173] JURISDICTION 41 



The problem of defining the territorial jurisdiction of 

 subordinate unions was even more simple. At the outset, 

 the Puddlers organized a forge wherever a nucleus of a 

 half-dozen workmen could be found willing to assume the 

 responsibility of a charter. These forges were located at 

 convenient centers. There was usually one forge to a city 

 in which one or more mills were located. V/hen conditions 

 seemed to warrant it, a new society was chartered in the 

 same city. Accordingly, in any one city, a local forge 

 might have members working in several mills. In 1873, 

 in order to put an end to this state of confusion, the terri- 

 tory assigned to a forge was made coextensive with a par- 

 ticular " mill." Members obtaining permanent employment 

 in a mill under the jurisdiction of another forge were re- 

 quired to transfer their membership to that forge. In 1880, 

 when some of the larger societies were subdivided accord- 

 ing to trade or allied trades, a further limitation of the 

 jurisdiction of a subordinate union became necessary. In 

 case there were two or more lodges in the same mill, a local 

 union had jurisdiction, not over the entire mill, but only 

 over a particular department in the mill. 



In the matter of national jurisdiction the situation has 

 been less favorable. Not only has the union had its mem- 

 bership claims disputed, but it has time and again been 

 forced to struggle in order to preserve its territorial juris- 

 diction intact. The controversies have resulted in dual- 

 union disputes. " In a dual-union dispute," according to 

 Dr. Whitney,^ " the jurisdiction claimed by one of the dis- 

 putants is either exactly coextensive with that claimed by 

 the other or is entirely included within it." In other words, 

 it is a dispute not as to which trade the particular work 

 belongs, but merely as to what union shall have control over 

 the workers in a particular trade. A dual union, then, is 

 " an organization which claims the right to maintain itself 

 as a body independent of, and usually rival to, another asso- 



» N. R. Whitney, Jurisdiction in American Building-Trades Unions, 

 p. 62. 



