REVIVAL AND UPHEAVAL, 1879-1887
With the return of business prosperity in 1879, the labor movement
revived. The first symptom of the upward trend was a rapid
multiplication of city federations of organized trades, variously known
as trade councils, amalgamated trade and labor unions, trades
assemblies, and the like. Practically all of these came into existence
after 1879, since hardly any of the "trades' assemblies" of the sixties
had survived the depression.
As was said above, the national trade unions existed during the sixties
and seventies in only about thirty trades. Eighteen of these had either
retained a nucleus during the seventies or were first formed during that
decade. The following is a list of the national unions in existence in
1880 with the year of formation: Typographical (1850), Hat Finishers
(1854), Iron Molders (1859), Locomotive Engineers (1863), Cigar Makers
(1864), Bricklayers and Masons (1865), Silk and Fur Hat Finishers
(1866), Railway Conductors (1868), Coopers (1870), German-American
Typographia (1873), Locomotive Firemen (1873), Horseshoers (1874),
Furniture Workers (1873), Iron and Steel Workers (1876), Granite Cutters
(1877), Lake Seamen (1878), Cotton Mill Spinners (1878), New England
Boot and Shoe Lasters (1879).
In 1880 the Western greenbottle blowers' national union was established;
in 1881 the national unions of boiler makers and carpenters; in 1882,
plasterers and metal workers; in 1883, tailors, lithographers, wood
carvers, railroad brakemen, and silk workers.
An illustration of the rapid growth in trade union membership during
this period is given in the following figures: the bricklayers' union
had 303 in 1880; 1558 in 1881; 6848 in 1882; 9193 in 1883. The
typographical union had 5968 members in 1879; 6520 in 1880; 7931 in
1881; 10,439 in 1882; 12,273 in 1883. The total trade union membership
in the country, counting the three railway organizations and those
organized only locally, amounted to between 200,000 and 225,000 in 1883
and probably was not below 300,000 in the beginning of 1885.
A distinguishing characteristic of the trade unions of this time was the
predominance in them of the foreign element. The Illinois Bureau of
Labor describes the ethnical composition of the trade unions of that
State during 1886, and states that 21 percent were American, 33 percent
German, 19 percent Irish, 10 percent British other than Irish, 12
percent Scandinavian, and the Poles, Bohemians, and Italians formed
about 5 percent. The strong predominance of the foreign element in
American trade unions should not appear unusual, since, owing to the
breakdown of the apprenticeship system, the United States had been
drawing its supply of skilled labor from abroad.
The Order of the Knights of Labor, despite its "First Principles" based
on the cooperative ideal, was soon forced to make concessions to a large
element of its membership which was pressing for strikes. With the
advent of prosperity, the Order expanded, although the Knights of Labor
played but a subordinate part in the labor movement of the early
eighties. The membership was 20,151 in 1879; 28,136 in 1880; 19,422 in
1881; 42,517 in 1882; 51,914 in 1883; showing a steady and rapid growth,
with the exception of the year 1881. But these figures are decidedly
deceptive as a means of measuring the strength of the Order, for the
membership fluctuated widely; so that in the year 1883, when it reached
50,000 no less than one-half of this number passed in and out of the
organization during the year. The enormous fluctuation, while reducing
the economic strength of the Order, brought large masses of people under
its influence and prepared the ground for the upheaval in the middle of
the eighties. It also brought the Order to the attention of the public
press. The labor press gave the Order great publicity, but the Knights
did not rely on gratuitous newspaper publicity. They set to work a host
of lecturers, who held public meetings throughout the country adding
recruits and advertising the Order.
The most important Knights of Labor strike of this period was the
telegraphers' strike in 1883. The telegraphers had a national
organization in 1870, which soon collapsed. In 1882 they again organized
on a national basis and affiliated with the Order as District Assembly
45.[18] The strike was declared on June 19, 1883, against all commercial
telegraph companies in the country, among which the Western Union, with
about 4000 operators, was by far the largest. The demands were one day's
rest in seven, an eight-hour day shift and a seven-hour night shift, and
a general increase of 15 percent in wages. The public and a large
portion of the press gave their sympathy to the strikers, not so much on
account of the oppressed condition of the telegraphers as of the general
hatred that prevailed against Jay Gould, who then controlled the
Western Union Company. This strike was the first in the eighties to call
the attention of the general American public to the existence of a labor
question, and received considerable attention at the hands of the Senate
Committee on Education and Labor. By the end of July, over a month after
the beginning of the strike, the men who escaped the blacklist went back
to work on the old terms.
