tional organizations.

The unions representing the different trades vary in structure and
spirit. There is an immense difference between the temper of the
tumultuous structural iron workers and the contemplative cigar-makers,
who often hire one of their number to read to them while engaged in
their work, the favorite authors being in many instances Ruskin and
Carlyle. Some unions are more successful than others in collective
bargaining. Martin Fox, the able leader of the iron moulders, signed one
of the first trade agreements in America and fixed the tradition for
his union; and the shoemakers, as well as most of the older unions
are fairly well accustomed to collective bargaining. In matters of
discipline, too, the unions vary. Printers and certain of the more
skilled trades find it easier to enforce their regulations than do the
longshoremen and unions composed of casual foreign laborers. In size
also the unions of the different trades vary. In 1910 three had a
membership of over 100,000 each. Of these the United Mine Workers
reached a total of 370,800, probably the largest trades union in the
world. The majority of the unions have a membership between 1000 and
10,000, the average for the entire number being 5000; but the membership
fluctuates from year to year, according to the conditions of labor, and
is usually larger in seasons of contest. Fluctuation in membership
is most evident in the newer unions and in the unskilled trades. The
various unions differ also in resources. In some, especially those
composed largely of foreigners, the treasury is chronically empty; yet
at the other extreme the mine workers distributed $1,890,000 in strike
benefits in 1902 and had $750,000 left when the board of arbitration
sent the workers back into the mines.

The efforts of the unions to adjust themselves to the quickly changing
conditions of modern industries are not always successful. Old trade
lines are instantly shifting, creating the most perplexing problem of
inter-union amity. Over two score jurisdictional controversies appear
for settlement at each annual convention of the American Federation. The
Association of Longshoremen and the Seamen's Union, for example, both
claim jurisdiction over employees in marine warehouses. The cigar-makers
and the stogie-makers have also long been at swords' points. Who shall
have control over the coopers who work in breweries--the Brewery Workers
or the Coopers' Union? Who shall adjust th