge the power to order strikes in the executive committees of the districts. One or two other unions give the national executive board power to order a strike by a four-fifths vote, under the exceptional conditions that more locals than one exist in a place, and that a majority of them refuse to sanction a strike on account of a grievance which directly affects one. With these exceptions the rule is believed to be universal that no strike can be ordered except by a vote of the local unions concerned. In many organizations not even a veto power resides in the central executive.

Control by national officers.-These detailed regulations are found in only a minority of the national unions; but they are common among the stronger and more highly organized. Even where they exist, however, it is not always easy to enforce them. Thus the president of the Machinists, one of the stronger organizations, lamented in his report to the convention of 1899 the impossibility of inducing the local lodges, and especially newly organized lodges, to comply with the constitution in inaugurating strikes. The lodges, he said, frequently strike without consulting the national officers, as the rules require, and then consider that they ought to receive the support of the national body, and threaten to disband if they do not receive it. A few national unions specifically authorize the executive board to expel any local which strikes without authorization. This is a power which the executive board would of course regret to use, and would probably refrain from using except in aggravated cases. In the majority of unions no such power exists, and the executive board can do no more than refuse to give financial aid. To make this more effective, some unions forbid the sending of appeals for help by one local direct to others, and require that all such appeals be sent through the national executive board. Effective control of the locals depends upon control of a common purse. So long as the national officers have nothing tangible to give or to withhold, the locals will often defy them and strike when they please, in spite of union rules. Very few unions have accumulated enough money in the national treasury to give important aid when trouble comes. The Cigar Makers, with over $300,000, have the largest war chest. Most organizations trust almost exclusively to raising funds as they are needed. The more strongly organized rely upon assessments, and the weaker upon contributions. If assessments were promptly paid, the power of the national union to assess might replace not ineffectively, in all but the most widespread strikes, a great accumulated fund. A comparatively small fund might bridge over the interval of a few weeks, which would be necessary, at the best, for setting the assessment machinery in motion. But assessments are likely not to be paid promptly, and it is often difficult to get them paid at all. The Stone Cutters are an old and strong organization; but it took them five years to pay the cost of a strike of 1890, which would have been fully covered by an assessment of $1.50 a member, if the assessment had been paid. Under such circumstances, the financial support of strikers is a matter of some doubt, and no strong feeling of dependence on the central authority can be developed in the locals.

In some of the British unions, though large common funds exist, the central authorities still find it impossible to control the striking propensities of the locals. This is because the union funds, though they are the common property of the whole membership, are distributed among the local treasuries, and are administered, for most purposes, by the local unions.

In the Amalgamated Society of Engineers there is a strike benefit of 5 shillings a week, administered by the central executive; but there is also an out-of-work donation of 10 shillings a week, controlled by the branch, but paid out of the general fund, and paid to men on strike as well as to other unemployed men. If men who are disposed to strike can get the approval of their local fellow-members, they are

sure of the larger part of their strike pay, and they snap their fingers at the central officers.1

If the national officers have an actual power to punish, as by the withholding of important financial support, the existence of the power can not but restrain, in some degree, the eagerness to strike; but the actual use of the power is likely to be waived. When a strike is once begun, the officers and members of the union are situated like men whose country is at war. The citizen may condemn the action of the statesmen who brought on the war; he may consider that the official course of his country in the preliminary disputes was indefensible; but, unless his notions of ethics are different from those of most men, when the war is begun he considers it his duty to consent to the measures that are necessary for the successful prosecution of it. So the superior officers of a union, when a strike is an accomplished fact, are likely to consider that their duty to the organization, to their fellow-members, and to their class, will be best done by supporting those to whom they are bound by fraternal ties. It should be added that the moral power of the national officers is an important factor in the control of the strike situation, and that the effects of it are important whether or not an actual power over the local unions, through control of finances or otherwise, exists. For instance, the Bricklayers have not supported a strike from their national treasury since 1894. Strikes on a large scale have almost disappeared among them. But this result has been obtained through the activity of the national officers in investigating complaints which the local unions have brought to their attention, and in mediating between the local unions and the employers. As is suggested elsewhere, the national officers, by virtue of their greater general intelligence, by virtue of their less direct connection with the local disputes, and by virtue of that conservatism which accompanies the sense of large responsibility, are almost always disposed to minimize the tendency to strike. Their influence, therefore, is on the side of peace.

