CHAPTER III

THE NATIONAL TRADE UNIONS, 1864-1873

Causes and General Progress. Effect of the nationalisation of the market, 43. National trade unions in the thirties, 43. Effect of national labour competition, 44. Effect of employers' associations, 44. Effect of machinery and the division of labour, 44. Organisation of national trade unions, 1861-1873, 45. Growth of their membership, 47. The national trade union the paramount aspect of nationalisation, 48.

The Moulders. The epitomisation of the labour movement, 48. Activities during the War, 48. Beginning of employers' associations, 49. The lull in the organisation of employers during the period of prosperity, 49. West and East, 50. The American National Stove Manufacturers' and Iron Founders' Association, 50. The apprenticeship question, 50. Strike in Albany and Troy, 51. Withdrawal of the Buffalo and St. Louis foundrymen from the Association, 51. General strike against wage reductions, 51. Defeat of the union, 52. Restriction on strikes by the national union, 52. The turn to co-operation, 53. Sylvis' view on the solution of the labour question, 53. The co-operative shops, 53. The Troy shops, 54. Their business success but failure as co-operative enterprises, 54. Disintegration of the employers' association, 55. Revival of trade unionism, 55.

Machinists and Blacksmiths. Intellectual ascendency of the machinists in the labour movement, 56. Employers' associations, 56. Effect of the depression, 57. Effect of the eight-hour agitation on the union, 57. Revival in 1870, 58.

"Conditional mem

Printers. The National Typographical Union, 58. bership," 58. National strike fund, 59. Persistent localist tendency, 59. The Northwestern Publishers' Association, 61.

Locomotive Engineers. Cause of nationalisation, 61. Piece work, 62. Brotherhood of the Footboard, 62. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 62. Charles Wilson, and his attitude towards public opinion, 63. Strike on the Michigan Southern, 64. Railways' blacklist, 64. Brotherhood's attitude towards incorporation, 66. Brotherhood's conservatism, 65. Discontent of the local branches, 66. Wilson's incorporation move, 66. Failure in Congress, 67. Growth of the opposition to Wilson, 67. His removal from office, 67. P. M. Arthur, 67. The benefit system, 68.

Cigar Makers. The effect of the War revenue law, 69. Growth of the international union, 1864-1869, 70. Introduction of the mould, 71. Strike against the mould, 72. Attitude towards the mould of the conventions of 1867 and 1872, 72. Failure of the anti-mould policy, 73.

Coopers. Effect of the machine, 74. Martin A. Foran, 75. Career of the International Coopers' Union, 75. Robert Schilling, 76. Co-operative attempts, 76.

Knights of St. Crispin. The factory system, 76. Green hands," 77. Aim of the Crispins, 77. Crispin strikes, 78. Their principal causes, 78. Attitude towards co-operation, 79.

Sons of Vulcan. The puddler's bargaining advantage, 80. The sliding scale agreement, 80.

Restrictive Policies

Apprenticeship. The beginning of restrictive policies, 81. Effect of the wider market on apprenticeship, 81. Effect of the increased scale of production, 81. The "botches," 82. Sylvis' view, 82. Limitation of numbers, 82. Policies of the national trade unions, 83. Regulation of apprenticeship in the printer's trade, 83.

CAUSES AND GENERAL PROGRESS

In a sense every period in the industrial development of a country may be called a period of transition. However, this characterisation would apply with greater strength than usual to the sixties. At the present time, when Marx and Sombart have been popularised, we generally think of technical evolution alone when we speak of the evolution of industry. Yet we forget that no change in technique, not including even the utilisation of steam as a motive power, has ever had so simultaneous an effect upon all industries as had the sudden extension of the market due to the railway consolidation of the fifties, an effect which awaited only the years of prosperity of the sixties to become visible. Steam had revolutionised the textile industry at an early date, but for a long time it had left the other industries almost unaffected. The creation of a national market fundamentally changed the price-fixing forces in the majority of the industries, and therefore could not help producing a most thoroughgoing effect upon the struggle between industrial classes.

In the field of trade unionism the nationalisation of the market gave birth to the national trade union. To be sure, there had been some attempt at "national" trade unions during the thirties, such as the national conventions of the printers. and cordwainers. It is nevertheless true that it was only during the sixties that labour organisations began to think and act on a lasting national basis. Moreover the "nation" over which the unions of the thirties had spread their activities was, properly speaking, nothing more than a region of neighbouring towns such as the "greater industrial New York" of to-day.

There were four distinct sets of causes which operated during the sixties to bring about nationalisation: two grew out of

changes in transportation, and two were largely independent of such changes.