From 1879 till 1882 the labor movement was typical of a period of rising
prices. It was practically restricted to skilled workmen, who organized
to wrest from employers still better conditions than those which
prosperity would have given under individual bargaining. The movement
was essentially opportunistic and displayed no particular class feeling
and no revolutionary tendencies. The solidarity of labor was not denied
by the trade unions, but they did not try to reduce the idea to
practice: each trade coped more or less successfully with its own
employers. Even the Knights of Labor, the organization _par excellence_
of the solidarity of labor, was at this time, in so far as practical
efforts went, merely a faint echo of the trade unions.
But the situation radically changed during the depression of 1884-1885.
The unskilled and the semi-skilled, affected as they were by wage
reductions and unemployment even in a larger measure than the skilled,
were drawn into the movement. Labor organizations assumed the nature of
a real class movement. The idea of the solidarity of labor ceased to be
merely verbal and took on life! General strikes, sympathetic strikes,
nationwide boycotts and nation-wide political movements became the order
of the day. The effects of an unusually large immigration joined hands
with the depression. The eighties were the banner decade of the entire
century for immigration. The aggregate number of immigrants arriving was
5,246,613--two and a half millions larger than during the seventies and
one million and a half larger than during the nineties. The eighties
witnessed the highest tide of immigration from Great Britain and the
North of Europe and the beginning of the tide of South and East European
immigration.
However, the depression of 1883-1885 had one redeeming feature by which
it was distinguished from other depressions. With falling prices,
diminishing margins of profit, and decreasing wages, the amount of
employment was not materially diminished. Times continued hard during
1885, a slight improvement showing itself only during the last months of
the year. The years 1886 and 1887 were a period of gradual recovery, and
normal conditions may be said to have returned about the middle of 1887.
Except in New England, the old wages, which had been reduced during the
bad years, were won again by the spring of 1887.
The year 1884 was one of decisive failure in strikes. They were
practically all directed against reductions in wages and for the right
of organization. The most conspicuous strikes were those of the Fall
River spinners, the Troy stove mounters, the Cincinnati cigar makers and
the Hocking Valley coal miners.
The failure of strikes brought into use the other weapon of labor--the
boycott. But not until the latter part of 1884, when the failure of the
strike as a weapon became apparent, did the boycott assume the nature of
an epidemic. The boycott movement was a truly national one, affecting
the South and the Far West as well as the East and Middle West. The
number of boycotts during 1885 was nearly seven times as large as during
1884. Nearly all of the boycotts either originated with, or were taken
up by, the Knights of Labor.
The strike again came into prominence in the latter half of 1885. This
coincided with the beginning of an upward trend in general business
conditions. The strikes of 1885, even more than those of the preceding
year, were spontaneous outbreaks of unorganized masses.
The frequent railway strikes were a characteristic feature of the labor
movement in 1885. Most notable was the Gould railway strike in March,
1885. On February 26, a cut of 10 percent was ordered in the wages of
the shopmen of the Wabash road. A similar reduction had been made in
October, 1884, on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas. Strikes occurred on the
two roads, one on February 27 and the other March 9, and the strikers
were joined by the men on the third Gould road, the Missouri Pacific, at
all points where the two lines touched, making altogether over 4500 men
on strike. The train service personnel, that is, the locomotive
engineers, firemen, brakemen, and conductors, supported the strikers and
to this fact more than to any other was due their speedy victory. The
wages were restored and the strikers reemployed. But six months later
this was followed by a second strike. The road, now in the hands of a
receiver, reduced the force of shopmen at Moberly, Missouri, to the
lowest possible limit, which virtually meant a lockout of the members of
the Knights of Labor in direct violation of the conditions of settlement
of the preceding strike. The General Executive Board of the Knights,
after a futile attempt to have a conference with the receiver, declared
a boycott on Wabash rolling stock. This order, had it been carried out,
would have affected over 20,000 miles of railway and would have equalled
the dimensions of the great railway strike of 1877. But Jay Gould would
not risk a general strike on his lines at this time. According to an
appointment made between him and the executive board of the Knights of
Labor, a conference was held between that board and the managers of the
Missouri Pacific and the Wabash railroads, at which he threw his
influence in favor of making concessions to the men. He assured the
Knights that in all troubles he wanted the men to come directly to him,
that he believed in labor organizations and in the arbitration of all
difficulties and that he "would always endeavor to do what was right."
