Organizacja Izby Rzemieślniczej w Białymstoku w latach 1927–1939

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the most important facts pertaining to the organization and the main trends in the evolution of the Chamber of Crafts in Bialystok in the interwar period. The caesuras for the chronological range of the work are: on the one side, the date of the origin of the Chamber and coming into effect of the - homogeneous for the whole territory of Poland - industrial law and, on the other side, the outbreak of the war in 1939. The work is mainly based on sources. The author conveyed an analysis of the state legal acts of 1927-1939. The article is divided into twelve sections. In the introduction the circumstances of the origin of the Chamber of Crafts in Bialystok and the reasons of the enforcement of the homogenous industrial law in Poland are presented. Then, major legal sources relevant to the topic as well as issues pertaining to the creation of the Statute and the changes in it are described. Next, the scope of still expanding activities of the Chamber is taken into consideration. Relations with guilds and the territorial extent of the Chamber's activities are discussed. The Structure of the Chamber - with the focus on the activity of its main organs of power: the Assembly of Members then replaced by the Assembly of Advisors; the Board; Secretary then replaced by Director; general examinational and electoral commissions and the Department of Journeymen - is analyzed. For each of the above mentioned organs the structure, method of appointment and competence, with special emphasis on the authorities of the Bialystok Chamber - the Assembly of Members (Advisors), appointed in the general election conducted among craftsmen of the Bialystok voivodship are presented. Here it is to be stressed that, whereas all Chamber members were elected, it was true only about the majority of the advisors, as the Minister of Industry and Commerce was in power to appoint some of them. The article concludes with a summary of the visible tendencies in the organizational changes in the Chamber of Crafts in Bialystok, which left a lasting mark on the history of Bialystok and the region.