with vigor and intelligence, and will soon bring order and solidarity out of the present chaotic conditions.
The Marine Industry
A few years ago the marine transport industry was one of the best organized in America. As a result of the war situation the International Longshoremen's Association and the Seamen's International Union built themselves into powerful organizations controlling most of the workers in their respective branches. But incompetent leadership, coupled with the inescapable weakness of craft unionism, has wrecked these organizations. Since the war they have lost strike after strike. Thousands and thousands of their members quit in disgust and gave up unionism altogether. Other thousands joined in secession movements of various kinds. The general result is that the industry is now split up into at least 30 organizations, all in rivalry with each other. With such a demoralized front the marine workers are practically helpless, the employers having virtually a free hand in establishing wages, hours, and working conditions.
In May, 1923, rank and file elements in these various organizations of the marine industry have formed a Committee to propagate the amalgamation of all the unions into one body. This is known as the International Marine Workers' Amalgamation Committee. It is carrying on an agitation in all the ports of the United States and Canada.
The Tobacco Industry
The same as in all other spheres, the amalgamation movement has spread to the tobacco industry, For many years the cigarmakers were labor aristocrats, being highly skilled mechanics, But industrial evolution has shaken them from their strategic position. The introduction of the mold, the endless rubber belt, and machinery of various sorts, which has enabled the employers fo use unskilled and semi-skilled labor, broke down the old craft monopoly, A further factor in weakening the workers was the trustification of the industry and the building up of tremendous reserve funds by the tobacco kings.
While this evolution of the industry was going on, the union failed to keep pace. It clung tenaciously to the old outworn policies, with the result that it has been practically shoved aside by the onward march of industrial development, Only a small fraction of the in-
