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A Documentary History of

American Industrial

Society

Volume VIII

Horace Greeley, about 1850

A Documentary History of

American Industrial

Society

Edited by John R. Commons

Ulrich B. Phillips, Eugene A. Gilmore

Helen L. Sumner, and John B. Andrews

Prepared under the auspices of the American Bureau of

Industrial Research, with the co-operation of the

Carnegie Institution of Washington

With preface by Richard T. Ely
and introduftion by John B. Clark

Volume VIII
Labor Movement

Cleveland, Ohio

The Arthur H. Clark Company
I 9 I o

.m\'

V \

^ ft

THE ARTHUR H. CLARK CO.

AH rights reserved

AMERICAN BUREAU OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

DIRECTORS AND EDITORS

Richard T. Ely, PH.D., LL.D., Professor of Political Economy,
University of Wisconsin

John R. Commons, a.m.. Professor of Political Economy,
University of Wisconsin

John B. Clark, PH.D., LL.D., Professor of Political Economy,
Columbia University

V. EVERIT MACY, Chairman, New York City

Albert Shaw, PH.D., LL.D., Editor, American Review
of Reviews

UlRICH B. Phillips, PH.D., Professor of History and Political
Science, Tulane University

Eugene A. GiLMORE, LL.B., Professor of Law,
University of Wisconsin

Helen L. Sumner, PH.D., United States Bureau of Labor

John B. Andrews, PH.D., Secretary,
American Association for Labor Legislation

THE DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF AMERICAN
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY COMPRISES—

Vol. I Plantation and Frontier, Volume 1,

by Ulrich B. Phillips

Vol. II Plantation and Frontier, Volume 2,

by Ulrich B. Phillips

VOL. Ill Labor Conspiracy Cases, 1806-1842, Volume 1,

by John R. Commons and Eugene A. Gilmore

VOL. IV Labor Conspiracy Cases, 1806-1842, Volume 2,

by John R. Commons and Eugene A. Gilmore

VOL. V Labor Movement, 1820-1840, Volume 1,

by John R. Commons and Helen L. Sumner

Vol. VI Labor Movement, 1820-1840, Volume 2,

by John R. Commons and Helen L. Sumner

VOL. VII Labor Movement, 1840-1860, Volume 1,
by John R. Commons

VOL. VIII Labor Movement, 1840-1860, Volume 2,
by John R. Commons

VOL. IX Labor Movement, 1860-1880, Volume 1,

by John R. Commons and John B. Andrews

Vol. X Labor Movement, 1860-1880, Volume 2,

by John R. Commons and John B. Andrews

LABOR MOVEMENT

1840-1860

Selected, Collated, and Edited by
JOHN R. COMMONS, a.m.

Professor of Political Economy,
University of Wisconsin

Volume II

CONTENTS

III Land Reform (continued)
The Industrial Congress . . . . .21

(a) Introduction by the Editor

(b) The Call

(d) Representation, 1848

Reception of the Doctrine . . . . .29

(a) Whigs and Democrats

(1) The New York Sun

(2) The Commercial Advertiser

(3) The fVhig Battering-Ram

(b) Horace Greeley

(2) Greeley's Correspondence from Wisconsin

(d) State Legislatures
(i) In New York

(2) In Wisconsin

( i ) Homestead Exemption
(ii) Land Limitation

(3) In Ohio

(e) The Federal Congress
(i) Session of 1846

( i ) Working Men's Memorial

( ii ) Andrew Johnson's Bill

( iii ) The Measures contrasted
(2) Debates on the Homestead Bill, 1852

( i ) Eastern Wage-earners

( ii ) Eastern Capitalists

( iii ) Southern Poor Whites

( iv ) Slave-owners

( V ) Western Pioneers and Lumbermen

( vi ) Mid-west Farmers

(vii) The "Father of the Republican Party"

IV Hours of Labor
Introduction . . . . . .81

14 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

1 Fan Bur ens Ten-hour Order . . . • 85

(a) Executive Order

(b) Van Buren's Interpretation

2 The Ten-hour Movement in New England . . . 86

(a) Circular of the Fall River Mechanics

(b) New England Working Men's Association, First Conven-

tion, Boston, October, 1844
(i) Proceedings
(a) Resolutions

tions
(d) First Annual Meeting
(i) Proceedings

(2) Comment from Lowell

(e) Lynn Convention, January, 1846

(f) Cooperation

(i) Action of Fall River Convention, September, 1845
(a) Amendment, Lowell Convention, October, 1845

(3) Nashua Convention, September, 1846

(g) Politics

(h) Labor Reform League of New England

(i) Nashua Convention, 1846

(2) Boston Convention, 1847
(i) Ten-hours State Convention, Boston, 1852

3 Legislative Investigations in Massachusetts . . 'IBS

(a) The first official Investigation of Labor Conditions, 1845

(b) The Investigation of 1850

(1) The Committee's Report

(2) Dr. Curtis's Summary

4 The First Ten-hour Law, New Hampshire, 1847 • .188

(a) Rejoicing

(b) Misgiving

(d) Protection versus Free Trade

5 Pennsylvania Ten-hour Law, 1848 .... 200

(a) The Act

(b) The Operatives

(d) The Politicians

6 Ten Hours by Trade Agreement, 1853 . . . 208

V Labor Organizations
Introduction , . . . . . 213

eight] CONTENTS 15

1 Sporadic Unions, 1842-1S46 . . . . . 217

(a) The Causes

( 1 ) The Course of Wages

(2) The Tariff and the Working Man

(b) Strikes and Organizations

(i) "Rebellion among the Operatives"
(a) Movements of the Trades

(3) A Trades' Union Proposed

(d) An Immigrants' Strike

(e) Women Workers

(i) Female Industry Association, New York
(2) Factory Women

(f) Shoemakers

(i) Lynn Corwainers* Society

(2) Attempt to equalize Competition

(g) Handloom Weavers- A Decaying Handicraft
(i) Complaints of the Weavers

(2) Organization

( 3 ) Constitution

2 Masters* and Journeymen s Organization - Mechanics* Mutual

Protection ...... 243

(a) The Common Menace- Prison Labor

(b) Objects of the Order

(d) Growth of the Movement

3 Cooperative and Benevolent Trade Unions, 184S-18SI . 263

(a) Cooperation

( 1 ) Workingmen's Protective Union, Boston

( i ) Cooperation and the Working Men

( ii ) Protection against Capital

( iii ) Constitution of the Working Men's Protective Union

( iv ) Report of Board of Trade

(2) New England Protective Union
( i ) Central Division

( ii ) Extracts from Reports of Divisions

(3) Boston Tailors' Associative Union
( i ) A Strike and Its Results

( ii ) A Year of Cooperation

(4) New York City Industrial Congress '
( i ) Formation

( ii ) Constitution and Principles
( iii ) The Tailors

(5) "Industrial Harmony"- The Cincinnati Molders

(b) The Cost of Living

1 6 CONTENTS

(2) Proceedings

(d) New England Industrial League

(1) The Industrial Movement

(2) The Political Movement

(e) Pittsburgh Working Men's Congress

'Pure and Simple" Trade Unions. 1853-1SS4 . . 335

(a) Character of the new Movement

(b) Amalgamated Trades' Convention

ILLUSTRATION

Portrait OF Horace Greeley, flioB/ 18401850 . Frontispiece

Ill

LAND REFORM

[^Continued and Completed from volume t)tV]

3. THE INDUSTRIAL CONGRESS

(a) INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR

A preliminary convention was held in October, 1845,
and Congresses were held in the month of June, as fol-
lows: Boston, 1846; New York, 1847; Philadelphia,
1848; Cincinnati, 1849; Chicago, 1850; Albany, 1851;
Washington, 1852; Wilmington, 1853; Trenton, 1854;
Cleveland, 1855; New York, 1856. The call for the
preliminary convention was written by L. W. Ryck-
man. At each of these sessions, the Land Question was
the leading subject of discussion, but, in addition, other
measures came up and were treated in resolutions. At
the session of 1847, ^ delegate was appointed to confer
with the Liberty League at its convention at Macedon
Lock, New York, agreeing to support their candidate
for President if he would subscribe to the four meas-
ures of Land Limitation, Homestead Exemption, Free-
dom of Public Lands, and Ten Hours for Labor. The
Liberty League nominated Gerrit Smith, and in 1848
the Industrial Congress endorsed the nomination, but
named for vice-president Wm. S. Wait, of Illinois, in
place of Elihu Burritt named by the Liberty League.^
At the session of 1851, Senator Isaac P. Walker was
named as candidate for President of the United States
for the election of 1852. Senator Walker had intro-
duced the Industrial Congress Bill as an amendment to
the Oregon Bill in 1850, at which time the three votes

^ See Smith's Liberty and Free Soil Parties, p. loi.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

of Seward of New York, Dodge and Walker of Wis-
consin were cast for his amendment.^

At the session of 1847, resolutions were adopted
against war, in favor of protective unions, in favor of
questioning candidates, in favor of paying the expenses
of the Mexican War by direct taxation, and resolutions
condemning secret societies and the clergy were intro-
duced and after prolonged discussion were voted down.
At the third session, 1848, resolutions were adopted en-
dorsing protective unions, appointing H. H. ;Van Am-
ringe as general lecturer, recommending the creation
of Industrial Legislatures in the several states to coop-
erate with the Industrial Congress, condemning the
negotiation of loans "upon the security of landed prop-
erty, practiced by the general state, county, and all cor-
porated governments, as being subversive of the rights,
and destructive to the interests of posterity," empower-
ing the Executive Committee to question all nominees
for the ofBces of president and vice-president of the
United States, condemning the attempted railroad grant
to Asa Whitney, and recommending protective measures
to follow freedom of the soil, as follows: prohibition
of government debts, repeal of laws for the collection
of debts, direct taxation, freedom of trade, disband-
ment of the standing army and navy, the various plans
of cooperation and association for the organization of
labor, the best system of township education. They
also approved the "free and anti-monopoly general in-
corporation laws of the State of New York, and several
of the New England States, those laws now offering for
the first time in the history of the world a fair and just
opportunity for the union in business and profits there-
of, between the rich and the poor." At the fifth session,

^Congressional Globe, Aug. 13, 1850, p. 1570; Sept. 17, 1850, p. 1844.

eight] LAND REFORM 23

Chicago, June, 1850, additional resolutions were adopt-
ed favoring woman's suffrage and tax-supported com-
mon schools. At the session of 1854, the slavery
question and the settlement of Kansas and Nebraska
occasioned prolonged discussion, which was closed by
a resolution endorsing Emigrant Associations for Kan-
sas and Nebraska, and condemning members of Con-
gress who assisted in repealing the Missouri Compro-
mise. The call for the preliminary convention is given
below, and the representation at the conventions of 1845
and 1848.

(b) THE CALL

New- York Daily Tribune^ Oct 15, 1845, p. a.

National Convention -Union of Reformers -In-
dustrial Congress

The evils that afflict society have been criticized by
the progressive spirit of the age, and organized efforts
have been made for their correction.

Every prominent abuse of the human faculties, every
prevailing vice, every oppressive and degrading rela-
tion that prevails, has caused the friends of humanity
to array themselves in bands, for the purpose of resist-
ing, and if possible of eradicating, some one or more of
the evils that disgrace our age and country, and these
bands have been justly entitled Reformers.

The Democratic party is an organization of reform-
ers, whose principles tend to perfecting our political
system, by securing to each citizen the greatest amount
of individual independence, but they have made but
little progress, because their leaders, corrupted by place
and power, have almost always found that their inter-
ests were hostile to the principles of their constituents.

The Abolition movement, sincere, ardent, heroic with

24 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

attacks upon chattel slavery, has not succeeded, because
those engaged in it have not perceived that it was only
one of the many modes of oppression that the produc-
tive laborer has to endure, which every where condemn
him to ignorance and want.

The Temperance reformers have done much real
good, but they find a constant tendency to reaction,
from the great inducements to accumulate wealth by a
traffic injurious to society; from the too frequent prof-
ligacy of the rich, and from the despair of the weak,
who fail in the universal conflict of interests, and from
the merely animal education that is the lot of the mass.

The Peace Societies are built upon a noble founda-
tion of justice and philanthropy, but must not expect
success in establishing permanent peace, or its parent,
justice, in the intercourse of nations, while the internal
affairs of life are, in all their ramifications, established
upon the right of conquest. Why shall not the laws,
which create motives in all men to obtain from all their
fellow citizens, by cunning, or any force not expressly
forbidden in the law, all their lands, houses, goods,
wares, and merchandise, also stimulate nations to foreign
conquest and warlike aggression?

The Moral Reform Society and its auxiliaries are en-
gaged in a noble attempt, but are entirely unable to stem
the headlong tide of depravity which is the natural re-
sult of the false and corrupting relation that exists be-
tween capital and labor; continually increasing the
power of the luxurious idler to spread the allurements
to infamy in the presence of half-starved and squalid
industrials.

Associationists, a rapidly increasing band of Reform-
ers, are also earnest in their endeavors to evade the evils
of the age, and by constructing a township upon prin-

eight] LAND REFORM 25

ciples of scientific justice, they hope to lead the way to
a brighter future for Humanity.

The National Reformers aim to restore the Soil to the
People, contending that the thing of first importance is
to establish Rights, and believing that Social and Moral
Reform would almost necessarily follow.

Now the desideratum is that the different classes of
Reformers should concentrate their efforts and ascer-
tain how best they can unite their forces against the
common enemy. It seems impossible that they should
effect this except by a Convention representing all the
different reforms of the day, and it is hoped that in this
manner the work may be accomplished.

Pursuant, therefore, to the instructions of the Na-
tional Convention of Reformers, assembled at Croton
Hall on the 5th, 6th and 7th of May last, and pursuant
to the instructions of the New-England Working Men's
Convention, held at Boston on the 28th and 29th of May
last, we, the undersigned, a Committee appointed for
the purpose, invite the Farmers, Mechanics, and other
useful classes of the Union, and all the friends of Re-
form, to send Delegates in number not exceeding the
number of their State Representatives for each locality,
to a National Convention, to be commenced in the City
of New- York, on the second Tuesday of October next,
and to continue in session, if possible, till a Constitu-
tion for an Industrial Congress shall be agreed upon.
Parke Godwin, George H. Evans, A, E. Bovay,
Albert Gilbert, Ransom Smith, Benj. D. Timms,
Wm. H. Channing- Committee.

26 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

New York Daily Tribune, Oct 15, 1845, p. 2. Proceediogs of Conven-
tion.

. . . Mr. Evans said that certain gentlemen were
appointed by the last National Convention to attend
this meeting; and also some were appointed by the
New-England Working Men's Convention. The fol-
lowing are their names: Parke Godwin, New York
City; A. J. Wright, Boston, Mass.; L. W. Ryckman,
Brook Farm, Mass.; A. Brisbane, New York City;
Thomas A. Devyr, Albany, N. Y. ; John Speakman, Phil-
adelphia, Pa.; Charles A. Dana, Brook Farm, Mass.;
J. C. Jackson, Albany, N.Y. ; James Boyle, Northamp-
ton, Mass.; John Mailey, Lynn, Mass.; Thomas Almy,
Fall River, Mass. ; Wm. S. Wait, Greenville, Bond Co.,
111.; J. W. Joraleman, Newark, N.J.; George R.
McFarlane, Hollidaysburgh, Pa.; A. B. Stevenson,
Pittsburgh, Pa.; Francis C. Treadwell, Brooklyn, New
York ; Alvan E. Bovay, New York City ; George W. Al-
len, Columbus, Ohio; Hugh Garland, Virginia; Arnold
Buffum, New York City; D. Lee, Buffalo, N.Y. ; Theo-
philus Fisk, Washington ; A. F. Cunningham, Virginia;
John White, John S. Williams, E. Grant, Ohio; Alonzo
M. Watson, Watertown, N.Y. ; William Scott, Prom-
isewell Community, Pa.; Gerrit Smith, Peterboro,
N.Y. ; John C. Wilkins, Louisiana; Thomas W. Whit-
ley, Kentucky; J. C. Allaben, Delaware Co., N.Y.;
Cassius M. Clay, Kentucky; John A. Collins, Skan-
eateles, N.Y.; George W. Showard, Eastern Shore,
Md.; Benjamin White, M. C. Freedom, Me.; Mar-
shall Pierce, Saco, Maine; Oilman Jewett, Augusta,
Maine; Warren Dutcher, W. Bennington, Vermont;
Rev. Mr. Balch, Rhode Island; Ellis Smalley, Plain-
field, N.J.; Horace Greeley, New York City; Osborne

eight] LAND REFORM 27

Macdaniel, New York City; H. R. Schetterly, Alpha-
delphia, Michigan; Ira Tillotson, Marshall, Calhoun
Co., Michigan. . .

The following list of names [of interested persons
present] was handed in:

Moses Johnson, N.Y. ; Egbert S. Manning, 119 Hous-
ton St. ; H. Kriege, New York; C. Meyer, do. ; Wyman
B. Sawyer, John G. Palmer, Benj. Sharp, James
M'Cracken, Charles Murphy, Abraham Sharrott, 485
Washington St.; Charles F. Hovey, Boston; Charles
Sears, Monmouth Co., N. Jersey; L. W. Ryckman,
Brook Farm; Arnold Buffum, N.Y. ; Hezekiah Job,
Ira B. Davis, N.Y. ; John Evans, N.Y.; Wm. S. Wait,
Greenville, Bond Co. [111.] ; Charles Douglas, New
London, Ct. ; L. Masquerier, Bushwick, L. Island ; Al-
van E. Bovay, James Warren, N.Y. ; E. N. Kellogg,
Thomas A. Devyr, J. P. Decker, Wm. Lamb, N.Y. ;
E. P. Grant, Canton, Ohio; Wm. Lamb, Bloomfield,
N.J. . .

(d) REPRESENTATION, 1848

New York Weekly Tribune^ June 24, 1848, p. 7, col. 2. Delegates, etc., at
Industrial Congress of 1848.

John Greig, for the Rochester and Auburn National
Reformers, New York. A. H. Rosenheim, (substitute
Delegate), Rochester, German National Reform Asso-
ciation. George Adam, Sixteenth Ward National Re-
form Association, New York. Thomas J. Wilcox,
National Reform Association of Clarkstown, Rockland
Co., New York. George H. Evans, Middletown Na-
tional Reform Association, New Jersey. Alvan E.
Bovay and William Haddock, National Reform Asso-
ciation, New York. Ira B. Davis, William Ay res,
George Adam, and Naomi Plotts, New York Protec-
tive Union. Lewis Masquerier, Williamsburgh Na-

28 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

tional Reform Association. John Shedden and Samuel
Champion, Philadelphia National Reform Association.
William Eldar, John Ashton, Jr. and Paschal Cog-
gings, Philadelphia Union of Associationists. W. Can-
didas, Lewis Nahlke, and C. Ziebrick, Philadelphia
German Union of Working Men, William Quantrell,
Spring Garden (Phil.) Mechanics. E. W. Power,
Manayunk (Pa.) Ten Hour Association. Theophilus
Fisk, S. L. Detwiler, Dr. J. E. Snodgrass, and E. B.
Cunningham, delegates, and C. C. Burr, A. J. H. Du-
ganne, and G. W. Duncan, substitutes; Baltimore
Working Men's Fraternal Association. Robert B.
McDonald, Wilmington (Del.), National Reform As-
sociation. David Bryant, Boston National Reform As-
sociation.

4. RECEPTION OF THE DOCTRINE
(a) WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS

(i) The New York Sun.

Working Man's Advocate, Feb. 15, 1845. Extract from the New York
Sun, with comments by editor of the Advocate.

Natural Rights of Property. The French revolution gave
rise to singular doctrines. Animated by a love of liberty and a hatred
to tyranny, anxious to get rid of an effeminate monarchy and develop
the true resources and energies of the country, the poorer and mid-
dling classes seized the reins of power, and France became a Republic,
and the monarchy was overthrown. During the existence of that
Republic, France achieved great victories over Its enemies, and
brought forward the most Illustrious men the world ever saw; but
instead of profiting by the example of this country. In the calm exer-
cise of Its new-born liberties, the Convention of France was filled
with men of violent passions, licentiousness, and furious democracy,
who not only desecrated by their cruelties a pure love of liberty ( i ) ,
but who were constantly bringing forward new and strange theories
of government. One was an agrarian law for an equal division of
property, or what was then and has since been called the natural
rights of man to property (2). We have In this country a class of
philosophers of this character, who have from time to time, for many
years, pressed their peculiar doctrines upon the people. While con-
fined to mere essays, debates and lectures, this new philosophy was
harmless, but when mingled with the political discussions of the day,
and made to assume the form of a principle, and urged as a sound
one, It becomes dangerous to the Institutions of the country, and men
of all parties should unite to put down doctrines which strike at the
root of the social system, because they involve reforms which cannot,
without revolution and bloodshed, be carried into effect (3). A par-
tlzan Magazine belonging to this peculiar school, has, in a recent num-
ber, broached the doctrine of the natural rights of property in a very
elaborate article, and attempts to show that the "conventional laws
of property, counteracting the natural laws and the natural rights of
man, are among the foremost of the causes of the ignorance, poverty,
suffering, and sin, which, in all ages, have degraded the masses of

30 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

mankind." To enable the writer to carry out this principle, he says,
"There is a natural right of property (land), as a natural right of
life and liberty - equally conferred by the Creator - belonging to man
as man -equally necessary to enable him to accomplish the destiny
assigned him."

"Whatever deprives men of a natural right is a robbery - whoever
does it is a robber." "The earth," it says, "was created for the sub-
sistence of man ; by the law of nature it is the common patrimony of
the race. If by virtue of his creation as a son of God, every man
has a natural essential right to life and liberty ; by virtue of the same
relation, every man must have a right to equal portion of the earth,
or an equivalent, for his subsistence and use."

This doctrine is based upon the principle of Liberty and Equality,
but this School of Philosophers, and they are as old as they are un-
successful, forget that equality relates to political rights (4). There
shall be no ranks (such as Landlords and Tenants) -no titles -no
hereditary principles - no exclusive privileges, (some protected to a
superfluity of land, and others with none at all) -laws are made for
the benefit of all and bind all equally. This is the equality which is
the twin sister of liberty. It is the equality of law, not of property.
It is not because A owns a three story house that B, having none of
his own, claims to be proprietor of the adjoining building. By "equal-
ity" it is not intended because I own a farm which I have acquired
by hard labor, that I must divide my farm with a person who prob-
ably has neither industry, temperance, nor enterprise to acquire one
for himself (5). This "equality" does not imply, as the Philoso-
phers imagine, that one man having a dollar must divide that dollar
with his neighbor who has none. (Who said it did. Alderman?)
Political liberty is not the parent of equality in the social system, and
for this simple reason: the moment man is free to pursue any occupa-
tion he pleases, his energy and his intellect are free, and such a man
must acquire property, whereas the man without intellect or energy
remains poor. (Invariably so!) Here both are politically equal,
but not socially. Would you take from the intelligent and active
to give to the indolent? (6) If all men were intellectually endowed
alike by nature, then there would be something in this equality (7).
Suppose that we should enact laws in carrying out such doctrines, to
prevent men bequeathing their property to whoever they please, and
compel them to leave that property to the public to be equally divid-
ed, who would ever exert himself to acquire any property? Who

eight] LAND REFORM

would care for it, beyond the wants of the day? This doctrine of
the "rights of property" is unnatural and unreasonable (8). It
teaches man not to depend upon his own industry and energy, but
upon the energy and industry of others. Connected with our polit-
ical discussions, it is wicked and mischievous. The man without
means is at war with himself, and with all mankind ; he is willing to
take what he knows belongs to another, and to accomplish this he be-
comes radical and revolutionary. The democracy of large cities par-
take already of a portion of this spirit. Men become politicians who
are unwilling to labor, and after shouting at the polls and at ward
meetings, they demand to be paid in the offices of the people, which
probably they have not character to claim, nor capacity to fill.
We must avoid the errors of the French revolution. Democracy
does not mean Vandalism (9).

( 1 ) A very natural result of a long series of atroci-
ties to which they had been subject, and one which
ought to be a lesson to those who are the props of op-
pression everywhere.

(2) An agrarian law relates to a division of land,
and not a division of the products of labor, or property,
as the Sun artfully pretends. If France had adopted
an Agrarian law, all Europe would have been Repub-
lics long ago.

(3) Those who have read Dickens's "Chimes" will
call to mind the worthy of the "put down" school por-
trayed in that little work. We poor landless fellows
may talk, and debate, and lecture on agrarianism as
much as we please, it seems; (we are very thankful for
the smallest favors) ; but when we come to "mingle ou*
notions with the political discussions of the day," and
"make them assume the form of a principle," O dear!
it is there the shoe pinches, and the Alderman Cute of
the Sun decrees that we must be "put down." Alas!
that we should have been born without "saddles on our
backs" ready for Alderman Cute to mount, and with
such thoughts running through our brains as to make us

32 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

imagine that we have a right to a bit of the earth! We
must be desperately "bad."

(4) It is a political right that our natural rights
shall be protected, or what is your political organiza-
tion good for, Alderman?

(5) Certainly not. Alderman; but if there is land
that nobody has acquired by hard labor, nor even by
gift or purchase from somebody who stole it, might not
the possession of this land make some industrious, and
temperate, and enterprising, who would otherwise be
the reverse?

(6) Not unless they had got what did not belong to
them. Would you?

(7) And since they are not, it is the more necessary
that they should have an equality of rights.

(8) You are battling here a windmill of your own
imagining: but, if we may be allowed to cross-examine
you, what objection have you to the right to land? May
the poor not have a bit of it?

(9) Neither does Democracy mean that there should
be 80,000 persons receiving pauper relief or charity in
a population of 400,000, or that those who produce the
least should enjoy the most of the products of labor.
The grand "error of the French Revolution" was in not
making every citizen a freeholder, and that is the error
that "we should avoid," if we would not split on the
same rock. However, if these doctrines are to be "put
down," it is hoped that Alderman Cute will let us
know how he is going to work at it. That is what we
are curious about.

(2) The Commercial Advertiser.

Working Man's Advocate, Feb. 22, 1845. Extract from New York
Commercial Advertiser, with comments by editor of the Advocate.

Agrarianism. There are two classes of writers on this subject,
among those who address themselves to the public in this country - as
doubtless in some other countries also -the principal distinction be-

eight] LAND REFORM

tween which is that those of one class know exactly what they want
to accomplish, and speak it out distinctly, while those of the other,
with more skill in the use of language, either do not know or
are afraid or unwilling to say what is the specific object of their en-
deavors. The first class is represented by a weekly paper issued in
this city, called the National Reformer, and conducted with more
earnestness and freedom from disguise than ability or knowledge ; and
the sentiments of this class are expressed also in sundry petitions that
have already found their way to the legislative houses at Albany, ask-
ing in very precise and well defined terms, that laws may be enacted,
prohibiting all men from owning more land than will be sufficient to
produce, under the labor of their own hands, the necessary means of
subsistence for themselves and their families.

It may be well to remark here that the National Re-
former and Working Mans Advocate have advocated
identical doctrines, the former being published occa-
sionally as an auxiliary in the cause ; and that the mem-
orials to the State Legislature propose that no person
hereafter shall get possession of more land, under any
circumstances, than is necessary for a reasonable sized
farm. The Com mfrc/^/ proceeds:

The other class of which we have spoken makes itself heard, or
rather read, through channels of higher pretension. It has represent-
atives and abettors, more or less thoroughgoing, in the conductors of
tw^o or three daily papers, and lifts its voice, occasionally, with a ter-
rible outcry, in one or the other of the monthly periodicals. A notable
specimen of its eloquence may be found in the Democratic Review
for January, in an article entitled "What is the Reason," the opinions
and sentiments of which are in the main endorsed and highly eulogized
by the editor of that magazine, who is also an editor of one of the
daily papers referred to.

Moved thereto by the commendations of the editor, in his paper as
well as his magazine, we have carefully read the article in question,
expecting, or at least hoping, to find in it something specific and tan-
gible which might either convince or be worthy of refutation. But we
have had our labor for our pains. The whole fourteen pages exhibit
not a solitary principle or suggestion, which a practical man can take
hold of and apply to the remedy of what the writer describes as mon-
strous evil and injustice. It is all declamation - vigorous enough, it

34 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

is true, and expressed with great command of language - against the
frauds and robberies and cruelties which the present organization of
society not only permits but defends and enforces - as the writer in-
sists, with a sufficient interweaving of lamentations over the miseries
and wrongs of poor down-trodden labor, invectives against the tyranny
of capital, and beautiful apostrophes to faith, hope, the worth of man
as man, brotherhood and the indefeasible rights of humanity. The
writer himself declares that he has "no definite scheme to propose;"
but some definite scheme is precisely what we want to have placed be-
fore us, and therefore, turning away from the florid generalities of the
Democratic Review, we are obliged to fall back upon the distinct and
intelligible propositions of the National Reformer.

As we have intimated, these resolve themselves into the simple as-
sertion that no man ought to possess more land than he can cultivate
with his own hands; followed, as a necessary consequence, by the
sequitur that every man ought to have as much land as he can thus
cultivate. In short, these reformers contend distinctly for an equal
division of all the lands among all the people. At least we can make
nothing else of their writings. If they do mean something else, either
they do not express themselves with sufficient clearness, or we have
read them inattentively or stupidly.

The above remarks upon the article of the Demo-
cratic Review are just. It is a beautiful and eloquent
definition of Rights, without an explanation of the
means to restore and secure them to the mass. And now
for a little explanation. The Commercial asserts that
we contend that ^'no man ought to possess more land
than he can cultivate with his own hands," and that we
contend "for an equal division of all the lands among all
the people," propositions which are inconsistent with
each other, and neither of which is exactly correct. And
yet the Commercial may not have read us either "inat-
tentively or stupidly." . . We say that as all men
have an equal right to land, no man has a right to such
a quantity as would deprive another of his right; and,
therefore, that it is the duty of government so to appor-
tion the land as that all may enjoy their right. It does

eight] LAND REFORM 35

not follow from this, however, that no man must have
more than he can cultivate, for all may hold more, and
may, also, work for others as much as they please, but
not by compulsion, as now. Nor does it follow, that all
the land must be divided among all the people; but that
all shall be guaranteed an equal or equivalent portion.
So much for the Commercial's introduction. Now
for its argument:

Now we propose to bring this proposition to a single test -that
of practicability. If it cannot stand that - if what the reformers re-
quire cannot be done and continued - the requirement is shown to be
nonsensical; we do not mean nonsensical in the contemptuous sense
of the word, but literally - without sense. (Admitted).

And at the outset we waive all the advantages in argument that
might be attained by insisting on the difficulties that would follow in-
crease of population, and the possible ultimate occupation of all the
lands available for cultivation, when new divisions would become in-
dispensable; nor shall we insist upon the embarrassments that would
arise from the necessity of different occupations, the congregation of
men in towns and cities and the exigencies of commerce and manu-
factures. We will take the case, as supposable, in the most favorable
point of view for the agrarian project, and set out with the assump-
tion that the population of a given territory may, with advantage, all
be tillers of the earth, that there is land enough for all, that all the
land is equally fertile and equally well situated with reference to
markets for produce, &c. ; in short that every thing is favorable to an
equal division and enjoyment.

. . . As we do not propose to divide "all the land
among all the people," but only to allow each what may
be considered by the majority as amply sufficient, no
possible difficulty could follow "increase of population"
so long as there was unoccupied land. Suppose that the
States had each passed a law restraining any one here-
after from getting more than 160 acres, and that had
Congress laid out the Public Lands in Farms of 160
acres and Village Lots of about 5 acres, with the same

36 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

restriction, the Commercial will see that the land would
immediately cheapen where it is now sold, as the occu-
pants died and large tracts were necessarily thrown on
the market, emigration at the same time taking place to
the free Public Lands. Land being then considered, as
the water is now, (except in a few cases) , of no value ex-
cept for use, numbers of families would not be under
the same necessity as now to scatter in quest of it, and
families would frequently remain on the homestead to
the second, third, or fourth generations. Communities,
too, would be established ; and the whole system would
tend to support the population on the smallest space
consistent with health, comfort, and happiness, revers-
ing exactly the crowded city and isolated country sys-
tem now in vogue. This would go on, every man, at all
times, having the right to take homestead, as long as
the land would support the population; and surely if
the plan would effect this, the Commercial would not
require us to usurp the prerogative of Almighty power,
and increase the capabilities of the soil beyond the pres-
ent powers of Nature!

But to come to close quarters at once, let us consider
the definite objections which the Commercial urges to
Agrarianism :

We will suppose, for instance, that there is a territory of fifty
thousand acres, now belonging to fifty men, but occupied by five
hundred renters or tenants ; and that, in the new order of things, the
five hundred become owners, each having a hundred acres; and we
will let them all be established, each on his own snug little farm, and
procuring from it by his labor a comfortable subsistence.

Men are mortal; the most comfortably situated men must die; in
the course of years one of our five hundred dies, leaving a widow and
three female children. What is to become of these? They cannot
till the ground; what shall they do for the means of subsistence?
Shall the widow hire a man or men to cultivate her fields for her?
Where shall she find such a man or men ? For every one of the re-

eight] LAND REFORM 37

malning four hundred and ninety-nine has his own farm to take care
of. And besides, labor for wages is denounced as one of the crying
and wicked evils of the present system. Shall she rent her farm to
some neighbor? That cannot be, for the proposed reform expressly
requires that no man shall possess more than his own hundred acres.
Nor can she sell it, for the same reason. So then at the very outset
we encounter an inevitable and insurmountable impracticability.