The Knights demanded the discharge of all new men hired in the Wabash
shops since the beginning of the lockout, the reinstatement of all
discharged men, the leaders being given priority, and an assurance that
no discrimination against the members of the Order would be made in the
future. A settlement was finally made at another conference, and the
receiver of the Wabash road agreed, under pressure by Jay Gould, to
issue an order conceding the demands of the Knights of Labor.
The significance of the second Wabash strike in the history of railway
strikes was that the railway brotherhoods (engineers, firemen, brakemen,
and conductors), in contrast with their conduct during the first Wabash
strike, now refused to lend any aid to the striking shopmen, although
many of the members were also Knights of Labor.
But far more important was the effect of the strike upon the general
labor movement. Here a labor organization for the first time dealt on an
equal footing with probably the most powerful capitalist in the country.
It forced Jay Gould to recognize it as a power equal to himself, a fact
which he conceded when he declared his readiness to arbitrate all labor
difficulties that might arise. The oppressed laboring masses finally
discovered a powerful champion. All the pent-up feeling of bitterness
and resentment which had accumulated during the two years of depression,
in consequence of the repeated cuts in wages and the intensified
domination by employers, now found vent in a rush to organize under the
banner of the powerful Knights of Labor. To the natural tendency on the
part of the oppressed to exaggerate the power of a mysterious
emancipator whom they suddenly found coming to their aid, there was
added the influence of sensational reports in the public press. The
newspapers especially took delight in exaggerating the powers and
strength of the Order.
In 1885 the New York _Sun_ detailed one of its reporters to "get up a
story of the strength and purposes of the Knights of Labor." This story
was copied by newspapers and magazines throughout the country and aided
considerably in bringing the Knights of Labor into prominence. The
following extract illustrates the exaggerated notion of the power of the
Knights of Labor.
"Five men in this country control the chief interests of five hundred
thousand workingmen, and can at any moment take the means of livelihood
from two and a half millions of souls. These men compose the executive
board of the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor of America. The ability
of the president and cabinet to turn out all the men in the civil
service, and to shift from one post to another the duties of the men in
the army and navy, is a petty authority compared with that of these five
Knights. The authority of the late Cardinal was, and that of the
bishops of the Methodist Church is, narrow and prescribed, so far as
material affairs are concerned, in comparison with that of these five
rulers.
"They can stay the nimble touch of almost every telegraph operator; can
shut up most of the mills and factories, and can disable the railroads.
They can issue an edict against any manufactured goods so as to make
their subjects cease buying them, and the tradesmen stop selling them.
"They can array labor against capital, putting labor on the offensive or
the defensive, for quiet and stubborn self-protection, or for angry,
organized assault, as they will."
Before long the Order was able to benefit by this publicity in quarters
where the tale of its great power could only attract unqualified
attention, namely, in Congress. The Knights of Labor led in the
agitation for prohibiting the immigration of alien contract laborers.
The problem of contract immigrant labor rapidly came to the front in
1884, when such labor began frequently to be used to defeat strikes.
Twenty persons appeared to testify before the committee in favor of the
bill, of whom all but two or three belonged to the Knights of Labor. The
anti-contract labor law which was passed by Congress on February 2,
1885, therefore, was due almost entirely to the efforts of the Knights
of Labor. The trade unions gave little active support, for to the
skilled workingmen the importation of contract Italian and Hungarian
laborers was a matter of small importance. On the other hand, to the
Knights of Labor with their vast contingent of unskilled it was a strong
menace. Although the law could not be enforced and had to be amended in
1887 in order to render it effective, its passage nevertheless attests
the political influence already exercised by the Order in 1885.
