only) of having
refused membership to Negro freight handlers, express and station
employees. At the same time, demands were made to the effect that the
Federation should change this state of affairs. The tense moments of
the convention were reached when the Organization Committee, to whom
the matter had been referred, submitted a non-concurrence report,
taking the position that the Federation had no authority over the
constitution of an affiliated union. This report naturally evoked a
very heated controversy between the Negro delegates and their white
sympathizers and those whites who were opposed to giving Negroes
membership in the labor unions. The Federation, however, rejected this
report, and for the first time in its history threatened the autonomy
of an affiliated union by first demanding, by several motions, that
the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks abolish the color line in its
constitution or forfeit its charter in the Federation. None of these
drastic motions prevailed. Finally, a modified motion, requesting,
rather than demanding, this brotherhood to eliminate from its
constitution the words "white only" and give the Negro freight
handlers, express and station employees full membership, was carried.
Following the adoption of this motion, Chairman Duncan spoke thus,
"This, I believe, will settle the Negro problem in our organization
for all time. Our affiliated unions must now understand that the color
line is abolished."[121]

This second act of the American Federation of Labor is, indeed,
another step forward in its efforts to settle the problem of the Negro
and the unions; but that it will settle this problem for all time is
very doubtful. Certainly, there are great obstacles in the way of an
early solution of it. Chief of all these obstructions is the force of
racial prejudice, which has demonstrated again and again that in spite
of laws to the contrary it is powerful enough to devise and put into
effect plans whereby its desires may be accomplished. Furthermore,
when one considers the structure and foundation of the American
Federation of Labor he wonders whether it has authority over its
affiliated unions sufficient to compel them to abide by its decrees.
The American Federation of Labor is a loose federation of national and
international unions--a federation of independent unions. Each
national or international, though it receives its charter from the
federation, is autonomous, free to withdraw from the f