In the first place, it is necessary to state, for the in-
formation of the Commercial^ though not for that of
our regular readers, (for it has been stated over and over
again,) that we do not propose that all men should be
farmers, or have an equal quantity of land; but that
they shall be what they please, and have a Farm or Lot
at their option, which would be an equitable quantity
and an equal right. Then, as to the poor widow with
the "three female children:" the question "What must
become of these?" might be answered, Yankee fashion,
by asking would they be worse off in their own farm
house, surrounded by numerous little conveniences usu-
ally pertaining to such an establishment, such as a dairy
and poultry, a garden, fruit, flowers, and so on, than
they would in a third-story room or a cellar with a dol-
lar a week rent to pay? Widows with snug farms, and
blooming daughters, generally manage to get along,
even in the present state of society, though a consider-
able portion of the farm produce goes to pay the city
rents; and, though we consider (compulsory) "labor for
wages" a "crying evil," in this particular case if there
were no young man under the mesmeric influence of one
of these "three female children" who would volunteer
to cultivate the widow's farm, possibly (as "men are
mortal") there might be some bachelor or widower
among the "four hundred and ninety-nine" who might
need a house-keeper: and the Commercial will easily see
how matters could be arranged in such a case. . .

38 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

But again. Suppose one of the five hundred has a son who is un-
luckily thrown by a horse and gets his back broken, causing a per-
manent incapacity for labor: but the boy has superior talents and
may rise to eminence in one of the learned professions. He becomes
entitled to the farm, on the death of his father, not as his heir but as
substitute - as one of the five hundred ; how shall he deal with it so
that it may yield him a subsistence while he is pursuing his studies?
He cannot work it, he cannot let, sell, or mortgage it; nor can he
hire any one to work it for him. It is of no more value, then, to him,
than a lot in the submerged Jackson city; and for aught we can see
there is nothing left for him but to starve and make room for some-
body who can make use of the property.

Now here are two cases of almost certain occurrence in effect,
though the manner may be different, which at once demonstrate the
impracticability of the reform so earnestly demanded. And we can-
not see how, on the avowed principles of the reformers, the difficulties
they present can possibly be surmounted. The acquisition and en-
joyment of property must be left open to every man's skill, enterprise
or good fortune, and the transmission and disposition as well as the
possession of property must be secured to individuals, or the very
elements of social existence are broken up. There must be a right to
buy, to sell, to mortgage, or to use us in other way not injurious to
others, or society cannot go on, with the wants, the achievements and
the benefits of civilization. The proposed measures of the national
reformers would gradually bring the world back to a state of bar-
barism.

In the case of the poor back-broken boy left with a
farm, and wishing to get his living by a profession, if he
had no relative wishing to commence for himself with
whom he could make an arrangement, and if he could
not find a man without means who would work for
wages or "on shares" to procure capital to begin on his
own place, (a terrible supposition!) he might, at the
worst, sell out his improvements to the highest legal
bidder, and purchase the improvements on a village lot
or take a vacant one; or, if his means should fail him,
and if he had no friends, could he, a poor cripple, not
be provided for as well as now? . . .

eight] LAND REFORM 39

In conclusion, let me congratulate the National Re-
formers, and all reformers of 1845, on the improved
tone of the aristocratic press. Mark the respectful and
gentlemanly terms in which the Courier and Commer-
cial spoke of the People's Movement on Saturday last,
and contrast them with the style of the same papers in
speaking of the same movement in 1829, when the
Courier (then edited by Webb, Bennett, and Noah)
styled the Working Men "the spawn and vomit of gar-
rets and cellars," and the Commercial called them ''a
party emerging from the slime of this community, more
beastly and terrible than the Egyptian Typhon." . .

(3) The fFhig Battering Ram.
Working Man's Advocate^ Sept. 14, 1844.

It appears by the following extract, which we make
from a "campaign" paper, printed at Columbus, Ohio,
called the Whig Battering Ram^ that the Land question
is under discussion in that State. Not an hour too soon!

"Equal rights" sound very well, as the rallying cry of demagogues,
but the doctrine is impracticable any further than guaranteed by the
Constitution. So far as that, and no farther, have the Whigs always
been found battling for equal rights. They do not go for the doc-
trines avowed and endorsed in the Statesman of Friday last, that
"Free suffrage and freedom of the soil go hand in hand ! !"

That doctrine could not flourish even in ancient Rome, much less
can it among the enlightened people of this Union. If we buy 100
acres of land, and pay for it, who is it that will have the presumption
to say he has a right to it equal with ourself ? Yet this is the precise
meaning of the above! The doctrine avowed and endorsed by the
Statesman, is, that if we allow equal rights as regards the elective
franchise, we should allow the equal rights of each individual to an
equal share of the soil, without reference to purchase! If this is not
agrarianism, open and undisguised, we know not what is! Such
doctrines are an insult to American citizens. Who could be am-
bitious of acquiring wealth, if every one had an equal right to it after
it was acquired by the toil and suffering of the honest laborer ? Who
would purchase land, if any one had as much right to it as the pur-

40 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

chaser? Such doctrines must certainly be the offspring of an Insane
and addled brain. For who, other than a lunatic, could assert their
practicability ?

(b) HORACE GREELEY

New York Daily Tribune, Oct. 17, 1845, p. 2. "The National Reform-

ers.'

The Courier & Enquirer^ after quoting a part of the
recent placard of the new Radical party, speaks of that
party's object as follows:

Now It confines Its demands to a farm, for each of Its members.
When It acquires the numerical majority, we cannot doubt that It will
extend the area of Its desires, and urge Its followers to vote them-
selves a house, or a watch, or a purse, In short any thing which they
happen to want, and others happen to have. There Is no reason or
principle which will sustain the one demand, which will not, with
equal justice and equal cogency, require the other.

Now we do not belong to the party here assailed, and
should take time to consider their object very thorough-
ly before pronouncing a favorable opinion upon it.
The proposition is a very grave one, and requires scru-
tiny from several different points of view. But he who
can perceive no distinction between a proposition to
divide among the People what is, beyond question, their
common property, and a proposition to vote a division
of individual property among other persons than its
owners, must surely be ill qualified for any station re-
quiring the possession and exercise of reason.

New York Weekly Tribune, Nov. 29, 1845, p. 5, col. 5.

Fourteen years ago, when the editor of the Tribune
came to this City, there was published here a small daily
paper entitled the Sentinel^ devoted to the cause of what
was called by its own supporters "The Working Men^s
Party," and by its opponents "The Fanny Wright
Working Men." Of that party we have little personal
knowledge, but at the head of the paper, among several

eight] LAND REFORM 41

good and many objectionable avowals of Principle, was
borne the following: "Single Districts for the choice
of each Senator and Member of Assembly."

We gave this proposition some attention at the time,
and came to the conclusion that it was alike sound and
important. It mattered little to us that it was accom-
panied and surrounded by others that we could not as-
sent to, and was propounded by a party with which we
had no acquaintance and little sympathy. We are ac-
customed to welcome truth, from whatever quarter it
may approach us, and on whatever flag it may be in-
scribed. Subsequent experience has fully confirmed
our original impression, and now we have little doubt
that this principle, which was utterly slighted when
presented under unpopular auspices, will be engrafted
on our Reformed Constitution without serious opposi-
tion.

We are reminded of this by a proposition recently
started by a new party styled "National Reformers,"
composed of like materials and in good part of the same
men with the old "Working Men^s Party." Their idea
is that no more Public Lands should be sold by the Gov-
ernment, but rather that the whole remainder being sur-
veyed into quarter sections of 160 acres each, should be
left open and free to actual settlers, to be held by them
and their descendants until the Government shall decide
otherwise, or probably, until our population shall have
become so numerous that there is not 160 arable acres
far each family, when it may be decreed that a farther
division shall be made on the demise of any occupant.
No man who owns or holds one tract shall be entitled to
take another, or to acquire it by purchase or otherwise.
An occupant may dispose of his right to any landless
man, but cannot be dispossessed by the Sheriff, as the

42 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

land is not his, and the right to land enough to live on
is deemed inalienable. Such is substantially the plan
of the National Reformers. Its objects are, the secur-
ing to every man, as nearly as may be, a chance to v^ork
for and earn a living; secondly, the discouragement of
land monopoly and speculation, and the creation of a
universally landholding People, such as has not been
since the earlier and purer days of the Israelite Com-
monwealth. These objects are not merely important;
they are most beneficent and desirable; and, since the
project contemplates the taking from no man of any
thing he now has or can justly claim, we think it deserv-
ing of the most candid and earnest consideration.

Yet we are not prepared to give it our unqualified ap-
proval. The consequences of such a change must be
immense ; who can measure or estimate them? Some of
them may very possibly be evil ; one objection strikes us
now: that of injustice to the old States. We are not ab-
solutely and in all respects a Commonwealth ; we have
State interests and State rights. The blood and treasure
of the Old Thirteen has been freely poured out in ob-
taining these lands -from Great Britain, from France,
from Spain, and from the Indians. Will it be quite fair
to make such a disposition of them as will tend abso-
lutely to depopulate and impoverish the old States with-
out rendering them (as States) any recompense what-
ever? These are points to be considered; and there are
doubtless more such. In the precise shape given it by
its originators we doubt whether it ever can or should
pass. But details may be modified and equivalents for
injuries suggested. There really seems so much of bene-
ficence, so much of promise, in the elementary idea of
letting everybody have ground to live on out of the land
which now belongs to everybody, that we cannot consent
to see it lightly contemned and rejected.

eight] LAND REFORM 43

Will not those journals which have indicated hostil-
ity to this project oblige us by some real discussion of
its merits? Calling it ^^ Agrarian" and its advocates
"Empire Club-men" and "Butt-enders" (untrue, by the
way; we have not heard of one of the "Empires" favor-
ing the new party) does not satisfy us, nor will it sat-
isfy the people. If the advocates of this scheme have
very crude or bad notions on other Political questions,
it is so much the more important that they should not
be allowed the exclusive possession of any good idea,
since this would be likely to give popularity and success
to their errors. Let us see what are the strong objections
to this new project, so that, if they outweigh the reasons
for its acceptance, we may be able to oppose it with
effect. . .

New York Weekly Tribune^ March 6, 1847, P- 3«

. . . What we would have done by Legislation
with regard to Land may be summed up as follows:
I. Let the Public Lands, whether of the Union or of
any State, be disposed of to Actual Settlers only. 2. Let
each man who needs land be permitted to take without
price so much as he absolutely needs. 3. Let no man
be authorized to acquire and hold more than a fixed
maximum of arable Land, say 160, 320, or 540 acres.
4. Take from no man that which is lawfully his ; but let
him who falls heir to lands above the legal maximum be
required to sell the excess to some one who has less with-
in a year after coming into possession. 5. Let the
Homestead of a Family, to the extent of forty acres, not
including more than one dwelling, be rendered Inalien-
able by Mortgage, Execution, or otherwise than by the
voluntary deed of the occupying owner and his wife, if
such there be. These measures, though various, are
parts of one system, of which the end is to enable every
industrious man to sit under his own vine and fig-tree,

44 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

with none to molest nor make him afraid. That the
idea will encounter vehement hostility and misrepre-
sentation was inevitable from the outset, but the day of
its triumph "Is coming yet for a' that." It needs but to
be discussed and understood to secure it an overwhelm-
ing approval and support.

(i) A Claim Society.

Young America, Dec. 12, 1845.

Exeter, Green Co., W. T., Nov. lo, 1845.

Sir- 1 herewith send you a copy of the Wisconsin
^r^wj, containing the action (in part) of the "Green
County Claim Society," with the request that you copy
the same, provided you shall approve of the course pur-
sued by the society. You will please to send me a copy
of your valuable paper for one year, and you may pub-
lish for me (giving one insertion) a notice that $12,000
is wanted for a term of years, varying from three to
seven, at an interest of seven per centum per annum,
secured by mortgage on unincumbered real estate (and
the same will be wanted for the purpose of purchasing
a home for claimants, and wanted in sums of from $50
to $200). More than $12,000 could be loaned on the
above terms in this vicinity.

Address HiRAM BROWN, as above.

(At a Claim Meeting held in Green county, at the
house of J. W. Thompson, on the 25th of August last,
the following resolutions and by-laws were unanimous-
ly adopted, in order to form a society for the protection
of claimants on government lands. -Ed. OF Wisconsin
Argus. )

Whereas, in the course of events it appears that there
are a class of persons who seem to be disposed to
live out of the labors of others, by taking advantage

eight] LAND REFORM 45

of the necessities of their less wealthy neighbors, the
consequences being the establishment of a petty aris-
tocracy who are sure to choke the tree of Liberty and
cause her leaves to wither so that her sons can no more
recline under her balmy shadows, but will be compelled
to endure the scorching rays and blasting influence of
the slavery making idol of money tyrants, now, in order
(in part) to avoid this evil, and to proclaim our deter-
minations, we resolve the following :

Resolved, that we consider that mankind are created
free and equal, and therefore one person has no right
to take the just earnings of another without rendering
an equivalent.

Resolved, that we consider the laws, like other hu-
man institutions, necessarily imperfect; but that it is no
excuse for any person who takes advantage of those im-
perfections to degrade and oppress his fellow man.

Resolved, that we consider it just and proper for a
person who is destitute of the requisite means to pur-
chase land of the government, to claim and hold the
same by the force of Public Restraint, who, like justice,
is mild when mildness will answer but severe when se-
verity is necessary.

Resolved, that in order to insure sufficient security,
we will join ourselves into a body and unite all our en-
ergies to secure our possessions against the encroach-
ments of those drones of society who live at the expense
of others, and who we verily believe would rob the
widow and orphan of their last morsel of bread.

Resolved, that we institute the following rules for
the regulation of our conduct in our opposition to the
enemies of Liberty, Justice and Equality:

Article ist. This Society shall be called the Green
County Claim Society.

46 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Article 2d. The officers of this society shall consist
of a President, Treasurer, Chief Secretary, four Re-
cording Secretaries, and a committee of ten to be called
the Committee of Justice.

Article 3d. The President shall be chosen by a ma-
jority at any meeting of this society, and hold his office
during the pleasure of the same. He shall keep order,
and do such other business as is incumbent upon a pre-
siding officer generally.

Article 4th. The Treasurer to be chosen and hold
his office the same as the President, whose duty it shall
be to receive and pay out all sums of the society at or on
a direction of an order from the Secretary.

Article 5th. The Secretary and four Recording
Secretaries shall be elected and hold their offices the
same as the President, &c. The duty of the Secretary
shall be to keep a journal of the doings of the society,
and receive and keep safe the records of the Recording
Secretaries. The duty of the Recording Secretaries
shall be to record the description of each member's
claim, and transmit the same to the Secretary of the
society within one month from the time of record.

Article 6th. The Committee of Ten shall be chosen
and hold their office the same as the President, &c.
They, in connexion, or three of them and secretary,
shall superintend the administration of justice upon all
offenders.

Article 7th. There shall be stated Quarterly Meet-
ings of the society, and special meetings as often as re-
quired and found necessary. Three of the committee
of justice shall have power to call special meetings at
the time and place agreed on.

Article 8th. Each claimant shall register with one
of the Secretaries his claim with the description of the
same.

eight] LAND REFORM 47

Article 9th. It shall be proper for a member of this
society to claim a quarter section of land, whether frac-
tional or otherwise, and no more. There shall be at
least $10.00 improvement within 30 days after record,
and $10.00 improvement each succeeding year, to make
a claim valid in the eyes of this society.

Article loth. All persons shall be residents in the
town or precinct in which their claim may lie. They
shall also be at least 18 years of age.

Article nth. This society will do their utmost in
word and deed (keeping within the bounds of discre-
tion) to protect the claims of members of this society
from being entered or encroached upon by any person
whatever other than the claimant of the land.

Article 12th. The members of this society shall re-
frain from holding any intercourse of a friendly nature
with any one who shall enter another's claim (without
such claimant's consent) or in any manner neighbor
with him or his family, or any one else who will so
neighbor or befriend such person; and furthermore,
utterly refrain from buying of or selling to him, or in
any way or manner assist him, for hire or charity, except
in cases of sickness in his family.

Article 13th. Any person who shall enter, or may
have entered, any valid claim from a member of this
society will be required to settle the matter to the satis-
faction of the committee of justice.

Article 14th. The rules of this society can be altered
or amended by a majority of two-thirds at any quarterly
meeting of the same.

Article 15th. Forty members of this society shall
form a quorum to transact business.

Before the close of the meeting, the following reso-
lutions were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, that the Proceedings, Constitution, and

48 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

By-laws of this society be published in the Wisconsin
Argus and the Madison Express.

Resolved, that in order to become a member of this
society, a person must sign the Constitution thereof.

Amendment. Article ist. No claim will be pro-
tected by this society for a longer period than three
years. HiRAM BROWN, Pres't.

Attest, Aaron Broughton, Sec'y.

Comment on the Foregoing.

The Argus (Madison, W.T.), Oct. 28, 1845.

We publish the following proceedings as requested,
but must express our disapprobation of the tone of some
of the articles and resolves of the association. Congress
has enacted a Claim law for the benefit of settlers whose
means are too limited to admit of an immediate pur-
chase, which is certainly not much short of liberal in its
provisions, and although grievances may still some-
times exist, yet we think it would be better to trust for
their correction and avoidance to the natural sense of
justice which is common to mankind, than to resort to
unlawful measures. Well meaning persons may not be
aware of the legal consequences which might result to
themselves from merely taking an active part in the do-
ings of such an association in case a crime should be
committed by it which they as individuals would
neither advise nor approve. Estimable persons have
often in this way involved themselves and their fam-
ilies in consequences which they little dreamed of.

It is with the kindest feelings we say to our friends in
that quarter, (and we believe we have many in that re-
gion) that the finale of the Anti-rent Associations in
New York, should be a caution to all similar ones to
keep within the bounds of legal propriety.

eight] LAND REFORM 49

(2) Greeley's Correspondence from Wisconsin.
New York Weekly Tribune, July 17, 1847, p. 4.

. . . I learned with deep gratification during this
flying visit that the settlers of this section, who are gen-
erally poor men who have tried to pay for considerable
tracts of wild land while subduing them into farms in
Western New- York, Ohio and elsewhere, begin here
by restricting themselves to eighty acres each and pay-
ing for that quantity at the earliest moment. A large
portion of them come in destitute, having expended
what money they could raise by the sale of their effects
at the Eastward in looking out lands and removing
their families hither; so that, when he has put up a log
cabin, chopped two or three acres, purchased a cow and
a few rude implements of Agriculture and House-
wifery, the settler is, nine times in ten, left penniless.
But the food of his family must in good part be bought
for a year at least; he cannot clear and farm without
some sort of a team; and unless his land is paid for
within a year after he enters his claim he is liable to be
dispossessed by whoever can and will pay for it; while
he must work very hard and be fortunate to be able to
pay for even eighty acres within four years after taking
possession. Here is a great temptation held out to cu-
pidity on the one hand, provoking lawless violence on
the other. Before the pioneer can extract a hundred
dollars in cash from his patch of forest, above the sub-
sistence of his family, he must have bestowed three or
four hundred dollars' worth of hard labor upon its per-
manent improvement- and all this lies, after the first
year, at the mercy of whoever chooses to jump his claim
and enter the land. The Land Officers have no legal
discretion -if the specie is tendered for any lands not
already purchased and for which an unexpired claim of

50 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Preemption is not on record, they must take the money
and issue the requisite papers. At this moment, lands
richly worth Five Millions of Dollars might be taken
out from under their holders and improvers for One
Million, and nobody could prevent it. The only check
upon this is that afforded by the unanimous and decided
Public Opinion of the non-speculating settlers, which it
is notorious they will enforce by the strong arm if need
be. He who enters a tract on which another has settled
and made improvements, (unless the settler happens to
be one whom the community greatly desires to be rid
of,) buys it with the certainty that he or his can never
peaceably enjoy it, and that his life will hardly be safe
upon it. All that is charged against the Anti-renters of
three or four Counties of our State is substantially par-
alleled throughout the West, and in fact over the whole
Public Domain. There are legal rights which no man
can enforce but at the certain peril of his property and
peace and probably of his life also. Twenty years' rail-
ing and denunciation have not bettered this a hair; and
forty years' more, if tried, will prove just as effectual.
The simple, sole, obvious remedy for this deplorable
and most pernicious oppugnancy between Legal Right
and Practical Right will be found in withdrawing the
Public Lands forever from the vortex of Speculation
and allowing them to be acquired only by actual settlers
and in limited quantities. How long must this most
desirable consummation be waited for?

The mischiefs already entailed on the Industry and
Business of this Country by Land Speculation are in-
calculable. Only those who have seen much, reflected
much, have any full idea of them. Wherever, upon a
natural harbor, a bay, a head of navigation, or a water-
fall, a village begins or promises to spring up, there the

eight] LAND REFORM 5 1

speculator or his agent is early on hand, and pounces on
all the unoccupied land within a circuit of a mile or
two. This he holds back for a price treble to sixty-fold
that he paid for it, perfectly sure that he must get it by
waiting long enough -that the only question is one of
time. Meantime his tract is a blight and a cancer, giv-
ing employment to no labor, contributing nothing to the
erection of School-houses or Churches, or the encour-
agement of Mechanics or Artisans, and insuring the
continuance of wretched, stumpy, miry Roads all
around the rising village; for it is almost impossible
to make good roads through the primitive forest. It is
a perpetual facility and temptation to trespassers in the
taking off of timber, which often serves as a school for
theft and crime generally. Generally the speculator
makes something, though not always ; for taxes and in-
terest during a series of years may devour all his pro-
fits; but in any case the injury inflicted on the commun-
ity is very great. . .

(d) STATE LEGISLATURES

(i) New York.

New York Assembly Documents^ 1845, No. 222.

Report of the majority of the select committee on nu-
merous petitions from manor tenants in several coun-
ties in this State for relief.

Mr. Constant, from the select committee to which
was referred the petitions from numerous tenants in the
counties of Niagara, Oneida, Fulton, Montgomery, Ot-
sego, Schoharie, Schenectady, Delaware, Greene, Ul-
ster, Sullivan, Dutchess, Columbia, Albany and Rens-
selaer, reports: that some of the petitioners ask "that a
law may be passed which shall prohibit any person in
this State, after the 4th day of July, 1846, from holding,
occupying or possessing more than one thousand acres

52 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

of land." Your committee do not believe that the Leg-
islature have any power to pass a law that a man who
has a good title to ten thousand or any other number of
acres, shall, on the 4th day of July, 1846, cease to have
a title to more than one thousand acres. The man who
now owns ten thousand acres of land is entitled to the
same protection in the enjoyment of his estate, as one
owning but one acre.

The same petitioners ask for the passage of a law
which shall prohibit each and every person from ac-
quiring by purchase, devise or otherwise, the right to
possess at any one time, more than one thousand acres
of land. Your committee believe, that the effect of
such a law would not be otherwise than injurious to the
rights of individuals, and the best interests of the State.
Every man, having the means to pay for, and wishing
to possess more than that quantity of land, would, if
such a law were enacted, remove into some other State
or Territory where he would be at liberty to purchase
and hold as much land as he pleased or could pay for.
The folly and inexpediency of such an act of legisla-
tion would be of the same character as a law forbidding
any man to acquire personal property exceeding one
thousand dollars in value, and would be the means of
driving all enterprise from our State. There are at this
time undoubtedly large debts secured by mortgages or
judgments, which are liens on more than ten thousand
acres of land, and to take from creditors and every
other person the right to purchase under such judg-
ments or mortgages would seriously impair the rights
of creditors. Your committee are, therefore, persuaded
that to promote the prosperity and wealth of the State
every man ought to be at liberty to invest the fruits
of his industry and enterprise in such property as he
pleases. . .

eight] LAND REFORM 53

(2) Wisconsin.

(i) Homestead Exemption.
Voice of Industry y Jan. 8, 1847.

Good News from the West. Young America comes
to us unusually "rich," this week, and . . . brings
the following cheering tidings of the progress of Na-
tional Reform in Wisconsin.

Glorious Victory. Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma thrown
in the shade ! - Matamoras, Monterey, and Tabasco totally eclipsed ! -
The second best National Reform Measure adopted by Wisconsin ! -
Hunkerism routed! First Free State!

In the Constitutional Convention of Wisconsin the following ar-
ticle in favor of Homestead Exemption was read the third time and
passed, by a vote of 61 to 35. . .

(ii) Land Limitation.

Milwaukee Daily Sentinel and Gazette^ Feb. 17, 18 51, p. 2.

The People in Council -Great Anti-agrarian Dem-
onstration. The largest and most respectable assem-
blage, ever gathered within four walls in the City of
Milwaukee, convened at Gardiner's Hall, on Saturday
night to give expression to the strong, indignant, and
very general sentiment of condemnation, entertained by
our People towards the Agrarian Law now pending in
the Legislature. The meeting, tho' called together'
without sound of cannon, or glare of bonfire, or clang
of bell ; simply, indeed, by a notice in two of our daily
papers and a few handbills posted about the streets on
Saturday afternoon, filled to repletion the largest Hall
in the State, and included a full representation from
every interest, class and calling in our city. The meet-
ing was organized by the selection of Judge Chandler
as Chairman, and Mr. Vliet, as Secretary.

The Judge having read the call under which the
meeting was convened, and added a few pertinent re-
marks in reference to its objects, Alderman Button
moved the appointment of a Committee of five to pre-
pare and report resolutions for its consideration.

54 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

This motion having been put and carried, the Chair
designated the following gentlemen as the Committee,
viz: Edward Button, Hans Crocker, Chas. H. Larkin,
John Furlong, and J. F. Gruenhagen.

The Committee having retired, a number of gentle-
men were called for, to address the meeting, and Mr.
H. S. Orton, in obedience to such call, took the stand,
and delivered an interesting and telling speech. At the
close of his remarks, the Committee returned, and
through their Chairman, Col. Crocker, reported a se-
ries of admirable resolutions, which were read, received
with great applause, and subsequently adopted by ac-
clamation.

After the reading of the resolutions the meeting was
addressed in turn, and with great effect by A. McAr-
thur, J. E. Arnold, and James S. Brown. The latter
gentleman, our late Attorney General, went into an
elaborate review of the design and tendency of the Land
Limitation bill, and demonstrated, with force and
clearness, that such a measure would be hurtful to ev-
ery interest of the State; would impair its credit, check
its growth, and blast its fair fame, and would weigh
most sorely upon the very class for whose benefit it was
pretended to be passed. Mr. Brown spoke with much
earnestness and eloquence, and was repeatedly interrupt-
ed by loud and general applause. At the close of his
remarks, the resolutions were again read, and the ques-
tion on their adoption having been put from the chair,
a shout of "Aye!" went up that shook the building.
The "noes," notwithstanding the intimations that the
friends of this Agrarian scheme were to be "on hand"
to vote down the resolutions, were ridiculously few and
feeble, and called forth a general laugh. A motion was
then made and carried, that the several papers in our

eight] LAND REFORM ^^

City and State be requested to copy the proceedings,
and the meeting adjourned.

We refer to the resolutions as not only admirable in
themselves, but as expressing the sober sense of the great
majority of our People on the ^*new issue." The City
of Milwaukee, in the proceedings of this meeting, has
stamped the seal of her disapprobation upon the Land
Limitation bill, now under discussion at Madison. It
was especially important and desirable that Milwaukee
should do this since it was one of her own Representa-
tives who introduced the measure into the Legislature.
If from this circumstance any persons have inferred
that such a bill embodied the sentiments and met the
approval of our citizens, the meeting of Saturday night
will dispel the idle dream. Milwaukee, by her Mer-
chants, her Mechanics, her Business and Working men,
by all parties, professions and classes, by the largest and
most respectable meeting ever held in her midst, indig-
nantly repudiates this Agrarian project; protests, with
one voice, against its adoption, and calls upon her Sen-
ators and Representatives in the Legislature to heed her
voice, to be true to her interests, and to crush, at once
and effectually, this incipient crusade against the Rights
of Property, the Rewards of Labor and the honor and
welfare of the State.
We annex the official account of the proceedings:
At a very large and respectable meeting of the citi-
zens of the city of Milwaukee, held at Gardiner's Hall
on the evening of February 15, 1851; to consider and
discuss the project now pending before the Legislature
of the State of Wisconsin, called the Land Limitation
Bill, D. H. Chandler was called to preside over the
meeting as Chairman, and Jasper Vliet was appointed
Secretary. After the meeting had become organized,

56 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

on motion of Mr. Button, a resolution was adopted for
the appointment of a committee of five to prepare and
report Resolutions for the consideration of the meet-
ing, whereupon the Chair appointed CoL H. Crocker,
John Furlong, Edward Button, J. F. Gruenhagen, and
Charles H. Larkin such Committee.

The Committee immediately retired, and in the
meantime the Chair stated the object of the assemblage
of the citizens.

The Committee reported the following Resolutions,
and the Chair declared them to be in order for dis-
cussion and consideration by the meeting:

Resolved, that the evils inflicted on many States of
the old hemisphere, by the feudal grants and tenures of
Lands and by the laws of primogeniture and of entails,
which have to a calamitous extent, made the soil, from
generation to generation, the inheritance of a small and
privileged order, can never find a foot-hold in this free
State, where no privileged class exists, where large grants
of land are unknown, where, with few and insignificant
exceptions, all titles to Land come by purchase and are
the chief investment which industry finds for its sur-
plus earnings, where entails are unknown, where the
distributive rule of inheritance divides and subdivides
estates at each succeeding generation and where, as
well from the nature of our institutions as from the
character of our people, no system of agricultural ten-
ancy can ever find its way; and that while we freely
give our sympathies and our prayers to the impover-
ished people who suffer abroad under remaining fruits
of the feudal system, we, who do not share their griev-
ances, cannot consent to import from them those move-
ments which there may be the beginnings of necessary
political revolution, but which here are a simple cru-
sade against the rights of Labor and of Property.

eight] LAND REFORM 57

Resolved, that the law of nature knows no property;
that in our political system all property, whether in
land or in movables, is a right which society creates for
the recompense of Labor; that with us all property is
simply industry rewarded with its just fruits, and that
every infringement upon the rights of property is an
infringement upon the rights of labor.

Resolved, that property is among the strongest bonds
which hold society together, and that every attack upon
the rights of property tends to unsettle the foundations
of society, and that no State can be prosperous at home,
or honored abroad, in which the rights of property are
not held sacred.

Resolved, that in a free State, peopled by an enlight-
ened and enterprising race, where all men have the same
civil and political rights and the. rewards of labor are
equally within the reach of all, no class needs legislative
protection against the industry, skill, or enterprise of
another class ; but that every limitation of the right to
acquire, or transmit property, by setting bounds to the
rewards of industry, checks individual enterprise and
energy, and impedes the general prosperity of the com-
munity.

Resolved, that there is no difference in principle be-
tween limiting the acquisition of land and limiting the
acquisition of any other species of property: it is true
that man cannot create land, but also true that he can
create no other thing: Nature is the sole creator, man
can but use, combine or apply; and if it be just, or
politic to limit human industry in the acquisition of
land, it is equally just and politic to limit it in the ac-
quisition of every other species of property, and we, in
Wisconsin, busy in the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury, in the resurrection of the almost forgotten social
absurdities of antiquity, when we have resuscitated the

58 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Licinian Law, repudiated by Rome over two thousand
years ago, should in common consistency astonish the
world by the spectacle of disinterring and revivifying
the whole theory of sumptuary Laws from the ruins of
centuries of exploded error.

Resolved, that in these views we heartily condemn
the Land Limitation Bill, now pending in the Legisla-
ture of this State, because it not only sets bounds to the
future rewards of industry, but also impairs the rights
of present property in Land by limiting the power of
transmission.

Resolved, that this Law if passed will speedily ex-
hibit the first fruits of a crusade against the rights and
acquisition of property, by repelling the emigration of
labor and of capital to this State ; by depressing the value
and diminishing the saleable character of Land; by dis-
organizing all the relations of industry and property
and by fastening every where abroad upon this State
the name of a fickle and fool-hardy undertaker of spec-
ulative and reckless experiments upon her own wealth,
prosperity and honor.

Harlow S. Orton, Arthur McArthur, Jonathan E.
Arnold, and James S. Brown, Esqrs., were loudly and
consecutively called upon to speak to the question, and
they severally eloquently discussed the pending proposi-
tion. After which the Resolutions were re-read and en-
thusiastically adopted. On motion of Asahel Finch,
Esq., the following Resolution was adopted:

Resolved, that the proceedings of this meeting be
published, and that the different newspapers through-
out this State be requested to copy them.

After which the meeting was adjourned.
D. H. Chandler, President. -Jasper Vliet, Secretary.

eight] LAND REFORM 59

Milwaukee Daily Sentinel and Gazette^ March 10, 185 1. "Bursting of
a Bubble."

The Land Limitation humbug received its quietus at
the hands of the Assembly on Friday last. While its
fate is still fresh in the public recollection, it may be
worth while to recall the circumstances of its origin,
progress, decline and fall. The bill was introduced
into the Assembly by Mr. Wilson, representative from
the First Ward in this City, on the 28th of January.
It proposed to limit every man's possessions to 320 acres
in the country, or two lots in a village, town, or city;
and to punish any contumacious individual who should
presume to own, or occupy more. After a very brief
and hasty discussion, and in the full persuasion, no
doubt, that the humbug was to be eminently popular,
the bill was ordered to a third reading (usually a test
vote) by yeas 39, to nays 19; more than two to one. The
public, who had looked quietly on while this piece of
Tom Foolery was enacting, were led to believe, from
this vote, that the Assembly were in earnest. They were
not slow to express their opinions, adverse to the meas-
ure, and the roll of the popular thunder began to be
heard and heeded at the Capitol. The press did its
share towards "agitating" the subject, and administered
some pretty severe flagellations to the Assembly, for
its hot and headlong speed in progressing backwards.
In this City, to be sure, our contemporaries of the Com-
mercial^ Free Democrat^ Volksfreund and Banner all
declared for the bill ; and even the Wisconsin^ mistak-
ing, at first, the set of the popular current, made sundry
''favorable allusions to the probability" of its passage.
But its natural horror of minorities soon brought it right
again, and after a brief pause on the fence, to take
breath, the Wisconsin jumped over to our side, and

6o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

finding the bill dead, valiantly and vigorously attacked
the carcase.