The outcome of the Gould strike of 1885 and the dramatic exaggeration of
the prowess of the Order by press and even by pulpit were largely
responsible for the psychological setting that called forth and
surrounded the great upheaval of 1886. This upheaval meant more than the
mere quickening of the pace of the movement begun in preceding years and
decades. It signalled the appearance on the scene of a new class which
had not hitherto found a place in the labor movement, namely the
unskilled. All the peculiar characteristics of the dramatic events in
1886 and 1887, the highly feverish pace at which organizations grew, the
nation-wide wave of strikes, particularly sympathetic strikes, the wide
use of the boycott, the obliteration, apparently complete, of all lines
that divided the laboring class, whether geographic or trade, the
violence and turbulence which accompanied the movement--all of these
were the signs of a great movement by the class of the unskilled, which
had finally risen in rebellion. This movement, rising as an elemental
protest against oppression and degradation, could be but feebly
restrained by any considerations of expediency and prudence; nor, of
course, could it be restrained by any lessons from experience. But, if
the origin and powerful sweep of this movement were largely spontaneous
and elemental, the issues which it took up were supplied by the existing
organizations, namely the trade unions and the Knights of Labor. These
served also as the dykes between which the rapid streams were gathered
and, if at times it seemed that they must burst under the pressure,
still they gave form and direction to the movement and partly succeeded
in introducing order where chaos had reigned. The issue which first
brought unity in this great mass movement was a nation-wide strike for
the eight-hour day declared for May 1, 1886.
The initiative in this strike was taken not by the Order but by the
trade unionists and on the eve of the strike the general officers of the
Knights adopted an attitude of hostility. But if the slogan failed to
arouse the enthusiasm of the national leaders of the Knights, it
nevertheless found ready response in the ranks of labor. The great class
of the unskilled and unorganized, which had come to look upon the
Knights of Labor as the all-powerful liberator of the laboring masses
from oppression, now eagerly seized upon this demand as the issue upon
which the first battle with capital should be fought.
The agitation assumed large proportions in March. The main argument for
the shorter day was work for the unemployed. With the exception of the
cigar makers, it was left wholly in the hands of local organizations.
The Knights of Labor as an organization figured far less prominently
than the trade unions, and among the latter the building trades and the
German-speaking furniture workers and cigar makers stood in the front of
the movement. Early in the strike the workingmen's cause was gravely
injured by a bomb explosion on Haymarket Square in Chicago, attributed
to anarchists, which killed and wounded a score of policemen.
The bomb explosion on Haymarket Square connected two movements which had
heretofore marched separately, despite a certain mutual affinity. For
what many of the Knights of Labor were practising during the upheaval in
a less drastic manner and without stopping to look for a theoretical
justification, the contemporary Chicago "anarchists,"[19] the largest
branch of the "Black International," had elevated into a well
rounded-out system of thought. Both syndicalism and the Knights of Labor
upheaval were related chapters in the revolutionary movement of the
eighties. Whether in its conscious or unconscious form, this syndicalism
was characterized by an extreme combativeness, by the ease with which
minor disputes grew into widespread strikes involving many trades and
large territories, by a reluctance, if not an out and out refusal, to
enter into agreements with employers however temporary, and lastly by a
ready resort to violence. In 1886 the membership of the Black
International probably was about 5000 or 6000 and of this number about
1000 were English speaking.
The circumstances of the bomb explosion were the following. A strikers'
meeting was held near the McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago, late on the
third of May. About this time strike-breakers employed in these works
began to leave for home and were attacked by strikers. The police
arrived in large numbers and upon being received with stones, fired and
killed four and wounded many. The same evening the International issued
a call in which appeared the word _"Revenge"_ with the appeal:
"Workingmen, arm yourselves and appear in full force." A protest mass
meeting met the next day on Haymarket Square and was addressed by
Internationalists. The police were present in numbers and, as they
formed in line and advanced on the crowd, some unknown hand hurled a
bomb into their midst killing and wounding many.
It is unnecessary to describe here the period of police terror in
Chicago, the hysterical attitude of the press, or the state of panic
that came over the inhabitants of the city. Nor is it necessary to deal
in detail with the trial and sentence of the accused. Suffice it to say
that the Haymarket bomb showed to the labor movement what it might
expect from the public and the government if it combined violence with a
revolutionary purpose.
Although the bomb outrage was attributed to the anarchists and not
generally to the strikers for the eight-hour day, it did materially
reduce the sympathy of the public as well as intimidate many strikers.
