Boss Miner. In coal mining, a working contractor who agrees with the OPERATOR to produce coal at a certain price per ton. The boss miner may in turn employ other miners and assistants to do the actual mining work under his supervision and instruction, or he may work with a partner. (See BUTTY OR CHARter-Master SySTEM.) Boss Stevedore. See STEVEDORE SYSTEM.

Boston System. See FACTORY SYSTEM IN TRADES.

THE GARMENT

Boston Trade Union College. Organized in March, 1919, by the Boston Central Labor Union, with the avowed purpose of making "accessible to working men and women the study of subjects which will further the progress of organized labor." The college was founded upon a democratic basis, the committee in charge consisting of eleven trade unionists and five instructors. The latter, declaring for the right of academic freedom, "assert that the function of the instruction in the college is educational and nothing beyond that." Each section of the joint committee is responsible to the body by which it was appointed and to the central labor union, before which, at open meetings, appeals may be made. Comfortable, well-equipped quarters were furnished by the Boston school board in one of the city high-school buildings. The classes meet once a week for two hours. A nominal fee is charged for each course. The membership is limited to men and women belonging to trade unions affiliated with the AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR. English is the subject most frequently chosen by the students, with law, government, science, economics, and labor organization following, about in the order named. (See WORKING-CLASS EDUCATION.)

Bouche Ouverte. See OPEN-MOUTH STRIKE.

Bourbon. See REACTIONARY.

Bourgeoisie. This French term originally denoted the free citizen class in the towns, as distinguished from the aristocracy, on the one hand, and the working class on the other. The French socialists, however, extended the meaning of the term to include all the more or less wealthy classes, as opposed to the PROLETARIAT or working class, and it is in this sense that the term is used in practically all socialist literature. In the Marxian formula, it is the bourgeoisie (including capitalists, manufacturers, money lenders, land owners, etc.) who are pitted against the proletariat in the CLASS STRUGGLE for possession of the means of production and

distribution. (See SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM; COMMUNIST MANIFESTO; DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT; CONCENTRATION OF CAPITAL THEORY; MIDDLE CLASS; PROPERTARIAT.)

Bourses du Travail (Chambers of Labor). In France, local federations of working-class SYNDICATS or trade unions. The first bourse du travail was founded at Paris in 1887, and others soon followed. These first bourses were established by or with the help of the municipalities in which they were situated; they aimed at being for the laboring class what chambers of commerce are for the employer-general meeting-places and centres of organization for their respective localities. Municipal subsidies were secured, partly as election bribes but far more because the bourses were to serve as local LABOR EXCHANGES. In 1892 the Bourses held their first Congress, and in 1893 organized the Fédération des Bourses du Travail. In 1902 this federation united with the CONFÉDÉRATION GÉNÉRALE DU TRAVAIL, giving this latter body its first real impetus. When the C. G. T. began to develop its revolutionary character the municipal subsidies were in many cases withdrawn-a disaster from which recovery has been slow. But the bourses are still perhaps the most important centres of French trade union activities. They are largely used for propaganda work among unorganized workers, and serve as schools of "intercorporate solidarity." During strikes they are the rendezvous of the strikers, and in the case of a general local strike they direct the conflict. They carry on certain limited FRIENDLY SOCIETY activities. Each local bourse serves as a labor exchange, as a club-room, as a library, as a lecture-hall. Its affairs are directed by a committee, to which every local syndicat elects a member, and by a general secretary. Each syndicat contributes to the support of its local bourse in direct proportion to the number of members within the syndicat. (See MUTUALITÉ; MAISONS DES OUVRIERS; FRENCH LABOR MOVEMENT.)

Boycott. Derived from the name of Captain Boycott, an Irish landlord whose tenants refused to deal with him in any way. No thoroughly satisfactory definition of the boycott, with specific reference to labor affairs, seems to have yet been formulated; it has been said that "scarcely any two courts treating of the subject formulate the same definition." In general, however, it may be described as an organized refusal on the part of wage-earners to purchase the products of, or otherwise deal with, an "offending" employer, the purpose being to compel compliance with some demand of the workers or to punish the employer for "unfair" acts or policies.

