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showed the need of a reliable basis of operation for the troops, and the construction of numerous and strong armories in the large cities dates from 1877. The courts began to change their attitude toward labour unions; the strikes and riots brought back from oblivion the doctrine of malicious conspiracy as applied to labour combinations. The legislatures in many States enacted conspiracy laws directed against labour. But the strongest moral effect was upon the wage-earning class. The spirit of labour solidarity was strengthened and made national. This was the first time in the history of the American labour movement that Federal troops were called out in time of peace to suppress strikes. Nor had the state militia ever been used for the same purpose on so large a scale. The feeling of resentment engendered thereby began to assume a political aspect, and during the next two years the territory covered by the strike wave became a most promising field for labour parties of all kinds and descriptions. On the side of trade union organisation the effect of the strike appears to have been more remote. Nevertheless, it can safely be stated that there was a direct connection between the active coming forth of the unskilled during the strike and the attempts, so largely secret, that were made immediately after to organise this class of labour.

PART SIX

UPHEAVAL AND REORGANISATION

(Since 1876)

BY SELIG PERLMAN

CHAPTER I

SECRET BEGINNINGS

66

Employers' opposition to trade unions during the period of depression, 195. Necessity for secrecy, 195. Beginning of the Knights of Labor, 196. Uriah S. Stephens, 197. Assembly 1 of Philadelphia, 197. Sojourners," 198. Ritual and principles, 198. Additional assemblies, 199. District Assembly 1, of Philadelphia, 199. District Assembly 2, of Camden, New Jersey, 199. District Assembly 3, of Pittsburgh, 199. Recruiting ground of the Knights, 200. Strikes and strike funds, 200. Rivalry between District Assembly 1 and District Assembly 3, 200. The issue of secrecy, 201. Attitude of the Catholic Church, 201. The Junior Sons of '76 and their call for a national convention, 201.

THE business depression of 1873 to 1879 was a critical period in the American labour movement. The old national trade unions either went to pieces, or retained a merely nominal existence. Employers sought to free themselves from the restrictions that the trade unions had imposed upon them during the years preceding the crisis. They consequently added a systematic policy of lockouts, of blacklists, and of legal prosecution to the already crushing weight of hard times and unemployment. Speaking of this period, McNeill says "a great deal of bitterness was evinced against trades union organisations, and men were blacklisted to an extent hardly ever equalled,” 1 so that it became "very difficult to find earnest and active members who were willing to serve on committees." 2

It became clear that the " open union" was not an effective means of combatting the tactics of capital. Hence "labor leaders met silently and secretly," 3 and advocated an organisation "hedged about with the impenetrable veil of ritual, sign grip, and password," so that "no spy of the boss can find his way in the Lodgeroom to betray his fellows." By the require

1 McNeill, Labor Movement: The Prob. lem of To-day, 154.

2 Ibid., 898.

8 Quoted in the Pittsburgh National Labor Tribune, Oct. 8, 1880, from a

4

speech by William M. Davis, state secretary of the Ohio Miners' Union.

4 Ibid., July 9, 1881, from the Chicago Progressiva Age.

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