United labor bulletin., 1913-06-14
Denver Has Only Or
ganization Of This
Class in the West.
Some Interesting History OF How
the Movement Has Grown in
Great Britain.

Denver has the only union of COM
mercial office workers in the west. 1t
is chartered by the American Fedora
tion of Labor, under the name CT
Stenographers' Bookkeepers' and
Office Assistants association, No.
14491. 1t is affiliated with the Trades
and Labor Assembly and the member
ship has steadily increased since or
ganization about four months ago, and
is for the mutual benefit of both men
and women.
The officers of the local organiza-
tion are: President, Maude w. Dun
can; vice president, Fannie NJ. Peter
sen; secretary-treasurer, Mamie M.
Hickey; recording secretary, Lillian
Schaetzel; the secretary's office being
COS Railroad building.
Meetings are held on the second
and fourth Tuesday nights of each
month at 31S Club building All wor *
ers engaged in this general office line
are invited to become members. Ap-
plications may be filed with the Sec
retary.
Ernest Tuttle, who recently came to
this country, tells an interesting story
of the National Union of Clerks of Eng
land, and says that while office work
ers are notoriously hard to organize, in
Great Britain experience has shown
that by means of hard work even these
victims of foolish snobbishness can be
induced to realize the necessity for
combination and to band themselves
together in a militant trade union.
History of Movement.
The history of the National Union
of Clerks in England is an interesting
story of the success which enthusiasm
and hard work can accomplish under
the most discouraging conditions.
Seven years ago this organization had
membership of about $50 members,
the majority residents of London. 1t
was at this time. and still is, the only
real trade union for office workers in
the country. There exists one or two
other organizations, as for instance
the Scottish Clerks association, but
these are purely benefit societies
which provide their members with
sickness and unemployed pay. They
are not in any sense trade unions,
and number many employers among
their members and management.
There is one other union, the Railway
Clerks association, which is a strict
trade union, and is linkedup with the
general labor movement, but this
union is open only to railway clerks.
For commercial clerks and office
workers of every description, how
ever, the N. u. C., as it is known, is
the only organization with a trade
union basis.
its membership from 150 to be
tween $4,000 and $4,000.
The year 1906 was time of ger eral
labor revival in England. The work
ers had emerged from the slumbel
and depression induced by the South
African war, the labor party was tri-
umphantly returned to the House OF
Commons. and everywhere "a hopeful
spirit prevailed. In this the n. u. c.
participated, and, aided by an en-.
ergetic secretary, whose commercial
work enabled him to get over the
country easily, it increased it's mem.
,bership by several hundreds in this
year.
Makes Rapid Increase.
Then a policy of decentralization
was adopted. In London the one large
branch was split up into many small
ones. The same process was fol
lowed later in one or two other large
towns where the branches We're strong
enough of being divided. This policy
had most gratifying results, bringing
about a rapid increase in membership.
Each new branch meant a new center
of activity and new set of officials
imbued with the idea that they had
to justify their existence. Then, as
each branch had its own particular
field. the members were able to de-
vote themselves more thoroughly to
the work of getting in new members
who lived there. and were able to
ferret out particular cases of poor pay
and bad conditions, which served as
useful platform material. Nearly all
the branches became members OF
their district trade councils. In this
way they became recognized part of
the labor movement in the district
and as such were able to bring pres
sure on public bodies and even pri-
vate employers when they had griev-
ances to remedy.
In London and several other parts
of the country there are district coun-
oiI iI, II; -