The Federation of Labor’s Strikes
ACCORDING to statistics published in the Literary Digest, the American Federation of Labor has grown in the last few years from a membership of 550,000 in 1900 to a membership of nearly 1,700,000 in 1904. From the last annual report of the federation, covering the year ending September 30, it appears that the federation has engaged during this twelve months in 1,806 strikes, involving 256,838 employees. Of these strikes 1,103 were won, 233 compromised, 194 lost, and 178 were pending at the time of the report. It was reckoned that 121,340 employees had been benefited by the strikes, while a reverse had been met by 39,829. This showing must naturally encourage the Federation of Labor to believe that it is winning its battles for industrial supremacy, and that its proper policy is to continue to employ the weapons of coercion it has heretofore used against such as resist its demands.