" Some unions,
such as the United Mine Workers, have a fourth division or
subdistrict, but this is not the general practice.
* The term "trade union" is used here in its popular sense,
embracing labor, trade, and industrial unions, unless otherwise
specified.
The sovereign authority of a trade union is its general
convention, a delegate body meeting at stated times. Some unions
meet annually, some biennially, some triennially, and a few
determine by referendum when the convention is to meet. Sometimes
a long interval elapses: the granite cutters, for instance, held
no convention between 1880 and 1912, and the cigar-makers, after
a convention in 1896, did not meet for sixteen years. The
initiative and referendum are, in some of the more compact
unions, taking the place of the general convention, while the
small executive council insures promptness of administrative
action.
The convention elects the general officers. Of these the
president is the most conspicuous, for he is the field marshal of
the forces and fills a large place in the public eye when a great
strike is called. It was in this capacity that John Mitchell rose
to sudden eminence during the historic anthracite strike in 1902,
and George W. Perkins of the cigar-makers' union achieved his
remarkable hold upon the laboring people. As the duties of the
president of a union have increased, it has become the custom to
elect numerous vice-presidents to relieve him. Each of these has
certain specific functions to perform, but all remain the
president's aides.
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