n
Federation of Labor in 1904, twenty-eight reported payment of sick
benefits.[120] They were as follows: Bakers and Confectioners, Barbers,
Bill Posters, Boot and Shoe Workers, Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners, Amalgamated Carpenters,[121] Cigar Makers, Compressed Air
Workers, Foundry Employees, Freight Handlers, Fur Workers, Glass
Snappers, Hotel and Restaurant Employees, Jewelry Workers, Leather
Workers on Horse Goods, Machine Printers and Color Mixers, Machinists,
Mattress, Spring and Bed Workers, Iron Molders, Oil and Gas Well
Workers, Piano and Organ Workers, Plumbers, Print Cutters, Street and
Electric Railway Employees, Tile Layers, Tobacco Workers, Travellers'
Goods and Leather Novelty Workers, Wire Weavers. All of these, with a
few exceptions, such as the Machinists and the American Wire Weavers,
pay sick benefits from the national treasury.

[Footnote 120: Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth Annual Convention
(Washington, 1904), p. 46.]

[Footnote 121: An English union with branches in the United States, with
a voting strength of fifty in the American Federation of Labor,
representing about four thousand members.]

The following table contains a list of the principal organizations that
pay national sick benefits, arranged in the order of the introduction of
the benefit:

=================================================================
| Year |Year Sick Benefits
Name of Organization. | Organized. | Introduced.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Granite Cutters ................| 1877 | 1877
Cigar Makers ...................| 1864 | 1880
Typographia ....................| 1873 | 1884
Barbers ........................| 1887 | 1893
Iron Molders ...................| 1859 | 1896
Tobacco Workers ................| 1895 | 1896
Pattern Makers .................| 1887 | 1898
Leather Workers on Horse Goods..| 1896 | 1898
Piano and Organ Workers ........| 1898 | 1898
Boot and Shoe Workers ..........| 1895 | 1899
Garment Workers ................| 1891 | 1900
Plumbers .......................| 1889 | 1903
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The Granite Cutters' Union was the first national union to inaugurate a
system of national sick benefits. In its first constitution, 1877,