The convention reconvened at 1.20 P. M.
THE CHAIRMAN: When the convention adjourned it was under the head of new business. There being no further new business, we will take up the reports of committees.
DEL. SAUNDERS: As a member of the Auditing Committee I beg leave to submit the report of that Auditing Committee, if there is no objection. Mr. Chairman and Fellow Delegates, your Auditing Committee wish to say that we have gone over the books thoroughly and taken a great deal of time; not only going over the books, but we might say that we have gone over them two or three times in order that there should be no mistake; that there would be no mistake on either side; and we find that not only have the books come out correct, but in going over the books we find that a great deal of work has been done—preparatory work in order to bring about the consummation of this convention. The Secretary, Brother Trautmann, will render a report which will to some extent coincide with a part of this Auditing Committee’s report in regard to some financial items, I think before I go into the report proper I would like to say that in my judgment—and I believe that I speak for the committee when I say that—Brother Trautmann deserves a great deal of credit for the efficiency and the untiring efforts that he has expended as this committee has gone through the books, in order to bring this work to its culmination. Your Auditing Committee wishes to submit the following report:
(For the report of the Auditing Committee, see appendix.)
THE CHAIRMAN: You have heard the report of the Auditing Committee. What is the pleasure of the convention?
DEL. SHURTLEFF: I was listening intently to that report, but I heard no mention of the Musicians’ Union. That union made a contribution. I would like to have mention made of that in the report.
SECRETARY TRAUTMANN: The Musicians’ Union contributed $25, and that can be inserted. There is certainly a credit on the books. But the Musicians’ Union is an organization that is connected with the progressive organizations, and I expressly mention in the report those organizations that are connected with the progressive organizations. I still continue to get in funds for organization and for the preparatory work before this convention, and all those figures and the expenses of the convention will be published perhaps in one or two labor papers, so that everybody can see what the receipts were and what the expenses were; because some organizations will be contributing even after the convention is over. So the Musicians will be given credit in the report.
DEL. SAUNDERS: I move that the report of the Auditing Committee be received and the recommendation concurred in and the committee discharged. (Seconded.)
The motion was put and carried.
Secretary Trautmann then presented the following report:
(The Financial Report was then read by Secretary Trautmann. For this report see appendix.)
THE CHAIRMAN: You have heard the report of the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Industrial Conference. What is the pleasure of the convention?
Delegate Dinger moved that the report be accepted and placed on file. (Seconded.)
DEL. SAUNDERS: As I understand the reading of the report there are recommendations there, or a request that this convention take some action. Am I right?
SECRETARY TRAUTMANN: Yes. That goes to the Ways and Means Committee, I understand.
DEL. KIEHN: I move that the report be received and placed on the minutes.
THE CHAIRMAN: There is a motion to that effect. It is moved that the report be accepted. Are you ready for the motion? (Question called for). Those in favor of the motion will signify it by saying aye. Contrary no. The motion is carried, Are there any further reports of special committees?
The various standing and special committees announced that they had no reports.
Delegate Shurtleff requested that the Ritual Committee meet at once in an adjoining room, in order to complete some details before making the report. Delegate Murtaugh, at his request, was excused from attendance on the committee.
Del. Arnold asked for some reason why Delegate Murtaugh should be excused, but no reason was given.
On motion of Delegate Fitzgerald a recess of ten minutes was taken to enable the Ritual Committee to be ready to report. Later an adjournment was taken until three o’clock P. M.
At three o’clock the convention reassembled.
THE CHAIRMAN: When the convention adjourned we were under the head of reports of committees. Standing committees. We will now listen to the report of the Committee on Constitution.
Secretary Hagerty, of the Constitution Committee: The Committee on Constitution reports further as follows: That there shall be added to Section 2 of Article I, paragraph A, the insertion adopted thereunto, namely, “Shall be composed of thirteen industrial divisions, subdivided in industrial unions of closely kindred industries in the appropriate organizations for representation in the departmental organization,” the following words: “The subdivisions, international and national industrial unions shall have complete industrial autonomy in their respective internal affairs; provided, the General Executive Board shall have power to control the industrial unions in matters concerning the interests of the general welfare.”
And “Article IV. Section 1: The General Executive Board, or not less than ten local unions in at least three industries, may initiate a referendum on any matter to be submitted to the convention.
“Section 2. A majority of the votes cast shall rule, both in the general organization and its subordinate parts, except as otherwise provided for in this constitution.
“Section 3. None but actual wage workers shall be admitted as members-at-large.
“Section 4. So soon as there are ten locals with not less than 3,000 members in one industry the General Executive Board shall immediately proceed to call a convention of that industry and proceed to organize it as an international industrial division of the Industrial Workers of the World.”
“Your Committee on Constitution recommends that this convention elect a provisional Board of Seven to conduct the affairs of this organization until the next national convention. Said provisional Board shall consist of the National President, National Secretary-Treasurer and five other members, two of which five to be elected at large, one to be elected from the Western Federation of Miners, one from the United Metal Workers, and one from the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes. When the Western Federation of Miners, the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes and the United Metal Workers elect their members to the General Executive Board, the provisional delegates from their respective organizations shall withdraw. The Provisional Board shall also have the duty of a committee on style to revise the constitution and submit the report to the next convention.
“We, your committee, further recommend that in so far as it is feasible the general offices of the international industrial divisions shall be located in the same place as the general headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World.”
The report is signed by the Chairman, Mr. Moyer; Charles O. Sherman, Albert H. Williamson, J. C. Sullivan, T. J. Hagerty, Max Eisenberg and Daniel De Leon.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have heard the report of the Committee on Constitution. What is the pleasure of the convention?
DEL. ALBERT RYAN: I move that the report be considered seriatim. (Seconded.)
The motion was put and carried.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Secretary will read the amendments in the order in which they occur.
Secretary Hagerty: There is only one amendment. The other is a new article. Shall I read the amendment first?
THE CHAIRMAN: Yes.
The section was read as follows:
“Article I, Section 2, Paragraph A. And shall be composed of thirteen international industrial divisions subdivided in industrial unions of closely kindred industries in the appropriate organizations for representation in the departmental administration.”
DEL. HAGERTY: This is the addition:
“The subdivisions, international and national industrial unions shall have complete industrial autonomy in their respective internal affairs; provided, the General Executive Board shall have power to control these industrial unions in matters concerning the interests of the general welfare.”
DEL. GILLHAUS: I move that that be adopted. (Seconded.)
DEL. SAINER: A point of information. Does the constitution anywhere provide for the question of contracts between employes and employers; whether local unions may contract with their employers or not?
THE CHAIRMAN: It does not in this particular section under discussion at the present time. It has been regularly moved and seconded that the amended section be adopted as read. Are you ready for the question? (Question called for). Those in favor will signify it by saying aye. Contrary no. The motion is carried and the section adopted.
Article V, Section 1, was read as follows:
“Article V, Section 1. The General Executive Board, or not less than ten local unions in at least three industries, may initiate a referendum on any matter to be submitted to the convention.”
