Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/456

* TBABE UNIONS. •MS TRADE UNIONS. The latter estimate is secured by allowing 100 members for each delegate to the convention. The figures for 189005 inclusive are taken from the reiJort of the Industrial Commission and are based upon the actual number of delegates at the conventions. The figures for 1806-1902 are based upon the estimate made by the secretary of the American Federation of the number of delegates entitled to sit in the conventions, published in the Proceedings of the 22d Annual Convention of the Federation. To avoid duplication, the mem- bers of city centrals and State branches have been excluded. The real membership of the unions affiliated with the Federation is un- doubtedly much greater than the paid-up mem- bership indicated in the table, owing to the com- mon custom of paying the per capita tax, on which the representation is based, upon a part only of the actual membership. Trade Unions and the Law. The develop- ment of the law in the United States has been ditt'erent from that in England. A few early cases are recorded in which trade unions were declared illegal, but as early as 1821 in Penn- sylvania and 1842 in Massachusetts a view diametrically opposite to the English law was taken, and since has been consistently main- tained by American courts, except in so far as it has been modified in very recent years by the antitrust acts. Workmen may com- bine to improve the conditions of their em- ployment and agree not to work for less than a certain amount, or to refuse to work for employ- ers paying less than this amovint, without active interference from the legal authorities; and in several important cases the courts have gone to the point of recognizing the legality of the by- laws of unions and even of enforcing them (Master Stevedores' Association i Walsh, 2 Daly, 1 ; People v. Musical Mutual Protective Union, 118 N. Y. 101). Our legislatures have gone even further than the courts in recognizing the legality of the purposes of trade unions. The Federal Government and many of the largest States have enacted statutes providing for the in- corporation of trade unions under exceptionally favorable conditions. But onlj' an imappreciable percentage of unions have taken advantage of the incorporation laws, and labor leaders are practi- cally unanimous in opposing it, on the ground that it would subject the imions to an indefinite num- ber of vexatious and costly suits at law. The State legislatures have also conferred several spe- cial privileges upon labor organizations. Massa- chusetts and Kansas, for instance, have exempted labor organizations from the operation of the statutes regulating fraternal beneficiary asso- ciations: and about fifteen of our largest States have passed statutes prohiliiting employers from discharging workmen for joining labor organi- zations, and even from making it a condition of employment that they should not belong to such organizations. Finally, at least two States and many local legislative bodies have enacted laws providing, directly or indirectly, that cer- tain public work — usually printing — shall he per- formed only liy luiion labor. Within recent years the legal status of trade imions has been seri- ously afTected. at least in theory, by the so-called antitrust acts passed by Congress and many State legislatures, making contracts or combi- nations in restraint of trade or commerce illegal. The Federal statute, which is concerned, of course, only with inter-State trade and commerce, has been held to applj' to a labor organization of draymen and longshoremen {U. S. v. Working- men's AinaUjutniiii'd (Uiunril, 54 F. R., 994) ; and the same interpretation will probably be given to the State statutes save where they are specifically labor organizations. Little or no attempt has been made to dissolve unions or punish their officers under anti-trust statutes, but where these laws apply the legality of the most reputable unions is seriously threatened. Trade Unions in Other Countries. While probably the germs of labor organizations in al- most every country of Continental Europe may be found in earlier and even in niedia?val organiza- tions and movements, they owe their present strength, spirit, and methods chiefi.v to the socialistic propaganda ; most of them have re- mained in close connection with the Social Democratic parties, and many of them — partic- ularly in France, Belgium, Italy, and the Scan- dinavian countries — are as much political clubs as trade unions. (See Socialism.) There are, however, a number of strict trade unions on the Continent — particularly among the printers — and this number is continually increasing. As the Continental labor union grows older and more powerful, it manifests a stronger disinclination to be treated as a mere appendage of a political ])arty. The Continental union was late in de- veloping. The year 18(54, which marks the forma- tion of the International Workingmen's Associa- tion (see Internationale), furnishes a substan- tially accurate date for the beginning of the trade union movement on the Continent. The political character of Continental unionism has decreased its efficiency bv dividing the forces of labor into several semi-hostile groups. In Germany, for instance, we find the la1)or organi- zations divided into three distinct classes: A group of 'peace' unions, known as the Hirsch- Dunclccrsche Gcu-erkvereine, with 88,279 mem- bers (in 1898), assert the essential harmony of interests between employers and employees and depend upon arbitration and friendly benefits rather tlian strikes for the improvement of the conditions of employment. Clearly distinguished from the former by their aggressive methods in general are the socialistic Gewerlcschaften, which in tirn are divided into two groups over the question of direct participation in politics: the unions federated under the Central Commission (with 493,742 members) advocating a separation of the labor and the socialistic movements, and the local organizations (with 17,500 members approximately) opposed to this separation. The Christian. Unions, with 1G1.517 meml)ers. con- stitute a third class distinct from and opposed to the preceding groups by their anti-socialistic principles. In Bel.sium the labor organizations are practically dominated by the political parties. In France the factional quarrels of the socialists have been carried into the labor organizations, with the consequence that in al- most every city the trades are grouped into several hostile unions whose antagonism makes unity of action almost impossible. In Australia, on the other hand, where according to some au- thorities as many as 75 per cent, of the male workingmen belong to trade unions, and where the unions have secured a large proportion of