The FOTLU constitution provided for a governing body of five executive council members, who would also act as a legislative committee. Annual conventions were established at which each national affiliate would receive one vote for 1,000 members, two votes for 4,000 members and three votes for 8,000 members. Local labor bodies were given one vote each, regardless of size. The voting rules effectively disenfranchised bodies belonging to the Knights of Labor, and Knights-dominated central labor bodies. The Committee on Platform subsequently proposed, and the delegates approved, a preamble to the FOTLU constitution which sharply delineated the new federation from the Knights of Labor. It rejected the Knights' assertion that the interests of capital and labor were one. FOTLU asserted that 'A struggle is going on in the nations of the civilized world between the oppressors and the oppressed...a struggle between capital and labor, which must grow in intensity from year to year and work disastrous results to the toiling millions of all nations...' The committee also proposed a number of resolutions, all of which were passed by the delegates. These included calls for: The legal incorporation of unions; Compulsory education of children; Prohibition of child labor under the age of 14; Apprenticeship laws; Establishment of an eight-hour work day; Repeal of state conspiracy laws which did not provide a safe harbor for labor unions; Establishment of a federal agency to collect labor statistics; Abolition of convict labor; Prohibition of the importation of foreign workers; Federal legislation requiring ventilation and inspection of mines; Support for Irish liberation; Legislation making employers responsible for industrial accidents; and A high protective tariff. Two resolutions were rejected. One called for federal regulation of railroad and telegraph companies in the public interest, and another demanded that only homesteaders be eligible to receive public domain land. Gompers was elected to the executive committee. Struggle for survival FOTLU was not very successful. District and local assemblies of the Knights of Labor withdrew almost immediately, as did most national unions. Only 19 delegates attended the second convention, and 26 at the third. Gompers was elected chairman of FOTLU's executive committee (making him the de facto president) in 1883, but even he did not attend that meeting. The federation's membership hovered around 25,000, and FOTLU organized almost no members and issued no charters to new unions. The federation made some effort to win passage of favorable legislation, but no unified