Nevertheless, _Bradstreet's_ estimated that no fewer than 340,000 men
took part in the movement; 190,000 actually struck, only 42,000 of this
number with success, and 150,000 secured shorter hours without a strike.
Thus the total number of those who secured with or without strikes the
eight-hour day was something less than 200,000. But even those who for
the present succeeded, whether with or without striking, soon lost the
concession, and _Bradstreet's_ estimated in January, 1887, that, so far
as the payment of former wages for a shorter day's work is concerned,
the grand total of those retaining the concession did not exceed, if it
equalled, 15,000.
American labor movements have never experienced such a rush to organize
as the one in the latter part of 1885 and during 1886. During 1886 the
combined membership of labor organizations was exceptionally large and
for the first time came near the million mark. The Knights of Labor had
a membership of 700,000 and the trade unions at least 250,000, the
former composed largely of unskilled and the latter of skilled. The
Knights of Labor gained in a remarkably short time--in a few
months--over 600,000 new members and grew from 1610 local assemblies
with 104,066 members in good standing in July 1885, to 5892 assemblies
with 702,924 members in July 1886. The greatest portion of this growth
occurred after January 1, 1886. In the state of New York there were in
July 1886, about 110,000 members (60,809 in District Assembly 49 of New
York City alone); in Pennsylvania, 95,000 (51,557 in District Assembly
1, Philadelphia, alone); in Massachusetts, 90,000 (81,191 in District
Assembly 30 of Boston); and in Illinois, 32,000.
In the state of Illinois, for which detailed information for that year
is available, there were 204 local assemblies with 34,974 members, of
which 65 percent were found in Cook County (Chicago) alone. One hundred
and forty-nine assemblies were mixed, that is comprised members of
different trades including unskilled and only 55 were trade assemblies.
Reckoned according to country of birth the membership was 45 percent
American, 16 percent German, 13 percent Irish, 10 percent British, 5
percent Scandinavian, and the remaining 2 percent scattered. The trade
unions also gained many members but in a considerably lesser proportion.
The high water mark was reached in the autumn of 1886. But in the early
months of 1887 a reaction became visible. By July 1, the membership of
the Order had diminished to 510,351. While a share of this retrogression
may have been due to the natural reaction of large masses of people who
had been suddenly set in motion without experience, a more immediate
cause came from the employers. Profiting by past lessons, they organized
strong associations. The main object of these employers' associations
was the defeat of the Knights. They were organized sectionally and
nationally. In small localities, where the power of the Knights was
especially great, all employers regardless of industry joined in a
single association. But in large manufacturing centers, where the rich
corporation prevailed, they included the employers of only one industry.
To attain their end these associations made liberal use of the lockout,
the blacklist, and armed guards and detectives. Often they treated
agreements entered into with the Order as contracts signed under duress.
The situation in the latter part of 1886 and in 1887 had been clearly
foreshadowed in the treatment accorded the Knights of Labor on the Gould
railways in the Southwest in the early part of 1886.
As already mentioned, at the settlement of the strike on the Gould
system in March 1885, the employes were assured that the road would
institute no discriminations against the Knights of Labor. However, it
is apparent that a series of petty discriminations was indulged in by
minor officials, which kept the men in a state of unrest. It culminated
in the discharge of a foreman, a member of the Knights, from the car
shop at Marshall, Texas, on the Texas & Pacific Road, which had shortly
before passed into the hands of a receiver. A strike broke out over the
entire road on March 1, 1886. It is necessary, however, to note that the
Knights of Labor themselves were meditating aggressive action two months
before the strike. District Assembly 101, the organization embracing the
employes on the Southwest system, held a convention on January 10, and
authorized the officers to call a strike at any time they might find
opportune to enforce the two following demands: first, the formal
"recognition" of the Order; and second, a daily wage of $1.50 for the
unskilled. The latter demand is peculiarly characteristic of the Knights
of Labor and of the feeling of labor solidarity that prevailed in the
movement. But evidently the organization preferred to make the issue
turn on discrimination against members. Another peculiarity which marked
off this strike as the beginning of a new era was the facility with
which it led to a sympathetic strike on the Missouri Pacific and all
leased and operated lines. This strike broke out simultaneously over the
entire system on March 6. It affected more than 5000 miles of railway
situated in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Indian Territory, and Nebraska.
