A correspondent in the _Weekly People_ says that one delegate at the tenth I. W. W. convention declared that there was very likely to be a split in the organization and intimated that, in such an event, the Agricultural Workers' Organization would be the chief factor in bringing it about.[689] The same writer continues: The A. W. O.... has a membership of from 18,000 to 20,000. This seems to be a lot, but last night one who just arrived from the harvest fields told me that workers traveling through the West on box cars were thrown off if they had no red card of the I. W. W., and many were beaten up.... He told me that eight or more go in groups with revolvers and board trains going out from the limits of a town and go through the train kicking and beating-up anyone who has no red card.[690] No convention was held in 1915. The tenth convention met at Chicago in the latter part of November, 1916. Fairly complete reports have been published in the columns of _Solidarity_.[691] There were in attendance about 25 delegates, including three members of the General Executive Board and the General Secretary. The delegates were almost entirely from the East and Middle West, only one coming from the Pacific Coast.[692] The editor of _Solidarity_, commenting upon the charter of the convention, says that "the tenth convention is remarkable as denoting the decline of the 'soap-boxers' as the dominant element." "The dominant tone," he says, "was constructive rather than controversial and the general demand was for such constitutional and other changes as would make for greater efficiency in the work of the organization," and he approvingly quotes one delegate as exclaiming, "The I. W. W. is passing out of the purely propaganda stage and is entering the stage of constructive organization."[693] The most recent official report says that the organization now (January 1, 1917) "consists of six industrial unions: Marine Transport Workers, Metal and Machinery Workers, Agricultural Workers (A. W. O.), Iron Miners, Lumber Workers, and Railway Workers, having fifty branches and 200 unions in other industries, together with 100 recruiting unions directly united with the general organization."[694] The paid-up membership is put at 60,000 on January 1st, 1917, up to which date it is claimed that an aggregate of 300,000 membership cards had been issued since 1905.[695] The bulk of the present membership is distributed among the following industries: textile, steel, lumber, mining, farming, railroad construction, and marine transportation. Except in the textile industries, the majority of these workers are migratory unskilled laborers.[696]