DEL. FITZGERALD: I move its adoption. (Seconded.)
THE CHAIRMAN: It has been regularly moved and seconded that the section be adopted as read. Are you ready for the question?
DEL. HALL: I just want to ask a question, to bring out the sense of that amendment. Does that mean that ten or more local unions cannot initiate a movement except through the convention of the organization?
DEL. HAGERTY: Not at all. The sense of this section is this, as was explained in the Constitution Committee: to cover the entire legislation with the referendum would require a volume; it is simply designed to get at the principle of this thing. Since in the last analysis all referendum work must go to the convention and be decided on, and afterward submitted to the membership-at-large, it seems to me it is sufficiently covered. If you want more elaboration then a new constitution might have to be provided filling volumes. The purpose of the committee was to specify the main principles of an initiative and a referendum for the membership. Now, the interpretation of that will necessarily be in accordance with the spirit there.
DEL. HALL: Do you mean to say then that a convention will decide as to the advisability of any referendum that the membership wishes to have?
DEL. HAGERTY: Not at all. They may initiate a referendum on any matter to be submitted to the convention. It is stated beforehand in this constitution that the things which are discussed have to be submitted afterward to a referendum of the membership-at-large. That is understood when you speak of a referendum of the convention. It is already stated in one or two places that those vital matters shall be submitted to the membership-at-large.
Question called for. The motion was then put and carried, and the section declared adopted.
The next section was read, as follows:
“Section 2. A majority of the votes cast shall rule, both in the general organization and its subordinate parts, except as otherwise provided for in this constitution.”
On motion of Delegate Wilke, duly seconded, the section was adopted.
The next section was taken up and read, as follows:
“Section 3. None but actual wage workers shall be admitted as members-at-large.”
It was moved by Delegate Gillhaus, and seconded, that the section be adopted.
THE CHAIRMAN: It has been regularly moved and seconded that this section be adopted. Are you ready for the question?
DEL. JORGENSEN: What will you do with a man that has been working so long that he will not need to work any longer? Will you chase him out?
DEL. HAGERTY: I would like to answer the question. I think he could take a withdrawal card, probably.
DEL. JORGENSEN: That would practically compel every man to work, wouldn’t it? I make that point. He may be willing to take a rest. Now, I don’t see that every man that belongs and joins this organization should be compelled to work all his lifetime, and not be allowed to take a rest from work for a time and still be a member of this organization. How long is he going to work? Till he is eighty or eighty-five or ninety?
THE CHAIRMAN: Permit the Chair to say that this does not say anything about a man remaining in the organization, but it says that no man shall come into the union at large unless he is a wage worker.
DEL. JORGENSEN: Unless he is a wage worker when he comes in?
THE CHAIRMAN: Unless he is a wage worker when he joins.
The motion was then put and carried and the section adopted.
The following section was then read:
“Section 4. So soon as there are ten local unions with not less than 3,000 members in any one industry, the General Executive Board shall immediately proceed to call a convention of that industry and proceed to organize them as an international division of the Industrial Workers of the World.”
Delegate Gillhaus moved the adoption of the section. (Seconded.)
DEL. CLARENCE SMITH: A question of information. I would like to know whether it is the intent there that it shall be “industrial international unions” instead of “divisions.”
DEL. HAGERTY: No; the intent there is “international industrial divisions,” as far as I understand it; that is, in regard to constituting that division.
DEL. SMITH: Another point of information. Does this division, when organized, pay a per capita tax as an international industrial union? I ask the Secretary of the committee. This division, when organized, would pay a tax, would it, as an international industrial union?
DEL. HAGERTY: As an international industrial division. It would pay the general dues to the general administration of the Industrial Workers of the World, as I understand it.
DEL. SMITH: I understand that when you come to the revenues of this organization the divisions don’t pay anything in dues to the general organization.
DEL. HAGERTY: General dues occurs several times in the constitution.
DEL. SMITH: If the international industrial unions pay eight and one-third cents per month, it is contradictory, for the amendment to Section 2, Article I, provides absolutely for international industrial unions and international industrial autonomy, and I simply wanted to know if it would not be incorrect to have this part of the constitution conflict with the part preceding.
DEL. HAGERTY: I do not see how it conflicts with any part of the constitution, because Section 3 of the constitution states distinctly that “the financial and industrial affairs of each international industrial division shall be conducted by an Executive Board of not less than seven nor more than twenty-one, selected and elected by the general membership of said international industrial division,” whatever the subdivision may be, and they conduct the industrial and financial affairs of that division. The provision is already made in the constitution for general dues to come through that division as a clearing house.
DEL. SMITH: The thing that I have reference to is Section 2, Article I, as amended by the committee, which precedes the section just read by the secretary of the Constitution Committee. If I am not mistaken it precedes that section; Section 2 of Article I.
THE CHAIRMAN: I may say to the secretary of the committee, I believe the delegate wishes to know whether or not, when there are 10,000 in one industry, if they would not take their place as an industrial union in that division.
DEL. HAGERTY: Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Instead of being another division.
DEL. HAGERTY: No, they will take their place in the division in which they belong.
DEL. SMITH: That is the question. They will then act when chartered directly from the Industrial Workers of the World as an international industrial union?
DEL. HAGERTY: As an international industrial division.
DEL. SMITH: That is the point, Mr. Chairman. If the Chair is able to get out that point easier than I can I would like to have him do so.
DEL. HAGERTY: Will you ask me that question now?
DEL. SMITH: I know that the Chairman understands the point that I wanted to make clear, and he attempted to bring that out from the secretary of the Constitution Committee. If he can bring that out easier than I can I would be glad to have him do so.
THE CHAIRMAN: I think that you can state your inquiry as clearly as the chair.
DEL. SMITH: The Chair asked the secretary of the Constitution Committee if, within a division, a sufficient number of persons confined to a particular industry should desire a charter, would they be chartered as an international industrial union, with international industrial autonomy?
DEL. HAGERTY: As I read this section, it means the establishment of divisions when there are 3,000 workers in ten local unions to constitute a division. Now, that division is here further illustrated in Section 2, together with its subdivisions. For instance, one of the divisions—
DEL. SMITH: Just a second, if you please. I should not like to have the secretary of the Constitution Committee read the succeeding part of this constitution, the basis of organization, but I should like to have him read the first part before that, laying down the basis of organization, which I believe is in Article I, Sections 1 and 2.
DEL. HAGERTY (reading): “Section 2. And shall be composed of thirteen international industrial divisions, subdivided into industrial unions of closely kindred industries in the appropriate organizations for representation in the departmental administration.” It further states what that departmental administration shall consist of.
DEL. SMITH: Proceed, if you please.
DEL. HAGERTY: Then follow these divisions.
DEL. SMITH: Will the secretary please continue to read from just where he stopped reading, about a minute?
THE CHAIRMAN: Read the complete section.
DEL. SMITH: Yes.
DEL. HAGERTY (reading): “The subdivisions in national and international industrial unions shall have complete industrial autonomy in their respective internal affairs; provided, the General Executive Board shall have power to control these industrial unions in matters concerning the interests of the general welfare.”