These indications of the public sentiment were not
lost upon the House. The most earnest friends of the
bill began to falter and fall off. It was amended in
sundry particulars, and then put out at nurse, in the
humane expectation that the Judiciary Committee
would starve or strangle it. But the opponents of this
Agrarian scheme had no idea of permitting it to be
thus spirited off and secretly made way with. They
deemed it deserving of public execution. Accordingly
the Judiciary Committee was instructed to report it
back to the House. The majority of that Committee
reported that they deemed the bill unconstitutional and
that it ought not to pass. The minority, its own good
friends, Messrs. Jenkins and Estabrook, reported that
the bill was, in their judgment, constitutional, but that,
as the People were not prepared for it, the best way was
to let it lie quietly on the table ! The Assembly, by the
emphatic vote of 42 to 24, promptly refused to respite
the monster, and immediately afterwards, by yeas 39 to
nays 27, put the knife to its throat. So much for a
"sober second thought"! We congratulate the Assem-
bly upon its return to reason.

(3) Ohio.

New York Daily Tribune, March 4, 1853, p. 5.

Cincinnati, Tuesday, March i, 1853. . . During
the past 18 months I have traveled in Ohio, Michigan,
Illinois and Indiana about three-fourths of the time,
advocating Land Reform and Free Schools, and have
held over 350 meetings. In no place have I failed to
find staunch friends of Land Reform in its most radical
import. In no place have I succeeded in calling out
any opposition, though the plainest challenge has been

eight] LAND REFORM 6i

given. In no place have the doctrines failed to appear
self-evidently true to all who have listened -as far as I
know. . .

The friends of Land Limitation commenced petition-
ing the Legislature of Ohio the present session, and a
large number have been presented. Operations will
be actively continued in the State during the present
year, and the number of petitions at the next session
will rank next to those on the Maine Liquor Law. . .
It is proposed to fix or limit the amount which any
farmer may acquire to one hundred acres, and make oc-
cupancy and personal use conditions of ownership, so
that no man in the city can acquire land in the coun-
try. . .

In Cincinnati the German Americans are moving in
a strong force, and active measures are now being taken
to organize the friends of this great cause for efficient
action. In the city the evils of Land Monopoly are
more apparent than in the country. . .

I regret the necessity of calling the organs of so
called Free-soilism to an account for almost entirely
overlooking Land Reform -for utterly neglecting to
advocate its doctrines. Very few of them have asserted
(except by copying the Pittsburgh Platform) the nat-
ural right of every one to share in the bounties of Prov-
idence, and the necessity for Land Limitation. The
most that the Era has done is to sneer at Land Reform-
ers. Mr. Baily has given no evidence, that I have seen,
of his belief that Land Reform is anything more than
a humbug charity to the poor! I have no respect for
that kind of Free Soil that is Southward exclusively.
It is no Free Soil at all : for abolishing the slavery of
chains without abolishing Land Monopoly is not add-
ing much to the world^s freedom. L. A. HiNE.

62 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

(e) THE FEDERAL CONGRESS

(i) Session of 1846.

(i) Working Men's Memorial.

Congressional Globe, 29th Congress, first session, March 9, 1846, p. 471.

Mr. Herrick asked and obtained leave to present the
memorial of the National Reform Association of the
United States, and moved that it be referred to the Com-
mittee on Public Lands, and be printed. A division of
the question was ordered.

Mr. H., in offering the memorial, prefaced it by say-
ing that the memorial was sent from the city of New
York; that it related to the public lands; that it was a
question that had elicited of late much attention, and
the reasoning of the memorial was clear that some ac-
tion relative to this great inheritance was indespensable;
that speculators were now abroad, and the time was not
distant when they would be engrossed unless speedy
action be had. The memorialists desire that the public
lands be held as they now are, by the whole people;
and that any person who has no land be allowed to take
and use a small quantity, and possess the right to sell
at any time his improvements, but in no instance to sell
to any person possessing any other land, and thereby
raising up a great landed democracy; and that they
earnestly request the printing.

The petition was referred to the Committee on Pub-
lic Lands; but the printing was refused.

(ii) Andrew Johnson's Bill.

Congressional Globe, July 10, 1846, p. 1077.

Mr. A. Johnson moved the following amendment to
the amendment:

That every person, who is the head of a family, shall,
from and after the passage of this act, be entitled to
enter, free of cost, one quarter section of vacant and un-

eight] LAND REFORM 63

appropriated public land, or a quantity equal thereto,
to be located in a body, in conformity with the legal
subdivisions of the public lands.

Section 2. And be it further enacted, that the person
applying for the benefit of this act shall, upon applica-
tion to the register of the land office in which he is
about to make such entry, make affidavit before the
said register that he is the head of a family, and desti-
tute of means to purchase a quantity equal to a quarter
section of land, and shall, in addition thereto, furnish
a certificate of three respectable householders that he
is a poor man, the head of a family, and of good moral
character; and, making the affidavit above required,
and filing this certificate with the register, he shall
thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land al-
ready specified: Provided, however, that no certificate
or receipt shall be given, nor patent issued therefor,
until the expiration of four years from the date of en-
try; and if at the expiration of such time the person
making such entry shall prove by two credible witness-
es that he has continued to reside upon and cultivate
said land, and still resides upon the same, and has not
alienated the same, or any part thereof, then in such case
he shall be entitled to a certificate and patent as in other
cases.

Section 3. And be it further enacted, that on the ex-
piration of four years from the date of the register's
certificate, the applicant, or his or her attorney, may
apply for and obtain a patent for the land: Provided
satisfactory proof is made to the register that the appli-
cant is residing on the land for which the patent is re-
quired.

Section 4. And be it further enacted, that the regis-
ter shall keep a registry of all such entries, and make

64 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

return thereof to the General Land Office, together with
the proof upon which they have been founded.

Section 5. And be it further enacted, that all lands
entered by, and granted to, any person under the pro-
visions of this act free of cost shall be and remain for-
ever exempt and free from the debts and liabilities of
the person to whom the same shall be granted, and from
all levies, seizures, and sales of every kind for, and on
account of, such debts and liabilities. And such lands,
upon the death of the person to whom the same shall
have been granted, shall descend to, and the right and
title thereto shall be vested in, the widow and children
of the person to whom the lands were granted under the
laws in such cases of the State in which the land shall
be situated.

The amendment to the amendment was rejected.

(iii) The Measures contrasted.

New York Weekly Tribune^ March 21, 1846, p. 3, col. 4.

Our regret that the House of Representatives refused
to print the Memorial of the National Reformers for a
radical change in our Public Land System, has already
been expressed. That memorial, we understand, was
drawn up with great care and force, and embodies
propositions which will not be treated with contempt
when the People shall have heard and comprehended
them. We regret this slight the more, because the
House is manifestly in want of that very information
which this memorial would have supplied. Messrs.
McConnell of Ala. and Johnson of Tenn. evidently
suppose they are acting in accordance with the purpose
of the National Reformers in proposing to make a gift
of 160 acres of Public Lands in fee simple to every
landless citizen who will claim it. But they could not
be more utterly mistaken. The Reformers demand
that all monopoly of and speculation in the Lands yet

eight] LAND REFORM 6s

Public shall be stopped, henceforth and forever. They
do not ask merely that landless men of to-day may be
provided with a Home, but that the best possible pro-
vision shall be made for future generations also. Now
this proposal to give every landless man i6o acres of
Public Land outright and leave all the lands subject to
unlimited speculation and monopoly, would, if success-
ful, afford a little present gratification and possibly re-
lief at the expense of infinite miseries and privation in
the future. Nearly all the Landless are needy; many
of them are improvident; not a few are dissipated. To
offer each a quarter section of Public Land as a free
gift with liberty to sell the fee simple to any one, would
be simply enabling the speculator to obtain at second-
hand for a few dollars what now costs him hundreds,
and thus to monopolize Counties instead of Townships.
All this ground has been gone over once in the case of
the Military Bounty Lands which cost the soldiers an
ample consideration in fatigue, privation and blood,
and were in good part sold by them for a twentieth part
of their value. Ten years after they were granted or
drawn, not one of the soldiers in ten held an acre of
these Lands -probably few of them held any at all. To
give every body who chooses a quarter section outright
of the National Domain, with liberty to dispose of it
and come again, is in effect to squander that great in-
heritance more wastefully than hitherto. We are sure
the Reformers would never consent to this; certainly
we could not.

(2) Debates on the Homestead Bill, 1852.
(i) Eastern Wage-earners.

Congressional Globe, April 8, 1852, p. 1022. Hon. Joseph R. Chand-
ler, of Pennsylvania.

. . . Ten years ago, when some one proposed a
measure like this, the public press poured ridicule upon
a scheme which was denominated "the vote-yourself-a-

66 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

farm project," a sort of Hellenic verbal composition,
which was at once expressive of the supposed object of
the author, and the contempt of the opposer; but tem-
pora mutantur^ and nos mutamur cum illis. That is,
^^the tenure of our public lands has changed, and opin-
ions, it is evident, are changing with them." . . I
shall be told, perhaps, that few of the loafers of the city
will go to the far West to toil upon the unbroken land.
Probably the far West would not mourn at such a
refusal. But I do think that thousands would go, who,
tarrying in the city, would become loafers in their own
generation, and leave a nest of vagrants to perpetuate
their crimes. It is to prevent, rather than to reform,
that the "homestead" plan is proposed. . . .

Congressional Globe, App., March 30, 1852, pp. 381, 382.
Hon. C. Skelton, of New Jersey.

. . . Now, sir, the great difficulty under which
laborers suffer in our part of the country is, that there
is too much competition. The laborer goes begging for
the leave to toil. They enter into our market and under-
bid each other, and reduce the remuneration of labor,
until they are compelled to w^ork for a pittance which is
not sufficient to sustain nature in the condition in which
it ought to be sustained. But what will be the effect of
throwing open these public lands upon this excess of
labor in the Eastern States, and upon the men there who
are bowed down in the dust, and who, by competition
with each other, have reduced the price of their labor
to the lowest possible point? . . . The honorable
gentleman observed that these lands are the balance-
wheel that regulates the labor of our country. Here I
am happy to agree with the gentleman. Only for this,
he says -and he has no doubt an intimate knowledge of
the Eastern States -the laborer there would be trodden

eight] LAND REFORM 67

down and oppressed. That is the place to which men
fly from oppression. It is the balance-wheel that pre-
• serves our country from degradation and vice. Now,
I agree with the gentleman upon this ground, only with
this difference, that his method, I believe, of regulating
the balance-wheel is a bad one. If that is the place
where the poor and oppressed laborers of the older
States are to flee from heavy burdens, is it right to say
"Get yourself a home?"- for in selling the public lands
you effectually exclude him, as it must be known to ev-
ery gentleman who is acquainted with the condition of
the poor and laboring classes of the eastern cities. . .

(ii) Eastern Capitalists.

Congressional Globe, App., April 22, 1852, pp. 729-738. Hon. J.
Sutherland, of New York.

. . . Now, Mr. Chairman, I will not say, if we
had a limited territory with a surplus of population ; if
there was an abundance of labor instead of a scarcity;
if labor was here, waiting, looking for employment, in-
stead of demanding its own terms; if the price of labor
was not increasing, while the price of the products of
labor are diminishing; if, in consequence of this high
price of labor, "manufactures and other branches of
industry" did not claim protection against foreign com-
petition ; and if it had not been the past policy of the
Government, and it was not thought now to be the pres-
ent and future policy of the Government, to afford that
protection, at least incidentally, by taxing through a
system of duties on foreign importations, the consumer
for the benefit of the manufacturer, and thus indirectly
compelling the consumer to pay a portion of the wages
paid by the manufacturer; if these "manufactures and
other branches of industry" thus protected, had not
been, were not now, and were not likely to be, almost

68 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

the only markets for the products of our agricultural
labor; whatever might be thought or said of the con-
stitutionality and policy of this bill, yet I would not say
that its title was wholly inconsistent with its provisions.
But, in the present condition of things, and in view of
the immense number of acres of unimproved land, com-
paratively near market, owned by individuals, com-
panies, corporations, and States, now waiting for sale,
settlement, and cultivation, and to bring about the sale,
settlement, and cultivation of which, an immense cap-
ital has been invested in railroads and other internal
improvements; I do say, that to call this bill (by which
the Government, for the supposed benefit of the laborer
and the landless, does nothing more nor less than offer
a bonus to the laborer and landless to leave the manu-
factories, work-shops and farms in the old States, and
settle on the public domain in the new States) "a bill
to encourage agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and
all other branches of industry," is a gross perversion of
truth -that its title is wholly inconsistent with its real
intent, object, and provisions. . . What is this bill,
then, Mr. Chairman? What ought it to be called?
What ought to be its title? It is in fact a bill to grant
to every man or widow in the United States, who is the
head of a family, and has no land, and is not worth $500,
one hundred and sixty acres of the public domain, on
certain conditions, for his or her benefit, and thus more
nearly equalize the distribution of property. It should
be so entitled - it should be so called. . .

. . . Who ask for it? Who demand it? Certain
associations, called ^^Industrial Congresses"- offsprings
of the German school of socialism, and of the Amer-
ican school of "higher law" transcendentalism -partly
political, partly agrarian. Upon what ground do they

eight] LAND REFORM 69

ask for it? Upon what ground do they demand it?
They ask for it, as a gift, as a charity, to better their
condition, and to enable them to live without work-
ing, at least for others; and, while they ask for it as
a gift, as a charity, they at the same time demand it
as a matter of right, for which, even if granted, they
will owe no thanks to the Government; for they place
their right to it upon the natural rights of man, and not
upon the Constitution and laws of their country, or the
charity of Congress. They ask and demand it upon
grounds and theories of the natural rights of man, as
I understand them, utterly inconsistent with that great
principle, the recognition and security of individual
property, which lies at the foundation of all civilized
government not only, but of all civilized society; for
upon the security of property hangs industry, the
mother of all arts, of all science, of all wealth; the
mother and supporter of all law, order, governments;
of the virtues and charities of individuals, and of the
wealth and power of nations, and without which, the
whole earth would be but one moral and physical
waste. . .

What is the difficulty with manufactures now? Why
does even the manufacturer of iron ask for further pro-
tection? Is it a want of a market for his iron? Pro-
tect iron to any extent, and we will not be able, in years,
to manufacture all the country will want. No; it is
the cost of manufacturing it here that calls for the pro-
tection. And why the cost here? It is not the cost of
the raw material -of the ore, or of the coal. It is, then,
the cost of the labor- the high price of labor here. . .

I am not advocating now, either protection and low
wages, or free trade and high wages; but my point is,
that this homestead bill will take labor from the manu-

70 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

facturing States to the land States -from the manufac-
tories of the East to the farms of the West- and thereby
increase the cost of labor and the cost of manufacturing.
. . . I think this bill is an attack on the rights of
property, for I can see no difference in principle, in
taking the property of A B and giving it to C D, be-
cause he has none; and taking the property of all the
people of the United States, and giving it to those only
who have no land. I look upon this bill as agrarian,
and if it should become a law, as the first only of meas-
ures brought forward to more nearly equalize the dis-
tribution of property. . .

Congressional Globe, App., March 30, 1852, p. 390. Hon. T. J. D. Fuller,
of Maine.

. . . Our present land system operates like a great
balance-wheel upon our political institutions. It regu-
lates the value of real property; it controls the wages of
labor; and so long as one day's work will purchase an
acre of productive land, and secure a certain and sure
title, directly from the Government- eastern manufac-
tures can never control the wages of labor. The value
of real property in the agricultural regions of the older
States is adjusted, in a great measure, by this system.
As our population increases and becomes more dense,
they will emigrate to this broad domain, occupy and
cultivate the soil, establish schools and churches, and
form settlements, and thereby avoid those evils incident
to a more dense and thickly-settled country. But offer-
ing extraordinary and unusual inducements for settle-
ment will not increase the number of good and reliable
settlers. Such settlers multiply only by time and the
natural course of events. I trust, sir, that our public
domain may be long so held, and that our children, and
our children's children, may always have the privilege

eight] LAND REFORM 71

of resorting to it for settlement and support, and at an
unvarying price, with a certainty of title, until the al-
most countless acres of our unoccupied domain shall be
covered with a virtuous, industrious, and happy people.

(iii) Southern Poor Whites.

Congressional Globe, App. April 29, 1852, p. 530. Hon. A. Johnson,
of Tennesee.

. . . When, therefore, I appeal to you in behalf
of the poor North Carolinian, my own brother, I know
his condition. I know something about the condition
of the poor man in the State of Virginia, and elsewhere,
who, with his wife and little ones, lives upon the corner
of some man's farm, or upon some stony ledge, or some
barren, piny plain, where, with hi^ utmost toil upon his
appointed spot of earth, he can make but a scanty sub-
sistence to supply his necessities and those of his family.
Gentlemen say here that you will by this bill take away
the laboring man from the old States. Look at his con-
dition. Do you not see, under the circumstances that
surround him there, that his condition is unalterably
fixed, and that he can never extricate himself from the
iron grasp of poverty? Where is the man, abstraction-
ist. North Carolinian, Virginian, or citizen of any other
State, who has a heart that beats with love for his kind,
and patriotism for his country, that could say to him.
Do not go away; stay here in your poverty; do not go
and settle upon the new, rich, and fertile lands of the
West, but stay here, linger, wither, and die in your pov-
erty, and where the only inheritance which you can
leave to your children is your poverty.

Congressional Globe, App., April 29, 1852, p. 519. Hon. F. McMullin,
of Virginia.

. . . But, notwithstanding I admit the force of
the objection ; notwithstanding I shall regret to see my

72 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

neighbors leave Virginia; notwithstanding I shall re-
gret to see the hard-fisted yeomanry of the country -
those citizens of .Virginia who have been the tenants
and the laborers for the land aristocrats of Virginia -
paying to the swell-head aristocracy of Virginia from
one third to one half of their labor in the shape of rent,
I say, although I should regret very much to detract
from the laboring population of Virginia, yet when the
question presents itself, whether the industrious farmers
and mechanics be permitted to better their condition
by emigrating to the West, I cannot but answ^er in the
affirmative. . . But I have seen so much of the con-
dition of this class of laboring people in the State of
Virginia, that I cannot do otherwise than assist by all
the means in my power any proposition which looks to
the improvement of the condition of those people. . .
I know that the tenants contribute from one third to
one half of their labor in the payment of rent. But,
suppose you take away that portion of the population,
what is to become of the landed interests of the State?
Why, unless they own slaves or purchase them, the land
must decrease in value, or they must go to work them-
selves. . .

(iv) Slave-owners.

Congressional Globe^ April 8, 1852, pp. 1018-1020. Hon. Thomas H.
Averett, of Virginia.

. . . Are the friends of this bill willing to be
chained down to a constitutional view of the subject?
No; I defy them to show the right under the Constitu-
tion, to take the public lands and give them to any one
class of our people, except in consideration of public
services. The effect of this measure would be to take
that which belongs to the whole United States, and to
all the people of the United States, and to give it to a

eight] LAND REFORM 73

small class of the people of the United States, to the ex-
clusion of the rest. . . This measure now before us
professes to have for its object to give lands to the land-
less. Now, sir, from the bottom of my heart, I do
deprecate all class legislation, especially by this Gov-
ernment, whether under the control of Whigs or Demo-
crats. What right have we to classify our people? Is
it not one of our fundamental doctrines that no exclusive
privileges, or emoluments, or immunities, shall be
granted except in consideration of public service? . . .
Sir, I represent a rural district- a tax-paying, not a tax-
consuming constituency, who have never been beggars
at the footstool of this Government. In pampering
your pets, you rob the people whom I serve; and as
their Representative, I solemnly protest against your
homestead bill, and every other measure of a like char-
acter. . . There is an effort to array the poor labor-
er against the capitalist and the property holder. It is
an unrighteous warfare. I stand upon the position
that the interest of the honest laborer is identical with
that of the property holder, so far as the functions of
this Government are concerned.

Congressional Globe, App., April 28, 1852, p. 526. Hon. J. S. Millson, of
Virginia.

. . . This is a startling doctrine. Has every man
a right to so much of the earth's surface as is necessary
to his support, simply because he draws the sustenance
from the earth? But if this were true, what would be-
come of the millions whose means of sustaining life are
not derived immediately from the soil? Of the me-
chanic, the merchant, the physician, the hunter, the
mariner, the fisherman? They are practically excluded
by this bill; are they also to be deprived of every other
right to the soil, or to so much thereof, according to the

74 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

gentleman's proposition, as is necessary to their sup-
port? But how much is necessary to each man's sup-
port? Can the gentleman tell? The indolent may
require more than the industrious man. Is he, therefore,
entitled to a larger portion of the earth's surface? Is
idleness to be thus rewarded? There is some difference,
too, in the quality of lands : must the quantity allowed
to each person, however, still be the same? But I beg
the gentleman to consider how those persons are to be
supported whose occupations do not allow them to till
the soil, if those who cultivate it should only take
enough for their own support. Nay, sir, where do we
find a man who draws exclusively from his own land
the means of his support? . . .

(v) Western Pioneers and Lumbermen.

Congressional Globe, App., April 24, 1852, p. 486. Hon. H. H. Sib-
ley, of Minnesota.

. . . I know the character of the pioneer, and of
the men who even now are on their way to the West,
and I speak understandingly when I say, that it is such
homes as this bill, if adopted, will create, which will
ever remain the nurseries of that love of freedom, by
which alone our present happy form of government
can be perpetuated. From the abodes of the working
classes of your inland population, there will issue, in
the hour of danger to the country, a power not only self-
sustaining, but abundantly able to bear the ship of State
safely through all the storms that may beset her. . .
But hitherto a course has been taken in direct opposi-
tion to this plan. The Government has watched its pub-
lic domain with a jealous eye, and there are now enact-
ments upon your statute-books, aimed at the trespasser
upon it, which should be expunged as a disgrace to the
country and to the nineteenth century. Especially is

eight] LAND REFORM 75

he pursued with unrelenting severity, who has dared to
break the silence of the primeval forest by the blows of
the American axe. The hardy lumberman, who has
penetrated the remotest wilds of the Northwest, to drag
from their recesses, the materials for building up towns
and cities in the great valley of the Mississippi, has been
particularly marked out as a victim. After enduring
all the privations, and subjecting himself to the perils
incident to his vocation -when he has toiled for months
to add, by his honest labor, to the comfort of his fellow-
men, and to the aggregate wealth of the nation -he
finds himself suddenly in the clutches of the law, for
trespassing on the public domain. . .

(vi) Mid-west Farmers.

Congressional Globe, App., June 12, 1852, pp. 686-688. Hon. John
Welch, of Ohio.

. . . My principal objection to this bill is, that it
will depress the value of real estate, and do injustice to
its owners. By taking away all price from the public
lands and making them, like the air and the light, free
to every one, and priceless to the extent at least of $1.25
per acre, you sink the value of all private lands. You
make land, as land, of no value beyond the value of
improvements upon or around it, or the peculiar advan-
tages of its location.

If such had been the policy from the beginning- if
unimproved lands had always been without price, and
the public lands common to all -there would be no in-
justice in this measure. But a part of the lands of the
country are already in the hands of private owners, and
have a price to be effected by changes in the system of
administering or disposing of them. About one third
of the entire domain has passed into private hands at
prices paid therefor. The remaining two thirds is the

76 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

joint property of all. Now, I submit that it is not just
to these private owners, after receiving their money for
a part of the public domain, to give their undivided in-
terest therein, without their consent, to the other mem-
bers of the partnership, without at least refunding the
money they have paid. . . Another effect of the
homestead bill will be to destroy the home market of
the farmer. It offers a high bounty -the highest that
could be offered -a farm -to all who are not now farm-
ers to become such. Where are these new farmers to
come from? . . . To induce renters, or hired la-
borers upon farms, to rent and occupy new farms, is
simply to cultivate more land with the same force. It
is to scatter the farmers over more territory. Do not all
admit that we already cultivate too much ground, and
do not cultivate it well enough? What agriculture
needs in this country is a higher order of cultivation -
more hands to the acre-denseness of population, and its
civilizing and humanizing effects upon the people, and
elevating effects upon the value of the lands and its pro-
ductions. . . The new farmers, however, will come
principally from the manufacturing and mechanical de-
partments of labor; and in that event the effects will be
still more disastrous to the agricultural interests. The
operation will be simply, and inevitably, to increase the
number of farmers and diminish the number in the other
departments -to destroy competition among those who
consume, and to increase competition among those who
sell agricultural productions. The result must be a
diminution of price for agricultural productions, and a
consequent further diminution of the price of the land
itself. . .

eight] LAND REFORM 77

(vii) The "Father of the Republican Party."

Congressional Globe, App., March 30, 1852, pp. 426-428. Hon, G.
A. Grow, of Pennsylvania.

. . . It may be said, True, such would be men's
rights to the soil in a state of nature ; but when he en-
tered into society, he gave up a part of his natural
rights, in order to enjoy the advantages of an organized
community. This is a doctrine, I am aware, of the
books and treatises on society and government; but it is
a doctrine of despotism, and belongs not to enlightened
statesmen in a liberal age. It is the excuse of the despot
in encroaching upon the rights of the subject. He ad-
mits the encroachment, but claims that the citizen gave
up part of his natural rights when he entered into so-
ciety; and who is to judge what ones he relinquished but
the ruling power? It was not necessary that any of
man's natural rights should be yielded to the State in
the formation of society. He yielded no right but the
right to do wrong, and that he never had by nature. All
he yielded in entering into society was a portion of his
unrestrained liberty, and that was, that he would sub-
mit his conduct, that before was subject to the control
of no living being, to the tribunals to be established by
the State, and with the tacit consent that society, or the
Government, might regulate the mode and manner of
the exercise of his rights; but why should he consent to
be deprived of them? It is upon this ground that we
justify resistance to tyrants. And whenever the ruling
power so far encroaches upon the natural rights of men
that an appeal to arms becomes preferable to submis-
sion, they appeal from human to divine laws, and plead
the natural rights of man in their justification. That
Government, and that alone, is just which enforces and
defends all of man's natural rights, and protects him
against the wrongs of his fellow man. . .

78 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

For if a man has a right on earth, he has a right to
land enough to rear a habitation on. If he has a right
to live, he has a right to the free use of whatever nature
has provided for his sustenance -air to breathe, water to
drink, and land enough to cultivate for his subsistence.
For these are the necessary and indispensable means for
the enjoyment of his inalienable rights, of ''life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness." . . The struggle be-
tween capital and labor is an unequal one at best. It is
a struggle between the bones and sinews of men and
dollars and cents; and in that struggle, it needs no
prophet's ken to foretell the issue. And in that struggle,
is it for this Government to stretch forth its arm to aid
the strong against the weak? Shall it continue, by its
legislation, to elevate and enrich idleness on the wail
and the woe of industry? . . .

IV
HOURS OF LABOR

INTRODUCTION

The ten-hour strikes of the thirties ended with the
panic of 1837. The National Trades' Union at its con-
vention of 1836 had determined to direct its political
energies, not toward legislation by Congress but toward
action by the Executive. The wisdom of this policy was
seen in the executive order of Martin Van Buren,
March 31, 1840.

But the Federal government could deal only with its
own employees. It could not legislate for private em-
ployers. This was the part of the states. In Massa-
chusetts the ten-hour strikes had not been as successful
as in other states. In that state, too, the factory system
had taken the lead of other states. The first petitions
to the legislature originated with "citizens of Fall Riv-
er" in 1842, showing that "in many manufacturing es-
tablishments more hours of labor are required than can
be made consistent with the bodily health and the
proper intellectual and moral improvement and well
being of adults."^ This was followed in 1843 by a pe-
tition of female operatives of Fall River praying for
ten hours.* Nothing was done at either session. In
1844, the Mechanics' Association of Fall River took a
different line of attack and addressed a circular to the
mechanics of New England, calling for a Convention.
This circular received widespread publicity and led to
the organization of the New England Working Men's

3 Massachusetts House. Legislative Documents, 1842, no. 4.
* Massachusetts House. Archives, 1843, J^o. 11659.

82 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Association, later changed to the Labor Reform League
of New England. An "Address" was adopted by the
first Convention and issued to "their fellow mechanics
and laborers throughout the United States," drafted
under the Fourieristic influences of the Convention,
and devoted to a criticism of "the present system of la-
bor."^ Brisbane, in the Phalanx^ said, "We were high- |
ly gratified with the evident tendency of feeling among
the members of the Convention toward associative prin-
ciples, and the ready avidity with which all expressions
of sentiment derived from these principles were re-
ceived."® The subject of cooperation, in which the
movement was finally to end, appeared for the first time
at the Fall River Convention of September, 1845.

At the Lowell Convention in October, 1845, the prin-
cipal action was the appointment of a Committee in-
structed to purchase the Voice of Industry^ to be sup-
ported by the New England Association."^

The Convention at Manchester, N.H., March 25,
1846, accepted credentials of the Working Men's Pro-
tective Union of Boston, Labor Reform Association of
Manchester, Industrial Reform Association of Lowell,
and Female Labor Reform Association of Lowell. It
adopted a resolution favoring reform "by the mild in-
fluence of reasonable concession and mutual arrange-
ment of the parties interested." It endorsed again the
Working Men's Protective Union, the Ten-hour Move-
ment, and Freedom of the Public Lands, and rejected
a resolution for political action. It voted thanks to
those ministers of the gospel who had attended its ses-
sion, and asked their cooperation, and appointed a com-

5 The Avjl, Nov. 9, 1844.

^ Phalanx, Dec. 9, 1844, p. 302.

^ True Working Man, Dec. 27, 1845.

eight]

HOURS OF LABOR

mittee of correspondence on Ways and Means to carry
the Ten-hour System into effect, consisting of Seth
Luther, A. J. Wright, of Boston, and W. F. Young, ed-
itor of the Voice of Industry,

The Convention of January, 1847, was held at Boston.
It endorsed Protective Unions, ten hours, free land, free
[trade, "the circulation of high toned, philosophical and
jmoral publications, and the support of faithful, devot-
ed and competent lecturers, to diffuse light among the
;working people." The Fourth Report of the Female
*abor Reform Association in Manchester showed three
[hundred members, and strong opposition to the pre-
mium system in the mills. Among the speakers were "the
[Venerable Dr. Channing and Amasa Walker."

The Convention of March, 1847, was held at Low-
Sell. It endorsed the homestead movement, protective
[unions, and land reform, and appointed a delegate to
|the Industrial Congress.^ The last meeting of which
[there is record was held at Dover, N.H., in July, 1847.
'he attendance was small and the discussion scattering.^
In 1852 a state convention was held, devoted wholly
|to the Ten-hour Movement, and an address was issued
[to the people of Massachusetts.

One of the first results of the New England Working
(Men's Association, and the petitions which it circulated,
[ivas the investigation in 1845 by a committee of the
jMassachusetts Legislature. This was followed by re-
ports of similar committees in 1846, 1850, 1852, 1853,
ind 1855, hostile to legislation, although minority re-
ports were filed. By a concerted action the proprietors
►f textile mills at Lowell reduced the hours in 1847, by
illowing longer time for dinner. In the same year, the

* Voice of Industry, April 9, 23, 1847.

• Voice of Industry^ July 30, 1847.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

first legislation on the subject was enacted by New
Hampshire, followed by Pennsylvania in 1848, New
Jersey in 1851, Ohio in 1852, Rhode Island in 1853.
The characteristic features and the futility of these
early laws are illustrated by the documents relating to
New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, and the address of
the Ten-hours Convention of 1852. During this period
there were many isolated instances of reduction of hours
secured by strikes and trade agreements.

I. VAN BUREN'S TEN-HOUR ORDER

(a) EXECUTIVE ORDER
Richardson. Messages and Papers of the Presidents^ vol. iii, 6<».

Washington City, March 31, 1840. The President of
the United States, finding that different rules prevail at
different places as well in respect to the hours of labor
by persons employed on the public works under the im-
mediate authority of himself and the Departments as
also in relation to the different classes of workmen, and
believing that much inconvenience and dissatisfaction
would be removed by adopting a uniform course, here-
by directs that all such persons, whether laborers or
mechanics, be required to work only the number of
hours prescribed by the ten-hour system.

M. Van Buren.

(b) VAN BUREN'S INTERPRETATION

Niles's Register^ Sept. 26, 1840, p. 59. Letter to certain political in-
quirers.

The ten-hour system, originally devised by the me-
chanics and laborers themselves, has by my direction
[been adopted, and uniformly carried out at all public
[establishments, and . . . this mitigation of labor
[has been accompanied by no corresponding reduction

if wages. I also caused it to be distinctly intimated in
[the month of March last, to the officers of such of these
[establishments as might contemplate a reduction of
jwages, that in my opinion the present peculiarly uncer-
[tain state of things, which it is believed results from

:ircumstances that cannot be permanent in their opera-
[tion, does not present a just and proper basis for a re-
jduction of wages.

2. THE TEN-HOUR MOVEMENT IN NEW
ENGLAND

(a) CIRCULAR OF THE FALL RIVER MECHANICS

IVorking Man's Advocate^ June 29, 1844; quoted from the Fall River
Mechanic.