The strikers did not content themselves with mere picketing, but
actually took possession of the railroad property and by a systematic
"killing" of engines, that is removing some indispensable part,
effectively stopped all the freight traffic. The number of men actively
on strike was in the neighborhood of 9000, including practically all of
the shopmen, yardmen, and section gangs. The engineers, firemen,
brakemen, and conductors took no active part and had to be forced to
leave their posts under threats from the strikers.
The leader, one Martin Irons, accurately represented the feelings of the
strikers. Personally honest and probably well-meaning, his attitude was
overbearing and tyrannical. With him as with those who followed him, a
strike was not a more or less drastic means of forcing a better labor
contract, but necessarily assumed the aspect of a crusade against
capital. Hence all compromise and any policy of give and take were
excluded.
Negotiations were conducted by Jay Gould and Powderly to submit the
dispute to arbitration, but they failed and, after two months of
sporadic violence, the strike spent itself and came to an end. It left,
however, a profound impression upon the public mind, second only to the
impression made by the great railway strike of 1877; and a
Congressional committee was appointed to investigate the whole matter.
The disputes during the second half of 1886 ended, for the most part,
disastrously to labor. The number of men involved in six months, was
estimated at 97,300. Of these, about 75,300 were in nine great lockouts,
of whom 54,000 suffered defeat at the hands of associated employers. The
most important lockouts were against 15,000 laundry workers at Troy, New
York, in June; against 20,000 Chicago packing house workers; and against
20,000 knitters at Cohoes, New York, both in October.
The lockout of the Chicago butcher workmen attracted the most attention.
These men had obtained the eight-hour day without a strike during May. A
short time thereafter, upon the initiative of Armour & Company, the
employers formed a packers' association and, in the beginning of
October, notified the men of a return to the ten-hour day on October 11.
They justified this action on the ground that they could not compete
with Cincinnati and Kansas City, which operated on the ten-hour system.
On October 8, the men, who were organized in District Assemblies 27 and
54, suspended work, and the memorable lockout began. The packers'
association rejected all offers of compromise and on October 18 the men
were ordered to work on the ten-hour basis. But the dispute in October,
which was marked by a complete lack of ill-feeling on the part of the
men and was one of the most peaceable labor disputes of the year, was in
reality a mere prelude to a second disturbance which broke out in the
plant of Swift & Company on November 2 and became general throughout the
stockyards on November 6. The men demanded a return to the eight-hour
day, but the packers' association, which was now joined by Swift &
Company, who formerly had kept aloof, not only refused to give up the
ten-hour day, but declared that they would employ no Knights of Labor in
the future. The Knights retaliated by declaring a boycott on the meat of
Armour & Company. The behavior of the men was now no longer peaceable as
before, and the employers took extra precautions by prevailing upon the
governor to send two regiments of militia in addition to the several
hundred Pinkerton detectives employed by the association. To all
appearances, the men were slowly gaining over the employers, for on
November 10 the packers' association rescinded its decision not to
employ Knights, when suddenly on November 15, like a thunderbolt out of
a clear sky, a telegram arrived from Grand Master Workman Powderly
ordering the men back to work. Powderly had refused to consider the
reports from the members of the General Executive Board who were on the
ground, but, as was charged by them, was guided instead by the advice of
a priest who had appealed to him to call off the strike and thus put an
end to the suffering of the men and their families.
New York witnessed an even more characteristic Knights of Labor strike
and on a larger scale. This strike began as two insignificant separate
strikes, one by coal-handlers at the Jersey ports supplying New York
with coal and the other by longshoremen on the New York water front;
both starting on January 1, 1887. Eighty-five coal-handlers employed by
the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, members of the Knights of
Labor, struck against a reduction of 2-1/2 cents an hour in the wages of
the "top-men" and were joined by the trimmers who had grievances of
their own. Soon the strike spread to the other roads and the number of
striking coal-handlers reached 3000. The longshoremen's strike was begun
by 200 men, employed by the Old Dominion Steamship Company, against a
reduction in wages and the hiring of cheap men by the week. The strikers
were not organized, but the Ocean Association, a part of the Knights of
Labor, took up their cause and was assisted by the longshoremen's union.
