The Connecticut labor news., 1925-02-21
MEMBERSHIP OF TRADE
wage-earning population.
(Continued from Page Onc)

| In copyrighted table that cumma- 1 rizes some of the results of this exhaus- | tive investigation upon which Dr. Lel Wolman and his assistants, under the
 general direction of Dr. Welsey C. Nit chell and Dr. Edwin F. Gay, co-direc- tors of the National Bureau of Econo- | mic Research, have been engaged fer l over year, 1t is shown that at the end of the decade one-hfth of the wage ear
 ners of the country were members cf
 labor organizations, whereas in 1910
 something like one-tenth were so orga-
 nized
 In other words, in 1920, after ten
 years of very substantial growth in
 numbers, about four -ffths of the gen.
 eral category of wage earners were not
 members of unions.
 While these figures are in themselves
 of considerable interest" the bureaus
 rport continues, their full significance
 can not be clear without detailed in
 dulry into the sources of union strength
 and weakness. Such inquiry can be co l.
 ducted only by discovering the varying
 magnitude of trade unionism in the
 great divisions of industry.
 "It has long been generally appreciated that labor organizations receive their first impetus and make their most strik ing headway among the so-called manual workers, those who work in factories and mines, on railroads and buildings and that they have their most retarded development among persons sometimes described as white-collar workers, who embrace unionism late and slowly This appears to be universally true An ex- animation of the extent of labor organi- zation among these two types of em- ployes in 1910 and 1920 shows this to have been the case in the United States as we'll
 While the percentage of toltal enl- ployes who are members of unions is. roughly, 20, all of the important man. ual labor groups stood far above this level; and in 1910 when the general per- centage of organization was approx mately 10, the same groups of manual laborers all showed higher percentage of organization. The total percentage of organization is in both census years 1 considerably reduced by the absence of many large labor organizations in trade, l professional service, clerical occupations domestic and personal service, and pulp lie service.
 Membership in the manual workers | group represented almost 28 and IS per cent of the wage earners in those groups | in 1920 and 1910 whereas membershiD | among the non-factory workers was in the same years less than 5 and 2 per + cent of all persons engaged in those ocr equations. Growth, from 1910 to 1920, in all groups, but it was great est in manufacturing. transportation, clerical occupations, and public service, although the rise in mining and in the building trades was also considerable.
 Differences in the extent of organi- ration among the industries that com prise these major divisins are quite as striking and as significant as the differ ,nces among the major divisions them elves. At the same time that the whole mining group showed an increase in the , ,xtent of organization from 2 to Al. :oal mines increased their organization . rom 5 per cent to nearly 51. while rade unionism in copper, gold and other hines actually had a lower percentageI # organization in 1920 than in 1910
 Tn 1910 the workers in the salt, oil md natural gas industry had no union t all; in 1920 there was a substantial organization with membership of over '0000 Such analysis can be pushed ven further. Thus the average num- ger of coal miners in the United States n 1920 was 7S4,621, of which 63o, ,547 were bituminous and 145,074 anthracite miners. It is known that the anthracite miners have much higher degree of rganization than the soft coal miners. 5ituminous miners were in 1920 prob bly less than 50 per cent organized.
 Extent of organization in manufac- uring industries runs the whole gamut rom less than 1 per cent of organiza- ion in the chemical and allied indus i ries to more than 57 per cent in cloth ng. The tremendous rise in the per- l entage of organization in this industry, ,, in fact, the most striking phenomenon I the whole group of manufacturing in ustries" |