The Mechanics of Fall River, to their Brethren and
Friends abroad, Greeting: Believing that the long es-
tablished, unjust and prevailing system of labor in this
country, is at war with the real interest of man's phys-
ical, intellectual, social, moral and religious being; and
believing that the oppressed and down trodden state of
our fellow Mechanics is the legitimate result of this
system; and that many of the evils of our several com-
munities, together with their serious and mournful ef-
fects, are attributable to the same cause; and having
taken the subject into consideration, as we trust, in the
spirit of candid investigation, with a desire to know the
whole truth with reference to this matter, independent
of all former prejudices and prepossessions, from a
sense of duty, which we owe individually to ourselves,
our fellows and our God, do send forth this Circular to
the Mechanics of New England particularly, and all
others interested, for the special purpose of directing
their immediate attention to the importance and even
necessity of calling a Convention of Mechanics, as soon
as possible, to meet in some central part of New Eng-
land, for the purpose of concerting measures by which
we may act jointly and efficiently in our humble en-
deavors to point out a "more excellent" system of labor
than that which has so long prevailed, and thus, under
God, remove the "heavy burdens" which have long

HOURS OF LABOR

rested upon us and our children, and "let the oppressed
go free." The necessity of such a course is further seen,
in the following facts which we very respectfully beg
leave to present before you.

I. The system of labor to which we have alluded in
our preamble, requiring of the Mechanic and Laborer
of New England from twelve to fifteen hours labor per
diem, is more than the physical constitution of man can
bear, generally speaking, and preserve a healthy state.
In confirmation of this statement, we have only to ac-
quaint ourselves with the bill of mortality which is an-
nually rendered through the public journals of the day,
with the employment of those who have died -the na-
ture of the disease which terminated their earthly ex-
istence, and then ascertain the cause, the first cause of
all this, and we shall find that at least three-fifths of all
the deaths which occur among us, are attributable,
either directly or indirectly, to the prevailing system of
labor by which we are governed: (of course we are
speaking of adult cases) and yearly there are thousands
who come down to a premature grave, almost wholly
in consequence of that system of labor against which it
is our duty to contend, and which levies such a heavy
tax upon the physical strength of man as to render him
wholly unable to pay. But this is not all. The influence
of that system of labor on which we are treating, is such
as must of necessity extinguish the intellectual fire
which heaven designed should burn and blaze upon and
in every soul of man. Whence is it, that so few, when
compared with the great number of Mechanics and
Laborers in this country, enjoy the pleasures and lasting
benefits resulting from a regular and systematic course
of study? Whence is it, that they are denied these priv-
ileges but in consequence of the old system of manual

88 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

labor? The simple fact is, they have been, and they
still are over-worked, and hence are unfitted for deep
thought, systematic study, and real mental culture. In
conclusion, therefore, on this point, you will allow us
to add, that in our humble estimation, from the above
named considerations, it becomes us as Mechanics and
Laborers in New England, to exert our utmost en-
deavors to establish a new system of labor by which our
sacred rights may be secured, and in the adoption of
which, man, "the noblest work of God," may more fully
and efifectually answer the end and object of his being.

2. Another reason which we would assign, showing
the necessity of calling a Convention as above suggest-
ed, is the fact, that we are fast approximating towards
the disagreeable, servile and degrading state of the
English laborer.

Nabobs in England do not oppress and grind the face
of the poor more than is done in this country, because
they are worse than are American nabobs! The riches
of the affluent in Great Britain, are no more "corrupt-
ed" in proportion to their power over the working
classes, than are the riches of the wealthy among us, in
proportion to their power over the laboring communi-
ties in which we reside. The hire of the laborer in this
country "is kept back by fraud:" and the cries of them
which have been shamefully oppressed have "entered
into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." The downtrod-
den Mechanic and Laborer of New England, with
their wives and little ones, have frequently had cause -
nay more, they have cause daily to weep over the condi-
tion that awaits them, unless man arises speedily to the
work of reform, and heaven interposes ere long, to
crush, annihilate, forever destroy that system which is
fast carrying us forward to the disagreeable, servile and

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 89

degrading condition of the English laborer. But we
have only space to glance at the several points to which
we would direct your attention in this brief Circular.
3. A reform can only be brought about by a general
concert of action: and in order to concert measures by
which the laboring classes may be elevated, it is essen-
tial that we meet in convention as already proposed.
The present, affords a favorable opportunity to all per-
sons who feel at all interested in the general good of the
whole people, for giving a free expression of their
views and peculiar feelings on this subject, and of secur-
ing joint efforts to carry forward a thorough and effec-
tual change in relation to the present system of labor in
New England. The time has never been since the adop-
tion of the present system, when public sympathies
have been awakened, and when a general interest has
been created to such an extent in behalf of the working
classes, as at the present time. We are aware however,
that our opposers have never arrayed themselves against
us in greater hostility than recently; but this fact has
contributed, largely contributed to bring the subject in
its true light directly before the people; so that all
which is needed in order to consummate the great work
of reform speedily and triumphantly, is decision, fix-
edness of purpose on the part of the Mechanics and La-
borers themselves. And as Editors of papers are the
every day teachers of the People -and as the Press pos-
sesses power to nerve up, to encourage, to strengthen,
to arm with moral power and energy the laboring class-
es; in the name of suffering humanity -the bleeding
rights of thousands -the dearest interest of the People -
in the name of God, of religion and justice, we call
upon the Editors and Publishers of papers to direct the
mighty force of the Press in defence of the rights of the

90 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

poor, the down-trodden Mechanics and Laborers in
New England, and in fact throughout our common
country. In our view of the subject, Editors can do
much toward effecting a reform in the present system of
labor, by recommending the formation of Associations
for the social, moral and intellectual improvement of
the laboring classes -by asserting their rights -by mak-
ing known to the world their injuries caused by the iron
hand of Avarice -by contending for the great principle
assumed by the Declaration of Independence, that ''AH
men are created free and equal," and in brief, by en-
deavoring to raise them to that point in the scale of be-
ing which God originally designed for all, viz: The
common ground of equality, man with man.

Lastly -The benefits that might, and which of neces-
sity would result from a New England Convention,
providing every town and city could be represented,
are incalculable. A general system could be devised;
our general views could be expressed and understood;
our strength could be properly estimated; union un-
questionably could be secured throughout the whole
body; by our presence we should cheer and encourage
each other; funds could be raised to carry forward the
objects of the body at large; the united wisdom and
judgment of the various Mechanics' Associations could
be brought together, and, in a word, the foundation laid
for usefulness, happiness and prosperity, for ourselves
and posterity, as physical, intellectual, social, moral
and religious beings.

We, therefore, in consideration of the above facts,
recommend to the Mechanics of the different towns and
cities in New England, to form themselves into Asso-
ciations, and take active measures in relation to a gen-
eral Convention, and we now offer the following Call

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 9 1

to be signed by Mechanics and others who are favorable
to the elevation of the Laboring Classes.

Call. We, the Undersigned, desiring the elevation
of the Working Classes of New England, do hereby
agree to give our aid, countenance and support to a
Convention to be held for the above named purpose.

We would also request all Associations or individuals,
who may take action in relation to this, to send to the
Mechanics' Association in Fall River, the number of
names they may obtain to the above, and the probable
number of those who would attend the Convention.
Benj. T. Chace, Thomas Almy,
Charles Borden, Wilbur Read, Committee.
In behalf of the Mechanics' Association. Fall River,

June, 1844.

(b) NEW ENGLAND WORKING MEN'S ASSOCIATION,
FIRST CONVENTION, BOSTON, OCTOBER, 1844.

(1) Proceedings.

Working Man's Advocate^ Oct 19, 1844.

Our readers were informed, by notices in our last
paper, that several delegates were appointed by the
National Reform Association and the Spartan Band to
attend the Working Men's Convention at Boston. Mr.
Walsh, from the Spartans, Mr. Devyr, editor of the
National Reformer^ Mr. Bovee, and George H. Evans,
from the National Reform Association, proceeded to
Boston in pursuance of the appointments; Mr. Com-
merford, we regret to say, could not make it convenient
to go. We arrived in Boston in due season, and were
present in Faneuil Hall at the opening of the Conven-
tion, having been received with a hearty welcome by
our Boston friends on reporting ourselves. The time of
meeting was half past 10 o'clock, a.m., on Wednesday,
and soon after that hour there were several hundred

92 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

delegates present from the following places: Bos-
ton, South Boston, Fall River, New Bedford, Wor-
cester, So. Andover, Newton Upper Falls, Milton,
Lynn, Redding, Lowell, Marblehead, Chelsea, Brook
Farms, and No. Chelmsford, Massachusetts; Pauka-
tuck and Stonington, Connecticut; Pawtucket, Rhode
Island; Manchester and Nashua, New Hampshire;
and Skaneateles and New York City, New York. Dele-
gations from several other places arrived during the
day. Among the most numerous delegations were those
from Fall River, Lynn, and Lowell, who came into the
Hall in procession, bearing banners, with appropriate
mottoes, which were arranged near the President's seat
under the full length portraits of Washington, Hancock,
and other revolutionary worthies. One of the Lowell
Banners was inscribed on one side with the words "We
know and claim our Rights ;" on the other side, in beau-
tiful gold letters, "Union is Strength;" and here we
cannot help noticing a most gratifying incident con-
nected with this banner. In the early part of the pro-
ceedings, a discussion arose on a point of order, and
some of the speakers exhibited considerable warmth in
the debate: in the midst of a rather fiery speech one of
the delegates stepped up to the rostrum, and reversed
the banner, which had previously rested with the Union
motto towards the wall. The effect was electric: a
universal burst of applause shook the building, which
was several times repeated, and the discussion was soon
ended.

The following brief account of the proceedings of
the Convention is all that we can find room for in to-
day's paper.

First Day. The Convention was called to order by
Mr. Wright of the Boston Association, when George

eight]

HOURS OF LABOR

M. Hatch, of Lowell, was appointed Chairman, and
Thomas P. Almy, of Fall River, secretary. A commit-
tee of twenty-two, (one from each Association which
then had delegates present) was appointed to nominate
officers for the Convention, who reported the follow-
ing: Mr. Wright of Boston for President; Messrs.
Munroe of Lynn, Spofford of Lowell, Roberts of South
Andover, Evans of New York, Coles of Stonington,
Smith of Manchester, and Goodwin of Marblehead,
for Vice Presidents ; and Allen of Lowell, Cox of Bos-
ton, and Almy of Fall River, Secretaries.

The nominees of the committee were adopted unan-
imously by the Convention.

A proposition to admit Horace Seaver, Editor of the
Boston Investigator^ as a delegate to the Convention
from the Social Reform Association of Boston, was re-
jected, after a short discussion, by a vote of 76 to 64.
Among the reasons given for the rejection of Mr. Sea-
ver, was, that he was a member of the Working Men's
Association of Boston, which was already represented
in the Convention, but we fear that sectarian prejudice
was the principal cause, as it is well known, as was
stated on the occasion, that Mr. Seaver has done much,
perhaps more than any other man, to support the cause
of labor in Boston.

A business committee of seven, and a committee of
one from each delegation to draft resolutions and an
address, were appointed; on the latter were Messrs.
Devyr and Walsh of New York. . .

The Convention then proceeded to discuss the resolu-
tion in favor of memorializing the legislatures to pre-
vent corporations from employing persons more than
ten hours a day.

Mr. Allen, of South Boston, opposed the resolu-

94 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

tion. . . The resolution was further discussed by
Messrs. Persse of Fall River, Taylor of Skaneateles, Buf-
fum of Lynn, Ripley of Brook Farms, Godwin of Bos-
ton, Walsh of New York, Dixey of Marblehead, Hol-
bach of Boston, and others, till the hour of adjournment.

Second Day. In the morning session, the Ten Hour
resolution was again discussed by Messrs. Evans of New
York, Cooper of Lynn, Gregory and Persse of Fall
River, Ryckman of Brook Farms, Birbeck of Chelsea,
Dixey of Marblehead, Hatch of Lowell, Cooper of Fall
River, and Crier of Andover, and was finally adopted,
after the rejection of several amendments, by a vote of
75 to 22. . .

The three great objects we had in view in attending
this Convention were, first, measures to bring about the
Freedom of the Public Lands, as a means to abolish the
Monopoly of the Soil, the greatest source of crime and
misery on earth ; secondly, as a temporary measure, the
restriction of hired Labor, as far as practicable, to ten
hours a day; and, third -a general organization of use-
ful laborers throughout the union.

With respect to our first object, we were agreeably
surprised to find that it had many warm friends in the
convention, who saw it, as we see it, the most important
measure to rally upon; many others favorable to it, but
having favorite projects which they considered of more
importance; and others to whom the subject was new,
but who, we trust, were converted by the brief exposi-
tion which our delegates were enabled to give of it in
the short period allotted to them ; and, whether the reso-
lution is passed or not, we are satisfied that the subject of
it has taken that firm hold on the minds of many of the
delegates that will cause them to disseminate the doc-
trine of the Redemption of the Soil throughout New
England.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 9 5

Our second object, to reduce the hours of compulsory
labor, was entirely in unison with the feelings of our
New England friends, the only question being as to
whether the matter should be carried into politics, and
a large majority being in favor of the true policy, as we
consider it, of using the ballot box to redress a wrong
inflicted by erroneous legislation.

In pursuance of our third object, a National Union,
we offered a resolution to adjourn the Convention, as a
National one, to New- York city next May; but, find-
ing that many considered the Convention rather in the
light of a New-England one, and that they were desir-
ous to have another New-England Convention previous
to that period for local purposes, and at the same time
in favor of a National Convention, we withdrew our
motion in accordance with their suggestion that the gen-
eral movement should originate in New- York. . .

There was a display of talent in the Convention that
we were unprepared for, and that would have put to
the blush some of our lawyer-legislatures. As might
have been expected, however, there was a lack of know-
ledge of parliamentary rules that caused considerable
loss of time ; but, on the whole, the Convention may be
considered as a glorious commencement of a second
Revolution in this country; a peaceful revolution, it is
true, but one the importance of which has never been
excelled by any revolution in the world's history. §

Among the eloquent speeches delivered in this Con-
vention, we cannot avoid mentioning that of Mr. Rip-
ley, President of the Brook Farms Association, and one
of Mr. Cooper of the Fall River delegation, which was
replete with sound views of principle and of policy.

(2) Resolutions.

The Avfly Oct. 23, 1844; quoted from the Boston Daily Bee.

Whereas, all men being endowed with the same nat-

96 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

ural capacities, and possessing in common with each
other, the same physical, mental and moral wants, are
therefore entitled to an equal exercise and gratification
of them ;

And, whereas, the existing relations of society, which
deprive the laborer of the wealth his own industry cre-
ates, which compels him to wear out his existence, ex-
posed to the degrading influences resulting from con-
stant, unalleviated toil, which excludes him from an
indulgence in the graceful recreations and cultivated
pleasures of social intercourse -which discourages men-
tal exertion, and closes up the path to intellectual pur-
suits-and which inevitably tends to destroy all energy
of mind, to crush the most generous aspirations, and to
wither up and debase the sweetest and noblest affections
of the heart.

x\nd, being persuaded that the social organization
which produces results so pernicious and demoraliz-
ing-which acts so injuriously upon the interests, and
violates so flagrantly the most valuable rights, of those
engaged in the useful, necessary and honorable occupa-
tion of manual labor, is founded in neither justice nor
reason; is required by no essential law of human asso-
ciation, far less can be sanctioned by any providence of
God; and assuming as self-evident that the cruel hard-
ships to which the laboring classes are subjected, are
continued only through the indifference, ignorance and
lethargy of themselves; that the remedy for these abuses
is apparent and simple, and is to be found in a general
and thorough organization of the laboring classes, for
the purpose of defending their interests and securing
to their own enjoyment the constant wealth which their
own honest and honorable industry produces, with a
view to the attainment of these objects.

eight]

HOURS OF LABOR

Resolved, that the time now devoted to manual labor
is unreasonable and unjust, is equally destructive to
physical health and mental vigor, and requiring long
continued and excessive physical exertion, amounts to
a denial of the invaluable right every man should pos-
sess to an opportunity for recreation, social enjoyment
and is an abuse which demands immediate correction.

Resolved, that we deem it expedient to memorialize
our legislatures to pass a law that shall prohibit any
corporation from employing any person more than ten
hours per day.

Resolved, that we recommend to our brother me-
chanics and laborers throughout the country, (who are
not already associated), immediately to organize for the
purpose of defending our common interests, to vindicate
labor from reproach -to secure to the laborer a more
just equivalent for his toil -for moral and intellectual
improvement- to investigate the causes of the present
fearful and still daily increasing disparities of social
condition, and to inquire why it has been and is, that
the workingmen in society, by whose labor all wealth is
produced, on whose industry rests the arts of civilized
life, are condemned to occupy the meanest position in
that society, are stigmatized as ignorant and inferior,
and universally regarded as the Helots of capital.

Resolved, that as by the present system of labor, the
interests of capital and labor are opposed, the former
now securing the reward which should only belong to
the latter; that we recommend the formation of prac-
tical associations, in which working men can use their
own capital, work their own stock, establish their own
hours, and have their own price.

Resolved, that in the opinion of this convention, the
present inequality and injustice of society, the abject

98 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

dependence of honest, willing industry upon idle, non-
producing capitalists, is a great source of crime, misery,
and degradation on earth; and that all attempts to ele-
vate and render the poverty-bowed millions who now
toil and starve, can, at best, but partially tend to the ac-
complishment of that great end, until the shameful and
sacrilegious monopoly of the soil is entirely abolished,
and the public lands which are now held by the govern-
ment are retained for actual settlement to the people,
for whom they are but kept in trust, and thousands of
whom now actually pine in want from an inability to
obtain a sufficient amount of compensation.

Resolved, that while we pledge ourselves as work-
ingmen to spare no just eflPort for the reduction of the
bonds of labor, we look forward to the time when by
the introduction of a system of attractive industry, a
system in which every laborer has a direct personal in-
terest in the fruits of his labor; in which all the fac-
ulties of human nature are called into exercise; an
amount of leisure, together with ample means for its
wise, orderly and beneficial employment shall be guar-
anteed to every man, woman, and child, such as, under
the present arrangement of society, is neither prac-
ticable nor desirable.

Resolved, that we believe it of the utmost importance
that those papers which are exclusively devoted to the
working men^s cause, should be promptly sustained,
and that we hereby pledge ourselves, our money and
our influence, to secure that result.

Resolved, that this convention, deeming it proper
and expedient that there be a New England Working-
men's Association organized for the purpose of uniting
the efforts of all who are engaged in the great interests
of the real producers, choose a committee of one from

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 99

each delegation present, to draft and report a constitu-
tion and by-laws to be presented for the consideration
of said association, at a meeting to be called by said
committee at such time and place as they may de-
cide. . .

Resolved, that we request the committee appointed
to draft a constitution for a New England Association
of Workingmen, to fix upon a time and place, during
the session of this convention, for the first meeting of
such association. . .

Resolved, that we recommend to associations to send
only the same number of delegates, which the towns or
cities in which said associations may be located, are en-
titled to representatives in their respective legislatures.

The Aivl, April 5, 1845.

Feeling deeply sensible of the evils to which, as a
class, we are subjected -being compelled to toil a num-
ber of hours per day entirely inconsistent with the faith-
ful discharge of the duties we owe to ourselves, to
society, and our race; and for which we by no means
receive a fair proportion of the value our industry cre-
ates; and viewing with alarm and regret the anti-re-
publican tendencies of our present legislation, and the
many evils which have sprung from political abuse;
and believing that these evils and abuses demand our
immediate and united exertions for their correction or
abolition ; therefore,

Resolved, that the time has arrived for the working-
men of New England to form with each other that in-
telligent and comprehensive union, which alone is
strength, and that they are called on in justice to them-

lOO AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

selves, to their country, and their race, to make use of all
just and honorable means, social, moral, and political,
to secure the great objects for which this Convention
was assembled ; and

Whereas, in order to procure an efficient Lien Law,
an abridgement of the hours of labor, with such other
salutary measures as will secure to the workingmen of
New England their rights, it is necessary for us to send
such men to the General Court as do best know and feel
our wants ; therefore.

Resolved, that this Convention recommend to the
several Associations to form such arrangements as shall
seem to them most efficient in carrying these measures
successfully at the ballot box.

Resolved, that an abridgment of the hours of labor
is indispensable to secure the moral, social, and physical
well-being of the producing classes, and all who oppose
this salutary measure exhibit a gross and pernicious dis-
regard of the essential principles of justice, morality,
and religion.

Resolved, that this Convention recommend to the
several Associations at once to commence raising a fund
against the time when one or more Associations, on ma-
ture deliberation, shall attempt the adoption of the Ten
Hour System, for the purpose of aiding such persons as
would be prevented by pecuniary embarrassment.

Resolved, that the present Lien Law of Massachu-
setts is a disgrace to the statute book, and unworthy an
enlightened people ; in as much as it tends to disorgan-
ize society, by discouraging honest industry, by arraying
the poor against the rich, by oppressing the producing
classes, by reducing them to poverty, pauperism, and
crime, and enriching at the expense of honest labor, the
designing and unscrupulous, whose fraudulent prac-
tices it invites and screens from justice, contrary to the

eight] HOURS OF LABOR i o i

letter and spirit of the "Declaration of Rights," em-
bodied in the Constitution of this Commonwealth.

Resolved, that all chartered monopolies are contrary
to the letter and spirit of the Constitution, tending to
gather the wealth of the community into the possession
of the favored few, thereby establishing a dangerous,
oppressive, moneyed oligarchy on the ruins of the con-
stitution ; it is therefore our imperative duty to urge the
repeal of all partial laws touching the same at the ear-
liest practical period. . .

Resolved, that on the morals and intelligence of the
whole people depend the perpetuity of our republican
institutions ; it is therefore the duty and interest of the
State to secure to all children in the community an ed-
ucation that will fully develop their physical, moral
and intellectual powers, and render every citizen of the
commonwealth worthy and capable to perform the
sacred duties of a freeman.

Resolved, that the present policy of the State with
reference to the labor of the convicts in the State Prison,
is unjust to the honest mechanic, injurious to the State,
degrading to labor, hostile to Humanity, and demands
immediate revision or abolition.

Resolved, that government is instituted for the com-
mon defense ; that our present expensive law system does
not promote the ends of good government; and should
be so altered and revised as to afford cheap, prompt, and
efficient protection to all.

Resolved, that in our State Legislatures, as well as
in Congress, and all departments of the government,
labor should be represented as well as capital; and that
the interests of the people of the States -those of the
workingmen not excepted -are entitled to full and equal
representation.

Resolved, that the question of the freedom of the

102 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

public lands is one which deeply interests the mechanics
of New England; that the present monopoly of the
same in the hands of speculators is opposed to national
prosperity and natural rights; and that the freedom of
these lands to actual settlers is a matter which demands,
and shall secure, our immediate and energetic coopera-
tion.

Resolved, that the oppression and degradation of the
producing classes in Europe, caused by the accumula-
tion of capital in the hands of a few, by the spirit of
commercial monopoly and the influence of machinery,
in favor of wealth and in hostility to labor, present a
terrible example of the tendencies of modern society to
sink the masses in poverty and ignorance, and loudly
call upon every friend of Humanity in our more fa-
vored land, to aid in the discovery and adoption of
measures which shall secure the American laborer,
from the impending fate to which he is exposed, and
which timely precaution and vigorous action in defense
of the inborn rights of man alone can avert.

Resolved, that in view of the approaching evils
which threaten to involve the producing classes of this
century, in the serf-like dependence and misery, which
present so foul a blot on the fairest portion of the old
world, it is hereby earnestly recommended by this Con-
vention to their brother workingmen throughout the
land to establish an annual Congress, which shall have
for its object to propose and adopt such measures as
shall be found necessary to secure the rights and inter-
ests of honest industry, and to hasten the accomplish-
ment of the grand industrial resolution which is alike
demanded by the nature of man, the mission of free
America, the hopes of Humanity, and the law of eternal
truth and justice.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 103

The following resolutions were offered by Mr. Bris-
bane, of New York:

Resolved, that in the opinion of this Convention, the
evils which oppress the producing classes are not the
result of the selfishness or perversity of individuals;
but that they grow out of the false organization of in-
dustry, and of erroneous political and social principles,
and that for this reason we attack principles, not
men.

Resolved, that to eradicate effectually these evils,
and elevate the producing classes to their true position,
we must not consume our time and waste our efforts
in attacking partial and fragmentary abuses and evils,
and in merely breaking down without building up,
(which is a negative policy and barren of result), but
must bend the efforts of our combined intelligence to
the devising of such new and fundamental measures and
principles as will establish justice and right in industry
and all its interests, and strike at the root of existing
evils and abuses.

Resolved, that in the opinion of this Convention the
great primary evils which are now operating through-
out all civilized nations to sink the producing classes
in poverty and ignorance -which are the parents of
servitude, wretchedness, and crime -are.

First, antagonistic and depressing competition among
the producing classes themselves, which arrays them
collectively and individually in perpetual strife and
conflict with each other, and leads to a gradual reduc-
tion in the price of wages, as also to the prolongation of
the hours of work, and engenders general distrust, envy,
and opposition of interest and action.

Second, monopolized machinery, or machinery in
the hands of a few, which works against the producing

104 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

classes instead of working for them, and adds the com-
petition of iron and brass to that of bones and sinews.

Third, the present complicated, wasteful, and grasp-
ing system of Commerce, which absorbs nearly one half
the profits of honest productive industry for the com-
paratively trifling service of carrying on the exchanges
of products.

Fourth, the divorce and separation between capital
and labor, which arrays the capitalist against the labor-
er, and the laborer against the capitalist, and produces
reciprocal hostility, aggression, injustice and hatred,
widens the distinction and division of classes, and leads
to the subjection and oppression of the one by the su-
perior management and advantages of the other.

Fifth, the non-recognition and non-guarantee of the
two great fundamental rights of man -the right of la-
bor, and the right to the soil, without which all other
rights are rendered to a very great extent unavailable and
worthless.

Resolved, that we hold the above five evils to be the
fundamental and primary causes of the disadvantages
under which the producing classes labor; but there are
others of a secondary importance, which apply with
different degrees of force to different parts of the coun-
try, and which in many cases may be discussed at the
same time with the above fundamental evils, and that in
the opinion of this Convention, different sections of the
country be left free to agitate such secondary measures
as they deem proper, but that in all parts, that these
fundamental ones be discussed and kept constantly be-
fore the people.

Mr. Ryckman, of Brook Farm, introduced the fol-
lowing resolution, which he sustained in an able speech
illustrating the necessity of a prompt, immediate, and
thorough revolution in Industry, and the formation of

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 105

an Industrial Congress analogous to that which fostered
the liberties of the American Republic. His remarks
were most enthusiastically received.

Resolved, that this Convention recommend to the
N. E. Association to organize as promptly as possible,
a permanent Industrial Revolutionary Government,
upon the model of the confederation of the States in
1776, which shall be pledged, to direct the legal politi-
cal action of the workingmen so as to destroy the hostile
relations that at present prevail between capital and
labor, and to secure to all the citizens without excep-
tion a full and complete development of their faculties
by a thorough education, physical, mental, and moral,
and the practical enjoyment of the only inherent and
inalienable right of man -the right to labor.

The following resolutions were presented by Mr.
Wright, of Boston, and supported by him, as well as by
Messrs. Allen, Cox, Brown, Robinson, and Ryckman.
The matter was felt to be one, as it really is, of import-
ance to the success of the movement. The Press must
be our grand engine for carrying on the Reform. We
trust the feeling, excited and expressed at the Conven-
tion will not be allowed to die away ; but that as a most
practicable reason, as one indispensable to our harmon-
ious action, individually the workingmen will aid to ex-
tend the means of information, and support their own
press.

Resolved, that an indispensable means of accom-
plishing our reform is the dissemination of information
among the people; and for this purpose it is of the ut-
most importance to sustain those papers now established,
devoted to the cause; and that the manner in which
these publications are sustained may be considered as an
index of the interest felt in national reform.

Resolved, that every man and woman engaged in

io6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

our reform, is earnestly exhorted to extend the circula-
tion of such papers as are devoted to our cause, by be-
coming personally subscribers and obtaining the sub-
scriptions of others within the reach of their influence.

The following resolution was presented by Mr.
Pierce of Fall River.

Whereas, the present Secretary of the U.S. Navy very
severely condemned the course of his predecessors for
increasing the number of hours for labor in the U.S.
Navy Yards : therefore

Resolved, that, in the opinion of this convention, if
that officer be consistent he will exert his whole influ-
ence to have the number of hours for labor in the U.S.
service reduced to the same number they were before,
that is, ten hours per day.

(d) FIRST ANNUAL MEETING

(i) Proceedings.

Voice of Industry^ June i2, 1845.

The first meeting of the N.E. Workingmen's Associa-
tion was convened in Boston, on Wednesday the 28th
ult. In consequence of the discontinuance of the N.E.
Mechanic, a few weeks since, which was the organ of
the Association, sufficient notice of the time and place
of the Convention had not been given to all the Country
Associations to enable them to send delegates. Conse-
quently there was not so full an attendance as we could
have wished. But still there was a fair representation
of the laboring classes, and a spirit of enquiry and ad-
vancement was plainly visible.

The President, Mr. Rykeman, on taking his seat,
made an eloquent and energetic appeal to the members
encouraging them to a more faithful discharge of their
duty as workingmen. Considerable time was consumed
in transacting business incident to the Convention.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 107

A Committee of one from each association represent-
ed was then appointed to nominate a list of officers for
the ensuing year, and to report such business as they
might think proper. J. B. Lewis, Lynn; Sarah S. Bag-
ley, and J. B. Leavitt, Lowell ; Ruby C. Hatch and John
Hull, Fall River; Charles A. Dana, Brook Farm; A.
Brisbane, N. York; Wm. D. Leavitt, Woburn; J. J.
Pealer, S. Boston; Henry Styles, North Chelmsford;
and Edward Treadway, Boston -Committee.

Some discussion was had as to the propriety of ad-
mitting persons to take a part in the business of the con-
vention who are not members. The following rule was
finally adopted "All those interested in the elevation of
•the Producing Classes, and Industrial Reform, and the
extinction of Slavery and Servitude in all their forms
are invited to participate in the deliberations of the
Convention."

Afternoon Session. The following report was
read to the meeting by Miss Bagley of Lowell:

Report of Female Labor Reform. Lowell, May
25, 1845. Since the last meeting of the Workingmen's
Convention at Lowell, Mass., our numbers have been
daily increasing, our meetings generally well attended,
and the real zeal of the friends of equal rights and jus-
tice has kindled anew. Our number of members is be-
tween four and five hundred, but this we consider a
small part of the work which has been accomplished.
The humble efforts of a few females united in the holy
cause of human rights and human equalities, could not
be expected to move the world in a day. But God be
praised! we have moved the minds of the community to
think and to speak on the subject. This is truly en-
couraging. For when we can arouse the minds of men
and women to a sense of their own individual rights.

io8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

and cause them to think for themselves, then will they
begin to act for themselves! The true nobility of the
land -the laboring part of the community, have too
long been looked down upon with haughty scorn and
cold contempt, by the more prospered few, as being
unworthy a place on a level with them. We would
not seek to bring them down, (God knows that all such
are already low enough in the scale of moral excel-
lence) but we would seek to elevate, to ennoble, to raise
higher the standard of moral excellence and human at-
tainments. "Excelsior" shall be our motto; and let the
spirit of the word thrill every heart!

Act - act, in the living present,
Heart within, and God overhead 1

S. G. Bagley, Pres't.-H. J. Stone, Sec'ry.

The business committee made their report, in part,
and the following officers were chosen for the year en-
suing: L. W. Rykeman, of Brook Farm, Pres't. E.
B. Fernald, Saco, Me. ; Wm. H. Wiggins, Manchester,
N.H.; A. J. Wright; A. M. Cowles, Stonington, Ct;
Geo. B. Brown, Woonsocket, R.I., Vice Presidents,
Geo. S. Robinson, South Boston, Rec. Sec. Sarah S.
Bagley, Lowell, Cor. Sec. L. Eddy, Boston, Treasurer.
Geo. Ripley, of Brook Farm; P. W. Flanders, of Chel-
sea; Capt. Wm. Phillips, of Lynn; Silas C. Durgin, of
North Chelmsford, Executive Committee.

Mr. Cox, of Boston, introduced the subject of sustain-
ing the papers devoted to the interests of the Working-
men. He was followed by a gentleman from Lynn, and
by Mr. A. J. Wright of Boston. Their remarks were
eloquent and were listened to with much attention. We
trust they produced a salutary effect upon those who
heard them. Mr. Wright also spoke at some length on
the general plan of operations pursued by the working-

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 09

men, in their attempts to effect a reform. Mr. Horace
Greeley of N.Y. also spoke with much force on the
same subject. We regret that we are unable to give a
synopsis of their remarks.

Mr. Rykeman presented the following resolutions,
which were ably advocated by Mr. Brisbane of New
York.

Resolved, that this Convention heartily approve of
the measures taken by the New York National Reform
Convention, in reference to the call of a Convention for
forming a Reformative Constitution of the United
States ; and

Further, Resolved, that the persons there nominated
and those who shall be nominated in this Convention,
be the Convention for framing such Constitution, with
leave to admit such others as they may think proper to
their councils, either by their presence or by writing,
and that they shall meet on the second Tuesday in Octo-
ber next, in the City of New York.

After Mr. Brisbane had closed his remarks, the res-
olutions were laid on the table until evening, when they
were unanimously adopted. A large and beautiful ban-
ner from the Ladies' Association of Lowell was here
presented to the Convention by Miss Bagley and her
associates.

Robert Owen of Scotland, the celebrated philanthro-
pist, addressed the meeting in some plain and practical
remarks upon his former experience as to the abuse of
the factory system of England as far back as 1815, when
he sent a letter to Parliament, which was the subject of
much consideration, and was the basis of a temporary
change in the system. He spoke of the factory system
of Lowell and showed that the time of work for the op-
eratives should be abridged. While he was at the head

no AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

of similar establishments in England, he had adopted
the system which he had recommended to Parliament,
and found it highly beneficial to the proprietor and
operative. Mr. Owen then went into a general investi-
gation of the relations of Capital and Labor, which was
exceedingly valuable, as being marked by the lessons of
a long experience, a feeling of respect for the laborer,
and an earnest wish for the amelioration of his condi-
tion.