This is known as the "primary" or "simple" boycott, being aimed directly at the employer who has offended the workers. When such action on the workers' part extends to a refusal to patronize or deal with other employers not directly concerned in the original dispute, in an effort to induce such employers to suspend business relations with the original offender, it becomes what is called the "secondary" or "compound" boycott. As few employers of labor sell directly to consumers, nearly all present-day boycotts are of the "secondary" or "compound" variety. In either case, however, the workers directly concerned not only withhold their own patronage, but commonly endeavor either directly or indirectly to induce the buying public in general and all other wage-earners in particular to adopt a similar policy. The term "negative boycott" is sometimes applied to such trade union devices or methods as the UNION LABEL and FAIR LIST; while the boycott proper, as defined above, and the UNFAIR LIST of "we don't patronize" list, are classified as forms of "positive boycott." The collective refusal of unionists to work with a non-unionist or under an "unfair" foreman, or to handle material made by non-unionists, is often classed as a boycott; but in the great majority of cases the labor boycott corresponds to the main definition given above. Court decisions in the United States almost invariably put the ban of illegality upon labor boycotts. "In some cases boycotts have been held criminal offenses under the common law, or under statutes prohibiting interference with lawful business or employment, or prohibiting the use of INTIMIDATION. In a few states boycotts are in terms declared unlawful by statute. In other cases the courts have granted civil damages to employers injured by boycotts, while frequently INJUNCTIONS have been issued to restrain them. The element of combination in the boycott is especially emphasized by the courts. They usually hold also that, while a strike has evidently for its primary motive the improvement of the condition of the workingmen, the boycott on its face involves malice, the desire to injure another. Stress is also laid on the thought that, whatever the motive, the means-by deliberate attempt to destroy a man's business-are unlawful; that the right to conduct a lawful business is a fundamental right of liberty and property, and that a man may not properly be coerced to act contrary to his wishes in the management of his own business." On the other hand, however, the trade boycott-that is, the boycott of one dealer or manufacturer by the concerted action of other dealers or manufacturers— has been often upheld as a legitimate form of competition. The attitude of organized labor toward the boycott is thus summarized

in the report of the FEDERAL INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION: "There is probably no union man who doubts the legitimacy of the boycott as a weapon of labor, or the necessity of using it. The broadestminded and most conservative of the union leaders defend the right to use it, without hesitation or qualification, and regard the tendency of the courts to condemn it as one of the marks of the injustice with which they believe the working people to be treated by our rulers. The right to deal, or to refrain from dealing, with whomsoever he pleases, and for any reason which may appeal to him, is, they say, one of the most elementary rights of a free citizen. But if one man may select the persons he will deal with, two or a million may do so. The boycott is simply a common refusal on the part of a number of people to deal with a person whose action is believed to be antagonistic to their interest." A novel and interesting use of the labor boycott on an international scale, for political purposes, was made during 1920 by the INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS, in an effort to coerce the Hungarian government into discontinuance of its bloody persecution of communists and labor leaders. (See SYMPATHETIC BOYCOTT; RAILWAY BOYCOTT; DANBURY HATTERS CASE; BUCK STOVE AND RANGE CASE; DUPLEX PRINTING PRESS CASE; BLACKLIST.)

Branch. The smallest unit of a British national union, corresponding roughly to the American LOCAL. It maintains its own branch committee, branch officers, and in some cases its branch funds. The branch, in addition to its constitutional position inside the national union to which it belongs, is generally the body affiliated to local organizations of federal character, such as the local TRADES COUNCIL, OF LOCAL LABOR PARTY, and (in some cases) the local federation of trade unions in a particular industry. In the larger trade unions which have a number of branches in the same town or district, such branches are also federated in a delegate body known as the DISTRICT COUNCIL or district committee, which usually has considerable power and authority. The branch is nearly always based on the place of habitation of its members rather than on their place of work, and in the larger towns there are usually several branches of the same national union. In the case of the miners, however, the branch centres around a national industrial unit-the coal-pit. (See LODGE; SINGLE-BRANCH UNION; MULTIPLE-BRANCH UNION; GOVERNING BRANCH; COMPOSITE BRANCHES.)

Brazilian Confederation of Labor. See CONFEDERAZIONE

OBRERA BRASILEANO.

Bridgeport Plan. After the labor disturbances during the latter part of 1918 in the machinery trades of Bridgeport, Conn., employers and employees worked out a plan for JOINT COMMITTEES to deal with all matters of mutual concern and interest in the Bridgeport industries. This plan provides for the election of employees' department committees and employees' general committees, and prescribes by-laws governing the powers and functions and the methods of procedure of these committees, and also makes provision for a referendum and recall of duly elected committeemen, and for amendment of the by-laws.

British Cooperative Wholesale Society. See WHOLESALE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES.

British Housing Acts. The acute shortage of houses for the working classes after the war led the British government to adopt a definite housing programme, under the general supervision of the Ministry of Health. The first step toward the working out of this programme was accomplished with the passage of the Housing and Town-Planning Act, July, 1919. This act made the local authorities responsible for providing the necessary housing accommodations, but the government, having to undertake responsibility for the financial results, was to have complete control and supervision of all undertakings. The community and the nation were each to provide a specified proportion of the cost of building. In December, 1919, a new act was passed, the Housing (Additional Powers) Act, giving the Minister of Health authority under specified conditions to make grants for houses, or, in other words, to invite private enterprise to cooperate and to offer it a subsidy for so doing. Under the new acts, the Ministry of Health is empowered to require the local authorities to prepare and carry out schemes for needed housing, and also, for a specified number of years, to pay to them out of State funds seventy-five per cent of any loss resulting from the difference between the economic rent on the increased cost of building and the reasonable rent which working-class tenants can bear. The country has been divided for housing purposes into eleven regions, each with a regional commissioner, armed with large delegated powers, who works in close cooperation with the local authorities. (See MANCHESTER BUILDING GUILD.)

British Industrial Court. See INDUSTRIAL COURTS ACT.

British Labor Party. In 1899, largely through the efforts of the INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY, the formation of an independent