DEL. SMITH: Now, I will say only a few words, and nothing more during this session. I am going to say that it is clear to me that this section as read by the secretary provides for the chartering of international industrial unions with international industrial union autonomy over their internal affairs. And as providing that, I am entirely satisfied with the constitution, notwithstanding the fact that the secretary of the Constitution Committee interprets parts of the constitution farther along as not in agreement with my idea of this section of the constitution. This is the foundation of the organization, in my judgment, and lays the foundation of an organization in exact agreement with my ideas on the subject, and I am entirely satisfied with the constitution on that account.
DEL. WILKE: Just a question. Do I understand that under this clause, if it is adopted, each trade may be organized under its own head? For instance, the carpenters, if they join as an industrial organization, will be organized by themselves; the machinists will be organized by themselves; the wood workers will be organized by themselves, and still all will be affiliated with the Executive Board? Do I understand that that is the way it is?
THE CHAIRMAN: Not at all. This is an industrial movement, not a craft union movement. The carpenter will belong to the building industry; the machinist will belong to the metal industry; the wood workers will belong in that industry where they are working outside of the building industry. They, however, will have a chance to have local unions if they desire, that they may belong to that industry. That is my interpretation. Is that correct?
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: The mining industry takes in coal mining and other kinds of mining. Will the coal miners have their own department, their own subdivision, and elect their own officers, and pay their own per capita tax into their own subdivision in that department of mining?
DEL. HAGERTY: While the mining division or mining department has control over its own financial and industrial affairs, it elects a General Executive Board of not less than seven and not more than twenty-one members on the committee, and those seven or twenty-one are the Executive Board of that department and guide the administrative workings in that division; and so far as I understand the interpretation of this, so far as I understand the sense of the committee that wrote this constitution, it did not have in mind the splitting up of the mine workers except inasmuch as their economic groupings might demand it. They did not have in mind splitting them up into rope men, timber men, or crafts of any kind, but that it is left entirely to the workers in that department as to how they shall group themselves and arrange themselves, and it is not the purpose of this convention to say how they shall do it. The Western Federation of Miners to-day is an economic organization; with their experience they will settle that matter, and settle it right. They are not new in the business; they have been at it a long while, and they will be able to determine the economic groupings.
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: I would like to know, before I report back, if this is carried through, whether the miners are chartered directly from the national Industrial Workers of the World, or whether they can be chartered by the Western Federation of Miners, or from the mining department, or where?
THE CHAIRMAN: If I may state, it is my understanding of the constitution that for the time being they will get their charter from the mining industry; but that in the event of the organization growing to such proportions that it becomes cumbersome for one department, that then this convention, or a coming convention of this organization, may subdivide that industry; that is, if it becomes cumbersome. That, I believe, is the sense of the Constitution Committee. That is the way I look at it.
DEL. HAGERTY: Yes.
DEL. HALL: I only want to ask a question or two, if the secretary will permit me. I don’t like to impose upon him. I only talk of my department now. The amendment to Section 2 specifies that when 3,000 members in ten or more locals shall have formed in one industry they may be granted a charter by the General Executive Board of the United Workers of the World. Is that correct?
DEL. HAGERTY: Yes.
DEL. HALL: Now, in that case the department or division of transportation, as provided by the original report of the committee, is divided into four subdivisions or natural divisions. Now, the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes will probably enter that division. Now, I understand that as long as we are the only economic body in that division, we have autonomy and are connected directly with the General Executive Board. Now, when ten unions—
DEL. HAGERTY: Just a moment, Brother Hall.
DEL. HALL (continuing): —with 3,000 or more members organize a marine shipping department, say, will they get their charter directly from the General Executive Board or will they be a part of the department of transportation and have a financial system of their own?
DEL. HAGERTY: When your 3,000 members are organized into the division of transportation, you are the division of transportation until you fill up. If the transport workers in New Jersey come in they will belong to your division. This provides for the formation of the division, of the industrial division.
DEL. HALL: That is all right; that brings out that point.
DEL. HAGERTY: When you have 3,000 members, then you are the industrial division until you form the railroad men.
DEL. VEAL: So that the United Mine Workers shall understand this question, I think it ought to be made more explicit. The delegate from Montana wants to know exactly what division his coal miners would belong to. Now, the Western Federation of Miners is the only division that is recognized, according to the Industrial Workers of the World, as the grouping in that division. Now, then, we, the United Mine Workers, are recognized, but we are not working as the United Mine Workers; we are under immediate obligation, if we unite ourselves under the Industrial Workers of the World, to go under the division of the Western Federation of Miners. Isn’t that the sense?
THE CHAIRMAN: There isn’t any other place for you.
DEL. VEAL: There is no other place. What I want to be clear on is this: The United Mine Workers who are sent here as delegates will recognize, when we go before the members of our craft, that that is the place where they have to go. I want that to be made plain here, so that we won’t have any misunderstanding when we go before the slaves of the mine.
DEL. MORRISON: I would like to ask a question. When you speak of the miners, does that mean the metallurgical miners?
THE CHAIRMAN: That is not the question before this convention.
DEL. MORRISON: I insist on my question, because I want to know.
THE CHAIRMAN: Let the secretary read this and see whether your question is covered in this section.
DEL. HAGERTY (reading): “So soon as there are ten local unions with not less than 3,000 members in any one industry, the General Executive Board shall immediately call a convention of that industry and proceed to organize them as an international industrial division of the Industrial Workers of the World.”
THE CHAIRMAN: Now, what is the question?
DEL. MORRISON: I want to know: the mining department is divided up into some industrial groups, as I understand; metallurgical mines, coal mines, sulphur mines, diamond and all other mines. Now, I want to know whether the organization was going to be chartered in an industrial organization to become an international industrial union, being represented in a department known as the groups originally discussed.
DEL. HAGERTY: I think that is the sense; within this division.
DEL. MORRISON: Within the division.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair would say that all miners in all industries would be in the mining department; and five years from now we will take up the question that you propound. (Laughter.)
DEL. MORRISON: I thank you. I wish him to give me the information now.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Secretary will go ahead.
DEL. MORRISON: I ask, if the coal miners would come to you, seeing that the Western Federation of Miners now have 27,000 members, and the coal miners came with a complement of 3,000 members in the ten respective unions required in that particular paragraph of the constitution, would they be required to come to this Industrial Workers of the World and ask for their national or international industrial charter? That is what I want to know.
DEL. HAGERTY: No.
THE CHAIRMAN: I would say no, because that would be too cumbersome.
DEL. KIEHN: The section says a division shall be subdivided into national and international industrial unions, and the other section says that when there are ten or more locals organized in one division they can organize as an industrial division. How many international and national industrial organizations does it require to organize an industrial division? Suppose a whole existing organization wishes to affiliate with this body, how would you place them?
DEL. HAGERTY: It seems to me that those are questions of practical administration that must come before the General Executive Board. It will be their duty to discuss those things and shape them up according to the spirit of this constitution. I would suppose that. The men in the shops in America in the different trades will fix those things. The members of the local unions would know more about it than the members of the committee would know.
