Below are content notes written about only a portion of the collection. Additional materials were received after the following was written and are listed in the box list which follows the narrative.
A large portion of the correspondence is that of General Secretary Frank J. Weber to affiliated member unions between 1923 and 1933, and in it he discusses trade unionism, old age pensions, collective bargaining, conscription, war, socialism and capitalism, inter-union disputes, and demands for legislation in the interests of labor. A group of Weber's writings at the end of the collection deal with the same subjects.
The small amount of incoming correspondence is mainly from member unions and deals with dues, agreements, and other union business. There is some material on the Milwaukee Laundry Strike of 1934-35. In the absence of a representative to organize the laundry workers of Milwaukee, the President of the International Laundry Workers authorized Herman Seide, General Secretary of the Federation, 1931-1943, to organize the workers and set up the machinery for collective bargaining.
The collection contains some personal letters of Frank J. Weber. Some are to his grandchildren; more interesting are a group of letters concerning Weber's investment with William Coleman, General Secretary of the Socialist Party of Milwaukee, and others, in a gold mine in Ophir, Colorado, 1929-1931.
It is interesting to note that Weber corresponded with Ernest Bevin, British Labor leader and later Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the Labor Government, 1932, Jan. 8 and Sept. 1. There is also one of Weber's letters to Louis Budenz, former Communist and reformer, 1930, Nov. 5.
The photographs document the Butterfly Consolidated Mine near Ophir, Colorado, circa 1929. Included are images of mine buildings and a waterfall. Frank J. Weber of the Federated Trades Council and William Coleman of the Socialist Party in Wisconsin had an interest in the mine.
