Montana labor news., 1939-08-31
THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR
WAS FORMED FIFTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO
Convention Held in Pittsburgh in 1881 Was Attended by 17 Dele
gates; Program Adopted Called for United Trade Union Move
ment and Proclaimed the Fundamental Principle of "A Shorter
Work Day and Better Pay"

The American Federation of Labor was founded At a convention called
by trade union leaders which opened in Pittsburgh, Pa, on November
Is, 1881.
The call for the convention, which followed a preliminary convention
held at Terre Haute Ind earlier in the year, carried the heading Inter
national Trades Union Congress" and was addressed ITO All Trades and
Labor Unions of the United States and Canada"
Following is the text of the call:
Fellow Workingmen: The time has now arrived for a more perfect
combination of Labor-one that will concentrate our forces SO as to more
successfully cope with concentrated capital
1--WE have numberless trades unions, trades assemblies or councils and
various other local. national and international labor unions all engaged
in the noble task of elevatng and improving the condition of the working
classes. But great as has been the work done by these bodies, there IS
vastly more that can be done by a combination of all these organizations
in a federation of trades
"n Great Britain and Ireland annual trades union congresses are held:
France and other countries have, also, similar gatherings The work done
by these assemblages of workmen speaks more in their favor than a
volume of other arguments.
"Only in such a body can proper action be taken to promote the general
welfare of the industrial classes. There we can discuss and examine all
questions affecting the national interests Of each and every trade, and by
a combination of forces secure that justice which isolated and separated
trade and labor unions can never fully command.
"a National Trades Union Congress can prepare labor measures and
agree upon laws they desire passed by the Congress of the United States;
and a Congressional Labor Committee, after the manner of the Parlia-
mentary Committees of Trades Unions in England, could be elected to
urge and advance legislation at Washington on all such measures and
report to the various trades.
I'm addition to this, an annual congress of trades unions could organize
a systematic agitation to propagate trades union principles and to impress
the necessity of protective trade and labor organizations and to encourage
the formation of such unions an. their amalgamation in trades assemblies
Thus we could elevate trades unonBm and obtain for the working classes
that respect for their rights and that reward for their services to which
they are justly entitled.
"a federation of this character can be organized with a few simple
rules and no salaried officers. The expenses of its management will be
trivial and can be provided for by the Trades Union Congress.
Impressed with the necessity of such a federation, and the importance
Of an International Trades Union Congress- to perfect the organization, we
the undersigned, delegates in a preliminary national convention, assembled
at Terre Haute, Indiana, held August 2, 1881, do hereby resolve to issue
the following call:
oThat all international and national unions, trades assemblies or coun-
ellis and local trades or labor unions are hereby invited to send delegates
to an international Trades Union Congress, to be held in Pitsbug Pa
on Tuesday, November is, 1881. Each local union will be entitled to one
delegate for one hundred members or less and one additional delegate
for each additional five hundred members or major part thereof; Also