Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1887 — THE FEDERATION OF LABOR. [ARTICLE]

THE FEDERATION OF LABOR.

Encroachments of the Knights to Be Resisted—Mr. Gompers Re-elected. ißaltimore special. | At the session of the American Federation of Labor on Friday the per capita tax was reduced from J to | of a cent a month. All State federations are to be taxed $25 annually. It was voted to employ a salaried organizer. A resolution compelling local unions to unite into State federations was rejected. The constitution was adopted as amended. It was decided not to send delegates to the Trades Union Congress at London next year. It was resolved to ask Congress to shorten the hours of labor in view of the decreased number of workmen needed on account of labor-saving machinery. The committee on the growth of the order reported that the rapid growth of the order resulted Irom the first avowed purpose of the federation to allow each trade to govern itself; second, to the discontent of the Knights of Labor. The committee recommended, by reason of the mismanagement of the Lnights of Labor, and their desperate nse of strikes, that the federation use its utmost endeavor to resist the encroachments of the Knights of Labor, as that organization showed itself opposed to trades unionism. The report was adopted with enthusiasm. The following officers were elected by acclamation: President, Samuel L. Gompers. New York, representing tbe International Cigar-makers’ Union ; First Vice President, Daniel McLaughlin, representing the Illinois Miners’Association; Second Vice President, William Martin, of the Amalgamated Iron and Steel Worker? Association; Secretary, P. J. McGuire, of the Philadelphia Brotherhood of Carpenters aud Joiners; Treasurer, Gabriel Edmondson, of the Washington Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. It was decided to hold the next convention in St. Louis.