The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-11-09
IN FANEUIL HALL.
American Federation of Labor
Assemblies in Boston.
Twenty-third Annual Conven-
tion Of the Organization.
GREAT IMPORTANCE.
Position Regarding National
Politics to Be Considered.
Child Labor, Eight Hour Day
and the Miller Case.

delegates numbering nearly 500 the |
American Federation of Labor today |
opened in Faneuil hall its twentythird /
annual convention. Although the sub T
jects to be taken up at the convention /
had NOT been announced. labor leaders
say that the meetings are expected to /
prove among the most important for /
the consideration of problems arising |
out of the relation of capital and labor
ever held in the United States. Nearly
all the delegates, including President |
Samuel Gompers and John Mitchell. |
the president of the United Mine
Workers, have arrived The pro-
gramme for today's sittings includes
the usual formal welcoming of dele
gates. the appointment of committees.
and the presentation of the reports Of
some of the principal officers.
Discussions in which the delegates
have indulged since reaching the city
indicate that among the important
questions to be considered by the con-
vention will be whether the fedora
tion's affiliated membership shall ally
themselves with any particular polit-
ical party. Child labor, the eight-hour
work day and the Miller case at
Washington are also expected to come
up-
President Gompers submitted his
annual report. which was in part as
follows:
1T is a source of qualification in
which you will fully share that I am
enabled to report that never in the
history of the labor movement. in this
or in any other country, or for that,
never in the history of any movement
for the uplifting of the toiling masses.
has there been such a uniform growth
in the number of unions formed. or in
the number of wage-workers becoming
az Ia0rs r -fcff
transpired within the past year From
October /. 1902. to September 80, 1903,
we issued from the American Fedora
ton Of Labor the following charters:
international unions ..... 20
State declarations .............. 8
Central labor unions ............... Ill
Local trade unions and federal
LABOR unions .-.--..........--...,- -1.139
Total ....... ........1. 1888
Nineteen of these twenty interna-
! tional unions were organized and in
lstituted by US from formerly affiliated
chartered local unions. which accounts
for the large number of charters of
local unions surrendered to the Amer
lean Federation of Labor during the
past gear.
Five international unions have
amalgamated or merged into other in
/ ternational unions during the year.
/ Since the close of the fiscal year, and
not enumerated herein. one other inn
!
has become affiliated.
AT the end of the fiscal year, Octo-
ber 1, 1903, we had affiliated to the
American Federation of Labor
International unions - 113*
i state declarations -................. 20
Central labor unions ........... $40
Local trade unions and federal
| labor unions Observation-Disclosures. 1,747
THE gain in membership of our af-
! filiated international unions and of the
American Federation of Labor during
the past fiscal year has been 442, 100; the
average membership upon which per
capita tax was paid to the American
Federation of Labor during the year
was /, ,465, 800.
'Of course, it is understood that the
membership at the close of the fiscal
year is much larger by reason of the
TACT that our reports of the membership
| of affiliated organizations are based up
on the average paid up membership re-
ported for the year, and the lesser
number OF the beginning Of the year is
subtracted from the increase during the
| latter part Of the year, in order that the
| average may be struck. Then, again, it
is well known that many local unions
do not report to the international unions
all the members upon their books. Par
| ticularly is this SO where there exists
any arrearage in payment of dues, while
at the same time those holding travel
ing cards are scarcely ever enumerated.
/ Per capita was paid for the last
month of the fiscal year, September
1903, upon the following membership
| 1,745, ,270.
THE first convention of the Fedora
ton was attended by a number who
were not favorably disposed toward
either its formation or its success. 1t
was a difficult task to protect the Fed
GRAFTON from it's enemies within as well
without Nineteen delegates appeared
at the convention in 1882, only six inter
national unions being presented. The
years of struggle and sacrifices of these
t~,- e
haps never be told or written, for with
the confidence of the workers almost
destroyed in organizations and men,
they were either opposed or Indifferent,
and withheld their support Looking
back to those days of wavering friends,
of secret and subtitle opposition, with the
hosts OF labor disheartened and discour-
aged, and now viewing the splendid
: vantage to which we have gained, with
the respect and confidence of our fel-
lows who daily gather within the fold
of unionism, it must instn deeply in
the hearts and minds of all who are
sincerely engaged in the movement for
the uplifting of the masses, renewed
courage, renewed energy, and renewed
hope and confidence in that great
cause with which we have the honor to
be associated and which, if read the
| signs of the times correctly, with the
earnestness, devotion and increasing in
telligence of our fellow-workers, is ultl-
mateIy bound to triumph.
THE wage -earners now stand in need
of organization more than at any prev
ious time in history. The wonderful I'M
provements in machinery and in the
) tools of labor; the application OF the
great propelling forces of steam ana
electricity; the division, subdivision,
and classification of labor; the tremen-
: dous energy and industry of our fellow
r workers enormously increasing their
: productive power; these, together with
concentration of wealth ana INDUSTRY