Evening Session. A report from Fall River Ladies'
Mechanic Association was presented to the Convention
and ordered to be placed on file.

The Convention was addressed by Mr. Dana of B.
Farm, and Mr. Brisbane of N.Y., on the subject of As-
sociation and the best means of benefiting mankind.
Several other gentlemen also spoke on the subject of
Reform, the object of the Convention, &c. At lo o'clock
adj. to Thursday morning.

Morning Session. After the adoption of the Resolu-
tions in relation to the U.S. Constitution, a committee
was appointed to nominate delegates to attend the Con-
vention to be holden in New York in October next. In
the afternoon, the Committee reported the following,
which was adopted: Boston -A. J. Wright, Wendell
Phillips, Wm. L. Garrison, Marcus Morton; Charles-
town- Frederick Robertson; Brook Farm-L. W. Ryke-
man, Chas. A. Dana; Lowell -Abijah Watson, A.
Smith, S. G. Bagley, H. J. Stone, S. Hathaway; Lynn-
N. W. Brown, Henry Clapp, Wm. Phillips; Woburn-
Wm. Totman, Henry Wendell; Fall River-Thos. D.
Chalmer, John Hull; West Roxbury- Theodore Park-
er; Stonington-A. T. Cowles, Thos. M. Brown; Fitch-
burg- P. C. Pettibone, John Seism.

The following resolution was presented and adopted:

Resolved, that Associations in the various election

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 1 1

districts, are recommended to question all candidates
for office, in respect to their willingness to support and
advocate measures of Labor Reform, (general or spe-
cial) in which said Association from time to time may
be interested.

The following was offered by Mr. Eddy, of Boston:

Resolved, that the discontinuance of the Neio Eng-
land Mechanic is to be regretted by all who seek the
elevation of the oppressed, and that we earnestly hope
an awakened interest of the people upon the subject,
will induce its Editor to resume and continue its pub-
lication.

Mr. Hatch, of Brook Farm, offered the following,
which he supported by a few able remarks :

Resolved, that we, as Workingmen, should use all
means within our power to accomplish the objects we
have in view, and

Therefore Resolved, that we recommend to the
Workingmen throughout the country, to organize them-
selves into societies and employ public teachers to dis-
seminate their views, and that Sunday be appropriated
to that purpose.

John A. Collins of N.Y., addressed the Convention
for more than an hour, in favor of the above resolution.
Mr. C. is a most powerful speaker, and his arguments
on this occasion were clear, forcible and strong. The
Resolutions were adopted.

The venerable Mr. Owen, spoke on the character of
the Convention, the liberal and reformatory spirit which
had been manifested, and expressed his earnest hope
that much good might be accomplished. . .

(2) Comment from Lowell.

Voice of Industry^ July 3, X845; quoted from the Lowell Journal.

Meeting our friend, Horace Greeley, of N. York,
and learning that he was to attend the workingmen's

112 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

convention, I thought I would attend it. It was held in
the Chapel, under the museum. I should think that
about twenty men and about ten women attended as
delegates. Robert Owen, John A. Collins, Albert Bris-
bane, W. H. Channing and Horace Greeley addressed
them. A banner was presented by a lady from Lowell.
She made quite a pretty speech, which was answered by
the President and W. H. Channing. Much complaint
was made by the members about the want of interest
felt by the workingmen for the cause of reform. I am
not in the least surprised that the workingmen of Mass-
achusetts care nothing for such reforms as were pro-
posed by some of the members. A member from your
City made a speech in which he said that Capitalists
and Priests had joined hands to put down, grind and
oppress the laboring men -that commerce, manufactur-
ing and foreign emigration were killing them -that
there were ten times more slavery in Lowell, than on
the Southern Plantations -that Lowell manufactured
the prostitutes of New York, and that the first thing
that must be done to elevate the workingmen, was to
collect and burn the Sunday School books, which were
poisoning the minds of the young. Such sentiments
were listened to without rebuke by men calling them-
selves reformers -the friends of the laboring classes.
No wonder the meeting was thinly attended -no wonder
the clear headed, stout-hearted, practical workingmen
of Massachusetts, who have been reared in our free
schools and Sabbath schools and churches should care
nothing for such reforms. This talk about slavery in
the Lowell mills is one of the smallest humbugs of the
day. Slaves in Lowell! Farmers' daughters, educated
in our district schools, free to go where they please and
to work where they please, held up to the world as ten

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 113

times greater slaves than the poor girls who are bought
and sold -and treated like brutes, and that too in a con-
vention of workingmen. My feelings and sympathies
are with the workingmen of the country. Everything
should be done that can be to aid them to improve
their moral, intellectual and social powers. The mechan-
ics and laboring men of Massachusetts have, during the
last few years, made greater progress than any other
class of men. And the very causes which have produced
that progress are denounced by some professed friends
of the laboring classes as they call them. It is all hum-
bug and some of them know it. Some of the speeches
were full of hatred and littleness -not one generous and
noble sentiment redeemed them. Some of the speakers
were men of large and generous hearts, and showed
that they had a sincere desire to promote the interests
and happiness of all mankind. Albert Brisbane brought
forward a plan which he said he had well matured.
I have not time nor inclination to state its provisions at
this time, but, it seemed to me one of the greatest pieces
of folly I ever heard propounded by a man out of a
madhouse. Yours, H. W.

(e) LYNN CONVENTION, JANUARY, 1846

The True fVorkingman, Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 1846.

The convention met according to adjournment, Fri-
day, Jan. i6th, at the Town Hall in Lynn, and was
called to order by J. B. Leavitt, of Lowell; W. F.
Young, sec. pro tem. A committee was chosen to ex-
amine the credentials of the delegates, when it was
found the following towns were represented, viz:

Boston, Lowell, Roxbury, Fitchburg, Reading, East
Bridgewater; a larger number of delegates were in at-
tendance from Lowell than any other place, and it was

114

AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

[Vol.

better represented by ladies than Lynn, even; quite a
number of the Ladies' Association being present. . .
It was voted, to give all persons present an invitation to
partake ih the deliberations of the convention.

Committee to nominate officers, reported as follows :
for president, David Bryant, of Boston; vice pres.,
Phillip Chase, of Lynn; secretary, W. F. Parker of
Lynn; assistant sec, W. F. Young, of Lowell.

The convention being fairly organized, Mr. Clapp of
Lynn, made a short speech upon the necessity of the
laboring classes taking decisive action with regard to
our present foreign relations, which brought up the fol-
lowing preamble and resolutions from the secretary.

Whereas, appearances indicate that a war with Great
Britain may take place, and as, in all such emergencies,
the laboring classes are the greatest, and almost the only
sufferers, and believing there is virtue and integrity
enough in the people, both on this and on the other side
of the water, to settle all impending difficulties, without
a resort to arms, therefore

Resolved, that it is the duty of the laboring class, to
take the matter into their own hands, and act imme-
diately and decidedly, letting their servants, who assume
to be their rulers, know that if they create war, they
shall do the fighting.

Resolved, that so far from regarding the laboring
man on the other side of the water as our enemy, and
shooting him as such, we regard him as our friend, and
will do all in our power to better his condition.

Resolved, that we will never consent to be dragged
from our workshops and fields by a horde of unprin-
cipled politicians, to fight for soil which we can never
call our own, while they live in splendor and luxury.

Resolved, that we recommend mass meetings and

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 1 5

conventions of laboring men, on this and the other side
of the water, to be called immediately, to take this sub-
ject into consideration.

Mr. Hovey of Boston, offered the following:

Resolved, that the lands of Oregon belong neither to
the government of Great Britain or the government of
the States, but that they belong to the human race, and
that any man from any part of the world has a right to
as much land as he will cultivate.

After which J. C. Cluer, of Lowell, offered the fol-
lowing:

Resolved, that those ministers of the gospel, who
pray for the success of armies, and otherwise counte-
nance fighting and bloodshed be requested to be consist-
ent, to go and do the fighting themselves, and leave the
work of preaching to humane men.

These resolutions were ably discussed by Messrs.
Grandin of Maine; Hovey, Campbell, Kaulback, and
Wright of Boston ; Cluer, Young, and Palmer, of Low-
ell; Hatch of Roxbury, and Newhall of Lynn. The
feeling with regard to war on the other side of the
water, together with the means used to induce men to
join the army, were ably set forth by Mr. Cluer, who
said he would not himself offer such a resolution, being
a foreigner, but still, he would go for them heart and
hand, recommending that they be published in all the
papers in this country, and in the "people's paper,"
(the Northern Star) in London, where they would be
read by "scores of thousands" in a few weeks. Nearly
all the other speakers argued the necessity of passing
the resolutions. Some objection was offered to the last
resolution offered by Mr. Cluer, on account of its re-
flection upon the clergy. Mr. Kaulback contended that
the community is indebted to the clergy for all the light

Ii6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

it now possesses, and that to single them out as a point
of attack, was unjust and unfair. Rev. Mr. Usher, of
Lynn, made a speech in defense of his position, saying,
"he did not feel himself hit" by the resolution. After
several amendments had been offered and rejected, and
after some little sparring about who should vote, the
resolutions were finally passed about 8 o'clock in the
evening, with but two or three dissenting votes. Mr.
Cluer offered the following resolutions, in behalf, as he
said, of the Lowell factory girls.

Resolved, that the New England convention take
into consideration the best means for shortening the
present long hours of labor, alias, they aid the "ten
hour" movement.

Resolved, that in accordance with the expressed opin-
ions of many who wish to bring about a reduction, by
mutual agreement between the employers and the em-
ployed, this convention recommend a convention for ac-
complishing this object, to be held on the 2d Wednesday
in April, at Boston, and appoint a committee, to issue
a circular, to the manufacturers and operatives of the
United States for that purpose.

After a speech of considerable length from Mr. Clu-
er, in support of the resolutions, in which he set forth
the injustice of the present "long hour" system, giving
many facts with regard to the factory system in Lowell,
and in this country generally, showing it to be almost
as bad and the wages of the laborer almost, if not quite
as low, as in the old country. The convention adjourned
to Saturday at 9 o'clock, a.m.

Saturday, Jan. 17, 1846. . . Whereas, there are
at the present time, three millions of our brethren and
sisters, groaning in chains on the southern plantation
and whereas, we wish, not only to be consistent, but to

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 17

secure to all others, those rights and privileges for
which we are contending ourselves, therefore

Resolved, that while we honor and respect our fore-
fathers, for the noble manner in which they resisted
British oppression; we, their descendants, will never be
guilty of the glaring inconsistency of taking up arms,
to shoot and to stab those who use the same means to ac-
complish the same objects.

Resolved, that while we are willing to pledge our-
selves to use all the means in our power consistent with
our principles to put down wars, insurrections, and
mobs, and to protect all men from the evils of the same,
we will never take up arms to sustain the southern
slaveholder in robbing one fifth of our countrymen of
their liberty.

Resolved, that we recommend our brethren to speak
out in thunder tones, both as associations, and as indi-
viduals, and let it no longer be said, that northern la-
borers, while they are endeavoring to gain their own
rights, are nothing but a standing army, that keeps
three millions of their brethren and sisters in bondage
at the point of the bayonet.

These resolutions were discussed at some length by
Messrs. Hovey and Cluer. Mr. Kaulback of Boston
spoke of the difficulties and the consequences of carry-
ing out these resolutions, and exhorted the people not to
vote for them without giving them due deliberation,
after which they were passed without one dissenting vote.

Mr. Cluer's '^ten hour" resolution was then taken up
and discussed by several present, eliciting many facts
and much valuable information in relation to the fac-
tory system and its supporters. The resolutions were
unanimously adopted, together with the following re-
port of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association:

1 1 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol,

Report of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Asso-
ciation. Since our last meeting in Lowell, particularly
within the last six weeks, a deeper and more thrilling
interest has been manifested in our "association," than
at any time heretofore. We have had some talk about
a "Declaration of Independence" providing all the
measures now under consideration should fail; and
many have expressed a willingness, provided the minds
of the operatives shall be prepared, "to take the work
into their own hands, and declare their independence
on the fourth of July next." Another pleasing symp-
tom to our association, is a great increase of liberal feel-
ing. They do not regard this measure, (the reduction
of the hours of labor) as an end, but only as one step,
towards the great end to be attained. They deeply feel,
that their work will never be accompished, until slavery
and oppression, mental, physical, and religious, shall
have been done away, and Christianity in its original
simplicity, and pristine beauty, shall be re-established
and practiced among men. "Onward" is their watch-
word, and, "We'll try again," their motto; and they
are resolved to "try again" and again, and yet again,
until the work shall be accomplished or their work on
earth shall cease. HANNAH Tarlton, vice pres.

M. Emerson, sec. pro tem.

. . . The following resolution, offered by Dr.
Grandin, of Maine, was then taken up, and discussed
at length by Messrs. Grandin, Hovey, Campbell, Brown,
and Young.

Resolved, that the cause of justice and equal rights,
as well as the interest of the industrial classes, demand
the abolition of all laws for the collection of a revenue
from imports, and that so far as a revenue is necessary
for the support of a just government, it should be raised
by a direct tax on property.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 19

A resolution to this effect was passed at the last con-
vention but the subject was considered of sufficient im-
portance to justify another expression. Passed unani-
mously.

The next resolution was offered by H. Clapp, Jr., of
Lynn, after a speech in which he urged the laboring
class to look well after their moral and intellectual cul-
tivation.

Resolved, that the cause of popular, and especially
adult education ought to find its strongest support
amongst the friends of radical reform, no obstacles in
the way of such reform being greater than the low state
of moral and intellectual culture. . .

(f) COOPERATION

(i) Action of Fall River Convention, September, 1845.
Voice of Industry, Sept. 18, 1845.

Resolved, that there is little and most uncertain pow-
er in the present grasping, selfish and monopolizing in-
stitutions of Society, to develop the virtues, secure the
rights, or promote happiness of the people; that on the
contrary, while the social and political institutions re-
main as they are, there is an absolute certainty of a
constant and rapid increase of vice, oppression and mis-
ery, destined for them to suffer.

Resolved, that the first inherent rights of man, is the
right of paternal protection, and that the relation of the
parent to the child is the antetype of the true relation
that exists between the government and the individual ;
and that this relation ought to be acknowledged and
practically adopted as the basis of all law and govern-
ment.

Resolved, that in the judgment of this Convention,
a resort to the Polls is the only practical and effectual
measure which the Workingmen can at present adopt
for the defense of their rights.

120 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Whereas, all means of Reform heretofore offered by
the friends of Social Reform, have failed to unite the
producing classes, much less attract their attention,
therefore.

Resolved, that Protective Charity and concert of
action in the purchase of the necessaries of life, are the
only means to the end, to obtain that union which will
end in their amelioration. . .

Mr. Kaulback of Boston, spoke at some length in fa-
vor of the last Resolution, upon the necessity of some
new measure, of "concert of action and protective char-
ity," that shall produce some united system to protect
the workingmen against the cupidity of mercenary
speculation and grasping monopolization and unite
them into a charitable business organization. He said
the Mechanics of Boston had in view, a plan to better
the condition of the Workingmen of that city. It was
simple in its nature, but he hoped the plan would not be
despised because of its simplicity. They proposed to
form a society, the initiation fee to which should be two
dollars. None of this money was to be expended, until
it had accumulated to a sum of $500; then three-fifths
might be taken to purchase provisions, &c. at cheap,
wholesale prices, for the benefit of the members. Mr.
K. enlarged somewhat upon this subject and showed
that it might be made beneficial to those who would en-
gage in it.

Mr. Denton of New Bedford, opposed the Resolu-
tion, contending that nothing short of an entire revolu-
tion in society, can remedy the evils under which the
laboring people suffer. Mr. Brown was inclined to
doubt the efficacy of such a measure to do away with the
present destructive state of things -he wished to remove
the cause of our evils and the measure embodied in the

eight]

HOURS OF LABOR

121

Resolution would fail to accomplish such a desirable
end, being too superficial in its character; but should
favor it so far as it went towards a relief.

Mr. Ryckman regretted that such a resolution should
be urged, as the N.E. Association was organized upon
a broader and nobler basis -it aimed at something more
fundamental in its character, that shall not merely am-
eliorate the working classes, but disenthrall the laborer
from the power of misused capital, and place him upon
his own true platform, and secure to him the right to all
that legitimately belongs to man in his individual or
collective relations. He wished to see some united,
moral, intelligent action through the ballot box. He
thought the sentiments embodied in the Resolution
tended to retrograde rather than progress.

Mr. Young thought the object of the Resolution under
discussion, was not fully understood by the President -
it did not conflict with any general principles upon
which the New-England Association was founded or
theories that might be entertained by any friend to so-
cial or political reform. It merely recommended a
united, mutual and charitable action, whereby the pro-
ducers might secure the necessaries of life without hav-
ing them enhanced by passing through the speculators'
|and useless exchangers' hands. It is a point of no small
importance, to provide the half starved women and
[children of Boston and New York with the means of
daily subsistence, without being dependent upon the
[mercenary insanity and heartless capital of the day.
'he resolution suggested the importance of some mu-
[tual pecuniary organization among the mechanics and
laborers that shall accumulate by degrees a reserved
(fund from which they may purchase on an economical
bcale, the daily necessaries and protect them from many

122 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

calamities with which they are visited; thus furnishing
a stepping-stone and providing some means for their
future progress and preparing the way for their final
elevation.

(2) Amendment, Lowell Convention, October, 1845.
The True Working Man, Dec. 13, 1845.

Resolved, that protective charity and concert of ac-
tion in the purchase of necessaries of life are some of
the means to the end, to obtain that union which will
end in their amelioration.

(3) Nashua Convention, September, 1846.
Voice of Industry, Oct. 2, 1846.

Mr. Currier of Manchester, stated that he came as a'
Delegate from the Manchester Division of the "Pro-
tective Union," and spoke encouragingly of its condi-
tion and future prospects.

Mr. Ross of Manchester followed and gave some in-
teresting thoughts upon the same subject- from his own
observation, he had come to the conclusion that the
working people of Manchester paid a yearly tax of one
hundred thousand dollars for the support of mercantile
non-producers, in that city, which vast sum they might
save by the "Protective Union" if fully carried out.

Mr. Kaulback addressed the meeting in his usual
candid manner, upon the same subject; stating that the
Boston Divisions had succeeded beyond the expectations
of their most sanguine friends.

Mr. Young introduced the following Resolution,
which was adopted,

Resolved, that under the present unnatural, uncer-
tain, and competing state of Labor, the inadequate en-
couragement and protection it gives to the laborer, and
in view of the tendencies of our present false and unjust
commercial arrangements, which gives such a large^

eight]

HOURS OF LABOR

123

proportion of the products of labor, to the mere ex-
changer; thereby creating a numerous and useless class
of rich commercial non-producers, who live in affluence
and luxury at the expense of the working classes, this
Convention recommend to the workingmen and women,
throughout N. England, the formation of mutual guar-
antee Associations, similar to the "Workingmen's Pro-
tective Union;" for the purpose of promoting that di-
rect interchange of productions, between the producer
and consumer, so essential to the elevation of the labor-
ing classes, by securing to honest toil its just rewards.

(g) POLITICS

Voice of Industry. From report of proceedings, Fall River Conven-
tion, Sept., 1845.

[September 18, 1845]. . . Mr. Babcock of Bos-
ton, was of the opinion that the working people would
not accomplish the objects of the Resolutions without
resorting to the ballot box; thought we should send
workingmen to the State and National councils; who
will legislate for labor as well as capital. He also gave
an interesting account of the manner in which the me-
chanics of Boston were treated by the State Legislature
last winter, when that body was petitioned from many
parts of the State to pass a Lien Law for the protection
of Mechanics against dishonest soulless contractors, of
whom there were many in that city. He showed con-
clusively that if the workingmen ever expect any thing
from the Legislature they must send men there from
among themselves who would pass such laws as shall
aid and protect them in securing and defending their
rights. This sentiment was warmly responded to by
the Convention.

Mr. Brown of Lynn, favored the resolutions but op-

124 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

posed political action, contending that it would generate
new wrongs and new abuses. . .

[September 25, 1845]. . . Mr. March, of Lowell,
took the floor and spoke in favor of the resolutions in-
troduced the previous evening. He urged political
action as the best means to gain a reduction of the hours
of labor, in our manufactories, and the final redemp-
tion of the working classes from the power of combined,
incorporated, protected capital. His Association had
instructed him thus to speak, and he felt bound in
justice to his constituents and to his own feelings, to call
the attention of the Convention to the necessity of re-
sorting to the ballot box to ameliorate the condition of
the working people. He spoke at some length upon the
condition of the Lowell operatives and of the Factory
system of New England.

Mr. Douglass of Bridgewater, was of the opinion
that the present system of labor was such, that a resort
to the ballot box would fail to accomplish any imme-
diate good, or unite the mechanics and laborers into any
efficient organization. He thought the community
should have more light upon this subject; the Press
should be invoked, and public opinion set at work.

Mr. Allen wished to say a word relative to the work-
ingmen's movement. He had some previous knowledge
on this subject. He attended a convention held in Bos-
ton in 1834, when political action was introduced and
adopted, and the result was a signal failure and death
to the movement at that time. He had no confidence
in such a course as it would, in case of a political tri-
umph, merely transfer the evils instead of exterminat-
ing them. He wished to see more preaching of the
truth, more talking and more thinking among the work-
ing classes. Mr. A. spoke at some length, feelingly and
consistently. . .

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 125

[At the Lowell Convention in October the resolution
as adopted reads,]

That in the judgment of this convention, a resort to
the polls is one of the practical and effectual measures
which the workingmen can at present adopt for the de-
fense of their rights.'"*

(h) LABOR REFORM LEAGUE OF NEW ENGLAND

(i) Nashua Convention, 1846.

Foice of Industry, Oct. 2, 1846. The Nashua Convention, Sept., 1846,

voted to sustain the Foice of Industry, and to adopt the following

Preamble and Resolution.

Believing in the Rights of Man to himself and to his
family, to the choice of industrial pursuits, and to an
equivalent for what he produces, in contradistinction to
all systems of slavery, compulsion, fraud or injustice;
believing in the rights of all persons to the free use of
the soil, motive-power, and machinery; in short, the
rights of Labor, despite the authority of posthumous
claims, monopoly or privilege; in the rights of all to
life, to an "inalienable homestead", and to the best op-
portunities of education, in opposition to all systems of
war, dependence, tenantry, or partiality in distributing
of the blessings of a divine providence; in the right of
the people, so to organize Commerce and Labor, as to
dispense with an increasing class of non-producers, and
furnish them with useful employment, by establishing
relations of guaranteeism in Protective Union for mu-
tual aid and sympathy, in sickness and misfortune, in-
fancy and old age, in contrast with the chaos, competi-
tion and oppression which now prevail, in the sphere of
trade and industry, and with the poverty and wants to
which we are exposed in present society; the under-
signed, workingmen and women of New England, vol-
untarily organize ourselves into an Industrial Reform

i<> True Working Man, Dec. 13, 1845.

126 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Association, whose aim shall be the establishment of
these rights, and the discharge of these mutual obliga-
tions. . .

Resolved, that the authorities of the city of Boston,
in their decision, not to allow any Contractor to be em-
ployed by the "Water Commissioners," until they
should give security that all the laborers be paid; also I
their determination that no intoxicating drinks be used,
and their contemplation that Ten Hours shall constitute
a day's work, until the enterprise is completed, deserves
the commendation of this Convention, and every friend
to the good of the laboring classes.

(2) Boston Convention, 1847.
Voice of Industry , Jan. 22, 1847.

The Labor Reform League assembled agreeable to
notice, at Chapman Hall, Boston, on Wednesday morn-
ing. After organization and some preliminary busi-
ness, the Convention proceeded to discuss Resolutions
relating to the hours of labor, the Freedom of the Soil,
and the "Inalienable home," "Free Trade," ^^ Protective
Unions," the tenements of the working people, &c.
These questions drew out many valuable facts and in-
teresting addresses. Delegates were in attendance from
Manchester, N.H., Lynn, Holliston, Boston, Lowell,
Amesbury, Danvers, East Bridgewater and other places.
The meetings were also cheered by the presence and ad-
dresses of Amasa Walker, Rev. Mr. Burton, Minister
at large of Boston, Wm. A. White, Dr. Channing, S. P.
Andrews, S. H. Allen, and J. N. Buffum, who severally
spoke with feelings of deep devotion for the interest and
elevation of the laboring millions. Although differing
with some of these men as to the means for finally ac-
complishing the great work before us; yet, their large
hearts and universal benevolence, render their presence
welcome at all meetings for the benefit of humanity-

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 127

our aims are one and the same -the building up of the
kingdom of Justice. Messrs. White and Walker, spoke
in strong terms of approbation of the Free Soil move-
ment, Free Trade, and the Protective Union, and urged
the working men to continue to agitate, until they shall
gain that position they are entitled to, as members of
the great brotherhood.

We have never seen a more rational zeal on any
former occasion ; and new hope and energy seems to be
infused into the hearts of those who have long struggled
to arouse the community to a sense of the wrongs of the
sons and daughters of toil. The public mind is becom-
ing awake to this important subject, and we believe the
day is not far distant, when the God-given rights of all
men to a home on the Earth, shall be practically ac-
knowledged. Much credit is due Messrs. James Camp-
bell and John Turner, for the efficient exertions, in
making ample arrangements for the Convention, which
added much to its success and usefulness and we hope
they will be fully rewarded in seeing the cause of the
people and humanity, triumph over wrong and op-
pression.

The Resolutions in favor of the National Reform
Movement, Free Trade and direct taxation upon prop-
erty to support Government, a reduction of the hours
of labor and the Protective Union, were adopted, and
Convention finally adjourned to meet at Lowell, last
Tuesday of March.

(i) THE TEN-HOURS STATE CONVENTION, BOSTON,
1852. (PAMPHLET)

To THE People of Massachusetts :

Fellow Citizens : The friends of a Ten Hours Law,
assembled in State Convention, have determined to take
the field, by organized political action, for the purpose

128 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

of securing an enactment effective to reduce the hours of
labor. In doing this, they do not propose to form a
distinct political party; but they have so organized as
to present this question distinctly at the polls, in the
election of State Senators and Representatives. There-
fore, they set forth in this Address the precise nature of
the legislation they seek to accomplish, and also some
of the reasons why they believe it is demanded by the
public welfare. For this project of a law, and the rea-
sons therefor, they most respectfully bespeak your care-
ful and candid consideration.

Protest against ineffective Ten Hours Laws. That
we may not be misunderstood, we, in the first place, re-
pudiate and oppose the project of a law to establish the
number of hours to constitute the legal standard of a
day's work- a project associated in the public mind
with the idea of the ''Ten Hours System." We believe
it is the intention of the Great Creator to shorten the
time of man's toil, and to extend his opportunities for
moral, social and intellectual improvement, by the in-
troduction of labor-saving machinery, and by the pow-
ers and mechanical uses of water, steam and electricity.
We are not prepared to say that ten hours is the mini-
mum to which it is His intention, by these means, to re-
duce labor. If it be God's will to abridge man's daily
labor to eight, six, or even a less number of hours, we 11
ought cheerfully to submit and say -''Thy will be
done." Inasmuch, therefore, as a legal Ten Hours
Standard of daily labor might exceed the measure of the
Great Ruler's intentions, it would be unwise for the
Legislature thus to set its authority in possible opposi-
tion to His designs, by a law which would impede
rather than aid the reduction of the hours of labor. Al-
ready under the progressive spirit of the age, in some

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 129

employments, custom has established much less than ten
hours a day as a rule of labor. Shall the Legislature,
by making a ten hours standard, deprive the laboring
men of rights which established custom now gives them,
or force them to labor more hours and abandon a re-
form already accomplished? By doing this, it would
wrong those who now work less than ten hours, while it
would not aid, in the slightest degree, in reducing the
hours of labor of those who work more hours. This
Convention therefore earnestly protests against any such
"Ten Hours Law." We seek the abridgement of the
hours of labor -not a new method of measuring the
present hours.

And again, that we may not be misunderstood, we
distinctly and emphatically declare, that we do not pro-
pose any legislation to interfere, in any manner what-
ever, with the hours of labor in agricultural, mechan-
ical, or any other occupation, carried on by individual
enterprise.

The genuine Law defined. But we do declare,
explicitly and frankly, that our purpose, and our whole
purpose, is, the enactment of a law which shall prohibit,
in stringent and unmistakable terms, and under ade-
quate penalties, the corporations, chartered by the laws
of the State, from employing any person in laboring
more than ten hours in any one day. This is just the
law- and all the law- we want on this subject; and we
shall not relax our organization or efforts, until this be
accomplished! . . .

Diminution of Hours increases Wages. The op-
ponents of the reduction of the hours of labor although
without solid reasons upon which to found their ob-
jections, are not without pretexts to excuse them. Per-
haps the objection which has thus far been most effect-

130 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

ive, is the assumption that wages must be diminished in
proportion to the reduction of the hours. But this can-
not be maintained in the light of any rational argument.
On the contrary it will be found on fair examination to
be an entire delusion; and a result just the reverse -viz:
that a reduction of the hours will increase the wages of
labor-will be proved to be the true solution of the
problem.

Wages are governed by the great law of trade -the
law of supply and demand. The price of labor as well
as that of any other commodity rises and falls under the
operation of this law; and it is impossible to control it
by any other power or law whatever. There is a certain
amount of the productions of labor demanded by the
wants of the community, and there are a certain number
of laborers ready for employment to supply the demand.
As the demand for or the supply of laborers is in excess,
wages will rise or fall.

Now therefore, to ascertain what effect reduction of
the hours will have on the wages of labor, its effect upon
the amount of the production of those, whose hours are
reduced, must first be known. The result of the reduc-
tion of hours must be, either, the same production, or an
increase or a diminution of production. Supposing the
demand for the productions of labor to remain the
same; what will be the effect upon wages of each of
these possible results?

In the first place if there result neither increase nor
diminution by the same laborers, then neither the sup-
ply nor the demand of labor will be affected; the same
work will be done by the same persons, and wages will
neither rise nor fall.

Secondly, if reduction of hours should increase the
amount of production by the same laborers, it would be

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 131

equivalent to increasing the supply of labor, and would
result in overproduction. A discharge of a portion of
the laborers would be the consequence. This would be
followed by a competing pressure of the unemployed,
to obtain employment; and this in turn would effect a
reduction of wages.

The third and only other alternative would be a
diminution of the amount of production by the same
persons. This would be equivalent to diminishing the
supply of labor. More laborers would be wanted
therefore, and the competing pressure of employers to
obtain enough to satisfy their new want, must necessarily
produce an advance of wages.

Of these three only possible results of the reduction
of the hours of labor, the first will probably occur very
generally in those employments, in which the work is
all manual labor unaided by machinery. In such cases
it is generally admitted that as much will be performed
in ten, as in twelve or more hours a day. Of course em-
ployers will get the same work and laborers the same
wages ; while the latter will save from toil two or more
hours a day to be otherwise employed to their own ad-
vantage.

The second proposition -an increase of production
by the same laborers -is the only contingency, in which
a reduction of wages could result from reduction of
hours of labor. But this is not dreamed of as a possibil-
ity, and deserves no further notice.

The third proposition, under which, as shown above,
an advance of wages must inevitably result, would be
generally realized in the case of labor in factories, and
in mechanical employments, in which machinery is
much used.

This theory proceeds upon the supposition that the

1 3 2 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

demand for the products of labor will remain un-
changed by the adoption of the Ten Hours System. But
this is not quite correct. The reduction of the hours of
labor, by improving the moral, social and physical con-
dition of the laboring people, and by increasing their
wages, will tend to increase their consumption of the
products of labor. And again, if the production of ma-
chinery now running be diminished under the Ten
Hours System, more mills and more machines will be
required. These new demands for things produced by
labor, will increase the demand for laborers, and tend
to enhance wages still more. . .

3. LEGISLATIVE INVESTIGATIONS IN
MASSACHUSETTS

(a) THE FIRST OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION OF LABOR
CONDITIONS, 1845

Massachusetts House Document, no. 50, March, 1845.

The Special Committee to which was referred sundry
petitions relating to the hours of labor, have considered
the same and submit the following Report:

The first petition which was referred to your com-
mittee, came from the city of Lowell, and was signed
by Mr. John Quincy Adams Thayer, and eight hundred
and fifty others, "peaceable, industrious, hard working
men and women of Lowell." The petitioners declare
that they are confined "from thirteen to fourteen hours
per day in unhealthy apartments," and are thereby
"hastening through pain, disease and privation, down
to a premature grave." They therefore ask the Legis-
lature "to pass a law providing that ten hours shall con-
stitute a day's work," and that no corporation or private
citizen "shall be allowed, except in cases of emergency,
to employ one set of hands more than ten hours per
day."

The second petition came from the town of Fall Riv-
er, and is signed by John Gregory and four hundred
and eighty-eight others. These petitioners ask for the
passage of a law to constitute "ten hours a day's work in
all corporations created by the Legislature."

The third petition signed by Samuel W. Clark and
five hundred others, citizens of Andover, is in precisely
the same words as the one from Fall River.

134 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

The fourth petition is from Lowell, and is signed by
James Carle and three hundred others. The petitioners
ask for the enactment of a law making ten hours a day's
work, where no specific agreement is entered into be-
tween the parties.

The whole number of names on the several petitions
is 2,139, of which 1,151 are from Lowell. A very large
proportion of the Lowell petitioners are females. Near-
ly one half of the Andover petitioners are females. The
petition from Fall River is signed exclusively by males.

