The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1909-01-16
OFFICIAL LETTER FROM
the GENERAL OFFICE
Relative to Certain Deliverances
of the American Federation
at Denver Convention.
STATUS OF MEMBERSHIP
IN. ALL ORGANIZATIONS
Untiring Efforts to Secure the
Enactment of Certain Remedial
Legislation Is Urged.

A communication under date of
Dec. %, 1908, from the Executive
Officers of the American Federation
Of Labor, addressed to the State
Branches and Central Labor Unions,
calls special attention to certain mat
ters considered by the Denver Con-
vention, a brief reference to which is
as follows:
I. Allegiance.
That the State Federations of Labor
and the city Central Bodies shall be
required to comply fully with Section
1, Article II, of the Constitution of the
A. F.. of L., which prohibits the recog-
milton of delegates of organizations or
of Local Unions which owe allegiance
to any other body. National or Inter-
national, hostile to any affiliated or
further, that the Central Labor
Unions shall comply with Section 8,
Article II, of the Constitution of the
"A. F.. of L.. which provides that no
Central Body shall reject credentials
presented by duly selected delegate
of a Local Union chartered by a Ma
tional Or International Union affil-
lated with the A. F.. of l..
2. List Of Membership.
That the secretaries of Central
Labor Unions shall prepare whenever
practicable lists of the membership,
with the post-office addresses of their
several affiliated unions, these lists to
be available, under proper restric-
f0 hn
ognized bodies of organized labor for
the purpose of spreading needed or
useful information to the members
That the secretaries of the Central
Bodies, as far as possible, shall pre-
pare similar lists of the non n-union
workmen in their respective districts,
such lists to be similarly kept and
used as the lists OF union members:
T. g. Remedial Legislation.
b 1. That the State FedereatiQns xsof
Labor are urged to secure the ena Ct
ment of laws by the various State leg
islatures, requiring that proper and
sanitary sleeping accommodations and
shelter be provided for workmen en-
gagged in the construction of public
works, 1t having been shown that in
localities other than. cities and thickly
. settled centers, in the digging and
construction work undertaken by the
Federal and tSate governments, as
, well as by private corporations, condi-
t1ons which are destructive of health
and morals and dangerous to life gen.
orally obtain
2. That the State Federations of
Labor are strongly advised to initiate
legislation ntheir respective States
favoring the maintenance of special
hospitals for the care and treatment
OF consumptives in States where such
7 hospitals do not now exist
K =. That State Federations of Labor
and the Central Labor Unions provide
Legislative Committees; that in de-
!. f1ning the duties of such Legislative
Committees it shall be specified that
they shall watch the Congressional
Record, keep in touch with the Legis-
i Federation of Labor, stationed at
Washington, D. c., and bring before
+ such State Federations and Central
{ Labor Unions all matters of interest
to our movement; and further, that
i they shall regard as unofficial any
report on legislative matters that may
come to them unless such report
f comes from the headquarters of the
American Federation of Labor over
the signature of the PRESIDENT.
Ii e. 4. That the convention favors the
appointment OF representatives of
% organized labor on every State COM
mission on uniform laws, and it there
n fore behooves the State Federations
.4Sof Labor and Central Bodies to exert
every honorable influence to have this
i recommendation carried into effect.
z S. That the State Federations and
Central Labor Unions shall assist the
American Federation of Musicians in
h every legitimate manner in the en-
. deavor of that organization to elimi-
nate the employment of juvenile
4 bands of various institutions for other
y than educational purposes; that is,
that these bands of children and
y young boys shall not be allowed to
j come into competition with adult
!, musicians
|; 6. That the union labels of the
various National and International
\ Unions, heretofore approved, be re-
Il 1ndorsed and that the campaign of
g education and agitation for the union
label be insistently carried on.
S 4. LincoIn's Birthday.
3s$t The convention, by unanimous
vote, recommended that February H.,
@519O9, the centennial anniversary of
the birth of Lincoln, be made a holi-
day wherever possible by the organ
Slzat1ons affiliated with the American
SgFederation of Labor; and further,
that proper and necessary steps be
taken to have the Federal Govern
and the legislatures of the sew
8eral States enact laws making Febru-
4, ,Sary IL legal holiday.
s#s5H our attention is called to the fact
that the second session Of the Sixtieth
ss Congress has begun; that the Legis-
sSlat1ve Committee of the American
sFederation Of Labor has an office at
h #gnleadquarters, l and that Committee,
AAfnrough the President Of the "A. F, OF
%t}'ri1.h