working people, and with the increased mobility of labor following modern improvements in transportation facilities, there came an inevitable expansion of the unit of government, accompanying these changes in what might be called the competitive area. The real unit became the national group of workers in the trade, or even the workers of several nations if real competition existed over so wide an area, and at present, instead of local clubs uniting to form national unions, we have national bodies deliberately organizing locals in places and trades where they have not previously existed. The local is at present rather the creature than the creator of the national.

However, this expansion of the governmental unit has not yet worked itself out completely, and we are still in an intermediate stage. The sovereignty is divided. Thus, most national unions may levy assessments, and direct or check strikes. But only in one or two unions like the United Mine Workers, is the power of assessment even theoretically unlimited; while with the exception of the United Mine Workers, the Broom Makers, the Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, and three or four others, no American national can force a local to strike against its will, or punish it adequately for inaugurating a strike without the national sanction. The average local still retains very extensive powers in theory, and in many unions is almost autonomous in practice. Nevertheless the powerful unions in general are those in which the national government is strong, and as the insurance benefit system is slowly spreading, and the competitive area gradually

widening, there is every reason to believe that the power of the national will increase.

This movement is a very encouraging one, because the increase in the power of the national means, in most cases, an increase in the power of the national administration, and the national officers are usually very superior men. This is best shown in the emergence of a group of honest, efficient union leaders exercising powers which were virtually unknown half a century ago in the United States. Many of these officials are retained in office practically during good behavior. Thus Mr. Powderly was General Master Workman of the Knights of Labor from 1879 to 1893; Mr. Gompers has been at the head of the American Federation of Labor since 1882 with the exception of three years; and Mr. Arthur was the executive of the Locomotive Engineers from 1874 until his death in 1903. This permanency of tenure and one-man power is irrespective of the kind of government: it has occurred alike in the centralized Knights of Labor, and the decentralized Federation of Labor; among the highly paid locomotive engineers and the poorly paid coal miners; it is merely another illustration of the unimportance of structure when compared with personnel.

5. Structure and Organization: It is almost needless to say that as the unions increased in number and power, a great variety of federations were formed. First of these federations in point of time were the trades alliances or municipal federations, often called "centrals" or "city centrals." Then came the state or district federations,

for the purpose of looking after labor legislation, settling inter-union quarrels, etc., within the limits of the state or some larger district. There followed-no exact chronological order can be discerned here, however, -the industrial federations generally, some, like the National Building Trades Council, charged with the settlement of virtually all those larger questions which affect all the trades of a given industry, others confining themselves strictly to one or two specified functions like the maintenance of a joint lobby or the combination of forces in case of strikes. One of the most recent forms of industrial federation is the alliance between the employers and employees of a given industry, for the common increase of wages and profits through monopolistic control of prices. Finally we have the general federation of trade unions covering an entire country, like the American Federation of Labor.

Throughout the whole of the period in which trade unions were expanding and federating, a different and partially antagonistic force was at work-the feeling that trade unionism means trade selfishness, and that the whole laboring population should be united in a strongly centralized union in which the power of the skilled artisans could be used to protect and support the weaker classes of unskilled labor. It was this desire for amalgamation which led, in the United States, to the formation of the labor union, as distinguished from the trade union. Amalgamation in the labor union assumes different forms. In some cases, e. g., the Knights of Labor, the trades are

mixed in the local unions, as well as in the national organization.1 In other cases, trade unions are incorporated in such a way as to preserve their individuality, although, of course, trade autonomy is destroyed by the centralization of power in the general government.

As has already been pointed out, the labor unions differ from the trade unions not only in structure, but in tactics and policy as well. In very recent times a third class of unions has appeared which differ from the trade unions in structure, but pursue the old traditional trade-union. policies, and fraternize with the trade bodies in the American Federation of Labor. These are the so-called industrial unions or "industrials," in which all the workers in a single industry, irrespective of trade, are grouped together under the same government. Some of the industrials, like the United Mine Workers, merge the different trades in the local unions; others, like the United Brewery Workers, form local trade units, but amalgamate them in the national organization. The essential difference between the industrial and the labor union, however, is illustrated by the fact that the industrial unions are just as jealous of industrial autonomy as the trade unions are of trade autonomy. The several classes of industrial unions, together with those previously described and a few other species, are grouped together in the following classification:

1 The mixed local or federal union is also employed by the Federation of Labor as a temporary "recruiting station" for the trade unions, in occupations or places where for various reasons trade locals can not at the time be organized.

CLASSIFICATION OF LABOR ORGANIZATIONS ACCORDING TO STRUCTURE AND JURISDICTION

With mixed locals, e. g. United Mine Workers.

Unskilled labor unions, e. g. London and Counties Labor League.
Local amalgamations, e. g. Mixed Assemblies of the Knights of Labor.
General Amalgamations, e. g. Knights of Labor.