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: Just one more question. Would it not necessitate the calling of a convention of the coal miners of this country to organize another department; four or two, or whatever it is?
DEL. HAGERTY: That convention is now holding.
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: Where?
DEL. HAGERTY: Right in this hall. At least that is its purpose. A convention made up of representatives of the miners of America, so far as they are revolutionary unions, is now holding in Brand’s Hall.
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: As I understand, this is a convention to organize a national organization subdivided into thirteen other departments.
DEL. HAGERTY: The national organization is made up of thirteen divisions.
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: Would it not necessitate all the miners to organize into a separate division?
DEL. HAGERTY: Brother Fairgrieve, wasn’t that question decided at Salt Lake City?
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: Not at all.
(Question called for.)
THE CHAIRMAN: Those in favor of adopting the section as read will signify it by saying aye. Contrary no. The motion is carried and the section adopted. The Secretary will read.
DEL. HAGERTY: The rest are changes, recommendations of the committee relating to parts of the constitution. The committee further recommends certain things for the consideration of the convention.
THE CHAIRMAN: Go ahead.
DEL. HAGERTY (reading): “Your committee further recommends that this convention elect a provisional Board of seven to conduct the affairs of this organization until the next convention. The said Provisional Board shall consist of the National President, National Secretary-Treasurer and five other members; two of these five to be elected at large from this convention; one to be elected from the Western Federation of Miners, one from the United Metal Workers, and one from the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes. When the Western Federation of Miners, the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes and the United Metal Workers elect their members on the General Executive Board, the provisional delegates from said respective organizations shall withdraw.
“The Provisional Executive Board shall also have the duty of a committee of style to revise the constitution and submit a draft to the next convention.
“We, your committee, further recommend that in so far as it is feasible the general offices of the international industrial divisions shall be located in the same place as the general headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World.”
DEL. HAGERTY: Shall they be taken up seriatim?
THE CHAIRMAN: I believe it wise to take them up seriatim.
DEL. SAUNDERS: If I understand the Secretary of the Constitution Committee aright, the constitution as proposed was finished before these last proposed recommendations. Therefore I believe it would be in order and would expedite matters to consider the adoption of the constitution as read and amended before action upon these further recommendations. If I am in order I would move that we adopt the constitution as a whole as amended. (Seconded.)
THE CHAIRMAN: It has been regularly moved and seconded that the constitution be adopted as a whole as amended.
DEL. SULLIVAN: I ask for a roll call on this question.
DEL. COATES: Will you allow me just a question of information?
THE CHAIRMAN: Yes.
DEL. COATES: I want to ask this question of the Chair or of the Constitution Committee; either way, I don’t care, as long as we get it. As I understand this constitution now before the convention for adoption, the only charters that will be issued by the general Industrial Workers of the World will be thirteen charters to thirteen industrial divisions.
THE CHAIRMAN: Do you ask the Chair?
DEL. COATES: Yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: In the opinion of the Chair, inasmuch as these thirteen divisions are composed of industrial unions, those unions will receive charters from the Industrial Workers of the World. That is the interpretation of the Chair. If that is not correct, if there is any member of the committee that wants to correct that, he may do so.
DEL. COATES: Mr. Chairman, your position is that all industrial unions, national or international, organized by the Executive Board of this organization, will be chartered directly from the Industrial Workers of the World?
THE CHAIRMAN: That is the opinion of the Chair.
DEL. COATES: Yes. Now, I want to ask the Secretary of the Constitution Committee if that is his interpretation.
DEL. HAGERTY: You ask my private, personal opinion about this matter, I take it.
DEL. COATES: No, sir, I ask you as secretary of the committee.
THE CHAIRMAN: You spoke to the Chair. Now, if there is any member of the committee that takes exception to the Chair’s interpretation or construction of this constitution, let him state it.
DEL. COATES: I am satisfied with your interpretation of that as the official interpretation of the convention.
THE CHAIRMAN: Unless some member of the committee says otherwise.
DEL. WILKE: It is your interpretation, I believe, that the General Executive Board shall be empowered to charter locals?
THE CHAIRMAN: No, sir, the General Executive Board will also be empowered to charter locals—
DEL. WILKE: That is what I thought.
THE CHAIRMAN (continuing) :—where there is no industrial union. And they will also he empowered to initiate members of the union at large.
DEL. HAGERTY: Don’t I understand the Chair to maintain too that the international industrial unions apply for the charter to their department to the General Executive Board?
THE CHAIRMAN: That may be the construction of the General Executive Board, that the charter will come directly from the Executive Department of the Industrial Workers of the World.
(Question called for.)
THE CHAIRMAN: The motion is now that the constitution as a whole as amended be adopted. Are you ready for the question? (Question asked for). Those in favor—
DEL. DAVIS: Roll call.
THE CHAIRMAN: Those in favor of the motion will signify it by saying aye. Contrary no. Do you desire a roll call still?
DEL. SULLIVAN: I do.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is it the unanimous consent of this convention that this constitution be adopted as a whole? DELEGATES: Yes.
DEL. COATES: No.
DEL. SULLIVAN: As a member of the Constitution Committee I will say there were at least two members of that committee that for the last day or two refused to sit with the committee. There was one delegate on the floor—he is to-day—that sat with the committee one day. He raised strenuous objections to some part of the constitution on the floor when it was under consideration, and I ask a roll call vote before it is finally adopted, so that they can answer to their names yes or no.
THE CHAIRMAN: The question before the convention is the roll call on the adoption of the constitution.
A DELEGATE: As a whole?
THE CHAIRMAN: As a whole as amended.
The roll call was then taken up by the Secretary of the convention, during which the following occurred:
DEL. FITZGERALD: I move that Brother McCabe cast the vote of the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes.
DEL. HOPKINS: I object to that at this time.
THE SECRETARY: The entire delegation, “yes, 2,800 votes.”
