Even such powerful leaders as Congressman Littlefield
of Maine and Speaker Cannon were compelled to exert their utmost
to overcome union opposition. The Federation has been active in
seating union men in Congress. In 1908 there were six union
members in the House; in 1910 there were ten; in 1912 there were
seventeen. The Secretary of Labor himself holds a union card. Nor
has the Federation shrunk from active participation in the
presidential lists. It bitterly opposed President Roosevelt when
he espoused the open shop in the Government Printing Office; and
in 1908 it openly espoused the Democratic ticket.
In thus maintaining a sort of grand partisan neutrality, the
Federation not only holds in numerous instances the balance of
power but it makes party fealty its slave and avoids the costly
luxury of maintaining a separate national organization of its
own. The all-seeing lobby which it maintains at Washington is a
prototype of what one may discern in most state capitals when the
legislature is in session. The legislative programmes adopted by
the various state labor bodies are metamorphosed into demands,
and well organized committees are present to cooperate with the
labor members who sit in the legislature. The unions, through
their steering committee, select with caution the members who are
to introduce the labor bills and watch paternally over every
stage in the progress of a measure.
Most of this legislative output has been strictly protective of
union interests.
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