the platform; Stillman B. Pratt, a member of the central committee, stated that the impulse given to the Massachusetts labour movement by the Philadelphia convention of the National Labor Union had accelerated the formation of the Labor party at least one year. 19 That the political labour movement in Massachusetts had espoused the cause of financial reform is further attested by the election of William B. Greene, the money reformer of the Proudhon stripe, as president of the Massachusetts Labor Union. McLaughlin, the president of the Crispins, and other prominent members of the same organisation, were on the executive committee. On the whole, it may be said that the successful election was due to the support of the Crispins, then in their highest ascendency. But the success of the party was short-lived. During the following month the municipal election was held in Boston. The Labor party nominee, N. G. Chase, ran on a platform of an eight-hour day for city employés, municipal ownership of the gas plant, and the speedy payment of the municipal debt. He was disastrously defeated, polling only 206 votes. The American Workman said in explanation that "the movement did not spring from the people, in any sense of spontaneity. The affair was much less an announcement of principles, accompanied by a bold and sturdy vindication of the same, than a game of manipulations in the interest of real or would-be ward politicians." 20 The second convention of the Labor Reform Party was held in Worcester on September 8, 1870. A platform similar to the one of the previous year was adopted, but with a stronger type of eight-hour philosophy. An eight-hour day for public employés was demanded, since that would "establish the preliminary claim necessary to prove finally that they mean a better paid and better educated labor." 21 George E. McNeill was on the committee on resolutions, and this recognition of Steward's doctrine was doubtless due to his efforts. Wendell Phillips was nominated for governor by acclamation, but even his immense popularity was insufficient to resuscitate the move 19 Ibid., Nov. 13, 1869. 20 Dec. 25, 1869. 21 American Workman, Sept. 17, 1870. ment. The American Workman said in comment upon the outcome of the election: "The campaign of 1870 found onethird of our original force placed hors de combat by moral cowardice. We had neither the impetuous enthusiasm of the young convert, or the trained valour of the veteran." 22 The prosperity of the early seventies made the time unpropitious for any independent political attempts on the part of labour. The third convention of the Labour Reform party met in South Framingham in September, 1871. Cummings was temporary, and Wendell Phillips permanent, chairman. The platform was drawn up in abstract style, and resembled in its thought as well as phraseology the platforms of the New England Labor Reform League. The gubernatorial nomination was contested by Benjamin F. Butler, but Chamberlin was renominated. In spite of Phillips' energetic agitation, the outcome was fruitless. By 1872 the political labour movement in Massachusetts had dwindled down to two small mutually hostile groups: the Labor Union led by Phillips, and the Eight-Hour League led by Steward and McNeill. The bone of contention was, of course, the eight-hour question. To Steward this was the only question, but Phillips advocated a broader programme, with money reform at the head of the list. Personal criminations and recriminations became frequent. The bitterness reached its height in July, 1872, when both organisations held their conventions. A resolution was offered by Phillips, indorsing the work of the labour bureau and its chief, General Oliver, but omitting to mention the assistant chief, McNeill. Into this resolution Steward read a sinister meaning and made Phillips the subject of an unmerciful attack. 23 The cheerless result of the political movement caused Phillips to write, in a letter to Holyoake, the British worker for cooperation: "Your ranks are infinitely better trained than ours to stand together on some one demand just long enough to be counted, and so insure that respect which numbers always 22 Ibid., Nov. 19, 1870. 23 Steward said: "In 1866 he [Phillips] said in Faneuil Hall, 'Don't meddle with ethics, don't discuss debts, keep clear of finance, talk only eight-hours,' and continued to speak in this strain until 1870. We adhere to that advice. No one accounts for his change though many recog nise it; and in that change, he has lost the confidence of some of the most thoughtful friends of the movement." Commonwealth, June 29, 1872. command in politics, where universal suffrage obtains." 24 The failure of the political movement in Massachusetts was only a part of the general loss of interest in labour politics during 1870. But the political activity of labour doubtless brought the other parties to a keen recognition of the labour vote. In 1869, Massachusetts created the first bureau of labour statistics and within three years the legislature enacted the first effective ten-hour law. Massachusetts became the recognised leader of all American states in labour legislation. THE CONGRESS OF 1870 The National Labor Union held its fifth convention at Cincinnati, August 15, 1870. The number of delegates had fallen from 192 to 96, and the number of organisations represented from 83 to 76. The stronger political trend is apparent. State labour unions now numbered 7 25 instead of 4 as in 1869, and local labour unions 18 instead of 13. The purely trade union representation, although it had fallen off numerically from 62 to 41, had rather gained than lost in weight, as the number of national trade unions remained 3 as before, 26 and the trades' assemblies were increased from 4 to 8.27 Only the local trade unions diminished from 53 to 31. In addition there came 1 delegate from the Agricultural Labor Association in Virginia, 7 delegates from