CHAPTER V.

PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT FROM 1861 to 1886.

AGITATION AND ORGANIZATION DURING THE WAR-FIRST ORGANIZATION of Horse-CAR DRIVERS SUPREME MECHANICAL ORDER OF THE SUN - GRAND EIGHT-HOUR LEAGUE — EARLY CLOSING MOVEMENT Mass — MASS MEETINGS OF WORKING WOMEN CONSPIRACY LAWS RETURN OF THE ARMY TO INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS-LABOR NEWSPAPERS - PUBLIC MEETINGS PROCESSIONS AND STRIKES THE GRAND REVIVAL OF 1866 — REVIVAL OF THE EIGHT-HOUR MOVEMENT DISCUSSION IN CONGRESS PASSAGE OF THE LAW IN 1868—NON-ENFORCEMENT of THE LAW - NATIONAL LABOR CONGRESS IN BALTIMORE TRADES RepresenteD-KNIGHTS OF LABOR ORGANIZE, 1869-PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY FIRST BUREAU OF STATISTICS OF LABOR - GREAT STRIKE OF THE COAL MINERS BOSTON EIGHT-HOUR LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN'S ÅSSOCIATION-GREAT EIGHT-HOUR STRIKE, 1872 - NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL CONGRESS, ROCHESTER, N. Y., 1874- RAILROAD STRIKES OF 1877; MILITARY CALLED OUT; LIVES LOST; PROPERTY DESTROYED; INTERNATIONAL LABOR UNION OF AMERICA-GREAT LIBEL CASE, PATERSON, N. J.-COLORED EXODUS FEDERATION OF ORGANIZED TRADES AND LABOR UNIONS - THE GREAT UPRISING OF LABOR IN 1886.

THE

Never was

HE war of the chattel labor masters upon the Republic concentrated the whole force of the patriotic labor masses of the North, East, and West. They left their tools of industry and took up the implements of war. there such a patriotic uprising of the common people. They proved themselves worthy of their inheritance. Their hearts made the breast-work of defence, not only of the Union, but of the possessors of wealth. At first the industries trembled, but the demand for arms and equipments, and the distribution of money by bounties, soon compelled more rapid production. Strikes occurred in some places to compel the advance of wages, and the demand for less hours of labor was voiced by factory operatives and trades-unions.

It may be said that the eight-hour movement obtained its great impetus during the war. An intelligent agitation was

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commenced, and demands were made for labor legislation. Many old unions were re-organized, national and international trades-unions created, and local unions and labor associations sprung up everywhere. In 1861 the horse-car drivers of New York formed a benevolent association, John Walker, who has been a driver on the Third-avenue line for twenty years, being the founder. This organization discountenanced strikes, but as reduction after reduction took place they were compelled to unite upon the question of wages. The coal miners organized a National Association in 1861. The Boston United Laborers' Society was organized in 1862, the hack-drivers in 1863, and the locomotive engineers in the latter year. The Garment Cutters' Association, from whose members sprung the Order of the Knights of Labor, was organized at this eventful period. In California the scattered trades-unions of the cities, and especially of San Francisco, formed an amalgamation.

This nearly completed the circle of organization of the wage-laborers. Secret associations, with signs and passwords, were established, the largest in point of numbers being the Supreme Mechanical Order of the Sun, an organization with an extensive ritual, having numerous degrees. The Grand Eight-hour League, and other associations whose names were never given to the public, were organized. Through the power of these orders workingmen were elected to legislative bodies in several of the States. At the councils, conventions and congresses of the labor organizations during the war resolutions of a patriotic nature were passed. The cost of living had more than kept pace with the wages of the workers, and discontent was general. The building trades were especially active in the movement.

In the early part of 1863 strikes were prevalent in many of the industries. Ship carpenters demanded three dollars per day, and mechanics and laborers in the Navy Yard were also moving for an increase of wages. It was during this trying time of the Republic that the organized workingmen of England manifested in unmistakable terms their love for our institutions, as referred to by Professor James in Chapter III.,

and as acknowledged by President Lincoln in the early part of February of that year. The clerks in different departments pressed their claim for the early-closing movement, and massmeetings of women were held, at which the terrible condition of the working women of the large cities was exposed and a strong public sentiment created in their favor. The shipwrights of New York City formed an association for intellectual and social improvement, established a reading room and library and listened to a course of lectures.

