- "2. The establishment of a general fund for benefit and protective purposes.
- "3. The organization of all workingmen in their Trade Unions, and the creation of such unions where none exist.
- "4. The National and International Amalgamation of all Labor Unions."
- This union achieved a membership of about 8,000 members within the year, almost entirely textile workers. It elected a delegate to attend the next Trades Congress of England. But a series of strikes in the textile industry, which failed, reduced the membership so that no funds were available to send the delegate. This union, through one branch in Hoboken, maintained a nominal existence until 1887, when it disappeared.
- 160. How many trades were organized nationally at the close of the '70's?
- There were in the neighborhood of thirty. There were, however, Trades Assemblies in about thirty-five cities and counties in which more than a hundred different trades were represented.
- 161. When was the American Federation of Labor formed?
- In 1881, in Pittsburgh. It was then known as the Federated Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. In 1886 it resolved itself into the A. F. of L.
- 162. Was the A. F. of L. designed to be a national economic organization when created?
- The call for the first convention was vague on this point. There would appear to have been an implication that the federated unions would act unitedly whenever an emergency arose. The call stated that "only in such a body (a federation of trades) can proper action be taken to promote the general welfare of the industrial classes. There we can discuss and examine all questions affecting the national interests of each and every trade, and by a combination of forces secure that justice which isolated and separated trades and labor unions can never fully command." To the rank and file such "a combination of forces" could only mean industrial joint action, while the officials might interpret it to mean whatever they desired.
- The idea of a lobbying committee was put plainly,
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