2

Strike pay.-The relief to be given to strikers is left in many unions to the national executive board, and often depends, of necessity, upon the amount of money that is available. Many of the constitutions, however, fix the amount to which striking members are entitled. The sum named is usually a bare subsistence wage, from $4 to $8 a week. Often a distinction is made between married men, or those with families dependent on them, and those who have no one to support but themselves. Thus the Boiler Makers, the Typographical Union, the Pressmen, the Plate Printers, the Bricklayers, all give married men $7 a week and single men $5. The Machinists give married men $6 and single men $4. There is very little tendency to make the strike pay in any degree proportional to the customary earnings in the trade. The Lithographers, who make good wages, pay $10 to married men and $6 to single men, and the $10 rate is perhaps the highest given by any union. But the Flint Glass Workers, whose wages are very high, pay only $6, and the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers, whose average wages are such as very few other workmen can approach, pay only $4.

The cessation of strike pay is usually in the power of the executive board. In many cases a time limit is fixed by the constitution, though the executive board may even then have power to continue the strike support by a special vote. In some cases the amount of strike pay is diminished after a fixed period. The Cigar Makers pay $5 a week for 16 weeks, and afterwards $3 a week as long as the strike continues.

If the funds of the national union are to be properly protected, it is of course neccessary that some check be put upon the indolence and greed of some members, and upon the action of local officers. Two common provisions are that if a man refuses

1 Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Industrial Democracy, p. 94.

* For a description of the policy of this organization, see below, p. 126.

to accept employment in an establishment not affected by the strike his name must be stricken at once from the strike roll, and that if a member has worked for 3 or 4 days in any week he is not entitled to strike pay for that week. To make sure that the members are not earning wages and drawing strike pay also, it is often required that in order to draw the strike pay a member must appear each day at the local headquarters and sign a roll. Sometimes the roll is signed in triplicate, and at least one copy is sent to the national headquarters. A detailed report of all payments is required in many organizations to be sent weekly to the national secretary. Sometimes strike pay is disbursed by two members chosen by the local union for the purpose, and known as clerk and paymaster. The clerk makes out the pay rolls and the paymaster disburses the money. In some unions a third person is added, who is known as a receiver, and to whom, as the representative of the local union, all strike funds are turned over.

Sympathetic strikes.-Very little mention is made of sympathetic strikes in the written constitutions of the national unions. Two or three except sympathetic strikes from the restrictions imposed in other cases, so far as to permit local unions, though forbidden generally to strike without the previous approval of the national executive board, to join in a sympathetic strike without previous approval, and still to be entitled to the support of the national organization, provided the national executive board is satisfied, after investigation, that the local acted with discretion.

Boycotts.-Boycotts are scarcely mentioned in the constitutions of the national A few organizations forbid local unions to declare boycotts under any

unions.

circumstances.

There is probably no union man, however, who doubts the legitimacy of the boycott as a weapon of labor, or the necessity of using it. The broadest-minded and most conservative of the union leaders defend the right to use it, without hesitation or qualification, and regard the tendency of the courts to condemn it as one of the marks of the injustice with which they believe the working people to be treated by our rulers. The right to deal, or to refrain from dealing, with whomsoever he pleases, and for any reason which may appeal to him, is, they say, one of the most elementary rights of a free citizen. But if one man may select the persons he will deal with, two or a million may do so. The boycott is simply a common refusal on the part of a number of people to deal with a person whose action is believed to be antagonistic to their interest.

The courts and public opinion have sometimes made a distinction between the primary or simple boycott and the secondary or compound boycott, which consists in the refusal, or the threat of refusal, to deal with persons against whom no grievances are alleged, except that they support, by their patronage, persons who have incurred the displeasure of the boycotters. The unionists deny that such a distinction has any validity. The right of refusing to deal with particular persons is conceived as an absolutely general right, and it is denied that the courts or any public authority may properly coerce the individual in this regard. The position of the courts on this subject is more fully stated below, p. cxvIII.

The union attitude is set forth as follows by Mr. Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, in his testimony before the Industrial Commission: We may take it for granted that the most rabid antiboycott agitator will not venture to assert that boycotters may not resort to moral suasion in trying to enlist others, or that outsiders may not heed boycotters' appeals, and of their own free will suspend dealings with persons or firms that have incurred the displeasure of their friends or associates or patrons. Strikers have the right to appeal to their friends to aid them by going out on a sympathetic strike, and their friends have the right to act upon such an appeal. Precisely the same principle applies to boycotters. A sympathetic boycott is as legal and legitimate as a sympathetic strike. Just as men may strike for any reason, or without reason at all, so may they suspend dealings with merchants or others for any reason or for no reason at all. Thus a boycott may extend to an entire community without falling under the condemnation of any moral or constitutional or statutory law.