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: Mr. Chairman, I wish to explain my vote. I want to give the reason why I am going to vote as I do. I am a revolutionist and trade union man, and I came here for the purpose of trying to launch an organization that would differ somewhat from the American Federation of Labor; and I want to tell the delegates here that when I go back to the people who sent me I am going to tell them that I have not been an accessory in imposing upon them the same form of organization with the same laws controlling it as the American Federation of Labor has at the present time. I came here not to be Gompersized, and I am going back the way I came. Now, this was supposed to have been a convention of revolutionists in the trade union movement; a movement inaugurated to try and get something to emancipate the working class. I find that we have sat here now for two weeks, and you put before us here a constitution with the same laws and rules, some worse if anything, than what govern the American Federation of Labor, and you have practically put in the hands of a few men who control the trade union movement the power to govern this organization. Now, I want first to take up the financial part of it, and I want to show you where you are working an imposition on the working class of this country. You say you believe in the principles of trade autonomy locally, and that you believe in an equality of government. Now, I claim that you haven’t anything of the kind here, and I want to show it to you. The American Federation of Labor, in its instructions says one-half of one cent taxation shall be collected from the members belonging to international and National unions. There were 2,000,000 members, or there were 1,400,000 represented in the Boston convention that paid something like $60,000 per capita tax in one year. The 82,000 who are in unions locally chartered by the American Federation of Labor paid $51,000 taxation, nearly as much money as the entire one million and a half paid, and those one million and a half control the destiny of the American Federation of Labor. The ones who paid the $51,000 tax for that year had not a single representative on the Executive Board of the American Federation of Labor, and never can get any representatives. Now, I sat in that convention in Boston and I saw 101 men cast 14,000 votes, and I saw 115 men cast 161 votes in that convention. That is your democratic czarism of the American Federation of Labor, and that is what you men have adopted by your votes here to-day, the same practically as is in use in the American Federation of Labor to-day. You people here have even gone a step worse than the American Federation of Labor. The American Federation of Labor to-day gives one vote for each 100 members in good standing in its international and national organizations. You have given a vote to every fifty members to be represented by a certain few that shall cast the vote of the organization. That is what the American Federation of Labor does. I sat there and I saw five men control that organization for two weeks. You people have done the same thing, because your big international divisions or subdivisions as you call them can send one or two men here, and, regardless of the small locals sending them, they would have control of it. Now, you go to work and impose a tax. The A. F. of L. only taxes members five cents a month.
DEL. J. C. SULLIVAN: I rise to a point of order.
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: I am explaining my vote.
DEL. SULLIVAN: I rise to a point of order. We are not working under the general good and welfare of the organization; we are working under a roll call, and I hold that a member is exceeding his privileges when he rises under parliamentary rules to make a speech in explaining his vote.
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: I am explaining my vote, Mr. Chairman, and I have that right. The American Federation of Labor only costs five cents a month to the members in local unions. It gives them a representation of one vote for every 100 members or major fraction thereof. You people here have voted twenty-five cents a month tax on local members, and then you give a vote to every 200 members or major fraction thereof. I say you go one better than the American Federation of Labor. Fifty thousand members in the local unions would pay a tax of $150,000 a year; 500,000 members of internationals would pay a tax of $49,000 a year, but these men have no representation on the Executive Board; you have deprived them of that right. You are now doing the same as our forefathers fought against during the Revolutionary war; established taxation without representation on the national board, and I won’t stand for it. I shall make my report to my local union when I go back to Montana that the convention has followed the system of the American Federation of Labor, only a little worse, as I said before. I believe if we are going to be revolutionary we have got to have a different kind of an organization, and not take up the same system that has been in use by the American Federation of Labor. You people here, you Socialist Trade & Labor Alliance men, you trade unionists who come here for freedom, you have made your system more cumbersome than ever. You are doing the same thing over; you are placing power in the hands of the few men who are likely to go to the conventions. That is what I came here for, to try and do away with that if I possibly could. But I can’t do it with what you have laid down here, but I take this chance to explain my vote and the reason I am going to vote as I do. I want to see an organization that will protect the rights of the under man if I can. Let us have no subdivision or any other kind of division, like the American Federation of Labor. I don’t want to take up any more of your time, because I know you are going to carry it anyhow. I am going to vote against this industrial suicide, because that is what you have done. I vote no.
THE SECRETARY: Twenty-seven votes.
DEL. WHITE: As Secretary of the Committee on Credentials I want to say there are no twenty-seven votes on the credentials. I want to say that all the Secretary can find is twenty-three votes.
THE SECRETARY: That was on the committee’s report.
DEL. WHITE: There are twenty-three votes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Proceed with the roll call.
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: I only cast one vote, for myself.
DEL. MCDONALD: Mr. Chairman, I desire to explain my vote. I feel that if the constitution provided for the issuance of charters the same as the Chairman stated in his interpretation of the constitution I would vote yes. But I am satisfied with my interpretation of the constitution, that the constitution does not provide for that proposition. Consequently, in support of my judgment, I am obliged to vote no.
THE SECRETARY: 1,675 no.
DEL. CRONIN: I wish to explain my vote against the report of the Constitution Committee of the constitution as a whole. I believe it is not specific enough to set forth what it really means. I believe that every time you will want an interpretation of the constitution you will have to send for some of the official heads of the organization to give a correct interpretation of the same. Consequently I vote no.
DEL. MORRISON: Mr. Chairman, I will have to be placed under the necessity of asking you just one question before I can vote my sentiments truly on this question. That is, when you rendered your decision a while ago, you stated that if this committee did not speak adverse to you it would be the sense of this convention, and that your interpretation would be the interpretation of the constitution. Do I understand that to be the case?
THE CHAIRMAN: I gave my interpretation, and asked, if I were not correct, that the Constitution Committee would correct me.
DEL. MORRISON: Then that becomes the sense of the convention. There was no dissent.
THE CHAIRMAN: I take it that the interpretation was correct, because there was none of the Constitution Committee that took exception to the interpretation.
DEL. MORRISON: Then as long as that is the sense of the convention, that your interpretation was correct, I vote yes on the question. Otherwise I would vote no.
DEL. BOSKY: I wish to explain my vote. The policies to be followed by this organization not being in harmony with the spirit of the Manifesto, which called for an organization of the workers on the lines of the class struggle. I do not vote.
DEL. SIMONS: With the understanding that the interpretation of the Chairman is correct, I vote yes.
THE SECRETARY (to Mother Jones): How do you vote on the adoption of the constitution as a whole as amended?
DEL. MOTHER JONES: I was not here when the report of the constitution was read, but I have sufficient confidence in the makeup of the Constitution Committee to commit my destinies to them, and therefore I vote yes.
DEL. PARKS: Mr. Chairman, I have been here during the entire convention. I want to voice my inability to understand and interpret this constitution. Therefore I will not vote.
THE CHAIRMAN: The result of the vote is, 42,714 yes; 6,995 no. The constitution is adopted as a whole as amended. (Applause.)
[For detailed vote on roll call, see appendix.]
THE CHAIRMAN: Has the Ritual Committee any report to submit?
DEL. MILLER: The Ritual Committee desire to say that we have agreed on the ritual up to the installation of officers. They expect to be able to report on this matter to-morrow morning. The committee were a unit in recommending that the report of the Ritual Committee be referred to the incoming Executive Board.
DEL. WILKE: I believe that the Constitution Committee had various recommendations to make. It would be policy to take them up now and get through with them.
THE CHAIRMAN: I think so.
(Here Delegate Miller was called to the chair to preside.)
DEL. MORRISON: Mr. Chairman, I want to offer a resolution, if it is in order.
DEL. T. J. HAGERTY: A point of order. We want to get through. The report of the Constitution Committee is not yet accepted. It is only the constitution that is accepted, but the complete report of the Constitution Committee has not yet been acted on.
DEL. MORRISON: My resolution has specific relation to the constitution as now adopted.
DEL. HAGERTY: I insist on my point of order.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: If you will permit me, Comrade Morrison, it seems to me that it would be in order to act on the report of the Constitution Committee.
DEL. MORRISON: To act now, immediately, on the constitution?