In view of the number and respectability of the peti-
tioners who had brought their grievances before the
Legislature, the Committee asked for and obtained
leave of the House to send for "persons and papers," in
order that they might enter into an examination of the
matter, and report the result of their examination to the
Legislature as a basis for legislative action, should any
be deemed necessary.

On the 13th of February, the Committee held a ses-
sion to hear the petitioners from the city of Lowell. Six
of the female and three of the male petitioners were
present, and gave in their testimony.

The first petitioner who testified was Eliza R. Hem-
mingway. She had worked 2 years and 9 months in the
Lowell Factories; 2 years in the Middlesex, and 9
months in the Hamilton Corporations. Her employ-
ment is weaving -works by the piece. The Hamilton
Mill manufactures cotton fabrics. The Middlesex,
woollen fabrics. She is now at work in the Middlesex
Mills, and attends one loom. Her wages average from
$16 to $23 a month exclusive of board. She complained
of the hours for labor being too many, and the time for
meals too limited. In the summer season, the work is
commenced at 5 o'clock, a.m., and continued till 7

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 135

o'clock, p.m., with half an hour for breakfast and three
quarters of an hour for dinner. During eight months
of the year, but half an hour is allowed for dinner. The
air in the room she considered not to be wholesome.
There were 293 small lamps and 61 large lamps lighted
in the room in which she worked, when evening work is
required. These lamps are also lighted sometimes in
the morning. About 130 females, 11 men, and 12 chil-
dren (between the ages of 11 and 14) work in the room
with her. She thought the children enjoyed about as
good health as children generally do. The children
work but 9 months out of 12. The other 3 months they
must attend school. Thinks that there is no day when
there are less than six of the females out of the mill
from sickness. Has known as many as thirty. She,
herself, is out quite often, on account of sickness. There
was more sickness in the Summer than in the Winter
months ; though in the Summer, lamps are not lighted.
She thought there was a general desire among the fe-
males to work but ten hours, regardless of pay. Most
of the girls are from the country, who work in the Low-
ell Mills. The average time which they remain there
is about three years. She knew one girl who had
worked there 14 years. Her health was poor when she
left. Miss Hemmingway said her health was better
where she now worked, than it was when she worked
on the Hamilton Corporation. She knew of one girl
who last winter went into the mill at half past 4 o'clock,
a.m., and worked till half past 7 o'clock, p.m. She did
so to make more money. She earned from $25 to $30
per month. There is always a large number of girls at
the gate wishing to get in before the bell rings. On
the Middlesex Corporation one fourth part of the fe-
males go into the mill before they are obliged to. They

1 3 6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

do this to make more wages. A large number come to
Lowell to make money to aid their parents who are
poor. She knew of many cases where married women
came to Lowell and worked in the mills to assist their
husbands to pay for their farms. The moral character
of the operatives is good. There was only one Amer-
ican female in the room with her who could not write
her name.

Miss Sarah G. Bagley said she had worked in the
Lowell Mills eight years and a half, six years and a half
on the Hamilton Corporation, and two years on the
Middlesex. She is a weaver, and works by the piece.
She worked in the mills three years before her health
began to fail. She is a native of New Hampshire, and
went home six weeks during the summer. Last year
she was out of the mill a third of the time. She thinks
the health of the operatives is not so good as the health
of females who do house-work or millinery business.
The chief evil, so far as health is concerned, is the
shortness of time allowed for meals. The next evil is
the length of time employed -not giving them time to
cultivate their minds. She spoke of the high moral and
intellectual character of the girls. That many were
engaged as teachers in the Sunday schools. That many
attended the lectures of the Lowell Institute; and she
thought, if more time was allowed, that more lectures
would be given and more girls attend. She thought
that the girls generally were favorable to the ten hour
S3^stem. She had presented a petition, same as the one
before the Committee, to 132 girls, most of whom said
that they would prefer to work but ten hours. In a pe-
cuniary point of view, it would be better, as their health
would be improved. They would have more time for
sewing. Their intellectual, moral and religious habits
would also be benefited by the change. Miss Bagley

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 137

said, in addition to her labor in the mills, she had kept
evening school during the winter months, for four
years, and thought that this extra labor must have in-
jured her health.

Miss Judith Payne testified that she came to Lowell
16 years ago, and worked a year and a half in the Mer-
rimack Cotton Mills, left there on account of ill health,
and remained out over seven years. She was sick most
of the time she was out. Seven years ago she went to
work in the Boott Mills, and has remained there ever
since ; works by the piece. She has lost, during the last
seven years, about one year from ill health. She is a
weaver, and attends three looms. Last pay-day she
drew $14.66 for five weeks work; this was exclusive of
board. She was absent during the five weeks but half
a day. She says there is a very general feeling in favor
of the ten hour system among the operatives. She at-
tributes her ill health to the long hours of labor, the
shortness of time for meals, and the bad air of the mills.
She had never spoken to Mr. French, the agent, or to
the overseer of her room, in relation to these matters.
She could not say that more operatives died in Lowell
than other people.

Miss Olive J. Clark is employed on the Lawrence
Corporation; has been there five years; makes about
$i.62j^ per week, exclusive of board. She has been
home to New Hampshire to school. Her health never
was good. The work is not laborious; can sit down
about a quarter of the time. About fifty girls work in
the spinning room with her, three of whom signed the
petition. She is in favor of the ten hour system, and
thinks that the long hours had an eflfect upon her health.
She is kindly treated by her employers. There is hard-
ly a week in which there is not some one out on account
of sickness. Thinks the air is bad, on account of the

138 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

small particles of cotton which fly about. She has
never spoken with the agent or overseer about working
only ten hours.

Miss Cecilia Phillips has worked four years in Low-
ell. Her testimony was similar to that given by Miss
Clark.

Miss Elizabeth Rowe has worked in Lowell 16
months, all the time on the Lawrence Corporation,
came from Maine, she is a weaver, works by the piece,
runs four looms. ''My health," she says, "has been very
good indeed since I worked there, averaged three dol-
lars a week since I have been there besides my board;
have heard very little about the hours of labor being
too long." She consented to have her name put on the
petition because Miss Phillips asked her to. She would
prefer to work only ten hours. Between 50 and 60 work
in the room with her. Her room is better ventilated
and more healthy than most others. Girls who wish to
attend lectures can go out before the bell rings; my
overseer lets them go, also Saturdays they go out before
the bell rings. It was her wish to attend four looms.
She has a sister who has worked in the mill seven years.
Her health is very good. Don't know that she has ever
been out on account of sickness. The general health of
the operatives is good. Have never spoken to my em-
ployers about the work being too hard, or the hours too
long. Don't know any one who has been hastened to
a premature grave by factory labor. I never attended
any of the lectures in Lowell on the ten hour system.
Nearly all the female operatives in Lowell work by the
piece; and of the petitioners who appeared before the
Committee, Miss Hemmingway, Miss Bagley, Miss
Payne and Miss Rowe work by the piece, and Miss
Clark and Miss Phillips by the week.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 139

Mr. Oilman Gale, a member of the city council,
and who keeps a provision store, testified that the short
time allowed for meals he thought the greatest evil.
He spoke highly of the character of the operatives and
of the agents ; also of the boarding houses and the pub-
lic schools. He had two children in the mills who en-
joyed good health. The mills are kept as clean and as
well ventilated as it is possible for them to be.

Mr. Herman Abbott had worked in the Lawrence
Corporation 13 years. Never heard much complaint
among the girls about the long hours, never heard the
subject spoken of in the mills. Does not think it would
be satisfactory to the girls to work only ten hours, if
their wages were to be reduced in proportion. Forty-
two girls work in the room with him. The girls often
get back to the gate before the bell rings.

Mr. John Quincy Adams Thayer has lived in Low-
ell four years, "works at physical labor in the summer
season, and mental labor in the winter." Has worked
in the big machine shop 24 months, off and on; never
worked in a cotton or woollen mill ; thinks that the me-
chanics in the machine shop are not so healthy as in
other shops; nor so intelligent as the other classes in
Lowell. He drafted the petition. Has heard many
complain of the long hours.

Mr. S. P. Adams, a member of the House from Low-
ell, said he worked in the machine shop, and the men
were as intelligent as any other class, and enjoyed as
good health as any persons who work in-doors. The
air in the shop is as good as in any shop. About 350
hands work there, about half a dozen of whom are
what is called ten hour men; they all would be ten hour
men if they could get as good pay.

The only witnesses whom the Committee examined,

140 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

whose names were not on the petition, were Mr. Adams
and Mr. Isaac Cooper, a member of the House from
Lowell, and also has worked as an overseer in the Law-
rence cotton mills for nine years. His evidence was
very full. He gave it as his opinion that the girls in
the mills enjoy the best health, for the reason that they
rise early, go to bed early, and have three meals regular.
In his room there are 60 girls, and since 1837, ^^^
known of only one girl who went home from Lowell
and died. He does not find that those who stay the
longest in the mill grow sickly and weak. The rooms
are heated by steampipes, and the temperature of the
rooms is regulated by a thermometer. It is so he be-
lieves in all the mills. The heat of the room varies
from 62 to 68 degrees.

The above testimony embraces all the important facts
which were elicited from the persons who appeared be-
fore the Committee.

On Saturday the istof March, a portion of the Com-
mittee went to Lowell to examine the mills, and to ob-
serve the general appearance of the operatives therein
employed. They arrived at Lowell after an hour's ride
upon the railroad. They first proceeded to the Merri-
mack Cotton Mills, in which are employed usually
1,200 females and 300 males. They were permitted to
visit every part of the works and to make whatever in-
quiries they pleased of the persons employed. They
found every apartment neat and clean, and the girls, so
far as personal appearance went, healthy and robust, as
girls are in our country towns.

The Committee also visited the Massachusetts and
Boott Mills, both of which manufacture cotton goods.
The same spirit of thrift and cleanliness, of personal
comfort and contentment, prevailed there. The rooms
are large and well lighted, the temperature comfort-

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 141

able, and in most of the window sills were numerous
shrubs and plants, such as geraniums, roses, and numer-
ous varieties of the cactus. These were the pets of the
factory girls, and they were to the Committee convinc-
ing evidence of the elevated moral tone and refined taste
of the operatives.

The Committee also visited the Lowell and the Mid-
dlesex mills; in the first of which carpets are manu-
factured, and in the second, broadcloths, cassimeres,
&c. These being woolen mills, the Committee did not
expect to find that perfect cleanliness which can be and
has been attained in cotton mills. It would, however,
be difficult to institute a comparison between the mills
on this point, or to suggest an improvement. Not only
is the interior of the mills kept in the best order, but
great regard has been paid by many of the agents to the
arrangement of the enclosed grounds. Grass plats have
been laid out, trees have been planted, and fine vari-
eties of flowers in their season, are cultivated within
the factory grounds. In short, everything in and about
the mills, and the boarding houses appeared, to have
for its end, health and comfort. The same remark
would apply to the city generally. Your committee re-
turned fully satisfied, that the order, decorum, and gen-
eral appearance of things in and about the mills, could
not be improved by any suggestion of theirs, or by any
act of the Legislature.

During our short stay in Lowell, we gathered many
facts, which we deem of sufficient importance to state
in this report, and first, in relation to the Hours of
Labor.

From Mr. Clark, the agent of the Merrimack Cor-
poration, we obtained the following table of the time
which the mills run during the year.

Begin work. From ist May to 31st August, at 5

142

AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

[Vol.

o'clock. From ist September to 30th April, as soon as
they can see.

Breakfast. From ist November to 28th February,
before going to work. From ist March to 31st of
March, at 7>4 o'clock. From ist April to 19th Septem-
ber, at seven o'clock. From 20th September to 31st
October, at 7>4 o'clock. Return in half an hour.

Dinner. Through the year at I2j4 o'clock. From
ist May to 31st August, return in 45 minutes. From
ist September to 30th April, return in 30 minutes.

Quit work. From ist May to 31st August, at 7
o'clock. From ist September to 19th September, at
dark. From 20th September to 19th March, at 7^^
o'clock. From 20th March to 30th April, at dark.

Lamps are never lighted on Saturday evenings. The
above is the time which is kept in all the mills in Low-
ell, with a slight difference in the machine shop ; and it
makes the average daily time throughout the year, of
running the mills, to be twelve hours and ten minutes.

There are four days in the year which are observed
as holidays, and on which the mills are never put in
motion. These are Fast Day, Fourth of July, Thanks-
giving Day, and Christmas Day. These make one day
more than is usually devoted to pastime in any other
place in New England. The following table shows the
average hours of work per day, throughout the year, in
the Lowell Mills:

HOURS

MIN.

HOURS

MIN.

January

July

February

August

March 1^

September

April .

. 13

October .

May .

November

June .

December

11 The hours of labor on the ist of March are less than in February,
even though the days are a little longer, because 30 minutes are allowed for
breakfast from the ist of March to the ist of September.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 143

In Great Britain, the hours of labor per week are
limited by act of Parliament to 69, or iij^ hours per
day, but the general regulation in all the factories is 9
hours on Saturday and 12 hours on each of the other
five working days. It is also enacted that there shall be
six holidays in the course of the year.

It is hardly possible to draw a comparison between
the operations in Great Britain and those in Lowell. The
one is a manufacturing population, in the strict sense of
the word, the other is not. There, the whole family go
into the mills as soon as they have sufficient bodily
strength to earn a penny. They never come out until
they die. Very little attention is paid to their moral or
physical culture, and, as has been proved by facts as-
certained by commissioners appointed by Parliament,
few can read or write, and, unless they have attended
Sabbath schools, few obtain any knowledge of the Bible
or of the Christian religion.

In Lowell, but very few (in some mills none at all)
enter into the factories under the age of fifteen. None
under that age can be admitted, unless they bring a cer-
tificate from the school teacher, that he or she has at-
tended school at least three months during the preced-
ing twelve. Nine-tenths of the factory population in
Lowell come from the country. They are farmers'
daughters. Many of them come over a hundred miles
to enter the mills. Their education has been attended
to in the district schools, which are dotted like dia-
monds over every square mile of New England. Their
moral and religious characters have been formed by
pious parents, under the paternal roof. Their bodies
have been developed, and their constitutions made
strong by pure air, wholesome food, and youthful exer-
cise.

After an absence of a few years, having laid by a few

144

AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

[Vol.

hundred dollars, they depart for their homes, get mar-
ried, settle down in life, and become the heads of fam-
ilies. Such, we believe, in truth, to be a correct state-
ment of the Lowell operatives, and the hours of labor.

The General Health of the Operatives. In re-
gard to the health of the operatives employed in the
mills, your Committee believe it to be good. The testi-
mony of the female petitioners does not controvert this
position, in general, though it does in particular in-
stances. The population of the city of Lowell is now
rising 26,000, of which number, about 7,000 are females
employed in the mills. It is the opinion of Dr. Kim-
ball, an eminent physician of Lowell, with whom the
Committee had an interview, that there is less sickness
among the persons at work in the mills, than there is
among those who do not work in the mills; and that
there is less sickness now than there was several years
ago, when the number was much less than at present.
This we understood to be also the opinion of the city
physician. Dr. Wells, from whose published report for
the present year, we learn that the whole number of
deaths in Lowell, during the year 1844, was 362, of
which number, 200 were children under ten years of age.

DISEASES 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844

Consumption

Inflammation of Lungs

. 17

Cholera Infantum .

Scarlet Fever

Measles

Dysentery

. 47

Inflammation of Brain

Croup

Total mortality each year* .

. 426

456

473

363

362

♦Totals of enumerated diseases are: 1840, 137; 1841, 190; 1842, 221; 1843,
147; 1844, 162.- Ed.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 145

The preceding table shows the comparative mortality
in Lowell during the past five years, enumerating some
of the principal diseases.

The population of Lowell, in May, 1840, was 7,341
males and 13,740 females; total, 20,981. The popula-
tion in May, 1844, was 9,432 males, 15,637 females;
total, 25,163; increase of population in four years,
4,182. Notwithstanding this increase of population,
the number of deaths has decreased. There being fewer
the past year than in any of the four preceding years,
and 64 less in 1844 than in 1840. Yet, during the past
year, the mills have been in more active operation than
during either of the four years preceding. The decrease
in the mortality of Lowell, Dr. Wells attributes, in part,
to ''the enlightened policy of the city government, in
directing the construction of common sewers, and the
enterprise of individuals, in multiplying comfortable
habitations, the establishment of a hospital, supported
by the liberality of the corporations, for the accommo-
dation of the sick in their employ. The more general
diffusion of a knowledge of the laws of health, is also
conducive to the same end."

The petitioners thought that the statements made by
our city physician, as to the number of deaths, were de-
lusive, inasmuch as many of the females when taken
sick in Lowell do not stay there, but return to their
homes in the country and die. Dr. Kimball thought
that the number who return home when seized with
sickness was small. Mr. Cooper, whose testimony we
have given, and who is a gentleman of great experience,
says that he has known but one girl who, during the last
eight years, went home from Lowell and died. We
have no doubt, however, that many of the operatives do

146 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

leave Lowell and return to their homes when their
health is feeble, but the proportion is not large. Cer-
tainly it has created no alarm, for the sisters and ac-
quaintances of those who have gone home return to
Lowell to supply the vacancies which their absence had
created.

In the year 1841, Mr. French, the agent of the Boott
Mills, adopted a mode of ascertaining from the females
employed in that mill the effect which factory labor
had upon their health. The questions which he put
were: "What is your age?" "How long have you
worked in a cotton mill?" "Is your health as good as
before?"

These questions were addressed to every female in
"No. 2, Boott Mill." The committee have the names
of the females interrogated, and the answers which they
returned, and the result is as follows:

LIST OF GIRLS IN BOOTT MILL, NO. 2 -May ist, X841

Whole Average Average Effect upon Health

Where Employed No. of Age* Time* ^ ^s Not as

Girls Employed ImpM ^ j
IN Mill
y. d. y. d.

Carding room . 20 23 30 5 25 3 12 5

Spinning room .47 28 38 4 10 14 29 4

Dressing room .25 26 60 7 25 2 16 7

Weaving room .111 22 98 3 84 10 62 39

Whole No. . 203 22 85 4 29 29 119 55

To these questions, several of the girls appended re-
marks. One girl, named S. Middleton, had worked in
a mill nine years. She says, ^'health quite as good; has
not been sick in the time." Miss Proctor says, ^'have
worked fourteen years; health a great deal better; sick
when out of the mill." A Miss Lawrence says, "have

* The averages above computed are incorrect. "Average Age" should be
24 years, 330 days; "Average time employed" should be 4 years, 310 days. -Ed.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 147

been five years in a mill; health quite as good; not a
day's sickness in the time." A Miss Clark says, "have
been seventeen years in the mill; health quite as good;
hasn't hurt her a mite." The Boott Mill employs about
nine hundred girls, not half a dozen of whom are under
fifteen years of age.

In order to give the House a full statement of the
facts connected with the factory system in Lowell, and
in other towns in the Commonwealth, it would be neces-
sary to answer interrogatories like these :

I St. The kind of work of the girls -is it proportioned
to their age and intelligence?

2d. The amount of their wages, and how the girls
dispose of them?

3d. Are the girls separated from the men?-what sur-
veillance is exercised over them?-what police is used?

4th. What is their religious, moral or literary in-
struction?

5th. Where do they pass the time not occupied in
work?

6th. What are their general habits and character?
What is the common age of entering the mill, and how
long does a girl remain there?

In addition to which we have been permitted to copy
the following memoranda from a book kept by John
Clark, Esq., agent of the Merrimack Mills:

May 6th, 1841. I have ascertained, by inquiries this day, that 124
of the females now at work in the Merrimack Mills have heretofore
taught school ; and that in addition 25 or 30 have left within the last
30 days to engage their schools for the summer, making in all 150 or
more. I also find, by inquiries at our boarding houses, that 290 of
our girls attended school during the evenings of the last winter.

January 1st, 1842. We have this day in our five mills 40 females
including sweepers and other day hands, who cannot write their
names; of this number, 30 are Irish. The average wages of 20 job

148 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

hands of the above, as compared with the same number of the best
writers in the same rooms, is over i8 per cent below them. All our
weavers sign their names except four, in No. 4, upper room.

February 26, 1842. We have this day in our five mills, 50 for-
eigners, 37 are Irish, (including 15 sweepers) 10 English and 3
Scotch, and not one hand in all our works, under 15 years of age
either male or female. Usual number of hands employed by the
Merrimack Company in their five mills is about 1,200 females and
300 males.

There are many interesting facts connected with this
inquiry which your Committee have not included in
the foregoing remarks, and which we could not include
without making our report of too voluminous a charac-
ter.

We will state, however, in this connection, that the
evidence which we obtained from gentlemen connected
with the Lowell Mills all goes to prove that the more
intelligent and moral the operatives are, the more val-
uable they are to the employers, and the greater will be
the amount of their earnings.

Your Committee have not been able to give the peti-
tions from the other towns in this State a hearing.
We believed that the whole case was covered by the
petition from Lowell, and to the consideration of that
petition we have given our undivided attention, and we
have come to the conclusion unanimously, that legisla-
tion is not necessary at the present time, and for the fol-
lowing reasons:

ist. That a law limiting the hours of labor, if enacted
at all, should be of a general nature. That it should ap-
ply to individuals or copartnerships as well as to cor-
porations. Because, if it is wrong to labor more than i
ten hours in a corporation, it is also wrong when appliecWBI
to individual employers, and your Committee are not
aware that more complaint can justly be made against

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 149

incorporated companies in regard to the hours of labor,
than can be against individuals or copartnerships. But
it will be said in reply to this, that corporations are the
creatures of the Legislature, and therefore the Legis-
lature can control them in this, as in other matters. This
to a certain extent is true, but your committee go farther
than this, and say, that not only are corporations sub-
ject to the control of the Legislature but individuals
are also, and if it should ever appear that the public
morals, the physical condition, or the social well-being
of society were endangered, from this cause or from
any cause, then it would be in the power and it would
be the duty of the Legislature to interpose its prerog-
ative to avert the evil.

2d. Your Committee believe that the factory system,
as it is called, is not more injurious to health than other
kinds of indoor labor. That a law which would compel
all of the factories in Massachusetts to run their ma-
chinery but ten hours out of the 24, while those in
Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and other
States in the Union, were not restricted at all, the effect
would be to close the gate of every mill in the State. It
would be the same as closing our mills one day in every
week, and although Massachusetts capital, enterprise
and industry are willing to compete on fair terms with
the same of other States, and, if needs be, with European
nations, yet it is easy to perceive that we could not com-
pete with our sister States, much less with foreign coun-
tries, if a restriction of this nature was put upon our
manufactories.

3d. It would be impossible to legislate to restrict the
hours of labor, without affecting very materially the
question of wages ; and that is a matter which experi-
ence has taught us can be much better regulated by the

I50 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

parties themselves than by the Legislature. Labor in
Massachusetts is a very different commodity from what
it is in foreign countries. Here labor is on an equality
with capital, and indeed controls it, and so it ever will
be while free education and free constitutions exist.
And although we may find fault, and say, that labor
works too many hours, and labor is too severely tasked,
yet if we attempt by legislation to enter within its orbit
and interfere with its plans, we will be told to keep
clear and to mind our own business. Labor is intelligent
enough to make its own bargains, and look out for its
own interests without any interference from us; and
your Committee want no better proof to convince them
that Massachusetts men and Massachusetts women, are
equal to this, and will take care of themselves better
than we can take care of them, than we had from the in-
telligent and virtuous men and women who appeared
in support of this petition, before the Committee.

4th. The Committee do not wish to be understood as
conveying the impression, that there are no abuses in
the present system of labor; we think there are abuses;
we think that many improvements may be made, and
we believe will be made, by which labor will not be so
severely tasked as it now is. We think that it would be
better if the hours for labor were less, if more time was
allowed for meals, if more attention was paid to ventila-
tion and pure air in our manufactories, and work-shops,
and many other matters. We acknowledge all this, but .
we say, the remedy is not with us. We look for it in the
progressive improvement in art and science, in a higher
appreciation of man's destiny, in a less love for money,
and a more ardent love for social happiness and intel
lectual superiority. Your Committee, therefore, whil
they agree with the petitioners in their desire to lessei

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 5 1

the burthens imposed upon labor, differ only as to the
means by which these burthens are sought to be re-
moved. . . William Schouler, Chairman.

(b) THE INVESTIGATION OF 1850

(1) The Committee's Report.

Massachusetts House Document^ no. 153, x85a

House of Representatives, February 8, 1850.

Ordered, that Messrs. Stone, of Charlestown; Shel-
ton, of Boston ; Parmenter, of Lowell ; Carter, of Leo-
minster; Thomas, of Norwich; Dickinson, of Amherst;
and Clark, of Rochester, be a committee, to inquire and
report to this House, whether any, and what legislation,
ought to be adopted for the limitation of the hours of
work of the laboring people, and particularly of the op-
eratives employed by the incorporated companies of
this State, in the large manufacturing establishments,
to the end, that labor may be protected against the de-
pressing influences of its own undue competition with
its own interest; and to better secure to the laboring
classes proper time for relaxation and rest, and for
moral and intellectual improvement.

C. W. Storey, Clerk.
House of Representatives, April 10, 1850.

The Special Committee, to whom was referred the
subject of the Order of February 9, relative to Limiting
the Hours of Labor, and also the Petitions upon this
and kindred subjects, of Almon G. Hinckley and others,
of David Wood and others, of Henry Hemingway and
others, of A. L. Brooks and others, and of H. E. French
and others, have considered the same, and ask leave to
Report, that it is inexpedient to legislate thereon.

For the committee, Thos. J. Shelton.

152 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

House of Representatives, April lo, 1850.

The undersigned, a Minority of the Special Commit-
tee, to whom was referred the subject of the Order of
February 9, relative to limiting the hours of labor, and
also the Petitions of Almon G. Hinckley and others,
of Dennis ; of David Wood and others, of Yarmouth ;
of Henry Hemingway and others, and of A. L. Brooks
and others, and H. E. French and others, of Lowell,
severally asking for some legislation, defining or limit-
ing the hours of labor, respectfully ask leave to submit
a Minority Report.

The subject of limiting by law the hours of labor, and
particularly in the manufacturing establishments of the
corporations of this Commonwealth, has been, hereto-
fore, at various times, brought before the Legislature
by the petitions of large numbers of the operatives, who
have felt, that they have suffered a great grievance, and
that they, together with the great mass of laborers in
all industrial employments, have been subjected to great
physical and moral evils, from too long protracted hours
of labor. And now there are numerous mechanics, op-
eratives, and other laboring people, who have come by
their petitions before this Legislature, and say, that
they desire "to again call your attention to the necessity
of some legislative interference in their behalf." Other
disinterested, respectable, and humane persons, who
have not themselves been subjected to the evils com-
plained of, but who have been observers of the system of
labor in our manufacturing establishments, join in these
petitions to the Legislature to mitigate them by a re-
striction of the hours of labor. The petitions of David
Wood and others, of Yarmouth, and Almon G. Hinck-
ley and others, of Dennis, ask the General Court "to
establish the ten hour system for mechanics and labor-

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 153

ers, throughout the State of Massachusetts." The pe-
tition of Henry Hemingway and others, asks for the en-
actment of "a law limiting the number of hours for a
day's labor." The petitions of A. L. Brooks and others,
and H. E. French and others, ask indefinitely for legis-
lative interference, and set forth their grievances in the
following words :
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the State

of Massachusetts:

A firm conviction, that the number of hours of daily labor, re-
quired of operatives in the various manufactories of this State, is
highly injurious to their physical, mental, and moral natures, and
consequently detrimental to the true interests of the community, in-
duces the undersigned, citizens of Low^ell, to again call your attention
to the necessity of some legislative interference in their behalf, that
so useful a class of our fellows may be protected from the unequal
operations of combined and concentrated wealth.

That the present hours of daily toil are too many, and tend fear-
fully to the degeneracy of society, is admitted by the good, the wise
and philanthropic of the world ; and we trust, by every consideration
of duty to your highly revered State, and her industrious population,
you will be induced to regard this subject in its true light- independ-
ently of the seductive influences of wealth, or long established usages.
That the regulation of the hours of labor, especially in incorporated
establishments, comes legitimately within your jurisdiction, seems too
obvious for an elaborate discussion at this time, and we would simply
refer you to the declaration of the committee, upon the same subject,
in the Senate of 1846 - Document, No. 81.

Your petitioners would also call your attention to an article in the
"Factory Regulations," which they believe is the cause of much in-
justice on the part of the corporations, and which reads as follows :

"All persons entering the employment of the company, are con-
sidered as engaged for twelve months, and those who leave sooner, or
do not comply with these regulations, will not be entitled to a regular
discharge."

The effects of this regulation are becoming, every day, more griev-
ous, giving to the manufacturers great power over the operatives, and
leading to oppression and wrong; forming a combination which de-

154 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

stroys the independence of the operative class, and places them almost
absolutely within the control of the manufacturer. As an illustra-
tion, we briefly subjoin - Mary A engages to work for the

M Company, in the city of Lowell; according to the "regula-
tions" she is considered engaged for one year; but, for some good
reason, perhaps ill treatment from her overseer, she wishes to leave,
and applies for a "regular discharge," which is refused and her name
is immediately sent to all the other corporations, as being upon the
"Black List;" where, should she apply for work, she is denied, no
matter how destitute her condition.

That you may be guided by that wisdom and intelligence which
practically recognizes in our race one common brotherhood, possessed
by nature with like requirements, and entitled to equal opportunities
for accomplishing a high physical, intellectual, and spiritual destiny,
is the sincere desire of your memorialists.

Some of these petitioners appeared personally before
the committee, and urged at length, their views relative
to the necessity for legislation to remedy the grievances
complained of, and especially, what they deem the un-
just effects of the article of the "Factory Regulations,"
referred to in their petition. They stated particular
cases, known to them personally, giving names, places
and dates, where, under this rule, persons, both male
and female, of entirely irreproachable character, had
been arbitrarily discharged from, and kept out of em-
ployment, without reasonable cause, and in cases where
the rigid enforcement of the rule, could not be justified
by any plea of necessity for preserving order and regu-
larity among the operatives. They also stated, that in-
stances of this nature were by no means unf requent. That
there are cases, where this rule is used improperly, can-
not be doubted, although it is to be hoped, they do not so
often occur, as was represented before the committee.
The power, the corporations have by these "Regula-
tions," not only to discharge for the most trivial causes,
but also, by an extensive system of combination with
other corporations, to prevent the persons so discharged,

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 155

from obtaining employment and the honest means of
livelihood elsewhere, is certainly a very dangerous pow-
er, and liable to be abused to the oppression of the oper-
atives, and particularly those who are poor and friend-
less. Should this power continue to be exercised, as
represented by the petitioners, the frowns of an aroused
public opinion, will be strongly directed against the
manufacturing corporations; and should public opinion
fail to correct the abuse, legislative interposition would
become indispensably requisite. Relying upon public
opinion, and the manifest interest of the corporations, not
to have it excited against them, the undersigned are not
prepared to recommend legislation upon this particular
subject, at this time.

In relation to the hours of labor, the undersigned
agree with the petitioners, that a necessity exists for
legislative interference to restrict them, and deem it
proper to present to the Legislature their reasons for
this conclusion.

They fully believe, and think that nearly all intelli-
gent persons, who have thought upon the subject, will
admit, that the present hours of labor in the manufac-
tories of this State, are too many, for the moral welfare
and physical health of the operatives, and that this sys-
tem of labor is a great evil, which, not only immediately
affects the laborers themselves, but is diffused into so-
ciety, and will entail serious effects upon posterity.
Nevertheless, the experience in this country, as to the
business of extensive manufacturing, has been so short
and limited, that it is very difficult to show, by accom-
plished results, the effects of this kind of industry upon
the health and moral condition of the community.
There is an almost total want of statistical information,
showing with any degree of accuracy, its actual effects.
In England, a long, and at last, sad and terrible experi-

156

AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

[Vol.

ence of the results of overworking, has forced the con-
viction upon the minds of all classes of people, that less
hours devoted to labor, will best subserve the interest
of both employers and employed. The legislators of
England, and the manufacturers of England, have at
last, been forced by the teachings of facts, to acknow-
ledge as truth, what long years before, was argued to
them as the inevitable law of nature ; and the people of
all classes, and particularly manufacturing operatives
and employers, were compelled, by their own finally
ascertained interests, to demand of Parliament, that the
observance of the physical and moral laws of God on
this subject, should be enforced by the laws of the realm.
In Massachusetts, partial, imperfect and inexact state-
ments of results have, from time to time, been gathered
and published, and deductions have been drawn from
them, necessarily crude and unsatisfactory. Deductions
drawn from the same statements, by different minds,
have often been in direct opposition to one another. All
these, and the arguments based upon them, prove
nothing. They must all be taken as mere opinions, and
weighed as such. But certain facts, relative to the hours
of labor, and the conditions to which the operatives are
subjected during those hours, can be ascertained; and
these facts can be weighed, and compared with the
known laws of the physical and moral nature of man,
laws, which are known to act with unerring certainty,
and unbending uniformity, and in this manner, a con-
clusion may be arrived at, as to what must be, whether
now «een or not, the final results and efifects of this sys-
tem of labor.

The hours of labor are nearly, if not quite the same,
in all the principal manufacturing establishments
throughout Massachusetts. In the report of the special

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 157

committee of the Legislature, upon this subject, in the
year 1845, {House Doc.^ No. 50) a table of the hours of
labor, in the Lowell factories, is introduced, from which
it appears, that the daily average time of labor through
the year, was then twelve hours and eighteen minutes.
In the year 1847, the time of labor was reduced fifteen
minutes a day, during eight months of the year, and
thirty minutes a day, during the other four months, by a
corresponding addition to the time previously allowed
for meals. The following table shows the average
hours of labor in the Lowell factories at the present
time, for every month during the year:

January

1 1 hours,

9 minutes

July

12 hours,

30 minutes

February

II "

August

12 "

30 "

March

II "

September

II "

53 "

April

13 "

October

II "

40 "

May

12 "

November

II "

41 "

June

12 "

December

II "

9 "

By this table, it appears, that the daily average time
of labor throughout the year, is less than two minutes
short of twelve hours, (11 hours and 582/3 minutes.)
This is substantially a fair statement of the time, (cer-
tainly not an over statement) actually devoted to labor,
by the large and worthy class of laborers and operatives
in the manufactories of this State. During the month
of April, they work over thirteen hours, and in the four
succeeding months, twelve hours and thirty minutes,
and in four other months, but a few minutes less than
twelve hours, while the very shortest time of working,
is eleven hours and nine minutes, and this for but two
months.

