Such an application, when it is required, is usually referred to a [membership] committee, and the committee is often forbidden to report at the same meeting at which the application is presented. Whatever the preliminaries may be, the admission of the candidate depends upon the vote of the members. Often the vote is required to be taken by ball ballot; but many unions leave the method to the option of the locals, and a few require an open vote. In many a majority is sufficient to admit a candidate, and in many others the required majority is two-thirds. In several, two, three, or five black balls work exclusion. In a large proportion of these, however, those who cast the black balls are required, either in all cases or when they do not exceed a certain number, to give their reasons. Sometimes the reasons are presented in writing, and the names of the objectors are not known except to the president. If no reasons are given, it is usual to declare the candidate elected. If reasons are presented, a new vote is taken; in many unions a two-thirds majority is then sufficient to admit. . . . Some sort of pledge of faithfulness to the union is always administered. . . . Obligations of a more general character, relating to moral and social duties, are sometimes added. The pledge is not usually made binding by oath, but simply by a promise upon honor." (See EXAMINING BOARD.)

Adventurer. See ENTREPRENEUR.

Advisory Councils. As found in some of the larger British trade unions, whose membership extends throughout the United Kingdom, these are delegate bodies representative of all BRANCHES in Scotland or in Ireland. Although such councils have no executive power, they occupy an important place in British trade union structure, inasmuch as their recommendations may influence the CENTRAL EXECUTIVE in determining policy within the area represented by an advisory council.

Afa. See ANGESTELLTEN.

Affiliation. In labor terminology, the name for a limited connection between one trade union and another, or between one union and a group of unions, or between a group of workers and a central association of any sort. It usually implies the payment of a joint fee or tax and the readiness for joint action; but it is not adopted when the connection is already so close that the respective bodies are integral parts of the same unit. A LOCAL may be affiliated with the CITY CENTRAL of its locality, but it is a constituent part of its national union, which in turn is usually affiliated with the AMERICAN

FEDERATION OF LABOR. Affiliation, in the trade union sense, is generally synonymous with FEDERATION; although, on the other hand, it may denote a connection for which the term “federation" would be inappropriate.

Agent Provocateur. In connection with American labor affairs, a secret agent who poses as a workingman or ultra-radical and endeavors to stir up factional strife within a labor organization or between different labor elements; or who endeavors to incite workingmen to make rash statements or take violent action, so as to render them liable to criminal prosecution or to discredit them and their organizations before public opinion. The agent provocateur is an important factor in creating that atmosphere of mutual suspicion upon which the system of ESPIONAGE IN INDUSTRY SO largely thrives. (See UNDER-COVER MEN; PLANT.)

Agitator. While this term is applicable to any one in any field who agitates or urges any specific reform or course of action, it is most commonly used in opprobrious designation of workingclass leaders who are charged with inciting their followers to rash or hasty or "radical" action. "In particular, it is frequently alleged by employers and others that many, if not perhaps most, strikes are due, not so much to the general desire of the body of the workingmen to better their conditions, as to the influence of a few extremists. There are many professional agitators, it is claimed, who have altogether exaggerated and erroneous ideas regarding the rights of the working classes and the injustice of existing conditions; or who perchance hope to secure a purely selfish advantage, whether notoriety or some pecuniary gain, through fomenting labor disputes. So-called WALKING DELEGATES are especially often criticised for their part in promoting strikes." There is some measure of truth in these assertions, especially as they relate to the building trades; but, in general, the influence of "agitators" in the labor movement is immensely exaggerated. It is the common testimony of those who have impartially studied trade unionism that labor leaders are as a rule far more conservative than the rank and file unionists. Moreover, in all but a very few unions, strikes can only be inaugurated after a majority (frequently two-thirds or three-fourths) of all the members have endorsed the proposal by secret ballot. Officers and BUSINESS AGENTS doubtless often exercise great influence in bringing propositions for strikes before their organizations, and in persuading the members how they shall vote-which is equally true of all human organizations; but they have no dictatorial power.

The saying of a great Englishman, Sir Charles Napier, that "the only real agitator is injustice" holds at least as true in the labor movement as in any other field.

Agrarianism. The principle or theory of an equal division of land; or, more generally, any theory involving radical changes. in the tenure of land. Also, the movement or agitation in behalf of such theories. Agrarianism played a somewhat prominent part in the early American labor movement. The original agrarians, those among the New York workingmen, held that both land and capital should be equally divided among the entire population; but the later movement, beginning about 1840, had reference only to land. The agrarian agitation was largely instrumental in shaping the "free soil" movement of the middle 19th century, the homestead movement, and the SINGLE TAX movement under Henry George's leadership. (See LAND QUESTION.)