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: Yes.
DEL. MORRISON: Well, I will abide by your ruling.
Del. Hagerty, of the Constitution Committee, read the following:
“Your committee recommends that this convention elect a Provisional Board of seven members to conduct the affairs of this organization until its progress at the next national convention. The said Provisional Board shall consist of the National President, the National Secretary-Treasurer, and five other members; two of these five to be elected at large, one to be elected from the Western Federation of Miners, one from the United Metal Workers, and one from the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes. When the Western Federation of Miners, the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes and the United Metal Workers elect their members to the General Executive Board, the Provisional delegates from their respective organizations shall withdraw.”
DEL. HAGERTY: That is one recommendation. Do you want to, hear it all read?
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: Does the convention desire to act upon the report of the committee seriatim, or to hear the complete report and then take it up seriatim?
DEL. DINGER: It was read. I move that that be adopted as the sense of this convention. (Seconded.)
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: It has been moved and seconded that this section of the report be adopted as the sense of this convention. Are you ready for the question?
DEL. BAKER: I would suggest that the word “international” be used there wherever “national” occurs; as, “national president” and “national secretary-treasurer” have no place here.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: Comrade Baker desires that the word “international” be used wherever “national” occurs.
DEL. HAGERTY: It says, “Said board shall consist of the General President and General Secretary-Treasurer of the Industrial Workers of the World and five other members,” as already stated here.
Question called for.
DEL. CRONIN: I am opposed to the motion, for the reason that the Western Federation of Miners, the United Metal Workers and the U. B. R. E. are not apart of this organization yet, and consequently should not be selected to represent this organization until such time as they are part and parcel of it. I have another objection to the Metal Workers being given recognition on the Executive Board, for the reason that I believe they are not an industrial organization, but a class craft organization. Therefore I shall vote no on both propositions.
DEL. MCCANN: I rise to say in regard to the Metal Workers that we have revolutionary members of an organization that belongs to my international organization that are opposed to their affiliating themselves with the Industrial Workers of the World, if they will come under the division of the Metal Workers. They have as much right to vote for this man that will represent them on this Executive Board as the Metal Workers who have representatives in this subdivision.
DEL. HAGERTY: There are three bodies or parties here that are already practically industrially organized and may be considered so. One of those divisions, in all likelihood, will immediately become a part of the Industrial Workers of the World as an organization.
DEL. KNIGHT: I wish to say as a member of the committee that these delegates to be elected by the convention are provisional. If this organization is to be affiliated with this new industrial union movement, everybody will come into that division under its proper head, and they will elect a delegate to take his place on this Provisional Board. Those members will have an opportunity to vote for that member, as I understand the constitution.
DEL. MORRISON: I understand that these are to be elected from the organizations as now organized, and not from the transportation department, say, as it may be organized. It would be well to select a member from all the metal trades as represented here, without reference to the Metal Workers as representing the trade entirely. We have some United Metal Workers here. There may be some Longshoremen here. They belong properly in that department of transportation. But you specify there that this Provisional Committee shall be selected from the U. B. R. E., for instance. Now, I am a member of the U. B. R. E., but I don’t like to have an organization placed out of its place. I believe the member ought to he selected from those that will make up the representation here on the department of transportation, and not from the U. B. R. E.
DEL. J. C. SULLIVAN: The Constitution Committee was told, whether it is correct or not I do not know, that there were but three organizations at the present time that were ready to enter the new organization, and they were the U. B. R. E., which will be a part of the transportation division; the United Metal Workers, which are a part of the metal industry, but the rest of them, on the advice of the Constitution Committee, are not prepared to-day to enter this organization; but we were informed that the United Metal Workers are. The same applies to the Western Federation of Miners. Therefore your committee believed that those that were ready to enter should be represented provisionally, and when that department saw fit to elect a representative, then that representative should take the place of the provisional member.
DEL. CLEMENS: I am perfectly satisfied with that explanation, but that is not what it says in the document. It says that this member shall ’be appointed or elected at the present time, but later on the United Metal Workers shall elect their man to take the place on the Executive Board. Now, I construe that to mean the United Metal Workers as they are organized at the present time.
DEL. HAGERTY: No, the United Metal Workers is under that one division, and the division shall afterwards elect their member. That is already specified in one of the divisions.
DEL. CLEMENS: I am satisfied with that, but I would like to amend by a motion to lay the recommendation of this committee over for the information of the local unions.
DEL. FITZGERALD: Some of these delegates came into this convention under a resolution that they would come into this Organization if, in the opinion of the delegates present, it was what they expected, and vote as a unit. That power has been given this delegation. The United Brotherhood of Railway Employes has voted as a unit on this constitution. Therefore I say that we are now, practically speaking, a part of this new organization. (Applause.)
DEL. POWERS: Sure.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: There was a motion made that the Chair did not understand was seconded.
DEL. DINGER: There was no second.
The motion was seconded.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: The question occurs on the adoption of this section of the committee’s report. Are you ready for the question? (Question called for). As many as are in favor will make it known by saying aye. Contrary no. The ayes have it and it is adopted.
The next paragraph of the recommendation was read by Secretary Hagerty, as follows:
“The Provisional Executive Board shall also have the duty of a committee on style to revise the constitution and submit the draft to the next convention.”
DEL. WHITER: I move the adoption of the clause as read. (Seconded.)
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: It has been moved and seconded that the clause as read be adopted. Are you ready for the question? (Question called for). As many as are in favor will make it known by saying aye. Contrary no. The ayes have it and it is adopted.
Secretary Hagerty read the next recommendation, as follows:
“We, your committee, further recommend that in so far as it is feasible the general offices of the international industrial divisions shall be located in the same place as the general headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World.”
DEL. GILLHAUS: I move that we concur in the recommendation. (Seconded.)
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: It has been moved and seconded that the convention concur in the recommendation of the committee. Are you ready for the question? (Question called for). As many as are in favor will make it known by saying aye. Contrary no. The ayes have it.
DEL. HAGERTY: That is the end of the report of the Constitution Committee. What is the pleasure of the convention in regard to the committee?
DEL. GILLHAUS: I. move that the report of the Constitution Committee be received.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: Received as a whole, you mean?
DEL. GILLHAUS: As a whole.
Motion seconded by Delegate Dinger.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: It is moved and seconded that the report of the Constitution Committee be accepted as a whole.
DEL. KIEHN: Mr. Chairman, in the first days of this convention I introduced a resolution in reference to individual political action of the members, and it has been referred to the Constitution Committee, I believe. I do not know whether it has been pigeon-holed or where it has gone to. I have a right to demand a report on the resolution.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: The question occurs on the adoption of the report of the committee as a whole. Are you ready for the question? (Question called for.)
DEL. MORRISON: I should like to ask what was done with that resolution that was referred first from this body to the Ways and Means Committee, and then re-referred to the Constitution Committee.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: I believe, comrade, that a discussion of that matter will be proper to come up after the acceptance or rejection of the committee’s report.
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: This report of the committee as a whole, what do you mean by that? Is it a vote on the report of the committee or on the recommendations?