Both strikes soon widened out through a series of sympathetic strikes of
related trades and finally became united into one. The Ocean Association
declared a boycott on the freight of the Old Dominion Company and this
was strictly obeyed by all of the longshoremen's unions. The
International Boatmen's Union refused to allow their boats to be used
for "scab coal" or to permit their members to steer the companies'
boats. The longshoremen joined the boatmen in refusing to handle coal,
and the shovelers followed. Then the grain handlers on both floating and
stationary elevators refused to load ships with grain on which there was
scab coal, and the bag-sewers stood with them. The longshoremen now
resolved to go out and refused to work on ships which received scab
coal, and finally they decided to stop work altogether on all kinds of
craft in the harbor until the trouble should be settled. The strike
spirit spread to a large number of freight handlers working for
railroads along the river front, so that in the last week of January the
number of strikers in New York, Brooklyn, and New Jersey, reached
approximately 28,000; 13,000 longshoremen, 1000 boatmen, 6000 grain
handlers, 7500 coal-handlers, and 400 bag-sewers.
On February 11, August Corbin, president and receiver of the
Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, fearing a strike by the miners
working in the coal mines operated by that road, settled the strike by
restoring to the eighty-five coal-handlers, the original strikers, their
former rate of wages. The Knights of Labor felt impelled to accept such
a trivial settlement for two reasons. The coal-handlers' strike, which
drove up the price of coal to the consumer, was very unpopular, and the
strike itself had begun to weaken when the brewers and stationary
engineers, who for some obscure reason had been ordered to strike in
sympathy, refused to come out. The situation was left unchanged, as far
as the coal-handlers employed by the other companies, the longshoremen,
and the many thousands of men who went out on sympathetic strike were
concerned. The men began to return to work by the thousands and the
entire strike collapsed.
The determined attack and stubborn resistance of the employers'
associations after the strikes of May 1886, coupled with the obvious
incompetence displayed by the leaders, caused the turn of the tide in
the labor movement in the first half of 1887. This, however, manifested
itself during 1887 exclusively in the large cities, where the movement
had borne in the purest form the character of an uprising by the class
of the unskilled and where the hardest battles were fought with the
employers. District Assembly 49, New York, fell from its membership of
60,809 in June 1886, to 32,826 in July 1887. During the same interval,
District Assembly 1, Philadelphia, decreased from 51,557 to 11,294, and
District Assembly 30, Boston, from 81,197 to 31,644. In Chicago there
were about 40,000 Knights immediately before the packers' strike in
October 1886, and only about 17,000 on July 1, 1887. The falling off of
the largest district assemblies in 10 large cities practically equalled
the total loss of the Order, which amounted approximately to 191,000. At
the same time the membership of the smallest district assemblies, which
were for the most part located in small cities, remained stationary and,
outside of the national and district trade assemblies which were formed
by separation from mixed district assemblies, thirty-seven new district
assemblies were formed, also mostly in rural localities. In addition,
state assemblies were added in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana,
Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, and
Wisconsin, with an average membership of about 2000 each.
It thus becomes clear that by the middle of 1887, the Great Upheaval of
the unskilled and semi-skilled portions of the working class had already
subsided beneath the strength of the combined employers and the
unwieldiness of their own organization. After 1887 the Knights of Labor
lost its hold upon the large cities with their wage-conscious and
largely foreign population, and became an organization predominantly of
country people, of mechanics, small merchants, and farmers,--a class of
people which was more or less purely American and decidedly middle class
in its philosophy.
The industrial upheaval in the middle of the eighties had, like the
great strike of 1877, a political reverberation. Although the latter was
heard throughout the entire country, it centered in the city of New
York, where the situation was complicated by court interference in the
labor struggle.
A local assembly of the Knights of Labor had declared a boycott against
one George Theiss, a proprietor of a music and beer garden. The latter
at first submitted and paid a fine of $1000 to the labor organization,
but later brought action in court against the officers charging them
with intimidation and extortion.