Agreement System. A term commonly applied to the plan by which the terms and conditions of labor in an industry as a whole or in one department of an industry are formulated in a written agreement, resulting as a rule from formal negotiations between organizations of employers and employees. Such agreements may be either national, district, or local in scope. "While the existence of a written agreement does not always imply that COLLECTIVE BARGAINING has been developed to a higher degree than in cases where no such agreements are adopted, it is nevertheless true that usually where the practice of collective bargaining has been most thoroughly and successfully worked out, the results of the bargain are set forth in written agreements. Many of these written agreements also provide for the ARBITRATION of minor disputes arising regarding the interpretation of their terms. The methods by which written agreements are adopted, their contents, and their bearing upon the relations of employers and employees, vary greatly in different cases. The reference of particular disputes to arbitration is not uncommon even where systematic collective bargaining and written agreements do not exist." (See JOINT CONFErence System; Trade Agreement.)

Agricultural Cooperation. That form of coOPERATION which consists in the formation of buying and selling organizations among farmers, by means of which farm supplies are bought at wholesale, expensive machinery or breeding stock is held and used in common, CREDIT UNIONS are formed, and various agricultural products are marketed by joint effort.

Agricultural Labor. In respect of the total number of workers engaged, agriculture probably outranks any other industry in this and other large countries. Agricultural labor may be divided into three main classes: (1) That furnished by the occupier's family; (2) hired labor domiciled on the farm or adjacent to it; (3) that floating or migratory contingent which year by year seems to become a larger feature in the farm labor supply of Europe and the United States. Although special phases of farm enterprise have developed new and increasing demands for skilled workers, farm labor is for the most part unskilled labor, a considerable portion of which consists of children, women, negroes (in the southern United States), and coolies (in the western United States). It is a field in which long hours, low wages, and CASUAL LABOR are almost universal. The seasonal nature of the industry makes the task of adjusting the supply of agricultural labor to the demand one of the most intricate and difficult problems of American industry. Whether the lack of organization among farm laborers is a cause or an effect of their comparatively low economic status, it is nevertheless true that trade unionism has as yet made little headway in the agricultural industry. The I. W. W. has had some success in organizing the casual and migratory harvest hands of the West, but beyond this there is little if any industrial organization of farm workers in the United States. Hoxie's standard work on American trade unionism does not even mention the subject. In Europe, however, though organization in the agricultural field is still comparatively backward, there are strong national unions of farm workers in several countries. The movement towards trade unionism among British agricultural workers is advancing rapidly, the total number of those organized being now over 300,000 or about one-third of all the male wageearners in agriculture. (See LABOR OUTINGS; NEGRO LABOR; AGRICULTURAL WORKERS' ORGANIZATION; MÉTAYAGE; CROPPER; PRODUCT SHARING.)

Agricultural Workers' Organization. The most energetic and numerous section of the INDUSTRIAL WOrkers of the World, consisting of farm laborers and harvest hands, was organized under this name in April, 1915. The "A. W. O.," as it is usually called, has its headquarters in Minneapolis, and is strongest in the Middle West and Northwest.

Akademie der Arbeit. This, the first "university of labor" to be established anywhere in the world under government auspiceswas opened in June, 1921, at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Its sponsors

are the Prussian Ministers of Education and Finance, and the municipal and university authorities of Frankfort; and its purpose is to promote among existing and potential labor leaders a scientific knowledge of economic and industrial relations. Some seventy students-mostly trade union officials-were enrolled for the first session.

Alien Contract Labor Laws. See CONTRACT LABOR.

All-China Federation of Trade Unions. See CHINESE

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS.

All Grades Movement. Refers to the effort of British railway workers to secure better wages and working conditions by concerted national action, beginning in 1897. Before that year, their efforts had been local or sectional, and nearly always in the interests of particular grades or classes of workers. In 1897, for the first time, all the railway companies were approached simultaneously, with a request for improvements in all grades from one end of the service to the other. This movement did much to bring the various unions of railway workers together, resulting in the merging, in 1913, of most of the principal unions in a single organization-the National Union of Railwaymen, now one of the largest and strongest labor bodies in Great Britain, and a member of the TRIPLE ALLIANCE. (See EMPLOYMENTAL UNIONISM; NEW MODEL OF TRADE UNIONISM.)

All-India Trades Union Congress. This, the first formal conference of labor representatives from all parts of India, was held at Bombay in October, 1920, with delegates from forty associations in attendance. Resolutions were adopted nominating a standing committee of sixty members to manage the affairs of the Congress and to provide permanent machinery for the collection of information relating to trade unions, to help labor organizations by advice, and otherwise to further the cause of the workers of India, until the second session of the Congress should be held. Arrangements were also made for drawing up a permanent constitution, and for securing funds to maintain a permanent central office in Bombay. (See INDIA, LABOR ORGANIZATION IN.)

All-Russia Professional Alliances. See TRADE UNIONS IN

RUSSIA.

All-Russian Council of Professional Alliances. A body which forms the apex of trade unionism in Russia. As originally constituted, it was made up of eleven members elected by the annual Trade Union Congress, together with representatives from each of