The first and most far-reaching cause, as illustrated by the stove moulders, was the competition of the products of different localities side by side in the same market. Wherever that was the case, nationalisation was destined to proceed to its utmost length. In order that union conditions should be maintained even in the best organised centres, it then became imperatively necessary to equalise competitive conditions in the various localities. That led to a well-knit national organisation to control working conditions, trade rules, and strikes. In other trades, where the competitive area of the product was still restricted to the locality, the paramount nationalising influence was the competition for employment between migratory outof-town journeymen and the locally organised mechanics. This describes the situation in the printing trade, where the bulk of the work was still newspaper and not book and job printing. Accordingly, the printers did not need to entrust their national officers with anything more than the control of the travelling journeymen, and the result was that the local unions remained practically independent. The third cause of concerted national action in a trade was the organisation of employers. When the power of a local union began to be threatened by an employers' association, the next logical step was to combine in a national union. Thus it transpired that the numerous local employers' associations which sprang up during 1864 and 1865 gave the impetus to the nationalisation of the labour movement.

The fourth cause was the application of machinery and the introduction of division of labour, which split up the old established trades and laid industry open to invasion by

green hands." The shoemaking industry which, during the sixties had reached the factory stage, illustrates this in a most striking manner. Few other industries experienced anything like a similar change during this period.

Of course, none of the causes of nationalisation here enumerated operated in entire isolation. In some trades one cause, in other trades other causes, had the predominating influence. Consequently, in some trades the national union resembled an

agglomeration of loosely allied states, each one reserving the right to engage in independent warfare and expecting from its allies no more than a benevolent neutrality. In other trades, on the contrary, the national union was supreme in declaring war and in making peace, and even claimed absolute right to formulate the "civil" laws of the trade for times of industrial peace.

Although some nationals were organised before 1864, it is at this time that an appreciable movement started towards nationalisation. Four nationals were organised in this year as compared to two organised in 1863, none in 1862, and one in 1861. A call was also issued from the tin, sheet iron, and copper workers, the upholsterers, and house painters, but there is no evidence that these unions met. The nationals organised before the War took a leap forward. The National Typographical Union at its session of 1864 reported 14 new charters issued, against 6 reported in 1863 and 1 in 1862. No convention was held in 1861.1 The Iron Molders' Union reported in that same year (1864) 46 new charters and a total membership of 6,778 as compared to 3,500 in 1863.2 The Machinists and Blacksmiths' Union was the only national that did not recover the strength it enjoyed prior to the War, having 87 locals before the War commenced and reporting in 1864 a smaller representation than in former sessions.3

This process of nationalisation once started, lasted for ten years, the number of nationals cropping up and the number of members gained by those already in existence varying with the prosperity or depression in business during that time. During the period of intense business activity which lasted from 1863 to 1866, caused by the inflation of greenbacks and the demands of the War, ten national unions sprang up in two years: the Plasterers' National Union, National Union of Journeymen Curriers, the Ship Carpenters' and Caulkers' International Union, National Union of Cigar Makers in 1864, and the Coach Makers' International Union, the Journeymen Painters' National Union, National Union of Heaters, Tailors'

1 National Typographical Union, Proceedings, 1864, including the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth sessions, held at New York, Cleveland, and Louisville, Ky., May

5, 1862, May 4, 1863, and May 2, 1864. 2 Iron Molders' International Union, Proceedings, 1865.

3 See above, II, 9.

National Union, Carpenters' and Joiners' International Union, Bricklayers' and Masons' International Union in 1865.

In 1866 industry entered upon a period of depression, but recovered in 1868. The flush times of the Civil War had passed. Large and profitable contracts no longer existed and, in addition, prices fell, owing to the contraction of the greenbacks by Congress in the early part of 1866. This condition was reflected in the labour movement. Not a single national was organised in 1866; the spinners alone appeared in 1867. In 1868 the Knights of St. Crispin and the Grand Division of the Order of Railway Conductors organised, and in 1869 the wool hat finishers, the Daughters of St. Crispin, and the Morocco Dressers a total of 7 nationals in 4 years, compared with 10 in the preceding 2 years. The unions already in existence, although they gained, did not gain as rapidly as in the previous period. At the convention of the Iron Molders held in 1865, the president, Sylvis, reported 53 locals chartered; in 1866 he reported 38; in 1868, 32; and in 1870, 14. The number of locals organised by the printers shows a similar decline. In 1866, 18 were reported organised during the previous year; in 1868, 14; and in 1870, 11. Not only were fewer locals organised than in the previous years, but many more were suspended for non-payment of dues, for "ratting," and for being composed of "unfair" men. Actual figures of the number dropped are not available, but that they left a big gap in trade union ranks may be gathered from the general amnesty laws passed a few years later by most nationals. The national union of the machinists and blacksmiths fell off to about 1,500 members in 1870.

In the summer of 1870 business, which in the preceding two years had been normal or slightly above normal, became good and remained so for approximately three years — until the panic of 1873. Nine nationals appeared in these three years

the telegraphers', and the International Coopers' Union of North America in 1870; the painters' in 1871; the woodworking mechanics, and the Brotherhood of Iron and Steel Heaters, Rollers, and Roughers of the United States in 1872; the National Union of Iron and Steel Roll Hands of the United States, the furniture workers, the Miners' National Association and