" Besides attending to the necessary routine, the
Convention elects the eleven national officers who form the
executive council which guides the administrative details of the
organization. The funds of the Federation are derived from a per
capita tax on the membership. The official organ is the American
Federationist. It is interesting to note in passing that over two
hundred and forty labor periodicals together with a continual
stream of circulars and pamphlets issue from the trades union
press.
The Federation is divided into five departments, representing the
most important groups of labor: the Building Trades, the Metal
Trades, Mining, Railroad Employees, and the Union Label Trades.*
Each of these departments has its own autonomous sphere of
action, its own set of officers, its own financial arrangements,
its own administrative details. Each holds an annual convention,
in the same place and week, as the Federation. Each is made up of
affiliated unions only and confines itself solely to the interest
of its own trades. This suborganization serves as an admirable
clearing house and shock-absorber and succeeds in eliminating
much of the friction which occurs between the several unions.
* There is in the Federation, however, a group of unions not
affiliated with any of these departments.
There are also forty-three state branches of the Federation, each
with its own separate organization. There are annual state
conventions whose membership, however, is not always restricted
to unions affiliated with the American Federation.
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