Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1915-01-21
Garment Workers
Educate Members

A most interesting experiment ia
being carried on in New York tbs
year by the international Ladies' Gar.
ment Workers Union, the Bird largest
organization in the ranks of American
Organized Labor.
The convention held at Cleveland
last June took up the question vi ed-El
cation of union members. 1t was uni.
versally recognized that this union,
like many others, suffers from the fact
that very few of its members have any
thorough understanding of the labor
movement and its problems, 50 that
all the burden of responsibility in the
international and the various locals
falls on a comparatively small number
oil persons, who seldom receive hearty
and enicient support from the rank and
tile. These so-called leaders get all
the blame for Whatever may go Wrong.
while The receive only too little credit
for what they achieve under sucA dill
cult conditions. The delegates at
Cleveland agreed that the most neces.
sary Step to strengthen the organiza.
ton for the great work it mas before
it, was to start work of systematic
education of the rank and file. After
general discussion the matter was re-
lerred to the General Executive Board
and a special committee on education
working handiin hand with it, ana tney
nave since worked out an elaborate
plan.
1ne International Union has entered
into an agreement with the land
School of Social Science, a working
mems college located at 140 East Nine
teenth Street, New York City, and haV-
Ling branches in various parts of the
country, which has been doing Yalu-
able work for education for more tnan
eight years. Under the ojints dlree-
ton of the Union and School, regular
course of instruction. is now beng CIV
en- to a class of more than lou meII.
bers Of the organization.
l.: The class meets twice week, on
Thursday evenings and Sunday after
moons. 1t began its first week in pee:
ember and will go on till the end Of
April.
The course includes such subjects as
Movement, with special reference TO
the garment industry; Labor Politics,
Labor Legislation, and Workmen's In
surance; the Legal Rights of Trade
Unions; Practical Problems and Me
thods of Union Activity, both in time
lof strike and in time of peace. These
subjects are being treated partly
through carefully arranged Lectures,
given by such men as Morris Hillquit
and Jacob Panken, lawyers well known
for their services to the garment work
er's unions Meyer London, another Ia
Dor lawyer who was elected to Con-
gress last November in the Twelfth
New York District; 1. M. RubinoW, the
foremost American authority on the
subject of insurance against accident,
sickness, old age and Unemployment;
Algernon Lee, Educational Director OF
| the Rand School, and others. Besides
| the lectures, there are class sessions
in which the students, meeting in small
groups, review the topics dealt with
in the lectures and receive instruction
in elementary civics, methods of union
work, and to some extent in grammer
and composition.
Great interest is being shown, and
at the last moment the number of Jun.
ion members applying for admission
to the class was more than could be &C
comodated. 1T is expected that the
course will be repeated on larger
scale next season, and it will probably
be extended to other cities where the
l. l.. G.. w. U. is largely represented.