EMPLOYERS’ ASSOCIATIONS

combinations of manufacturers employ- | ing labor, parallel to labor unions on the of employers, organized to meet the XI.|demands of the latter. They may be | divided into two cla es; peaceful and hostile, though these two characters may | be a umed alternately by the one organ- | ization at various times, as may be the of|case with a labor organization. The | peaceful a ociation of manufacturers is | formed for the legitimate purpose of meeting the organized workers for collective bargaining, and the two may hold very friendly and even co-operative relations. The hostile a ociation has for its purpose the repre ion of labor | unions, and, as is also true of some labor | organizations, employs the most unscrupulous methods to accomplish its objects. As has been proved by Govern ment investigations, such hostile as so- | ciations employ secret services of their the|own, their agents being members of labor or|organizations for the purpose of disrupting them or of bringing them into | public disfavor by overt acts. During The|strikes, which such a ociations may |sometimes cause by 2 policy of irritation, they employ armed terrorists to terrorize the active strikers. The first a ociation of this kind in the United States was organized in 1875, as the U. §. Potters’ A ociation, followed by | the Stove Founders’ A ociation, in 1886. National A ociation of Manufacturers of the U. S8., organized in 1905, is not on trade or industry lines, but general in character, and in 1922 had a membership of 6,000. This organization is at all times hostile, and is bitterly anta- | gonistic to labor organizations. Aside from this there are many trade, or industry, a ociations, such as the Clothing Manufacturers’ A ociation, which 1921 locked out 60,000 workers in New York and 15,000 in Boston and Baltimore.