The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-29
GROWTH OF UNIONS IN UNITED STATES Shipwr!ght First Organized In
 1903 TAILORS FOLLOW IN 1906 Printers Were First Craft to Extend Their Organization All Over the country-Strength
 in 1907.
TAILORS FOLLOW IN 1906

The shipwrights formed a society in New York city in 1903, and the tailors and also the carpenters did this in 1906 In the same town. This, says the Gate way, may be said to have been the be- ginning of labor unionism in the United States
 In the next four or five decades or ganizations were established in most of the great industries. some of which lasted only few years. Many of tn ese gradually became national
 The printers were the first craft of any consequence to extend their organ ization all over the country. They es- tablished the National Typographical union in 1852. So as to take In Canada they established the International Typographical union in 1862. being the leader also in this broader field
 The formation of great corporations and the immense expansion in indus try which began soon after the civil war melted larger labor combinations than had existed prior to that time. Some of these formed the National La Dor union, established at a convention In. Baltimore in 1866 which entered pol tiles in 1872 by nominating the labor reform ticket putting Charles O'Conor up for President.
 It's votes we're few, and it attracted no general attention in the campaign. That broke up the comb bination and labor societies, societies. kept out of pol itics for the next few years. As soci- cities their most extensive participa- ton in politics was in the congressional campaign of 1906.
 Starting as a local secret society in Philadelphia in 1869 and holding its first general assembly in 1878, the Knights of Labor was the earliest so- ciety which aimed to gather all the workers of all trades into a single or ganization. It had 800, ,000 in 1886, with Terence V. Powderly as the head.
 Then began it's decline and fall. It's strike on the Gould system of railways in St. Louis and the southwest in 1885 it won. but the larger strike in 1886 on the same roads it lost.
 From that time onward it gradually sh runk in importance. Today 1t Is only sh adow of it's former greatness.
 The American Federation of Labor rose as the Knights of Labor fell. At a convention in Columbus, O., in 1886 the American Federation of Labor was formed and it has gradually absorbed nine- tenths of all the labor organiza- tions of the United States. In it the several crafts retain their autonomy,
  eration
 In 1907 the American Federation Of Labor comprises 119 national and in- ternational unions and claims to have g. OOO.O 900 members. The affiliated un- ions publish 246 weekly or monthly papers devoted to the cause of labor.
 The federation's head is Samuel Gompers and it's organ of which he Is the editor, is the American Fedora tionist.
 Outside of the American Federation are about fifteen labor organizations. the most important of which Is the Knights of Labor, the Stone Masons International union, the Bricklayers and Masons' union and the various switchmen, conductors and others.
 The societies not affiliated with the American Federation of Labor nave a membership of about 500,000, making the membership of all the labor socie- ties of the United States In the aggre- gate, about 2,500,00O.