HISTORY OF LABOUR IN THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER I ECONOMIC CONDITIONS New Conditions. Railway Construction. Through freight lines, 4. Railway consolidations, 4. Appearance of the wholesale jobber, 5. The first national trade unions, 5. The Moulders. William H. Sylvis, 6. The effect of the extension of the market on the moulder's trade, 6. The national union, 7. Its weakness, 7. The Machinists and Blacksmiths. Evils in the trade, 7. The national union, 9. Strike against the Baldwin Locomotive Works, 9. The outbreak of the War and depression, 9. Other national unions, 10. Unemployment and Impending War. The workingmen's opposition to War, 10. Louisville and Philadelphia, 10. Fort Sumter and labour's change of attitude, 11. WHILE the country was engrossed in Civil War and Reconstruction, the American labour movement developed for the first time, almost unnoticed, its characteristic national features. This period witnessed the distinctly American philosophies of greenbackism and the eight-hour day; the rise of the agitation for the exclusion of Oriental labour; the invention of the trade union label; the first national trade agreement; the establishment of the first government bureau of labour; the organisation of the first permanent labour lobby at Washington; the enactment of the first eight-hour legislation and the earliest laws against "conspiracy" and "intimidation." The period also saw the organisation of the first national employers' association, and the first national labour party. Pre-eminently, it was the period of nationalisation in the American labour movement. Back of it all lay the nationalisation of the economic life of the country. The fifties had been a decade of extensive construction of railroads. There was an increase from but 8,389 miles of rail way in 1850 to 30,793 in 1860. Before 1850 there was more traffic by water than by rail. After 1860 the relative importance of land and water transportation was reversed. Furthermore, the most important railroad building during the ten years preceding 1860 was the construction of east and west trunk lines. There were seven such roads: the Western & Atlanta connected the seaboard cities of Georgia with the Tennessee River in 1850; the New York & Erie was opened in 1851; the Pennsylvania, in 1852; the Baltimore & Ohio and the Canadian Grand Trunk, in 1853; the New York Central, as a result of consolidation, in 1854; and the Virginia system was connected with the Nashville & Chattanooga and the Memphis & Charleston roads in 1858. The western ends of these lines were still points like Buffalo and Pittsburgh, rather than Chicago or St. Louis, but alliance with contemporaneously constructed roads of the Middle West gave practically all of them an outlet in the far West. During the sixties, owing to the War, railway construction fell off to 16,090 miles, as against 22,404 during the preceding decade. Yet these years marked developments in the railway business which, from the standpoint of the nationalisation of the market and the increase of competition between manufacturing centres, were no less epochmaking than the construction of the trunk lines. These were the establishment of through lines for freight and the consolidation of connecting roads. The through-freight lines came into existence soon after the beginning of the War, with the discontinuance of the Mississippi River as an outlet for western products and the necessity of sending shipments eastward by rail. These lines, whether the cars belonged to separate companies established for that purpose, or to co-operating railway companies, greatly hastened freight traffic by abolishing the necessity for transshipment. The most notable consolidations were those of three important trunk lines: the Pennsylvania, the Erie, and the New York Central & Hudson River. The Pennsylvania then purchased the roads running west of Pittsburgh and thus obtained direct connections with Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. The New York Central consolidated with the Hudson River & Harlem Road at its eastern end, and in the West with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, forming direct connection between New York and Chicago. The Erie increased its length from 459 miles to 1,355. Important consolidations were also made by the Philadelphia & Reading and the other anthracite roads. Among the western and southwestern lines which rapidly increased their mileage were the Chicago & Northwestern, the Burlington, and the Milwaukee & St. Paul. Arteries of traffic had thus extended from the eastern coast to` the Mississippi Valley. Local markets had widened within fifteen years to embrace half a continent. Stoves manufactured in Albany were now displayed in St. Louis by the side of stoves made in Detroit. Competition had increased and intensified. This intensification of competition and the separation of producers and consumers resulted in the development of the middleman as the dominant figure in industry. Through his extensive purchasing opportunities and his specialised methods of reaching customers, he possessed a kind of "intangible" capital by which he dominated the market and, in consequence, credit. The existence of this common oppressor- the wholesale jobber or middleman was felt both by wage-earners and by employers, while farmers were in addition oppressed by the railroads. As a natural consequence came the coalition of the " producing classes" against "capital." Spectacular also were the direct effects of the Civil War upon labour in transforming an army of productive labourers into an army of non-productive consumers, and then at the end of four years suddenly pouring them back from the fields of battle upon the fields of industry. But still more sweeping were the indirect effects of unprecedented fluctuations in prices and the cost of living, which were closely linked with inflation and contraction of the paper currency. The industrial depression which followed the panic of 1857 destroyed almost completely the modest beginnings of labour organisation made during the preceding years. A large number of the trade unions went under. Those, however, which were able to withstand the stress were forced to combine with similar organisations in the same trade and to form national unions. The two important national trade unions which were born under these circumstances were the Molders' International Union and the National Union of Machinists and Blacksmiths, both established in 1859. movement. The leading spirit in the moulders' union was William H. Sylvis, afterwards the first great figure in the American labour His career was typical of the period. Born in the little village of Armagh, Pennsylvania, in 1828, his father's failure in the business of wagon maker in 1837 forced him early into apprenticeship in a foundry. First as journeyman, then part proprietor of a foundry, then again as journeyman in Philadelphia in 1852, he typified during this period in his life the easy shift between skilled mechanic and small master.1 The conditions which forced the moulders' union to the front and made Sylvis the recognised head, not only of his own union, but also of the entire movement of the sixties, are described by Sylvis himself. Speaking of the intense competition brought on by the extension of the railway to the West, and immediately preceding the formation of the national union of moulders in 1859, he said: "They [the employers] saw in the future a possibility of monopolizing almost the entire trade of the country, and set themselves about doing so. In the first place, it was necessary for them to mark out a line of policy, which, if closely followed, would insure this result. This they did, and the first act of the drama (I might, perhaps, more properly say tragedy, for it resulted in squeezing the blood and tears from its victims), was to reduce their margin of profits to the lowest possible standard, that they might go into the market below all others. Owing to fluctuations in the price of material, their profits would sometimes disappear entirely. This they used as an argument to their workmen, telling them that owing to the unfair competition of other manufacturers, they were unable to advance their selling prices, and that being unable to compete without loss they must either close up or reduce wages. The men being unorganised and supposing that they were being honestly dealt with, readily submitted to a reduction. This reduction of prices was small, but after being repeated two or three times, the men became restive and disposed to complain. A few were bold enough to remonstrate, but a guillotine had been prepared, and their heads immediately dropped into the basket. . . . To effectually smother in its infancy any disposition the men might have to fraternize... they commenced to work upon their prejudices. They succeeded in a short time in arraigning the representatives of one 1 See J. C. Sylvis, The Life, Speeches, Labors and Essays of William H. Sylvis. |