The Commission of Control is also formed of twelve members, six from each section; it verifies the financial reports of both sections and of the other two commissions. It appoints its own secretary.
The Confederal Committee is formed by the delegates of both sections. It meets every three months, except in extraordinary cases. It executes the decisions of the Congresses, intervenes in all issues concerning the working-class and decides upon all questions of a general character.
The Confederal Bureau[187] consists of thirteen members, of the ten members of the bureaus of both sections and of the three secretaries of the three commissions. The Confederal Bureau summons the Confederal Committee and executes the decisions of the latter. The secretary of the "Section of Federations" is the general secretary of the Confederation. The Confederal Bureau is renewed after every Congress, that is every two years, but functionaries whose terms have expired may be re-elected.
Article 37 of the statutes adopted read: "The General Confederation of Labor, based on the principles of federalism and of liberty, assures and respects the complete autonomy of the organizations which conform to the present statutes." The _Bourses du Travail_ and the Federations of industries and of trades were, therefore, to pursue independently the activities that concerned them alone. The _Bourses du Travail_ continued in the main the activities described in the third chapter. Their growth was steady both in number of organizations and in membership, as may be seen from the following table:
-----+-------------------+--------------------- | Number of Bourses | Number of Syndicats | belonging to the | in Bourses of | Confederation | Confederation. | of Labor. | -----+-------------------+--------------------- 1902 | 83 | 1,112 1904 | 110 | 1,349 1906 | 135 | 1,609 1908 | 157 | 2,028 1910 | 154 | 1,826 1912 | 153 | -----+-------------------+---------------------
After 1906 Bourses of the same region or Department began to form regional and Departmental Unions in order to coördinate their activities and to influence larger groups of the working population. This has led to the process described above, which is transforming the basis of representation in the General Confederation of Labor.