The undersigned believe, that this simple statement
of the hours of labor, is alone sufBcient to show, that a
great evil exists in this respect- that the time devoted

1 5 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

to labor is excessive, and that thereby, the laws relative
to man's moral and physical nature are violated. If any
reliance can be placed upon the teachings of physiologi-
cal science, and the opinions of eminent physiologists,
the human constitution was never intended, or framed
by the Creator, for such long continued and exclusive
devotion to labor of any kind. The physical laws being
thus set at naught, evil consequences must inevitably en-
sue, and they will be likely to fall first, upon the labor-
ers and employers, and ultimately upon society. If
these results do not appear in the persons of the opera-
tives, seen by the casual observer, in the manufacturing
villages, it is not, therefore, proved that they do not
exist in the deteriorated constitutions of those, who,
having suffered from excessive hours of labor, as long
as their failing powers would permit, have withdrawn
from observation, and gone among their friends, in the
rural sections of New England. Whether the effects
be immediately seen or not, the infringement of nature's
laws, whether by an individual, or by community, can-
not pass with impunity. The beasts which man has sub-
jected to his control, and which labor for him, must
have time for rest and relaxation; and this, with proper
food, suffices for them, and answers all the purposes of
their creation. But man has been created with moral,
intellectual, and social faculties and capacities, as well
as organs and powers for toil, and it will not be denied,
that time and opportunity should be allowed to all per-
sons, for their cultivation and exercise. Do the manu-
facturing operatives of Massachusetts, have proper
time for these purposes? By the above table of the
hours of labor, it appears, that but little time remains
to them for mental culture or social enjoyment. Take,
for consideration, the month of April, when the work-,

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 159

ing time is longest. Add to the hours of labor, (thirteen
hours and one minute,) forty-five minutes each for break-
fast and dinner, thirty minutes for supper, and thirty
minutes more for rising and putting on their apparel, and
going to the mills in the morning, and it makes fifteen
hours and thirty-one minutes. That is the time, actually
required of the operatives for labor and their meals, and
going to and returning from their work. There re-
mains then, less than eight and a half hours for that rest,
relaxation and sleep, which their exhausted energies
imperatively demand, and for attention to the require-
ments of their moral and intellectual natures. This
whole time of less than eight and a half hours, would
not be considered an over allowance to a laboring per-
son for sleep alone. If the operatives take enough of
this brief time to be of any valuable use to them by way
of mental or moral culture, they must, by so doing, rob
the body of the rest and sleep which is its due, and which
its health requires. During the next succeeding four
months, making the same allowances as before, only
nine hours remain to the operatives for sleep and other
purposes. During the remainder of the year, they have
but from nine to ten hours, with the exception of two
months, when they have a little more than ten hours.
They get up in the morning and hurry to their work-
they go at stated times to their boarding houses and eat
their hasty meals, and hasten back to the mills again,
and there remain, till they quit work for the day, and
return to their boarding houses, tired and exhausted.
This is believed to be a fair statement of the daily his-
tory of life and labor of the manufacturing operatives
of this State. Where, then, is their time and opportun-
ity for moral and mental culture? Where is the time
for them to acquire information, and thus keep reason-

i6o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

able pace in general improvement, with the ordinary
ranks of life? It is clear, they do not have it. Their
daily span of twenty-four hours, is all appropriated in
regular and stated portions, to working, eating and
sleeping, and no allowance is, or can be made for the
wants of the mind, without infringing upon time set
apart for one of these three purposes.

That there are great evils suffered by the operatives,
from excessive hours of labor, is not now denied by in-
telligent people, however much they may differ as to
the proper remedy. The existence of the evils, the able
Report of the Committee of the House in 1845, upon
this subject, fully and clearly affirms. The results of
these evils, though not immediately perceived to be of a
serious character, will be more or less remotely felt by
the community.

Among the most important consequences of protract-
ed hours of labor, will be the effects upon the health of
the laborers. The undersigned believe, that ten hours
a day of constant application to labor, of any descrip-
tion, and under any circumstances, if continued for any
considerable length of time in succession, is as much as
the powers of the human constitution can bear, and, that
a longer application than this, must result in serious det-
riment, and premature decay of the vital powers. They
believe, that any number of persons, working ten hours
a day, will accomplish during their lives, far more la-
bor, than the same persons could do, by attempting to
work more time than that per day. If this be true rel-
ative to persons in ordinary employments, it must be
true in relation to the operatives in the factories, sub-
jected, as they are to extraordinarily unhealthful in-
fluences and conditions. The nature of factory employ-
ments is such, that large numbers are congregated in

eight] HOURS OF LABOR i6i

carefully closed rooms, and are obliged to breathe, dur-
ing the whole day, the impure air, which is not properly
changed by ventilation, during some seasons of the year,
for months in succession. Of course, the evils of ex-
cessive hours of labor must be, from this cause, greatly
aggravated.

In order to show conclusively to the Legislature, the
nature and extent of this evil of working in non-ven-
tilated rooms, to which the operatives are subjected, the
undersigned take the liberty to introduce an extract
form a ''Report to the American Medical Association,
submitted as a member from Massachusetts, of the Com-
mittee on Public Hygiene, at their annual meeting in
Boston, May, 1849, by Josiah Curtis, M.D.," and pub-
lished in the second volume of the "Transactions'' of
that Association. This report was made by Dr. Curtis,
in obedience to a duty imposed upon him by appoint-
ment of the Association. He had no party purposes to
promote by his report, and no theory to sustain. His
only possible end could be, to elicit the truth for the
furtherance of medical science, in its efforts to promote
human happiness. It is, therefore, more valuable and
reliable than the result of any personal observation and
examination which the committee might have made.
Dr. Curtis was furnished with all necessary and avail-
able opportunities, by the agents of the Lowell factories,
for ascertaining facts and collecting information upon
all matters having a bearing upon the health of the op-
eratives. Having given the statistics of the Merrimack
Mills, as to the number of persons employed, and the
dimensions of the rooms in which they work, and the
cubic space contained in them, etc., he proceeds as fol-
lows:

It will be seen in Table xvi, page 512, that on the Merrimack

1 62 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Corporation, (and this is supposed to be a fair specimen) there has
been an average of about 1600 males and females. We will make a
liberal deduction, and assume 1350 only, as actually in the mills, and
250 employed in other places about the works. This gives 270 for
each mill, and 55 for each room, containing only 64,670 cubic feet,
inclusive of the space occupied by machinery. Some rooms have more
operatives in them than others, and there are more at some seasons
than at others, but we have taken the average. Here, then, we find
a certain number for a definite time, in a limited space, without any
ventilation whatever, except that of an accidental nature, at the doors
of entrance in winter, and the same with open windows in summer,
and this, too, with the thermometer ranging from 65° to 85°, through
the winter months! This certainly demands attention, and calls
loudly for reform. From the character and variety of the ailments
that solicit relief at the hands of our profession in Lowell, we look
upon this topic as the most prolific source of deteriorated health in
the adjuncts of factory labor among us, and in our neighboring manu-
facturing towns.

After showing the importance of a large supply of
pure air, to the healthy condition of human beings, Dr.
Curtis proceeds :

The volume of pure air to be supplied to each person has also been
estimated. This, too, varies in different circumstances. (The report
here refers to a large number of authorities, giving different esti-
mates, and, among others, to Dr. L. V. Bell, who "considers from 10
to 20 cubic feet per minute as not, perhaps, an unsafe estimate.") If
we assume ten cubic feet each minute to each person as the proper
standard, and this is the minimum of the more recent investigations,
we find the fifty-five operatives in a room requiring 550 cubic feet I
per minute, 33,000 per hour, and not less than 450,000 during each
day's period of labor, whereas, we have shown that they have but about
60,000, making some abatement for space occupied by machinery!
In winter, moreover, for four months, when the \vindows are closed
and generally double, each room has fifty solar lamps, burning morn-
ing and evening, which assist, not only in impuring the confined air,
but also in raising the temperature frequently to 90° F. before clos-
ing work at night. In all kinds of weather, the operatives, with
hastily adjusted dress, emerge from this atmosphere to their boarding
places, partake of a plain but substantial dinner, and return to re-
sume their labor in the space of forty-five minutes.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 163

The air in these rooms, which ought to undergo an entire change
hourly, remains, day after day, and even month after month, with
only the precarious change which open doors occasionally give ! There
being no ventilation at night, the imprisoned condition of many of the
rooms in the morning is stifling and almost intolerable to unaccus-
tomed lungs. After the day's work is ended, two hours' release is
enjoyed, a part of which is frequently spent in a crowded lecture
room, and then they retire to dormitories scarcely better ventilated
than the mills. From four to six, and sometimes even eight, are con-
fined during the night in a single room of moderate dimensions. It is
but just to say, that this remark will apply with more force to other
corporations throughout the city, than to the Merrimack at the pres-
ent time. The condition of these sleeping apartments probably
would not be endured so passively, did not their occupants first be-
come habituated to unwholesome air in the mills.^^

If anything in addition were necessary, to show that
the factory operatives are subjected to conditions un-
usually injurious to health, the following extract from
a paper, read before the Middlesex District Medical
Society, by the physician of the Lowell Hospital, will
amply suffice. The paper contains a table exhibiting
the statistics of the Lowell Hospital, from its organiza-
tion, in May, 1840, to May, 1849. From this table, the
extraordinary fact appears, that, of 1627 patients, 827
had the typhoid fever. This hospital is a private in-
stitution, established by the manufacturing corporations
exclusively for the operatives. In remarking upon the
above facts, which appeared from the records of the
hospital, the physician, in this paper, says:

From the statements here furnished, it appears quite obvious that
typhoid fever is not only a very constant, but also the most important
disease among our operative population. It gives no evidence of the
proportion it bears to the same disease, as it occurs with the rest of our
adult population. Nevertheless, I think it must have been impressed

12 In another place, in his report, Dr. Curtis says: "There is not a State's
prison, or house of correction, in New England, where the hours of labor are
so long, the hours for meals so short, or the ventilation so much neglected, as
in all the cotton-raills with which I am acquainted."

1 64 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

upon the conviction of every physician, of several years' standing in
our city, that our operatives, as a class, have suffered from it to a much
greater degree than the citizens at large. If such is the fact, it be-
comes a matter of interest to inquire why it is so, and then, again, to
ascertain if it is an evil which admits of a remedy, and, if so, what it
is. My own opinion, however, is, that imperfect ventilation, in our
cotton-mills, particularly, may have a very important bearing upon
the question of causes of fever among our operative population. Air
thus confined for the space of several months, in rooms occupied by
some fifty persons, for twelve hours every day, except Sundays, must,
sooner or later, make an impression upon the constitution, and thus
indirectly, at least, become the means of inducing disease.

The foregoing extracts, from high and reliable au-
thority, show conclusively the exposure of the opera-
tives to extraordinary causes of disease, while engaged
at their daily toil. A reduction of the hours of their
daily labor, would take them out of the foul atmosphere
of the mills a portion of the time they now are confined
in it, and give them more time to breathe the fresh air,
and their constitutions would thus be better braced up
to ward off the attacks of sickness.

Prominent, among the evils growing out of the long
protracted hours of labor in the factories, and which
have a bearing upon the question of health, is the short
time allowed for meals. In 1847, a step was taken
towards a reform in this matter by an addition to time
allowed for breakfast, and to the dinner time, during a
portion of the year. The time now, however, allowed
for this purpose, is quite too short. The operatives have
forty-five minutes for dinner during the year, and the
same time for breakfast during eight months. During
the four months, from November ist to March ist,
they take breakfast by lamp-light before going to work,
and consequently, have but the one recess from labor,
of forty-five minutes for dinner. In this brief three-

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 165

fourths of an hour, they put on their outer clothing, go
from the mills to their boarding-houses, eat their hasty
meals, and hurry back to their work by the time the
wheel again moves on the machinery, which rests from
its motion only for the forty-five minutes allowed for
the recruiting by food the strength of its operative at-
tendants. The general practice of mechanics and labor-
ing people, except in manufacturing places, is, to take
considerable more time than this for their meals. They
usually take an hour at least for dinner, and the same
time for breakfast, when they commence work before
the morning meal. Physiologists tell us, that active di-
gestion and active labor, either of mind or body, at the
same time, is altogether incompatible, and that time
should be set apart from labor, for the digestion of food,
as well as for eating it. Some of them say that from an
hour to an hour and a half should be devoted at each
meal for digestion. . . [Extract from writings of
Dr. Andrew Combe omitted.]

If the Legislature should think it proper to limit the
hours of labor, this evil of allowing so short time for
meals could easily be corrected, as, in that case, suffi-
cient time for labor could be found without extending
too far into the hours of night, or restricting unduly the
time for meals.

A more satisfactory conclusion as to the efifects of
factory employments upon health, can be drawn from
these and other known causes of ill-health, to which the
operatives are exposed, than can be arrived at from any
statistics, which have been, as yet, elicited in this country,
to throw light upon this subject. There are, in fact, no
statistics of the results of this system of labor upon health,
which afford any means of comparison with similar re-

1 66 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

suits in the ordinary pursuits of the community. The
following statements, however, may be interesting, as
giving some data upon which to base an opinion.

The report of the committee of the House, in 1845,
embraces the following results, obtained from the an-
swers of the females working in Boott Mill, No. 2, to
the following questions: What is your age? How
long have you worked in a cotton mill? Is your health
as good as before? The whole number was 203. Av-
erage age, 22 years and 85 days. Average time em-
ployed, 4 years and 29 days. Health improved, 29; as
good, 119; not as good, 55.

It appears from this, that 14.28 per cent were in im-
proved health, 27.09 per cent health not as good, and
58.62 per cent remained the same after working in the
mills. This seems to be an uncommonly favorable re-
sult, as compared with the result of more extensive in-
quiries. These inquiries were made in 1841. In the
same year, inquiries were made in the Lowell Mills of
2,611 girls, and this number probably includes the 203
in the Boott Mill, before referred to. In May, 1845,
similar inquiries were also made of 1,424 girls at work
in eight different mills in Lowell, and the following
table, copied from Dr. Curtis's report, shows the re-
sults. They appear to be more unfavorable to health
than the result in the No. 2, Boott Mill.

1841 NO. PERCENT 1845 NO. PERCENT
Health better . . 170 6.51 154 10.82

Health as good . . 1,563 59.87 827 58.08

Health not as good . 878 33.62 443 31.10

Whole number interrogated 2,611 100.00 1,424 100.00

There are no means of ascertaining whether these
statements show the effects of factory employments and
their concomitant circumstances to be favorable or un-

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 167

favorable to health, because there are no similar sta-
tistics as to the state of the health of females, of similar
ages, engaged in the ordinary employments. Upon this
question, each person must exercise his own judgment
and draw his own conclusions from the limited informa-
tion imparted by the data as presented. From the
statement relative to the girls in the No. 2, Boott Mill,
it appears that their average age was about 22 years,
and that their average time of having worked in the
mills, was about four years. Allowing some time lost
by sickness, and by being absent from the mills on visits
to friends, and for other purposes, it is reasonable to
assume, that their four years' time of working in the
mills, covered the space of some five or six years, and
that, consequently, their average age at commencing
work in the mills, was about sixteen or seventeen years.
It is probable that the ages of those embraced in the
more extensive statements were about the same. The
query then arises very naturally, without any statistics
being at hand by which it can be answered, why, out of
2,611 girls at the age of 22 years, there should be 878,
or 33 per cent, whose health is not as good as it was five
or six years before, when they were at the age of 16 or
17 years?

But the above tables of the answers of the female op-
eratives, do not show the full amount of ill-health
among that class of persons, for the reason, that the
questions were put to those alone who were well enough
to be actually at work at the time. There are, at all
times, some out of the mills too sick to work, and there
is a constant changing of operatives going on, those
whose health is somewhat impaired, retiring to the
country to recruit their strength, while new and healthy
persons take their places. These sick and weakened

1 68 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

persons are not comprised in the above statements, but
the tables do include those who have just come in fresh
and healthy to take their places, and who, of course,
answer that they are "as well." Although it is a ques-
tion of great interest and importance, it is exceedingly
difficult to arrive at anything like an accurate conclusion
in relation to the comparative health of the operatives.
The constantly changing character of this part of the
population of manufacturing places, sets at defiance all
attempts to draw conclusions from the condition of
those who are the subjects of observation at any one
time. A respectable gentleman of Lowell, who has had,
for many years, extensive opportunities for observation
upon this subject, stated to the committee, as his opinion,
that, taking the average of all the females that work in
the mills, their health will permit them to work but
about three years in all. Some, of course, enduring a
much longer time, and many much less. He stated,
that the larger portion of them, coming from the coun-
try, strong and healthy, work about a year, and then
are obliged to give up for a few months to recruit their
weakened constitutions. They then return again to the
mills, and are able to work a somewhat less time than
before. After again taking time to recruit, and again
returning to the mills, their impaired constitutions,
after another still shorter term of labor than before,
generally compel them to cease entirely from their fac-
tory employment. These statements are corroborated,
in essential points, by facts which appear in Table XVI
of Dr. Curtis's Report, before referred to. This table
of abstracts, taken from the books of the Merrimack
Corporation, and covering the nine years, from 1840 to
1848, inclusive, shows the annual average number of
females employed on that corporation, to be 1308, and

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 169

the average number who left work per month 146, and
the average time they remain at work 8.95 months. Of
course, these changes are not all on account of ill-
health, though it is probable that very many of them are.
Certainly, if the nature of the employment were not
unhealthy, and the time devoted to labor not so long as
to exhaust and debilitate the constitution, with the rates
of wages higher than the ordinary compensation for
female labor in other employments, there would not be
this continual going and coming of old and new hands,
by which the entire operative female population of a
factory village changes on an average, every nine
months.

Leaving theories and deductions from imperfect sta-
tistics, the following business letter from an officer of a
health insurance company to one of its agents, may be
deemed of some weight, as throwing light upon the
question of health.
Office of Norfolk County Health Insurance Company, Lower Floor,

Merchants' Exchange, Boston, July 27, 1849.
Mr. C. V. N. Brundige,

Sir, We have determined not to take any more applications,
especially from the factories. Such places have been the graves of
other companies, and we mean to avoid them. From what few pol-
icies we have there, we are constantly receiving claims. Doubtless
there may be some good subjects there, but, from past experience, it
would seem there was not more than a grain of wheat to a bushel of
chafif, we can't distinguish them. Yours, Steph. Baley.

Here we have the opinion of no visionary theorist,
upon the relative health of factory operatives. It is a
practical, business conclusion, from the results of pre-
vious experience, and formed, purely, with a view to
the risks and profits of a business transaction. Health
Insurance Companies have suflfered losses, both from
real and feigned ill-health; and this determination of

I70 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

the Norfolk Company, proves, that their opinion was,
that there was more ill-health, or more dishonesty,
among the operatives in the Factories, than elsewhere
in the community. It will not be urged anywhere, that
the letter quoted, was intended to impeach the morality
of the operatives.

In coming to consider the moral evils resulting from
the prolonged time of labor, it is proper to take into
consideration the important change, that has been rap-
idly taking place in the character of the factory popula-
tion, within the last few years. Instead of the female
operatives being nearly all New England girls, as was
formerly the case, large numbers of them are now for-
eigners. The infusion of foreigners among the oper-
atives has been rapid, and is going on at a constantly
increasing rate. This is an important fact to be taken
into consideration, in connexion with this subject; for
it will be found, that, in a few years, an entire modifica-
tion, and depression of the state of society in and about
manufacturing places, will be wrought by this cause.
In view of this fact, it becomes especially important,
that the Legislature should give attention to the condi-
tion of the factory population at this time, and adopt
in season, all such measures, as it may safely and proper-
ly do for the preservation and improvement of their
moral character. The general good of the community,
and the true and permanent welfare of the great busi-
ness of manufacturing, demands this.

Excessive labor not only debilitates the body, and
thereby exposes it to disease, but also tends to exhaust
the mental powers, and thus expose the whole moral
and intellectual character to undue and dangerous de-
pression. To this evil and danger, the factory opera-
tives, that large and valuable class of the population of

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 7 1

this State, which, by their labor, produce so large a
portion of its material wealth, are especially exposed.
Reliable authorities upon the condition of the English
factory operatives, attribute much of their immorality,
and particularly their intemperance, to their former
long hours of labor. They say, that working excessive
hours, produces lassitude and listlessness of mind; and
consequently, those who desire to enjoy a little of life,
during the short time between working and sleeping,
in order to keep up the tone of the system sufficiently to
do so, resort to intoxicating drinks, to stimulate and ex-
hilarate themselves into a more conscious state of exist-
ence. Habits of intemperance, were thus formed and
fixed upon the unfortunate, over-worked operatives,
and they were sunk to the lower depths of vice and
degradation, which has been so notorious in the history
of English manufacturing. But it may be said with
entire truth, that the American operatives are intelli-
gent, moral and temperate, and in this respect, totally
unlike in character, the operatives of England. The
true reason for this great distinction, may also be cor-
rectly stated, by saying that, unlike the English oper-
atives, their early education and moral training, in their
New England homes, enlightens their minds and estab-
lishes them in virtuous and temperate habits. But this
does not show that protracted labor does not tend in the
same direction, here, as in England. If there be power
in the character of the morally and religiously instruct-
ed American operatives, to enable the large majority
of them to withstand the evil influences, it is not to be
expected, that, amidst the great diversity of character,
of those collected together in our factories, these in-
fluences should not have some effect upon a portion of
them, who have a less degree of stability of mind. And

172 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

it now becomes a matter for serious consideration, as to
what will be the result of these influences upon the for-
eigners, who within a few years, have been fast gather-
ing into our manufacturing establishments, and who
have not had these American advantages of education.
While they are here subjected to the same evils of pro-
tracted labor, and the same inducements for the use of
stimulants as were the operatives in the English fac-
tories, and finding intoxicating drinks much cheaper,
what will prevent them, even more rapidly and surely,
from becoming victims of intemperate habits?

The tendency, and probable ultimate results of ex-
cessive hours of labor, upon the intellectual character
of the factory population, it is important to take into
consideration in this connection. By the present system
of working, no sufficient time is allowed between work-
ing and sleeping, for the improvement of the mental
faculties. The simple statement of the hours of labor,
making allowances for meals, etc., as previously stated,
shows this without further remark. It is true, that a
portion of the operatives devote some hours, after clos-
ing work at night to this purpose; but they do so at the
sacrifice of their bodily health. They have not, hereto-
fore, as a class, been inferior in intellectual and moral
character, but probably have been in this respect, fully
up to the standard of any large class of laboring people
in the world. Their moral and intellectual acquire-
ments, however, are not the result of their factory life;
for the plain reason that no time is there allowed for
this cultivation. Their fortunate condition in this re-
spect, is owing to their previous education in our New
England Common Schools. Their working twelve
hours or more, per day, in the noxious air of the fac-
tories, tends to deaden the mental vigor, although it

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 173

may not quench the intellectual fire once lighted. But
far different results must be anticipated for the future,
when there is taken into consideration, the rapid influx
of foreigners, which is fast changing the character of
the factory population. If this change continues to go
on, there will soon be gathered into the manufacturing
places, a strictly manufacturing population, permanent-
ly bound by circumstances, to factory employments,
similar in character to the factory population of Eng-
land. This class, not enlightened by the early educa-
tion which has distinguished the American from the
English operatives, and having no time allowed for
culture after entering the mills, must remain, and con-
tinue in their unenlightened condition. These persons,
when wearied down with the multiplied evils of pro-
tracted labor, will have no kindred in the country
towns, where they may retire, and thus withdraw from
observation, the living examples of the results of over-
taxed energies. Then, the evils of excessive hours of
labor will become manifest in the depressed tone of the
moral and intellectual character of the mass of opera-
tives, and also in their deteriorated physical condition.

One of the important evil results of devoting so much
time to labor, is the increased competition of labor,
which is thus brought to bear against the interest of the
working classes, in all branches of industry throughout
the community. Prolonging the hours of labor, de-
creases, in some degree, its wages. The compensation
of labor is fixed, by the inevitable law of supply and de-
mand. If there be more work to be performed than the
laborers who are at hand can execute, of course, the
wages of labor will rise in proportion to the shortness
of the supply. If, on the contrary, there be a surplus of
labor -more persons offering to labor than are required,

174 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

to execute the amount of work to be done, then the
necessitous unemployed laborers will underwork the
others, and the whole scale of wages will consequently
be reduced. This competition of labor, by an excessive
number of laborers, may also result from the excessive
hours of labor. For, although it is probably true, that
a given number of persons can perform more worlc dur-
ing the terms of their lives, by working ten hours a day,
than by working twelve hours a day, and, that in those
branches of industry, where the whole work is per-
formed by the powers of the human bones and muscles,
unaided by machinery, a person can generally do about
the same amount of work in a day, working ten hours,
as he will if he works twelve hours, yet when the work
is principally executed by water, or steam-driven ma-
chinery, which only needs to be tended, of course, more
work will be accomplished, in proportion to the num-
ber of hours, which the operatives attend to it and keep
it in motion. And thus, though the ultimate results
may be otherwise, the immediate result from the num-
ber of hours of labor, is a competition of labor. For,
if one thousand persons, working ten hours a day, are
able to execute all the labor which the wants of a com-
munity call for, by adding two hours a day to the hours
of labor, the thousand persons can do more than is re-
quired to be done; and consequently, a proportionate
number are thrown out of employment altogether. This
is particularly true, where machinery is extensively
used, as in manufacturing employments. The neces-
sities of a portion of the laboring classes are such, that
they are dependent upon their daily toil for their sup-
port; and in Massachusetts, there is always a surplus of
labor unemployed. Those, therefore, who are out of
employment through the effects of the excess of the

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 175

hours of labor, go into the labor market and underbid
those who are at work, and thus the general rate of
wages is reduced. A reduction of the hours of labor
then, would, to some extent, reduce the surplus of labor,
which is now competing against and crowding down
the interests of the laboring classes, and, while it would
relieve them from the other evils of over working,
would tend to enhance the relative compensation of
labor.

The evils of the present system of excessive labor be-
ing such, is it right and expedient for the Legislature
to interfere to regulate and limit the hours of labor?
In approaching this subject with a view to mitigate the
abuses and correct the admitted evils of excessive hours
of labor in the manufacturing establishments, by legis-
lative enactments, some practical difficulties present
themselves. But nevertheless, the undersigned are of
the opinion, that the circumstances of the laboring
classes are such, and the evils, present and prospective,
entailed upon society from this cause, so great, that a
necessity exists for this interference of the Legislature,
and, that the attendant difficulties of restrictive legisla-
tion are not insuperable.

tThat the Legislature has the right to restrict the time
of labor, and particularly in the works of incorporated
companies, is not now denied. The report of the com-
mittee of the House in 1845, asserts the right of the
Legislature to control, in this respect, not only corpora-
tions, but also, individual employers. The committee
on manufactures, of the Legislature in 1846, (Senate
Doc, No. 81) also affirm the same doctrine relative to
corporations. The report of that committee upon this
subject says :

That upon manufacturing corporations, in reference to the hours

176 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

of labor, the Legislature have a right to interfere to the extent asked,
perhaps does not admit of a doubt. Corporations are creatures of
law, and in most cases, even in terms, they are made subject to future
enactments and control. The question in this respect, therefore, is
only one of expediency.

It is the opinion of the undersigned, that it is a sound
general principle, that government should not interfere
with the industrial pursuits of the people any further,
than is necessary for the preservation of order and the
rights of individuals. If this rule were strictly adhered
to throughout, the natural laws relative to such matters,
would, on the whole, lead to the most successful results,
and in such a manner, as would be most conducive to
the general welfare. But in relation to the great busi-
ness of manufacturing in this State, the Legislature,
with the intention of promoting the manufacturing in-
terest, has by its action, interfered with, and destroyed
the natural relations ordinarily existing between the
class of employers and the class of employees. That
natural equality of condition, which ought to exist be-
tween the two classes, and which would enable each
party to exercise its due share of influence in fixing the
rate of wages, the hours of labor, and all their other re-
lations, by mutual arrangement and agreement, does
not practically exist between the corporations and the
great mass of laborers in their employment. The Legis-
lature, in order to concentrate power for the more suc-
cessful prosecution of useful manufacturing pursuits,
has, by its acts of incorporation, created, as it were,
immense artificial persons, with far larger powers than
are possessed by individuals. These artificial creatures
of the Legislature, upon which are bestowed vast pow-
ers, unlike individual employers, are not chastened and
restrained in their dealings with the laborers, by human

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 177

sympathy and direct personal responsibility to con-
science and to the bar of public opinion. The trans-
actions between the corporations aad the laborers, are
conducted by agents, who are hired to so manage, as to
make the most profits for the stockholders; and the
stockholders, throwing all responsibility upon the cor-
porations, receive their dividends with a high opinion
of the fidelity and efficiency of these several agents,
high and low, who have managed so profitably, but they
know nothing of the hardships endured by the laborers,
whose work has produced all they thus receive. The
larger corporations employing large numbers of labor-
ers, all act substantially in concert, in dealing with la-
borers, and avoid all competition in over-bidding for
labor. They are thus enabled to fix inexorably, without
consultation with the laboring class, all the terms and
conditions of labor. The will of the corporations thus
becomes law, and declares how many hours the laborers
shall work, and how much shall be their compensation.
From this decision of these powerful employers, large
masses of the laboring people have practically no
escape. Circumstances, practically compel them to sub-
mit to the offered terms. Many of them must do so, or
have no work at all ; and to some, this is equivalent to
having no honest means of support. The power of the
corporations, thus exercised in determining the condi-
tions of labor of large numbers of the laboring classes,
not only oppresses those whom they employ, but also
exerts a powerful influence to depress the condition and
prolong the hours of labor in every branch of industrial
pursuits.

The government of the State having thus, with the
design of effecting other important and useful results,
incidentally wrought an injustice to the laboring classes,

178 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

it now becomes its duty to interpose its authority to re-
lieve them from the hardships which its own acts have
indirectly imposed. If the two classes -the employers
and the employed, stood upon the general platform of
our institutions, with the powers alone of natural and
ordinary persons, the necessity now urged, might not
exist, and they might probably, be safely left to arrange
all matters, including the hours of labor, by mutual
agreement. But the natural state of equality having
been destroyed, as regards this large class of persons
who work for the large manufacturing corporations,
a manifestly different state of things is presented for
consideration. If their hours of labor be excessive, or
if they be subjected, by the nature and condition of their
employment, to other evils and abuses, they have in
themselves, no power of remedy. If they suffer wrongs
and evils which they ought not to suffer, they can look
only to the Legislature for redress. If the Legislature
has, on the one hand, exercised its power to strengthen
the capitalist for the more successful prosecution of
useful enterprises, it should, on the other hand, when
occasion requires, uphold and protect the interest and
welfare of the laborer against the crushing effects of
that augmented power.

These are deemed to be the special reasons why the
Legislature ought to interpose its authority to limit the
hours of labor in the factories of the incorporated com-
panies of this State. It is believed that in most, and per-
haps all industrial pursuits, whether conducted by cor-
porations or by individual enterprise, it would be for
the interest of both employers and employed, if the
hours of labor were limited so as not to exceed ten hours
a day.

But the great amount of practical evils resulting

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 179

from the excessive hours of labor, exist chiefly in con-
nection with those employments, which are, for the most
part, carried on by the corporations. The remedial
laws, therefore, should be applied where the evils exist,
and should not be carried beyond the necessity which
calls for them. These corporations are in some sense,
institutions of the State; and the evils complained of as
arising from excessive hours of labor, the State is in
some degree responsible for. The State ought, there-
fore, to correct the evil in the institutions of its own
creation. If it should do this, the example thus set
would be of sufficient weight to induce a general re-
duction of working time in all ordinary employments
conducted by individual enterprise; and it would also
exert a powerful influence to produce the same result
in the adjoining states. Let the Legislature establish
this example by restricting the corporations, and in-
dividual employers in all branches of industry may
safely be left for the present, to make such arrangements
with their laborers, as they may mutually deem advis-
able, and as the peculiarities of any branch of business
may specially call for.

Already, even with the powerful example of the cor-
porations against them, in many places the mechanics
and laboring people, in various trades and employ-
ments which are carried on by individual enterprise,
have established by mutual arrangement with their em-
ployers the "ten hour system" of labor. In the city of
Boston, in many branches of industry, laborers work
but ten hours a day. By this arrangement they have se-
cured to themselves more time for relaxation and mental
improvement, and without a consequent reduction of
wages. They receive on an average as high, and in
some cases higher daily wages, than those who work

l8o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

more hours. In these cases of reduction of the hours of
labor, the inexorable law of supply and demand, as
fixing the rate of wages, has been vindicated; for the
reduction of the hours of labor did not reduce its daily
wages, but in some cases, a reduction of the hours was
followed by an increase of wages.