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: These are all recommendations of the committee.
DEL. FAIRGRIEVE: This is the recommendation of the committee and not the report of the committee as a whole.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: As many as are in favor of accepting the recommendations of the committee as a whole will make it known by saying aye. Contrary no. The ayes have it and it is adopted.
DEL. MORRISON: May I ask then at this time with propriety what was done with the resolution that was re-referred, sent to the Ways and Means Committee of this house and back to the Constitution Committee?
DEL. DE LEON: What was it about?
DEL. J. C. SULLIVAN: As one member of the committee I will say that the sub-committee of which I was a member had a number of resolutions that were referred to the Constitution Committee. They were read and considered by the sub-committee, and the subject matter contained in some of them was incorporated in the constitution. Others were not concurred in. It was my individual desire that the committee report on each resolution that was passed to them, with a recommendation concerning it; but the secretary of the Constitution Committee forgot to bring them from his room this morning, consequently your committee was unable to act on them at to-day’s meeting. He stated that it would take two hours for him to go and get them, and he did not care to leave the convention that length of time to-day. The convention, in my opinion, can have them in the morning. I don’t know, but that is my personal opinion.
DEL. M. P. HAGGERTY, BUTTE: Mr. Chairman, on the first day of this convention I introduced a resolution asking that fifty per cent. of the proceeds of this body be set aside for educational purposes. I certainly wish to enter my protest against that resolution being left in anybody’s room. It seems to me it is important enough to come before this gathering. Now, the purpose of that is to establish an educational bureau comprising two departments, one for the circulation of literature and the other for the erection of a lecture bureau. If this organization is not going to be educational, it certainly is going to be nothing. (Applause). If we are going to proceed along the same lines, keeping the working class of the United States in ignorance as former organizations have done, I ask you, where is your superiority over those organizations? I think, in justice to my union and to this convention, that that resolution should be read and let this convention dispose of it in any way that this convention may see fit. I ask that the question be taken up and the resolution be brought in here for action. It is not fair to sidetrack or dispose of a resolution of that kind.
DEL. J. C. SULLIVAN: In the absence of the Chairman I will state that the Constitution Committee has not sidetracked the resolution. The subject matter in that resolution was included or touched on under that part of the constitution pertaining to revenue, if you please. The Constitution Committee as a committee did not concur in a division of the fund. They believed that there should be one fund. Now, I have explained as one member of the committee regarding those resolutions, and I certainly protest against any insinuations from any member of this convention to the effect that this committee has evaded or is trying to evade any of its duties. We have been busy, as busy as a committee ordinarily can be, and devoted as much time. From the simple fact that a member of the committee who was acting as secretary forgot to put some papers in his pocket, he certainly is not entitled to the condemnation of every member of this convention nor of the convention itself for being human. I believe he is the same as every individual, and is liable to forget some things though he does not desire or wish to. (Applause.)
DEL. WHITE: I rise to a point of information. What is all this talk about? Do the delegates want their resolutions reported, or papers, or what is it? The committee has reported.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: There were some delegates who were simply asking that their resolutions be brought before the convention.
DEL. WHITE: But my point of order is—
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: The Chair simply wishes to state that it probably will be impossible for you to get those resolutions this evening, and it seems to me it would be just as well to stop any further discussion upon that subject now.
DEL. MORRISON: But you forget to realize that if a man is killed accidentally he is just as dead as if he were killed on purpose. Now if you defer action until the convention shall have adjourned, even though it may be due to negligence on the part of a human being, and equally inherent in any individual, yet it is prevented from coming before the convention.
A DELEGATE: The convention has not adjourned yet.
DEL. MORRISON: And for that reason I would rise and ask as a question of personal privilege to address the convention briefly on what I intended to get before this convention, and the reason why I wanted it before this convention. We have heard a great deal of revolutionary—
DEL. HELD: I rise to a point of order. I believe that this talk of this delegate is not in order so long as we are under the report of the Constitution Committee,
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: I beg your pardon, but that has been passed on.
DEL. DE LEON: I would like to ask the delegate to wait till to-morrow morning.
DEL. HELD: If we are under the head of committees, the report of the Committee on Ratification Meeting would come under that head, and as the chairman of the committee I want to say that I have a report to make.
DEL. SHERMAN: As one of the Constitution Committee I wish to state that I can concur in the remarks of Brother Sullivan, and will state that I believe that that committee should handle those resolutions before they are discharged. I believe that it is the duty of that committee to handle those resolutions and take final action thereon. I believe that that is what this convention decided they wanted us to do, and I as one individual want to serve this convention as they desire me to do as one of their servants.
DEL. MORRISON: I will yield the floor for other pressing business if it is understood that this proposition is the first to be voted on in the morning.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: The Chair would simply like to state that if it is the sense of this convention that we are under the head of committee reports we will proceed to call for committees in the regular order as adopted by the Committee on Rules. The next committee is that on Resolutions.
DEL. JORGENSEN: Is any newspaper reporter prohibited from taking down whatever is said in this convention, or are only delegates allowed to come here? Is this convention open to all kinds of news reporters?
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: I do not think that the doors of this convention have been closed to any one.
DEL. DANIEL MCDONALD: We have all kinds here, bad as well as good.
DEL. JORGENSEN: Well, I would like to deny what the Tribune has said, that this place was full of beer.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: That is all out of order.
DEL. FREY: The idea that the brother wishes to instill into the minds of the delegates is that there are several reporters in this city that have no regard for anybody at any time or place. They come into the hall and gather news that is not for the betterment of the Industrial Workers at any time or place. There is a Literature and Press Committee, and I believe all news ought to go out through the Press Committee. There should be no reporters coming and gathering news from members and taking it out. It should be done through the committee. That has been done time and time again throughout the convention, and I don’t believe it is right.
DEL. WHITE: I would like to ask a question through the Chair of some of the Chicago delegates here.
DEL. CRONIN: I rise to a point of order. What head are we under?
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: The Chair was trying to get under the head of committee reports, and I wish the inspiration to speak would not strike us so often and hard. Has the Committee on Resolutions any report to make at the present time?
DEL. COATES: As far as I know we have completed our business, and we have no resolution or anything else to report.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: And the Committee on Ways and Means?
DEL. HELD: The Committee on Ways and Means has nothing to report any further than they will meet on the stage immediately after adjournment.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: The Committee on Literature and Press?
DEL. DE LEON: The Committee on Ways and Means made a report, and that report was laid on the table to be taken Up after the report of the Committee on Constitution was acted on. Now that the report of the Committee on Constitution has been acted on, I think the report of the Ways and Means Committee comes properly before the convention. I simply submit it to the decision of the Chair.
DEL. DANIEL MCDONALD: They just said that they were not prepared to report.
DEL. DE LEON: But they did report, and it was laid on the table temporarily until the Committee on Constitution had done its work.
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: The Chair is informed that the report of the Committee on Ways and Means was laid over until the installation of officers.
DEL. DE LEON: Have the organizations been installed?
