150 ASSOCIATION OF IRON, STEEL AND TIN WORKERS [282 



At the annual convention the president appoints a confer- 

 ence committee to meet the manufacturers. The number 

 of conferees selected to represent the workmen has varied. 

 The prime requisite is that each department shall be ade- 

 quately represented. This was peculiarly necessary in the 

 early years when all branches met the manufacturers in one 

 general conference. Under the system of divisional con- 

 ferences, naturally, members of the interested group are 

 chosfen. For example, in 1901, nine members represented 

 the boiling department and in conference with the repre- 

 sentatives of the Republic Iron and Steel company estab- 

 lished a scale for boiling iron and the allied processes of 

 scrapping, busheling, muck-mill rolling, and knobbling. A 

 second division of the conference committee consisted of 

 eleven members from the bar, guide, plate, and structural 

 departments, and from jobbing mills working pipe iron. 

 This division, in connection also with the representatives 

 of the Republic Iron and Steel Company, adopted scales for 

 a considerable number of different products falling under 

 the heads indicated. A third division consisted of nine 

 members of the steel and jobbing mills, who conferred with 

 the members of the American Sheet Steel Company. Fi- 

 nally, there was a division composed of nine representatives 

 of the tin and black-plate mills and tinning houses, who 

 conferred with the representatives of the American Tin 

 Plate Company. The president and secretary of the union 

 were members of all the divisions. 



The members of the employers' associations or of the 

 industrial combinations usually send to the national confer- 

 ence one or more representatives from each plant. The 

 number of conferees representing the manufacturers has 

 varied greatly, the large corporations sometimes negotiating 

 through one or two officials. In 1905 the Republic sent but 

 one official; in 1901 the American Sheet and Tin Plate 

 Company sent two. At present, the two employers' asso- 

 ciations usually have a fair representation of members. As 

 a matter of fact, however, it is not essential that there shall 



