PREFACE. THIS investigation of Central Labor Unions was suggested by Dr. Thomas N. Carver, of Oberlin College, and was begun under his direction. It was finished at Columbia University, where original sources of information are more accessible. The sources of the material are of necessity almost wholly original, and consist of: Ist. An almost complete set of constitutions and by-laws of Central Labor Unions in the United States, as well as several of those in England. 2d. Reports of proceedings of the American Federation of Labor, and pamphlets published by that organization. 3d. Reports of the Trades Union Congress of England. 4th. Answers to circulars addressed to Secretaries of all Central Labor Unions in the United States. 5th. Personal observation in the Central Labor Unions of Cleveland, Ohio, and New York City. 6th. Personal interviews and correspondence with prominent labor leaders and officials of Central Labor Unions in Cleveland, New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, Toledo, Boston, and several other large cities. 7th. Newspaper clippings and files of newspapers. The books which refer to the subject of Central Labor Unions are very few in number, and the references are merely incidental. For England, Sidney and Beatrice Webb's History of Trade Unionism and Industrial Democracy, and George Howell's The Conflicts of Labor and Capital (v) and Trade Unionism, New and Old, constitute almost the whole of the literature on the subject. For the United States literature is not more abundant, and is greatly inferior in point of accuracy and detail. It consists of Ely's Labor Movement in America; McNeill's The Labor Movement the Problem of To-day, and Powderly's Thirty Years of Labor. Thanks are due, and gladly given, to the Secretaries of the various Central Labor Unions, and especially to the delegates of the New York Central Labor Union, who have in many ways kindly aided in the preparation of this dissertation. WILLIAM MAXWELL BURKE. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, June, 1899. |