54 ASSOCIATION OF IRON, STEEL AND TIN WORKERS [^l86 



Workers of the United States." They enlisted a following 

 under the promise of no assessment, and sought to get a 

 scale signed so that their members might " black-sheep " 

 under the guise of unionism. The inducement of no assess- 

 ments had a distressing effect on the collection of the tax 

 from members of the Association and, according to Presi- 

 dent Garland, "disheartened the men at Homestead to 

 such a degree that they lost hope of winning the strike."*' 

 The Amalgamated refused to recognize the finishers as a 

 rival organization, on the ground that it would form a 

 " precedent " for any small group of seceders to demand 

 recognition in the future. The Finishers' Union estab- 

 lished temporary headquarters at Youngstown, but within 

 a few years it disbanded and its members drifted back into 

 the fold of the Amalgamated. 



Perhaps the gravest disruption in the history of the As- 

 sociation was the secession of the puddlers in 1907. The 

 movement originated in Brown's Tenth St. Mill, Pitts- 

 burgh.*^ A meeting of puddlers, scrappers, and muck mill 

 hands was called in the Old City Hall, on the 24th of Feb- 

 ruary, and a temporary organization was effected. At the 

 next meeting on Sunday, March 10, the puddlers decided 

 to withdraw in a body from the Amalgamated Association, 

 and for sentimental reasons the new union assumed the title 

 of the early puddlers' union, " Sons of Vulcan." The first 

 convention was held in Pittsburgh in June of that year, and 

 delegates from sixteen lodges were present.*^ Headquar- 

 ters were established in Pittsburgh. They sought a recip- 

 rocal agreement with the Amalgamated, but of course the 

 Association would not consider such an arrangement. The 

 Sons of Vulcan drew up a scale, which was a prototype of 

 the Amalgamated scale, and, in the attempt to have it signed, 



<« Proceedings, 1893. pp. 4325. 4350-4351- 



*'' The reasons for the formation of a separate union of the pud- 

 dlers were "the failure of the Amalgamated Association to secure 

 satisfactory conditions for the Roiling Department, and the belief 

 that their interests can best be sul)served by being independent of 

 all other departments" (Proceedings, 1907, pp. 79i4-79i5> 79i8)- 



*** National Labor Tribune, June 6, 1907. 



