24 ASSOCIATION OF IRON, STEFX AND TIN WORKERS [156 



the national assembly. In any important business, the local 

 society appoints a committee to investigate the matter and 

 report at the next meeting; but no decision is binding ex- 

 cept by a vote of the members. The meetings are held in 

 some convenient hall, or sometimes several local unions join 

 to rent a building where each may have its office and meet- 

 ing room. During the meetings the officers are stationed in 

 various parts of the room, upon slightly raised platforms or 

 behind small tables, the procedure resembling that of a fra- 

 ternal order. 



The Amalgamated Association endeavors to divide the 

 local unions when they reach considerable size. In early 

 times, a single local society frequently had members work- 

 ing in several mills. When the membership became too 

 large for proper administration of local affairs, members 

 of the same mill were organized in separate unions. By 

 about 1880 the number of members in a single union from 

 the larger mills became so great as to impair the efficiency 

 of the general meeting. The local unions were again di- 

 vided so that the different branches of the trade were 

 organized into separate lodges. Thus, the finishers belonged 

 to one local union, the boilers to another, the steel workers 

 to a third, and so on. In 1890 the average membership of 

 a subordinate lodge was less than ninety, the largest having 

 over four hundred members, and the smallest less than a 

 dozen. Only in a few of the larger local unions was there 

 any danger of the monthly meeting degenerating into an 

 unwieldy body. 



A second less important method employed by the asso- 

 ciation to limit the size of the subordinate lodges is by 

 restricting the choice of lodges in which an itinerant mem- 

 ber may deposit his card. According to the constitution, 

 any member removing from one locality to another, and 

 obtaining a situation, is required to deposit his card in the 

 lodge which controls the mill wherein he works, and all 

 cards not deposited within four weeks thereafter are an- 

 nulled. Where there are two or more lodges in one mill, 



