which "could be elected to urge and advance legislation at Washington on all such measures."
- The idea was also advanced that "a federation of this character can be organized with a few simple rules and no salaried officers." That is an idea from which the federation has traveled very far indeed.
- 163. Did the A. F. of L. become a national movement?
- It has not yet become so. It is merely a political body imposed upon the affiliated international unions, whose function is to solicit consideration for labor from Congress, decide questions of jurisdiction between the component unions, but without power to enforce its decisions. It cannot order or call off strikes, nor commit the unions composing it to any program, nor prohibit anything that any of them may decide upon. It is not a national movement, but is resigned to prevent the formation of an economic movement upon a national or international scale. Only upon two occasions did it make attempts to function nationally in an economic way: First, on the occasion of the 8-hour strike in May, 1886, and again when a decision was reached in the 1888 convention to make a united effort to establish the eight-hour day on May 1, 1890. The vote favoring this suggestion was 38 to 8. The convention in 1889 revoked the decision to institute a general strike, and adopted a program whereby one union would strike and receive financial backing. After the union selected had won the eight-hour day, another union would be designated to make the demand; until the eight-hour day was generally established. For the purposes of supporting such unions as would be designated "the Executive Council was authorized to levy a special assessment of two cents per week per member for a period of five weeks."
- 164. How did this program work out?
- The Carpenters' Union was the first one selected to make the trial on May 1, 1890. The carpenters are reported to have "won the eight-hour day in 137 cities, and gained the nine-hour day in most other places." The miners were selected to make the fight in 1891, but in the months prior to May, the miners, whose organization did not include more than one-tenth of the mine workers, became involved in a strike in the Connellsville coke region. In this emergency they requested
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