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Workers of America alone retrained from taking an active part in this convention.

In Copenhagen an international convention of clothing workers was held, in which the Amalgamated and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union participated. It considered questions of importance to the industry, including immigration. One of the projects taken up was the distribution of accurate information regarding the industrial conditions in the various countries, so that tailors would not flock to places where no employment was to be obtained.

15. Present Tendencies

What the future has in store for the trade union movement in the United States is merely a matter of conjecture, but many believe that a crisis is at hand in which it may see rapid changes. The open-shop campaign of the employers, combined with the reactionary national administration, may bring to a head tendencies which have been gathering force now for some years. It is probable, at least, that the trend toward industrial unionism will become more pronounced, and that a more aggressive leadership will before many years succeed the present regime of the American Federation of Labor. In addition to this, some look for a drift toward independent political action, toward growth of the co-operative movement, or toward an increase of

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