169] GOVERNMENT 37 



In 191 2 it was enacted that the national officers should 

 be elected by means of the initiative and referendum, and 

 also be subject to recall. The term of office was lengthened 

 to two years. A call for nominations was sent out on the 

 first of February ; two candidates were named by each local 

 union for each position ; nominations by five lodges entitled 

 a candidate to a place on the ballot; majority vote elected, 

 except in the case of trustees, in the case of whom the three 

 receiving the most votes were chosen. The results of the 

 election were sealed and forwarded by registered mail to 

 the national office, and remained unopened until a can- 

 vassing board of five members counted the vote and an- 

 nounced the results of the election at the next convention. 



Similar machinery was provided for the recall of a na- 

 tional official. Upon the request of ten subordinate lodges, 

 a reelection was held. No newly-elected officer could be 

 recalled until he had served three months in office. Nor 

 was the president or either vice-president subject to re- 

 moval from May i to August 31, that is, during the confer- 

 ence season when scales were being signed, or while a strike 

 was in progress in which ten per cent of the membership 

 was involved. When a petition was initiated by a local 

 union for the recall of an official, the reasons for such 

 action were set forth in two hundred words upon the 

 printed ballot. The official in an equivalent space gave his 

 " justification of his course in office." 



The defects in the provision for the adoption of consti- 

 tutional amendments were also remedied. The essential 

 changes were : the proposed amendment was to be printed 

 in the Journal, and the matter was to be open for free 

 discussion for sixty days, the time-limit for the receipt of 

 proper endorsement. Members in good standing only were 

 entitled to vote, and all votes were to be cast at a single 

 meeting of the local union. Any proposition purporting, in 

 the opinion of the officials, " to question the integrity and 

 veracity of any officer or member" or tending " to weaken 

 the position of the organization in a strike ... or scale settle- 