as many miscellaneous organisations, 28 and Isaac I. Myers from the national coloured association with headquarters in Baltimore. The Negro question at once supplied a cause for controversy. A motion was carried to tender S. F. Cary, the ex-labour congressman and a Democrat, the privileges of the floor. Im 24 Equity, December, 1874. Phillips' philosophy was set forth by him in this letter to Holyoake as follows: "But I suppose all this [the political inconsistency of labour in America] is familiar to you; as well as the strength which we expect from related questions finances, mode of taxation. land tenure, etc. There'll never be, I believe and trust, a class party here, labor against capital, the lines are 80 indefinite, like dove's neck colors. Three-fourths of our population are to some extent capitalists, and again all see that there really ought always to be alliance, not struggle, between them. So we lean chiefly on related questions for growth; limitation of hours is almost the only special measure." 25 New York, California. Massachusetts, Kansas, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois. 26 The Crispins', Molders', and Typographical. 27 Cincinnati, Syracuse, New York (German), Indianapolis, Detroit, New York, San Francisco, and Newport, Ky. 28 Among these two co-operative associations, coloured teachers' co-operative association, Cincinnati, and workingmen's co-operative association of Chicago. mediately a motion was made to tender the same privilege to J. M. Langston, the noted coloured lawyer of Ohio and a Republican office-holder. Troup, of New York, and Cummings, of the Crispins, protested, the latter calling attention to Langston's endeavours to estrange the coloured labourers from the whites at the last coloured national convention. After a lengthy discussion in which the coloured delegates, Weare and Myers, participated in the defence of Langston, the motion to exclude him was carried by a vote of 49 to 23. The Cincinnati convention merits an equal rank in the history of the National Labor Union with the Baltimore and Chicago conventions. At Baltimore, the need for independent political action was first proclaimed, at Chicago the fundamental principles of the labour platform were formulated, and at Cincinnati practical steps were finally taken to create the labour party. Cummings, of the Crispins, proposed a plan of separating industrial from political organisations; the National Labor Union to remain an industrial organisation and to hold annual conventions as such, but the president and a committee of one from each State to call a political convention in order to complete the organisation of a National Labor party. Opposition to this proposal came from two sources, for diametrically opposite reasons. The coloured delegates, who were under the influence of the Republicans, opposed it. Weare, the coloured delegate from Pennsylvania, argued that no reform movement had ever gained by attempting independent politics, but, on the contrary, its strength lay in keeping out of party politics. Isaac Myers, the delegate of the coloured national labour union, stated that all reforms could be obtained through the Republican party. The Negroes were severely criticised by Gilchrist,29 of Louisville, and by Cameron. The other source of opposition was among some of the trade unionists. Collins, of the typographical union, demanded that, if some of the delegates present wanted to organise a labour party, it should be done wholly independently of this congress, which was, first of all, a trade union congress. But the resolution was finally car ried by 60 to 5. Having decided to call a special political convention to form 29 He had been active in the antiwar movement in 1860. a national labour party, the constitution of the National Labor Union was modified so as to constitute a purely industrial body. It provided for the state labour union composed of local labour unions as the basis of the organisation and, to this end, state organisations were to be organized as speedily as possible. To conciliate the trade unionists, however, representation was also allowed to trade unions, national, state, and local. Revenue was to be derived from the state labour unions by an annual tax of 10 cents on each member. It is clear that the organisation so planned could never become an economic organisation like the present American Federation of Labor, since the State is not an economic unit. Its highest achievement would be a forum for the discussion of measures that should be enacted through the medium of its political counterpart, the national labour party. This indicates again the grip of the idea of legislation, to the exclusion of every other idea, on the minds of the leaders of the National Labor Union. The resolution favouring active politics cost the National Labor Union the affiliation of the coloured organization. At the next and last national coloured convention, confidence was expressed in the Republican party and total separation from the white labour movement was declared, for the reason that the whites "exclude from their benches and their workshops worthy craftsmen and apprentices only because of their colour, for no just cause." 30 CHINESE EXCLUSION 31 Another form of race problem - the Chinese was dealt with by the convention of 1870. This question had appeared at the congress of 1869, but was not then recognised as one of national importance. When, however, in June, 1870, Chinese coolies from California appeared as strike-breakers in Massachusetts, the question of Chinese exclusion ceased to be merely local.32 In California agitation against the Chinese was carried on simultaneously with the eight-hour movement, but subordinate to it. There, as in other States, the prosperity of the War had 30 Doc. Hist., IX, 256. 31 Compiled from manuscript by Pro fessor Ira B. Cross, of the University of California. 32 Doc. Hist., IX, 84-88. |