THE CHAIRMAN PRO TEM: They have not.
DEL. PAT O’NEIL: I was a member of that Press and Literature Committee. There was a portion of the report brought in here, and on motion of Mr. De Leon it was tabled to be referred to the Executive Board. It is simply an answer to the charges made in various papers with regard to the calling of this convention and the reason it was called. There was also an address written which has never been brought before the convention, and there was also an indictment drawn. I do not know where the balance of the committee are outside of Comrade Henion and myself. Here is one member; have you got that indictment?
DEL. KLEMENSIC: It was read before the convention.
(Here Chairman Haywood resumed the duties of the Chair.)
DEL. PAT O’NEIL: The indictment was not read before the convention?
DEL. KLEMENSIC: Yes.
DEL. PAT O’NEIL: No, it was not. It was the answer to Gompers that was read here, wasn’t it, Brother Smith?
DEL. CLARENCE SMITH: I have a suggestion to clear up this proposition, that all members of the Literature and Press Committee meet on the stage immediately after adjournment, so that we can prepare to make a complete report to-morrow morning, if that is satisfactory, Comrade O’Neil.
DEL. PAT O’NEIL: Yes, that will do me.
DEL. HELD: Can I be allowed to make a report under the head of special committees?
THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, make your report.
DEL. HELD: The special Committee on Arrangements for the Ratification Meeting recommend that a collection be taken up at the meeting to cover the expenses incurred. We have not seen any other way to pay the expense that has been incurred by the committee, except by taking up a collection, as some of the members have not been in favor of charging any admission, and for that reason we present this report for your consideration.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have heard the report of the Committee on Ratification Meeting. What is your pleasure?
DEL. SHURTLEFF: I am opposed to this organization starting out by having a meeting and taking up a collection. I would like to find out from the committee what is the cost of having the meeting.
DEL. HELD: The cost of the hall has been placed at $15. It has been understood that we could have the hall provided we paid for the lights, and the lights come to about $15, I am informed. The total expense. will probably reach $25. We ask for the recommendation of this body here.
THE CHAIRMAN: Will this be a collection at the meeting or where?
DEL. HELD: A collection at the ratification meeting.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have heard the report of the committee. What is the pleasure of the convention?
DEL. WILKE: I move that the report of the committee be concurred in. (Seconded.)
THE CHAIRMAN: It has been regularly moved and seconded that the report of the committee be concurred in. Are you ready for the question?
DEL. ALBERT RYAN: I move as an amendment that a committee of three be appointed to go to the delegates here and make them dig up and provide funds for the expense. We have been around on the streets and distributed hand bills and given the people the assurance that we would have free lectures here. It certainly would put us in a false position at this time to meet those people if this convention should look to those people to pay the expense. Therefore I move that a committee be appointed to take up a collection from this convention. (Seconded.)
The motion on the amendment was put and carried.
A DELEGATE: A point of information. I would like to know where the delegates can get a copy of the constitution, if it is to be provided?
THE CHAIRMAN: That is a matter in the hands of the incoming Executive. Board, to have the constitution printed as soon as possible.
DEL. ROSS: While speaking of that, I was the mover of a motion in a former session that we have the constitution in dodger form so that we would all have a copy to take home with us. But I consulted with Secretary Hagerty a few moments ago, and he said it was impossible to furnish a copy of it.
DEL. HAGERTY: No, no, not at all; I didn’t say that.
DEL. ROSS: At the present time.
DEL. HAGERTY: I didn’t say it would be impossible to furnish a copy. I said it would be impossible to furnish individuals a copy, I think.
DEL. ROSS: I think they should take it and get it printed.
DEL. HAGERTY: That rests with the secretary and officers of this convention.
DEL. ROSS: I asked a question inn regard to getting it. If you will let me explain I will explain.
THE CHAIRMAN: All right.
DEL. ROSS: I have been approached by two or three delegates, and they said it would be impossible to get it printed. If the convention will let me, and if the man who seconded the motion will let me, I will withdraw the whole thing and let it go, because I believe that we are not going to get the copy in time to take it to the printers and get it printed in time for the delegation to take home with them as proposed in the motion.
THE CHAIRMAN: I would suggest to the delegate that he might report to that effect.
DEL. ROSS: Now?
THE CHAIRMAN: Now.
DEL. ROSS: I am trying to make an explanation, and I shall so report. I am informed by several delegates that we would not be able to get it, not having a copy in our hands to take to the printers in all probability for some hours, and probably not before to-morrow morning. I want to withdraw the motion with the consent of the second.
DEL. BRADLEY: I withdraw the second.
DEL. ROSS: And leave it in the hands of the Executive Board to print the constitution whenever they have time and opportunity.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Committee on Ratification Meeting will take up a collection in the hall to defray the expenses of the meeting to-night.
DEL. PAT O’NEIL: I move that we suspend the present order of business and proceed to the election of officers.
THE CHAIRMAN: That would be impossible until we get to the installation of the organizations. We have to wait for the ritual. The collection to defray the expenses of the Ratification Meeting was then taken up from the delegates.
DEL. PAT O’NEIL: I move that we adjourn an hour earlier than common to-night. (Seconded.)
THE CHAIRMAN: It has been regularly moved and seconded that we now adjourn until nine o’clock to-morrow morning.
DEL. DINGER: I believe there is some work before this convention. I don’t see why we should adjourn any earlier. There is some more work to come up here, and I am opposed to it.
The motion to adjourn was put and declared apparently lost.
DEL. DE LEON: I desire to know when the organizations will be installed?
THE CHAIRMAN: We are waiting for the Ritual Committee, or would have had them installed before now.
DEL. DE LEON: The committee recommended. that this matter be referred to the incoming G. E. B. Isn’t that so, Mr. Chairman?
THE CHAIRMAN: There was no action taken on the report of the Ritual Committee.
DEL. DE LEON: No?
THE CHAIRMAN: They said they would have the ritual completed in a very short time.
DEL. WILKE: I would make a motion to adjourn now, to call the meeting at eight o’clock to-morrow morning, so that some of these delegates can get away by to-morrow night by starting in an hour earlier. (Seconded). A delegate just tells me that there is some business of theirs that they want to see done. Most of us members have got to leave to-morrow night, and be back to work for Monday morning, and we want to get started early to-morrow morning.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there a second to the motion?
DEL. DANIEL MCDONALD: I move you that we make the installation of the unions into the new organization and the election of officers a special order of business for ten o’clock to-morrow morning. (Seconded.)
The motion of Delegate McDonald was carried.
DEL. DANIEL MCDONALD: I move that we adjourn. (Seconded.)
DEL. WILKE: Will you entertain an amendment to that motion, to adjourn until eight o’clock to-morrow morning? I believe we have got a good deal of work on hand, and we ought to get here at eight o’clock to-morrow morning. I make that as an amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: The motion is that we adjourn until eight o’clock to-morrow morning.
DEL. DE LEON: That “when we adjourn” we adjourn until eight o’clock.
The motion was then, at five o’clock, put and carried, and the convention adjourned until eight o’clock A. M.