The outstanding characteristic of Canadian labour journals is the shortness of their lives. They have been born to ride the crest of a rising membership within the union, and have fallen with the union into the slough of a business cycle recession, or been snuffed out by technological change, or simply by apathy. Numerous small papers arise almost weekly, while as many more pass out of existence without notice. Nearly 250 labour journals have been established in Canada since 1867 and fewer than seventy are publishing today. Accordingly any directory of the labour press is subject to the inaccuracies consequent upon the high mortality among such publications.

But the labour press is meriting more and more careful consideration. A greater number of labour organs, of, by, and for the working man, are being published today than ever before. And what the labour press is saying to its readers is of importance, for Canadian union members comprise approximately 10 per cent of the adult population of Canada.

The directory contains essential information concerning 239 labour publications, the majority of which are, or were, official organs of Canadian or international labour organizations, while the remainder are sponsored by fraternal groups, political parties, and private individuals. Some few of these latter publications, while written for the labouring man, are definitely anti-union in character. The criterion for inclusion in this directory was not whether a publication was pro-union or anti-union, but rather whether it was addressed primarily to the working people of Canada.