Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-10-10
AMERICAN FEDERATION
Executive Council ofLabor Organizations to
Meet in Washington.
Forthcoming Report of Delegates to
Congress of habSr Leaders in
EnG1and-Au Abstract

= NNNAt'ei'i VI lLdbOi mas DetU GATED u
meet in Washington the 9th instant. The
object of the meeting is understood TO be
the consideration of various reports to be
submitted at the annual convention of the
organization, which meets in Kansas City,
Mo, in December.
Mr.. James Duncan vice president of the
American Federation of Labor. who. with
Mr.. ]. B. Lloyd represented the trades
unicnists of the United States at the con-
gress Of labor leaders held recently in Bris-
tol, England, expects to attend the meet
ing of the executive council but will defer
the presentation of his report in the British
congress until the meeting Of the annual
convention. portion of the report of
Messrs Duncan and Lloyd will be as fol-
lows:
The trade union movement in Great Bri
tain, with its longer experience and the
fact OF its participants being almost all
Oh one nation. is at the present time on a
more secure basis than Is the trade union
movement of the United States The jeal-
ousies of the various nationalities in the
United States operate to some extent
against the solidarity of labor legislation
and trade union progress.
The business of the Bristol congress is
much more of a legislative nature than the
business of our American federation con-
Vehtlons Its principal work consisted in
united with its approval to the British par
lament for enactmen into law
The parliamentary Committee.
lone important act of the congress was
the appointment of what is known as the
parliamentary committee. The duties of
this committee are to endeavor, as best it
can, to have bills Endorsed by the CON
gross made plain to parliament, and to
nave the same passed possible. In this
particular the congress seemed less ham,
pered in its action than our own fedora
ton convention, owing to the fact that in
Great Britain there is written constitu-
tloh to come in contact with in the passage
OF the laws. Our British cousins seemed
TO be fully alive to their advantage in
TINS particular, and by an almost unani-
nous vote they declared in favor of the
eight-hour workday. The only objection
was by the Cumberland county coal miners
who are now working uniform seven-and-
a-half-hour workday, and in consequence
of which they dread a legal enactment es-
tabiishing an eight-hour day. lest they be
compelled by the influence the bill would
carry to work an extra half hour per day
The discipline of the congress was fair
u good, and could only come about through
years of training and by the fact that the
organizations are in the habit of sending
their executive officers as delegates who,
by virtue of the fact of being the law
makers, could not be expected to be their
own law breakers.
NO stronger argument is needed to sub
stantiate the position of the British
ployers than the evidence recently sub
mitted by the employers of machiniSts be-
fore the United States Senate committee
on education and labor on the federal eight
hour bill in reference to the employees. The
British employer has not been slow to take
advantage of the fact that the Bethlehem
iron works, the Newport News Shipbuild-
ing Company and certain other shipbuild-
ING in h all
concerns, have lost no, opportunity to pub
ltsh to the world at large the fact that
their employees, during the recent crisis
have worked from ten to fourteen hours
per day. We, therefore, find that the nom
union concerns in some instances operated
against the demands of the machinists for
an eight-hour day. .-p 3d.
A CIOser-Tnion.
1.-The general tenor of the feeling of the
delegates to the British congress toward
the United States was that, great as are
the reasons for the two countries getting
closer together, politically, there were
stronger reasons for the large number of
wage-Workers in both countries to ge.
closer together on trade lines, and for the
advancement of the Englsh-speaking race.
An idea to that effect. thrown out by Mr..
Duncan, found a ready response. 1t is
considered at the present time but a short
while until not only fraternal delegates
will be sent from one country to the other,
and vice versa, but that delegates from the
United States will be seated with both
voice and vote in the British congresses,
and that in the same way British dele
gates will be similarly seated in the Amer"
lean Federation of Labor convention. The
fIaternal delegates from this country were
received with open arms by the Britons,
and to the casual observer it was readily
apparent that by a linking Of interest trade
affairs both here and there, If conducted
on peaceful lines, could not fail. There
are lessons to be learned by the trade
unionists of this country from old unions
of Great Britain, and, on the other hand,
the copy from our United States organiZa-
tons on trade label Registration, the union
label being almost entirely unknown On
the other side of the Atlantic.