The judge, George C. Barrett, in his charge to the jury, conceded that
striking, picketing, and boycotting as such were not prohibited by law,
if not accompanied by force, threats, or intimidation. But in the case
under consideration the action of the pickets in advising passers-by not
to patronize the establishment and in distributing boycott circulars
constituted intimidation. Also, since the $1000 fine was obtained by
fear induced by a threat to continue the unlawful injury to Theiss
inflicted by the "boycott," the case was one of extortion covered by the
penal code. It made no difference whether the money was appropriated by
the defendants for personal use or whether it was turned over to their
organization. The jury, which reflected the current public opinion
against boycotts, found all of the five defendants guilty of extortion,
and Judge Barrett sentenced them to prison for terms ranging from one
year and six months to three years and eight months.
The Theiss case, coming as it did at a time of general restlessness of
labor and closely after the defeat of the eight-hour movement, greatly
hastened the growth of the sentiment for an independent labor party. The
New York Central Labor Union, the most famous and most influential
organization of its kind in the country at the time, with a membership
estimated at between 40,000 and 50,000, placed itself at the head of the
movement in which both socialists and non-socialists joined. Henry
George, the originator of the single tax movement, was nominated by the
labor party for Mayor of New York and was allowed to draw up his own
platform, which he made of course a simon-pure single tax platform. The
labor demands were compressed into one plank. They were as follows: The
reform of court procedure so that "the practice of drawing grand jurors
from one class should cease, and the requirements of a property
qualification for trial jurors should be abolished"; the stopping of the
"officious intermeddling of the police with peaceful assemblages"; the
enforcement of the laws for safety and the sanitary inspection of
buildings; the abolition of contract labor on public work; and equal pay
for equal work without distinction of sex on such work.
The George campaign was more in the nature of a religious revival than
of a political election campaign. It was also a culminating point in the
great labor upheaval. The enthusiasm of the laboring people reached its
highest pitch. They felt that, baffled and defeated as they were in
their economic struggle, they were now nearing victory in the struggle
for the control of government. Mass meetings were numerous and large.
Most of them were held in the open air, usually on the street corners.
From the system by which one speaker followed another, speaking at
several meeting places in a night, the labor campaign got its nickname
of the "tailboard campaign." The common people, women and men, gathered
in hundreds and often thousands around trucks from which the shifting
speakers addressed the crowd. The speakers were volunteers, including
representatives of the liberal professions, lawyers, physicians,
teachers, ministers, and labor leaders. At such mass meetings George did
most of his campaigning, making several speeches a night, once as many
as eleven. The single tax and the prevailing political corruption were
favorite topics. Against George and his adherents were pitted the
powerful press of the city of New York, all the political power of the
old parties, and all the influence of the business class. George's
opponents were Abram S. Hewitt, an anti-Tammany Democrat whom Tammany
had picked for its candidate in this emergency, and Theodore Roosevelt,
then as yet known only as a courageous young politician.
The vote cast was 90,000 for Hewitt, 68,000 for George, and 60,000 for
Roosevelt. There is possible ground for the belief that George was
counted out of thousands of votes. The nature of the George vote can be
sufficiently gathered from an analysis of the pledges to vote for him.
An apparently trustworthy investigation was made by a representative of
the New York Sun. He drew the conclusion that the vast majority were not
simply wage earners, but also naturalized immigrants, mainly Irish,
Germans, and Bohemians, the native element being in the minority. While
the Irish were divided between George and Hewitt, the majority of the
German element had gone over to Henry George. The outcome was hailed as
a victory by George and his supporters and this view was also taken by
the general press.
In spite of this propitious beginning the political labor movement soon
suffered the fate of all reform political movements. The strength of the
new party was frittered away in doctrinaire factional strife between the
single taxers and the socialists. The trade union element became
discouraged and lost interest. So that at the next State election, in
which George ran for Secretary of State, presumably because that office
came nearest to meeting the requirement for a single taxer seeking a
practical scope of action, the vote in the city fell to 37,000 and in
the whole State amounted only to 72,000. This ended the political labor
movement in New York.
Outside of New York the political labor movement was not associated
either with the single tax or any other "ism." As in New York it was a
spontaneous expression of dissatisfaction brought on by failure in
strikes. The movement scored a victory in Milwaukee, where it elected a
mayor, and in Chicago where it polled 25,000 out of a total of 92,000.
But, as in New York, it fell to pieces without leaving a permanent
trace.
FOOTNOTES:
[18] See the next chapter for the scheme of organization followed by the
Order.
[19] See above, 79-80.