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Presents an excerpt of the paper on geographical and historical concepts in American history read at Plenary Session 56th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Dallas, Texas.

To argue that more needs to and can be known about black artisans and laborers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and especially in the South. The Montgomery workingmen have a full ticket in the field for the coming city election, and there is nothing under heaven to hinder them from succeeding if they but stand firm in the faith. The people of Alabama are tired of ring rule. The Democratic papers call the workingmen the riff-raff and fag ends of society. The miners have experienced poverty to such a degree, and for such a length of time, that they and their families do not shudder at it, but look it squarely in the face, like little men. The miners in Alabama have no organization to protect their interests or advocate their cause, and they are in a different position from any mining locality in the United States. All capitalists employing labor in this part of the country have two sorts of labor, and some of them three sorts of labor.

The article presents historical analysis of trade union press. Labor journalism has come a long way since the appearance of the Machinists and Blacksmiths International Journal in 1863. With more than 600 publications and an estimated readership exceeding 20,000,000, the union press wields a major influence on the American public. Today the union press is read by union members and the general public in steadily increasing numbers, and the frequency with which it is quoted by reporters for the daily newspapers, editorial writers, and others indicates that these publications have something of broad interest to tell the American public. Among the 600 publications there is a wide variety of organizational sponsors. Papers and/or magazines are published by the national federations such as the American Federation of Labor (A.F.L.) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.) and the associated railroad brotherhoods; by national unions such as the Steelworkers, Automobile Workers, and Carpenters; by districts of various unions; and by state, county, or city A.F.L.-C.I.O. federations, as well as by local unions.

The article presents various newsletters related to the labor history. The American Historical Association Meeting will be held in the month of December, 1968. The Labor Historians will sponsor two sessions of the American Historical Association in Chicago. The Pacific Northwest Labor History Conference met last April on the campus of Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington. 65 individuals from academic community and trade unionists attended the conference. The Association of Southern Labor Historians was formed during the 1966 meeting of the Southern Historical Association. The President of the Association of Southern Labor Historians is Professor George Green of the University of Texas, Arlington, Texas. The Chicago Historical Society has the papers of John Fitzpatrick, relating largely to his work as President of the Chicago Federation of Labor. It contains some information on the Chicago Journeymen Horse Shoers Union, the Labor Party of Cook County, and the Farmer Labor Parties of Cook County and the United States.