no convention between 1880 and 1912, and the cigar-makers, after
a convention in 1896, did not meet for sixteen years. The
initiative and referendum are, in some of the more compact
unions, taking the place of the general convention, while the
small executive council insures promptness of administrative
action.

The convention elects the general officers. Of these the
president is the most conspicuous, for he is the field marshal of
the forces and fills a large place in the public eye when a great
strike is called. It was in this capacity that John Mitchell rose
to sudden eminence during the historic anthracite strike in 1902,
and George W. Perkins of the cigar-makers' union achieved his
remarkable hold upon the laboring people. As the duties of the
president of a union have increased, it has become the custom to
elect numerous vice-presidents to relieve him. Each of these has
certain specific functions to perform, but all remain the
president's aides. One, for instance, may be the financier,
another the strike agent, another the organizer, another the
agitator. With such a group of virtual specialists around a
chieftain, a union has the immense advantage of centralized
command and of highly organized leadership. The tendency,
especially among the more conservative unions, is to reelect
these officers year after year. The president of the Carpenters'
Union held his office for twenty years, and John Mitchell served
the miners as president ten years. Under the immediate
supervision of the president, an executive board composed of all
the officers guides the destinies of the union. When this board
is not occupied with the relations of the men to their
employers, it gives its judicial consideration to the more