The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-19
By DAVID J. SAPOSS
(From The Survey)

Some years ago several labor leaders of the Northwest con- ceived the idea of bringing to- gether the various craft unions who claimed Jurisdiction over workers in the railway shops of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railways, for a con- certed organizing campaign. Their efforts were rewarded with such success, that they decided to present their demands jointly in stead of following the old cus- tom of each craft union present. ing its demands separately. After 8 tussle, the managements of the two railroads settled with them. Here then was a new model in the labor movement that accom- plfshed the seemingly impossible by forcing two large railway systems to come to terms with its shop employees. Natura y it was copied on other railway systems, and we are now familiar with the system federation of railway shop workers. The shop workers must not be confused with the BrotherhQods who include the highly skilled workers in the operating end. The next step was to bring the various system federations together into a rail- way employees department and the new model was complete. The strengh of this form of or ganizaIon is fresh m the minds of the public, as it required the appeal of the President of the United States to keep the shop men from tying up the railroads of the country last summer. A strike of over a week crippled transportation ia New England and other sections
 The metal trades have also a department in the American Federation of Labor and have pursued this policy with cumula- tive results
 The difference between the old and new form in the railway shops is this: Formerly each national or international craft union had absolute control over it's own members, and bar gained separately with the em- ployers. Under the new model the individual craft organizations still retain control, for disciplin- ary and financial purposes, of their own members, but for bar gaining purposes or carrying on business negotiations with the employers they no longer act alone. Now a super-structure of al the unions having members in the industry Is formed-a sys- tenn federation, and railway em ployes department of the railway shop workers-enabling them to face the employers jointly, and in case of a strike, to attempt to tie up not a department, or plant but all the railway shops if an amIcable adjustment is not reached.
 Of the producing industries in which foreign workers predom- mate, the packing industry was the first to which the new model was applied. Since 1904 the teamsters' union had been the only one receiving recognition in the Chicago stock yards. All the other workers were unorganiz- ed.
 In 1917, the Chicago Fedora ton of Labor, a subsidiary body of the American Federation of Labor, undertook to initiate a concerted organizing campaign in the packing industry. Twelve international and national craft unions were brought together and Joined in inaugurating an en- thusiastic organizing campaign. . Because of the large proportion of immigrant and Negro work ers-practica11y all of them un- acquainted with labor organtza- dons and their methods - the task was naturally more difficult than in the railway shops; but by the use of foreign language lit erature, foreign language and Negro organizers, a large enough membership was enlisted to make 1t necessary for the secretary of war to require the packers to ar pirate with the workers in order to avert crippling the industry while the war was on.
 United States Circuit Judg ge Samuel Alschule, who was cho- sen as arbitrator, has since ren- dered two awards granting sub