The draft of 1863, which practically exempted the wealthy by the payment of the small sum of three hundred dollars, was felt to be unjust to the laboring men, and advantage was taken of this feeling to create disloyalty to the Union and bitterness against the negro. A meeting of mechanics was held in Tammany Hall, and Horace Greeley was present. Mr. Greeley was called upon and very unwillingly addressed the assembly. After he had retired, he was shamefully abused by some of the speakers. This was followed by monster meetings in which all disloyal sentiments uttered in the name of labor were strongly condemned. Strikes continued to multiply, generally for an advance of wages.

Among the longshoremen and railroad employees assaults were made upon the non-unionists who took the places of the men on strike. In New York negroes were engaged to take the places of longshoremen. The negroes were assaulted, but the police succeeded in restoring order. It was not many years after this that the white and colored men joined in a trades-union procession for eight hours, some of the colored leaders riding in carriages, and the colored organizations being received into the procession with a salute.

In the spring of 1864 efforts were made in some of the State Legislatures for the enactment of laws, termed laws against intimidation, but really so drawn as to practically destroy all trades-union organizations. Section 1 of the bill presented in the New York Assembly read as follows: "Be it enacted, that if any person shall, by violence to the person or property of, or by threats or intimidation, or by molesting, or in any way obstructing another, force or endeavor to force any work

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man or other person hired in any manufacture, trade or business, to depart from his work before the same shall be finished,” etc., giving then the penalty.

Mr. Greeley, in commenting upon this in the Tribune, said: "There is force in the objection that the acts it reprobates are already misdemeanors punishable under existing laws. We are inclined to the opinion that Mr. Folger's bill, if enacted, would do more harm than good."

The organizations continued to increase in membership. In 1864 the Cigar-Makers' International Union was formed. The stone-cutters, blacksmiths, carpenters and laborers in the forts in New York struck for twenty-five per cent. advance, the longshoremen asked for $2.50 per day of nine hours, the mechanics in the Brooklyn Navy Yard asked for an advance of wages, pianoforte-makers organized to secure higher wages, the sewing women of New York and Philadelphia held mass-meetings, and the mates of merchant ships held a meeting for an increase of pay. The journeymen tailors formed a national trades-union in Philadelphia in September, 1865.

It was not until the breaking up of the rebellion and the return of the Grand Army of the Republic to the grand army of labor, from the processes of destruction to the processes of production, that the full force of this movement was developed. Labor newspapers began to multiply, perhaps the most important move in this direction being the establishment of the Daily Evening Voice by the Boston Typographical Union, which had a continued existence of two or three years. Great public meetings were held, strikes occurred, and labor processions marched through the streets. State conventions of workingmen were held in Indiana, Illinois and New York; at those in Indiana and New York nearly all the trades being represented.

In Massachusetts an order was introduced into the Legislature by a Union soldier, instructing the Judiciary Committee to consider the expediency of regulating and limiting the hours of labor to constitute a day's work. As a result an unpaid commission was appointed by Governor Andrew to

investigate the subject of the hours of labor. The report of this committee was unsatisfactory to the labor men, and the next year Governor Bullock appointed three commissioners: the Honorable Amasa Walker, William Hyde and Edward H. Rogers.

The workingmen of some of the large cities celebrated the Fourth of July by processions and orations. The position. given the returned soldiers by the labor men contrasted with that given them by the city of Boston, where the Aldermen rode in barouches and the veterans in express wagons. The Daily Evening Voice, then published in Boston, in a pungent editorial, commented on this, and said: "When labor is paid as it deserves, and not overworked, it will be impossible to keep the honors of the world from the workingmen, and such an exhibition as that of the Boston procession cannot occur."

The year 1866 witnessed a grand revival of the labor movement. Isolated unions and associations came more and more to see the necessity of amalgamation. An active propoganda was aroused, and new organizations were continually multiplying. From thirty to forty national and international trades-unions and amalgamated societies were in existence, some of them numbering tens of thousands of men. The people of to-day have little conception of the extent of the labor movement of twenty years ago.

In the professional and personal occupations we find among those organized barbers and hairdressers, hostlers, clerks; in trade and transportation, commercial travellers, railroad employees, telegraphers, packers, sailors on the lakes; in manufacturing, mechanical and mining industries, packers, blacksmiths, blind, door, and sash makers, bookbinders, boot and shoemakers, brass founders, brush-makers, cabinetmakers, carpenters and joiners, carpet workers, cigarmakers, clock and watchmakers, coopers, cotton-mill operatives, flax-dressers, gilders, glass-work operatives, gold and silversmiths and jewellers, harness and saddle makers, hat and cap makers, hosiery and kitting-mill operatives, iron and steel workers, leather curriers, dressers, finishers and tanners, machinists, marble and stone-cutters, masons (brick and