The introduction and growth of manufactures, in all
countries have always been attended with much evil to
the working people engaged in them. It has been so
elsewhere, and the United States, in her late rapid
progress in this branch of industry, does not constitute
an exception. Notwithstanding the large amount, and
great variety of manufactures in this country at this
time, manufacturing here, is, as yet, but in its infancy.
It is destined to increase and spread, and become the
business and means of livelihood of many millions of
the American people. How important it is then, that
due vigilance should be exercised by the Legislature,
to prevent the accompanying growth of those evils,
which have always beset and oppressed the masses of a
manufacturing population. It cannot be, that they are
the necessary concomitants of the business of manufac-
turing. There are no irremovable causes why this
should not be a healthy, moral and respectable branch
of human industry, opening a wide field, for the per-
manent and steady, happy and well paid employment of
the American people. Such an employment, it does
not now afford, as is shown by the facts herein before
stated, that, from some cause or other, the female op-
eratives in the Lowell mills, remain at work on an av-
erage, less than nine months at a time. But such an
employment it may be made, by proper guards and re-
straints, seasonably applied by the Legislature.

The excessive hours of labor in manufacturing estab-

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 8 1

lishments is not a new subject of legislation. It has at-
tracted the attention of legislators in various parts of
the United States as well as those of other countries.
The state of Pennsylvania has deemed it wise to enact
laws, limiting to some extent the hours of labor in cer-
tain branches of manufactures. New Hampshire, and
perhaps some other states have legislated with a view of
limiting the hours of labor. The legislature of Mary-
land has, at its last session, had the subject under con-
sideration, and an act relative to it passed one of its
branches. In England, the accumulating evils concom-
itant with the progress of manufactures, made it neces-
sary, as long ago as 1802, to interpose an act of Parlia-
ment for the "preservation of the health and morals" of
those employed in cotton and other factories. After-
wards, at various times, modifications of the laws upon
the subject were made, and in 1833, an act was passed
limiting the hours of work to not more than twelve
hours in any one day, and not exceeding sixty-nine hours
in any week. In the year 1847, an act of Parliament
was passed, further limiting the time of work to ten
hours a day, and not exceeding fifty-eight hours in any
one week. This is now the law relative to the hours of
labor in the factories of England. It appears from
this, that the operatives in the factories of Massachu-
setts, work, on an average throughout the year, fourteen
hours a week more than the factory operatives of Eng-
land do; and a portion of the year our operatives work
more than twenty hours a week longer than the English
operatives do.

Sooner or later, the hours of toil of the laboring
classes here, must be reduced and limited. Until this
be done, their burthens will be constantly increasing,
and the evils of over-working will become year after

1 82 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

year more manifest. The multiplication of labor-sav-
ing machinery, instead of relieving them from the ne-
cessity of devoting so much time to labor, seems but to
add to their hours of labor. The great influx of for-
eigners into Massachusetts depresses their interest by a
constant surplus of unemployed labor. The limitation
of the hours of labor in the factories, would relieve
them to some extent of a competing surplus of labor,
and thus enable them to receive a better remuneration
in proportion to the labor they perform, and at the
same time, give them a better opportunity to enjoy the
blessings which flow from the improvement of the high-
er faculties, which are bestowed upon and distinguish
the human race.

Nor is it difficult to see, that the restriction of the
hours of labor, will harmonize with the true interest
of the manufacturing capitalist and employer. Indeed,
to that sagacity, which, acknowledging a moral govern-
ment of the universe, looks beyond immediate profits to
ultimate results, the permanent interest of manufactur-
ing cannot be best promoted by a system which inflicts
wrong and injustice upon the laborers, whose continued
services are indispensable to its success. It cannot be
otherwise than that, in the long run, it will be found
that the best welfare of this great interest, taken as a
whole, will be most effectually promoted, by securing
to the operative class, not only equitable remuneration,
but also time and opportunity to reasonably partake of
all the enjoyments, moral, intellectual and social, which
are the ordinary lot of humanity in the usual walks of
life, and also for that continually progressive culture
and improvement, which are necessary to enable them
to keep pace with the rapid increase of general intelli-
gence, which characterizes this age of the world.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 83

The employing manufacturers will generally find,
that, the higher the degree of intelligence is which per-
vades the mass of their workmen, the better work they
will perform, and they will do their work to more ad-
vantage and profit for them. Even now, in the com-
parative infancy of manufactures in the United States,
some fabrics are produced, superior in quality to sim-
ilar articles manufactured in the old countries where
they have the acknowledged advantages of far greater
manufacturing experience. These triumphs in the pro-
ductions of our manufactories, it is believed, have been
achieved principally in consequence of the superior gen-
eral intelligence of our operatives and mechanics.
These triumphs can only be maintained by preserving
and improving the intellectual condition of our labor-
ers. Let, then, their hours of labor be reduced, and
their general condition and well-being thereby im-
proved, and a better and more intelligent class of per-
sons will offer their services for this kind of employ-
ment; and while remaining in it, they will, with time
and opportunity (which they do not now have) for
improvement, continually advance in general intelli-
gence, as it is the nature of the human mind to do under
proper circumstances. They would also remain more
permanently and steadily at work, instead of changing,
on an average, every nine months as at present; and the
employers would consequently have better skilled and
more expert workmen. The operatives would thus be-
come more valuable, as members of the community, and
at the same time, render a more profitable service to
their employers, by producing improved fabrics. When
it is taken into consideration, that, in many articles of
manufactured merchandize, it is the best goods which
command the markets, it will be seen how important it

1 84 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

is to the manufacturing interest, that such regulations
should be adopted, as will permanently secure intelli-
gent operatives in all its branches.

There is another weighty consideration, which tends
to show, that the interest of the employers harmonizes
with that of the laborers in the reduction and limitation
of the hours of labor. It has often happened in the
manufacturing districts of the old world, that under a
speculative demand for goods, the factories have been
run to the greatest possible extent of time and capacity,
and by this over-action a large surplus of goods accum-
ulated. There then being no real demand for the goods,
necessity has obliged the stopping of the mills for a time
altogether, to the great distress of the poor and depend-
ent operatives, and to the overthrow and pecuniary ruin
of the proprietors. The same disastrous convulsions,
and in a great measure from the same causes, have not
been unknown in the comparatively brief history of
manufactures in Massachusetts. The same degree of
distress has not here resulted to the laboring classes, as
in England and elsewhere; because the rich unoccupied
lands of the West have furnished them a resource and a
refuge, which has, as yet, kept the majority of them
from sinking to the same degree of absolute dependence.
But not unfrequently has overwhelming and total pe-
cuniary destruction resulted in these cases to the pro-
prietors of factories, except those very extensive estab-
lishments, having sufficient resources to ride out the
storm, which has resulted from over action. If the
hours of labor were restricted, a speculative demand for
goods could not so readily stimulate production and
overstock the markets, beyond the real demands for
consumption. Taking all the factories in the State, into
consideration, they probably do not keep their machin-

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 8 5

ery in operation, on an average through a series of
years, more than sufficient time to make ten hours a day
for the whole time. They run a portion of the time
from eleven to fourteen hours a day, and at other times,
in consequence of over-stocked markets, many of them
are obliged to stop entirely. The operatives are thus
subjected at times, to the evils of excessive labor, and at
other times, to the no less evil of being altogether unem-
ployed. If the hours of labor were restricted, both evils
would in a great measure be avoided, and the advantages
of greater regularity and safety be secured to both em-
ployers and employed.

In cases where a reduction of the hours of labor has
been tried, experience has proved its wisdom, and that
it has resulted advantageously to employers as well as
to the laborers. In Boston and vicinity, no evil has re-
sulted to any class from the reduction of the hours in
certain employments. And in these, the reduction has
been to an average time of much less than ten hours
through the year; they working but ten hours during
the summer, and in winter only from sunrise to sunset,
deducting an hour for dinner, which gives but eight
hours working time in the shortest days.

A practical machinist carrying on business as such
in Lowell, and employing some ten or twelve hands,
stated to the committee, that for several years he had
worked on the system of reduced hours of labor. He
works in summer about one hour, and in winter from
two to three hours per day less time than the hands work
in the machine shops of the corporations. Yet he stated,
that he goes on successfully, his hands making as large
or larger wages than the hands in the shops of the cor-
porations, and, that with the same number of hands, he
can get off more work in the same number of days, than

1 86 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

they can in the shops where they work more hours than
he does.

In England, the restriction of the hours of labor has
worked successfully, and is now acknowledged by some
of the most distinguished manufacturers there, to have
resulted advantageously to proprietors as well as labor-
ers. After experiencing the beneficial effects of the
reduction to sixty-nine hours a week, some of the pro-
prietors of factories made, voluntarily, a further reduc-
tion, without any reduction of wages. The following
extract, from an address to their work-people, by the
Messrs. Marshall of Leeds, flax-spinners, gives some
evidence of the view taken of this matter, by intelligent
factory proprietors of Great Britain, after an actual ex-
perience of the practical effects of the reduced hours of
labor:

In 1834, we made a voluntary reduction in the hours of labor in
our manufactory from sixty-nine hours per week to sixty-six hours
per week, without any reduction of wages. That plan has been, in
our opinion, a successful and beneficial measure. We think that the
present is a favorable opportunity for making a further reduction in
the hours of labor, and we propose to commence from the beginning
of next quarter, March 30th, to work sixty-four hours per week, pay-
ing the same wages as now !

This was previous to the passage of the act of Parlia-
ment reducing the hours of labor from sixty-nine to
fifty-eight hours per week. It is the opinion of prac-
tical manufacturers, after a full experience of results.

The undersigned believe similar beneficial results to
proprietors, laborers, and to the community generally,
will ensue in Massachusetts, from a reduction of the
hours of labor in the manufacturing establishments.
They therefore respectfully recommend the passage of
the following Bill.

James M. Stone, Salmon Thomas.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 187

(2) Dr. Curtis's Summary.

Transactions of the American Medical Association, vol. ii, 1849, p. 519.

The following is Dr. Curtis's own summation, given in the paper

quoted by the minority.

1. The peculiarity of Lowell, as embracing the lead-
ing manufacturing community in America, renders the
investigations of health and longevity among us, worthy
the most impartial and anxious scrutiny.

2. The fluctuating character of our operative popula-
tion renders it exceedingly difficult to arrive at accuracy
in points of public health among them.

3. The limited investigations hitherto adopted can
furnish no correct idea of their comparative health, nor
of the comparative health of Lowell.

4. Though many points demand attention, yet, to im-
perfect ventilation, or rather to an absence of ventila-
tion, more than to any other one cause, can we trace the
origin of impaired health.

5. The operatives are more comfortable and healthy
than several other classes of our citizens ; and as healthy,
perhaps, as the aggregate of all other classes.

6. Much might be done at a trifling cost, compared
with the value of results, to elevate their physical condi-
tion; and it is earnestly hoped that some hygienic
changes will be adopted.

4. THE FIRST TEN-HOUR LAW, NEW
HAMPSHIRE, 1847

(a) REJOICING

Voice of Industry, July 9, 1847.

All Hail New Hampshire! The "Ten Hour Bill'^
passed the House by one hundred and forty-four ma-
jority!

As we anticipated, New Hampshire has done some-
thing for the Laboring Classes, by the passage of a Ten
Hour Bill through the House of Representatives, on
Saturday last. We have not seen the Bill, and there-
fore do not know its precise provisions; but should it
prove only general, constituting ten hours a legal day's
work in the absence of special contracts, a great step
has been gained, and should further action become
necessary to secure the objects asked for by the petition-
ers, doubtless it will be had. If a general law will
prove an antidote for the present long hour system of
labor, which is doing untold violence to the best inter-
ests of thousands of our working men and women, we
shall be satisfied with that; we have feared, however,
that corporations, through their combined power and
wealth, could not be effectually reached without some
special or stringent act, as they would be enabled under
a general law to institute their own rules relative to the
hours of labor and denominate them "special contracts,"
entered into with or by the consent of their operatives.
We regretted very much that the last year's legislature
of New Hampshire did not do something upon this sub-
ject. The members of that body, professing so much

HOURS OF LABOR 189

regard for humanity as they did, could not have done
less, as consistent men, than to have passed a general
law upon the subject; and we verily believe that no one
thing militated more against them at the last election
in that State, than their indifference upon this question.
The large vote in favor of the bill is a pleasing demon-
stration of the progress of so just a cause, and one which
should make Massachusetts Legislators blush with
shame. While "poor benighted New Hampshire," and
old despotic England are legislating for the people and
humanity, Massachusetts, the home of the Pilgrim
Fathers, turns away from the petition of fifteen thou-
sand of her citizens, with the pretense that "it is inex-
pedient to legislate upon the subject," while fifteen
thousand rag dollars would have elicited her sympathy
and co-operation. Let her beware for the future, for
the people are beginning to think for themselves. We
shall publish the Bill passed by the New Hampshire
House of Representatives as soon as received.

(b) MISGIVING

New York Weekly Tribune, Aug. 14, 1847, p. 5.

Having been far away at the West when this act was
passed, and not having been able to lay hands on a copy
for some days after our return, we have been constrained
to listen to the discussion of its merits without being
qualified to participate therein. If we mistake not,
most of those out of the State who have most volubly
debated this measure have refrained from publishing
it, leaving at least one of their readers imperfectly en-
lightened by their dissertations. Having at length,
however, obtained a copy of the act itself, we give place
to it -as follows:
An Act regulating the Hours of Labor in Manufactories.

I90 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Section i. Be It enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives in General Court convened, that in all contracts for or relating
to labor, ten hours of actual labor shall be taken to be a day's work,
unless otherwise agreed by the parties ; and no person shall be required
or holden to perform more than ten hours labor In one day, except In
pursuance of an express contract requiring greater time.

Section 2. No minor under the age of 15 shall be employed In any
manufacturing establishment more than 10 hours the day, In any
labor, without the written consent of the parent or guardian of such
minor first obtained. If any manufacturer, or any corporation, or
the agent of any manufacturer or corporation, shall employ any such
minor in violation of the provisions of this section, he or they shall be
punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars.
Approved July 3, 1847.

This certainly seems to us a very poor affair, but not
at all for the reasons assigned by the mass of its adver-
saries. They condemn it for attempting to limit the
hours per day of hired labor; we for doing so little
toward the accomplishment of that important end.
With regard to Minors, especially, we did hope to find
this act far better than the mockery it is. The policy of
Legislative interference with the contracts of Adults
for their own services may be questioned; but who can
seriously doubt that it is the duty of the Commonwealth
to see that the tender frames of its youth are not shat-
tered by excessively protracted Toil? Will any one
pretend that ten hours per day, especially at confining
and monotonous avocations, which tax at once the brain
and the sinews, are not quite enough for any child to la-
bor statedly and steadily? Is it not a chief and power-
ful argument for any Legislation on the subject, that
the constitutions of the future fathers and mothers of
the Nation may be and are undermined and broken
down by persistent labor through twelve to fourteen
hours per day? If this be so, (and we have the most
irrefragable testimony that it is,) why should "the con-

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 1 9 1

sent of the [?] parent or guardian of such minor" be
allowed to overrule the demands of Justice, Humanity
and the Public Weal? On what ground is this mani-
fest recreancy to the vital principle of the act defended?

So of the provision "under the age of 15." Girls of
15 to 18 or 20 should be most carefully shielded from
the life-long evils which result from excessively severe
or protracted toil, not only for their own sakes, but in
view of their duty and destiny as the future wives and
mothers of the nation. There is no reason for legis-
lative interference in favor of a younger class which
does not equally plead for them. And if ten hours per
day be enough for any one to labor steadily -as the
spirit of this law clearly implies -it should not be with-
in the power of a father or mother (who may be living
in drunken idleness on the earnings of a child's over-
taxed energies) to make void the immunity of the Law.
We apprehend, too, that, with regard to farming and
other out-door labor, the act might well have provided
for an hour longer per day in Summer, to be balanced
by working an hour less than ten in Winter-which
would very nearly conform to the general usage. But
we shall hear farther on this point.

We apprehend this act will prove worthless as a prac-
tical measure, and leave everything very nearly as it
was. We believe nothing less than a peremptory pro-
hibition of the employment of minors for more than ten
hours per day, without regard to the consent of parents
or guardians, will effect much, if anything. Still, we
are willing to see a trial made even of this milk-and-
water enactment. Should it be found to answer no pur-
pose, but that of appeasing popular demand, it will
not be likely to effect even that for any considerable
time. . .

192 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Voice of Industry, Aug. 27, 1847.

Tremendous Excitement at Manchester, N.H.- Meet-
ing at the City Hall. Just as we are going to press the
Manchester Democrat^ containing an account of a
crowded and exciting meeting, held in the City Hall in
that place, to consider the "Ten-hour Law," is received.
We have only room to give the following Resolutions
offered for the consideration of the meeting.

Resolved, that we hold these truths self-evident, that man is en-
dowed by his creator with certain inalienable rights; among which is
life, liberty, the pursuits of happiness, a home on the earth, a right to
labor, and the power to limit for himself, his hours of labor.

Resolved^ that agreeable to the laws of New Hampshire, Ten
Hours constitutes a legal day's work.

Resolved, that ten hours' labor in each day is all that man's con-
stitution is able to bear.

Resolved, that on and after the 15th of September next, we will
not work more than the legal number of hours in each day.

Resolved, that we will sign no contracts to work more than ten
hours per day.

Resolved, that, to the support of these Resolutions we pledge our
lives and our sacred honor.

Resolved, that a copy of these Resolutions be sent to each of the
manufacturing towns in the State.

Resolved, that a copy of these Resolutions be published in the
Manchester Democrat and American, and the Voice of Industry, pub-
lished in Lowell, Mass.

(d) PROTECTION VERSUS FREE TRADE

New York Weekly Tribune, Oct. 16, 1847, P- 3- Extract from the Dover
Enquirer, Sept. 28, and comments by the editor of the Tribune.

The New- York Tribune is so uniformly sound and correct in its
views, that those who are compelled to differ with it, upon any sub-
ject, will act the part of prudence by giving their own opinions a
"sober second thought." We are constrained to think, nevertheless,
that the Tribune has not duly considered the circumstances under
which our "Ten-hour Law" was passed - and that the Whig Press of

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 193

this State, in almost uniformly taking ground against ( I ) it, have not
only acted the part of prudence and duty, but have expressed the hon-
est convictions of a large majority of our people of all political par-
ties. The Tribune, if we recollect the tenor of its article, does not
entertain a very high opinion of the law itself: it pronounced it, we
think, a "poor affair"- but it is disposed to censure those manufactur-
ing establishments which choose to pay no other attention to it than
to make such contracts (2) with those in their employ as the neces-
sities of the case and their mutual interests and convenience dictates.
Let us look at some of the circumstances connected with and bearing
upon this matter:

In the first place, let it be borne in mind that this law was got up
and passed by our radical Legislature, not from any sympathy with
the laboring man, but to vent their spite against manufacturing cor-
porations, and with the hope of causing them some embarrassment by
creating difficulties between them and their operatives. A large ma-
jority of the voters in all our manufacturing villages, like all other
intelligent communities who read and think for themselves, are
Whigs, and, in the support which they give to Whig principles at the
polls, exert an important influence upon the politics of the State.
This influence is felt and feared by our radical leaders - and anything
which they can do to weaken it, or detach (3) it from the Whig
party, they never fail to perform, however outrageous or unjust the
act may be. A local quarrel, whether about "Temperance" or "Ten
Hour Laws," which they can foment in such towns as Manchester
or Dover, by which the Whigs may fail to elect a Representative, or
what is better, throw the delegation into their hands, is equal to a
gain of from sixteen to thirty Representatives to them, or more than
their whole majority in the last Legislature. This was the main
reason for the passage of the law. It was never asked for by any
considerable or respectable number of the laboring people of the
State. The men who were most clamorous for it were either those
too idle and vicious to work at all, or those noted as "hard drivers,"
exacting from those under them the utmost amount of labor for the
smallest possible amount of pay. Such, at least, is their character in
this town, and we suspect that this is a fair type of them everywhere.
The habits and occupations of our people, as a body, are utterly
averse to all such sumptuary legislation; most of them are their own
laborers, and work (4) sixteen, ten or six hours, more or less, just

194 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

as their business requires, or inclination prompts. No one for a mo-
ment supposed that the law would ever have any practical application
unless it was in our large manufacturing establishments, who might
be coerced into a compliance with it by the fear of a repeal of their
charters, or some other mischievous interference with their rights
by a radical Legislature, The very title of the law - "An act to reg-
ulate the hours of labor in manufacturing establishments"- betrays
the prime object of it, although its authors did not dare to make the
spirit of it thus exclusive.

Again, it should be considered that the manufacturing establish-
ments in this State must (5) run as many hours as similar establish-
ments in other States, or they cannot run at all without loss to their
stockholders. If a mill in Dover runs but ten hours, while in the ad-
joining town of South Berwick, or in Lowell, or Saco, a similar mill
runs twelve hours, it is evident that the latter is reaping an advantage
which must be ruinous to the former. In establishments where
millions of dollars are invested, and thousands of operatives are em-
ployed, two hours, or one-sixth of the whole day, deducted from the
time of active operations, would form in the aggregate a drawback
which could not be withstood - especially when active competitors
all around were not subjected to it. The "Ten-hour Law" might
be a very good thing, if all the world would conform to it - and so
would Free (6) Trade -but while one man labors twelve hours, his
neighbor, to live alongside of him in the same kind of business, and
with no better facilities, must do the same.

The whole matter is one which can be best regulated by those
whom it most concerns -the employer (7) and the employee. And
such, we are happy to learn, has been the course pursued. The largest
portion of those employed in our mills - working as they do by the
job or piece -are desirous of working as many hours as they can.
Those who take a different view of the matter, seek other employers,
or different occupations. It is a free country.

Remarks. Profoundly convinced that sinister influ-
ences are operating to throw a portion of the; Whig
Press of New-Hampshire into a false position on this
Ten-hour question -one wrong in itself, and therefore
calculated to work serious and lasting injury to the
Whig cause -we have felt constrained to speak out.
The above is the first response that has met our eye.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 195

Let it be fairly considered, and, that it may be, consider
these notes upon it also :

1. The Ten-hour Law was passed, if we mistake not,
by a vote of some three or four to one -only some forty
Noes in a House which numbered over one hundred
and thirty Whigs. It is now undisputedly a law of the
State. In what sense, then, is the Enquirer "taking
ground against it?" Advocating its repeal is a perfect-
ly allowable, though to our mind a very idle and sui-
cidal course; but if the phrase is meant to cover the
justifying of violations or palpable evasions of a law of
the land by those who profess a regard for *'Law and
Order," then we think a Whig Press might be better
employed.

2. We have not condemned the making of contracts
for working a greater number of hours per day than
ten, where each party is left really free to contract, as
the law evidently contemplates. But if, as is admitted,
the laborers have the contracts presented for their sig-
nature, under peril of ejection from employment if they
see fit to refuse, while a secret agreement among the em-
ployers of the entire State, and with others out of the
State, binds each not to employ any who refuse to sign
a contract to work as many hours per day as the employ-
ers see fit to exact, then it seems clear that the law is
evaded and subverted; and it appears to us that such
conduct deserves stern reprobation, whether from those
who believe the objects of the law salutary, as we do,
or who dislike them, as the Enquirer would seem to do.

3. Admitting all this to be true, does it become Whigs
to run into the trap which is thus set for them? If the
Loco-focos have passed a bad law, the way to make the
People feel it is by rigidly obeying it and insisting on a
general conformity to its provisions. If it is their ob-

196 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

ject to defeat the choice of Representatives in Dover,
Manchester, &c. is not the Enquirer playing exactly
into their hands? Would it not be infinitely wiser and
better if the Whig employers in manufacturing towns
would just call their workmen together and ask them
to say frankly and plainly whether they desire any
change made in the Hours of Labor, and if any, what
change? If the men are nearly all in favor of working
twelve hours or so per day, why not submit the question
to them, and let the voice of the majority govern?
There must be a way to harmonize these matters. Dem-
agogues can only find their account in fomenting diffi-
culty between employer and laborer when there is
smouldering discontent -we had almost said injustice -
to operate upon.

4. Whose business requires? and whose inclination
prompts? Who decides on the urgency of the require-
ment? Who are adverse to a legal regulation saying
beforehand how many hours per day a man shall work
under a general contract to labor by the day, month or
year? Does the Enquirer really mean to affirm that the
hired laborers of New-Hampshire are willing that
their employers shall determine whether a working day
shall consist of six, of ten, or of sixteen hours? If it
does mean this, then we beg leave to say that we do not
think there are such abject serfs in any Georgia cotton-
field or Carolina rice-swamp. Will the Enquirer speak
more clearly on these points?

5. No, my friend! your must is very positive, but it is
confuted by mountains of experience. Robert Owen ran
a whole village of cotton-mills for some twenty years,
working only ten hours per day, while his neighbors and
competitors all around ran from twelve to sixteen, yet he
made money as fast as any of them -made all he wished.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 197

The same experiment has been tried a thousand times in
a thousand ways, and with a uniform result. Great
Britain is now trying it by a law imperatively forbidding
more than eleven hours' work in a day in factories dur-
ing the present year, or more than ten hours after this
year. Does anybody believe her manufactures will be
ruined under this law by American, German and French
rivalry? We are confident that very nearly as much
work would be accomplished in ten hours as in twelve
or thirteen, while a great saving would be effected in
lights, fuel, &c. You can't get more work out of a man
than there is in him; and if ten hours' active, faithful
labor per day is enough, protracting the hours of toil
to twelve or thirteen will effect no good purpose. It is
just like giving workmen liquor in order to extract work
from them; for a few days it may seem to answer; but
after that the liquor only serves to extort as much work as
was formerly done without it, and hardly that. "Enough
is as good as a feast;" to obtain more for a series of years
is morally impossible. And beside, does not the En-
quirer see that its argument proves, if anything, that,
whenever the employers of Massachusetts, Rhode Island
or any other State shall see fit to exact from their "hands"
eighteen hours' labor per day, it will be absolutely neces-
sary for those of New-Hampshire to follow their ex-
ample?

6. We don't believe "Free Trade" would be "a good
thing" if universally adopted -on the contrary, we think
its evils would be magnified. "Free Trade" between an
old and a new country, a rich and a poor one, a savage
and a civilized, is not fair and equal, but tends to repress
the development of new branches of Industry in the least
advanced and capable. It is the scourge of India and
the Oriental world generally at this moment, draining

198 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

them of their wealth to purchase the products of British
looms and spindles which were far better fabricated
among the consumers. "Free Trade" with England, in
view of the great Manufacturing ascendency of the lat-
ter, is among the woes of unhappy Ireland, whose peo-
ple would be better employed and subsisted under an
import duty of fifty per cent.

But the Ten-hour system, we are told, would be a
good one if all would conform to it. Well : how are we
to approach such conformity? If the dissent of anybody
anywhere is to nullify, what hope that it can ever be
established? Shall we not rather say, seeing it is a good
thing, we will cling to it, and suffer some inconvenience
rather than let it be overthrown?

7. We dissent altogether from this view of the matter.
It befits a Loco-foco, not a Whig, paper. It concerns us
all that our laboring people, the young especially, have
opportunity for improving their minds, making them-
selves acquainted with the events and the ideas of our
time, so as to be qualified for discharging faithfully
their duties as freemen, citizens, electors, or the mothers
of such. Excessive toil, especially in youth, unfits us for
some of the most important duties and relations of life.
If, therefore, a whole community grossly ignorant of the
laws of life and health, could be tempted hy high wages
or driven by want into working fifteen to eighteen hours
per day, it would be wrong in the State to allow and
right to forbid so destructive a course. But when the
fact is that Power and Avarice on the one side are ar-
rayed against Humanity and Public Policy on the other,
the State ought to interfere between them -must do it.
We had heard already that the freedom of this country
is so extreme that those who have no shoes are perfectly
at liberty to go barefoot, but the freedom of a man hav-

ghr]

HOURS OF LABOR

199

ing a family to support and a rent to pay, who is offered
the alternative of working as many hours as another
chooses to exact or being thrown out of work and al-
lowed to seek it elsewhere, while his children must be
fed and his rent runs on -and in the face of a secret
agreement among employers not to hire any one who is
discharged for refusing to work more than the legal
hours per day -goes entirely ahead of anything we ever
heard of. How can we determine how many "are de-
sirous of working as many hours as they can" while such
are the penalties of an adherence to the Ten-hour sys-
tem?

5- PENNSYLVANIA TEN-HOUR LAW, 1848"

(a) THE ACT

New York Weekly Tribune^ April 22, 1848, p. 5.
An act to limit the hours of labor, and to prevent the employment in

factories of children under twelve years of age.

Section I. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represent-
atives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly
met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that labor
performed during a period of ten hours in any secular day, in all
cotton, woolen, silk, paper, bagging, and flax factories, shall be con-
sidered a legal day's labor, and that hereafter no minor or adult en-
gaged in any such factories shall be holden or required to work more
than ten hours in any secular day, or sixty hours in any secular week,
and that after the fourth day of July, of the present year, no minor
shall be admitted as a worker, under the age of twelve years, in any
cotton, woolen, silk or flax factory, within this Commonwealth; that
if any owner or employer in any such factories aforesaid, shall em-
ploy any such minor, he shall be adjudged to pay a penalty of fifty
dollars, one-half to the party so employed, and the other half to the
Commonwealth, to be recovered in like manner as debts of like
amount are now recovered by law. Provided, that nothing contained
in this act shall be construed to prevent minors above the age of four-
teen years from being employed more than ten hours in any day, if
the same be done by special contract with their parents or guardians.

If the Laboring Class is thankful for such a Reform
as this, they certainly cannot be deemed deficient in
gratitude. If anybody can tell why young women work-
ing in a book-bindery, shoe-bindery, milliner's shop, or
any such, do not need and have not a right to equal pro-

1^ Following the enactment of the law on July 4, 1848, the cotton factories
in Allegheny City laid off 2,cx)o employees. A riot occurred July 31, when
operatives who returned to work on the twelve-hour basis were driven from
their work. Six months afterward, thirteen of the rioters were convicted. A
settlement was made August 28 on the ten-hour basis with reduction in wages
of sixteen per cent.- Ed.

HOURS OF LABOR 201

tection by law with spinners and weavers, we should be
glad to know it. How is it supposed that such enact-
ments can be maintained and enforced when only a few
specified avocations are subjected to their provisions?

Then as to minors: either sixty hours per week is as
long as children ought regularly to work, or it is not.
If it is, with what justice does the Legislature prescribe
that the consent of parents or guardians shall suffice to
constrain them to work longer? To us it seems that such
consent argues the unfitness of the giver to exercise dis-
cretion in the premises, and deepens the responsibility
to act in the matter, and act conclusively.

This act is very much of a humbug, but it will serve a
good end. Those whom it was intended to put to sleep
will come back again before long, and, like Oliver
Twist, "want some more."

(b) THE OPERATIVES

Pittsburgh Daily Commercial Journal^ July 21, 1848, p. 2.

An adjourned meeting of the operatives in favor of
the law, fixing ten hours a day's labor, was held at the
Allegheny Market House, on Tuesday evening, July
18, 1848. Mr. J. Moffit, President, and J. W. Bradley,
Secretary. The minutes of the preceding meeting were
read and adopted. Mr. D. J. Smith then offered the fol-
lowing resolutions, which were passed unanimously.

Whereas, the operatives of Allegheny city factories
have taken a stand in favor of the ten hour system, as se-
cured to them by the recent action of the Pennsylvania
Legislature, they are hereby deprived of their legitimate
means of a livelihood, and would appeal to the sym-
pathies of a generous community for such aid as may en-
able them to withstand the injustice of their employers
in endeavoring to exact from them more hours of labor

202 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

in the close and imperfectly ventilated factories than
they are constitutionally able to bear, therefore, be it

Resolved, that a committee of nine be appointed by
this meeting, to solicit donations from the inhabitants of
the two cities for the above purpose.

Resolved, that said committee be authorized to dis-
tribute the proceeds of such donations as they may re-
ceive, impartially to such operatives as may make ap-
plication.

Resolved, that the chairman of said committee, report
to each meeting, the amount they may have collected and
distributed.

(c)the employers

Pittsburgh Daily Commercial Journal^ Aug. 3, 1848, p. 2. Statement of
the Manufacturers.

The undersigned, proprietors of the various cotton
mills, situate in the city of Allegheny, having in view a
decent respect for public opinion, and to shield ourselves
from the obloquy and reproach endeavored to be cast
upon our characters, by various and oft repeated mis-
representations of our motives and business, in connec-
tion with what is called the ten hour law, have judged
that the time has arrived, when a simple and temperate
exposition of facts, might be proper and useful in di-
recting the public mind to just and equitable conclusions.

The profits of manufacturing yarn and coarse cotton
goods have been greatly overrated in the U. States for a
long time. It has had its seasons of prosperity, with al-
ternate periods of depression and adversity -while pub-
lic estimates appear all to have been predicted upon the
bright and sunny side of the picture. That the general
and aggregate result has not been at all adequate to jus-
tify the risk and trouble incident to its pursuit, is the ex-
perience of nearly all who have been long engaged in the

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 203

business -at the present time it is laboring under con-
siderable adversity, of which the suspended establish-
ments in the North and the reduction of wages in the
favored region, are unmistakable evidences. Nor is the
future free from strong and gloomy apprehensions -
these arise principally from the immense importations
under low duties -the scarcity of money- and the vast
increase of machinery and its productions in the United
States, which has reduced the domestic fabric to a small,
regular and net profit. In this active home competition,
the manufacturer in Pennsylvania is required, by the
late law, to meet the enlightened and energetic New
Englander in a common market -the one with the pro-
duct of twelve hours' labor- the other with the product
of ten hours' labor- a difference of one sixth, or nearly
17 per cent of a discriminating duty, enacted by Penn-
sylvania against the labor of her own citizens and oper-
atives. Surely no argument is necessary to convince an
enlightened and calculating public that however desir-
ous the owners of mills may be to get their machinery in
operation again, they are completely shut out from the
exercise of that right under the late law -unless it be by
adopting the proviso it contains, that special contracts
may be made for twelve hours' labor.

Some time previous to the late law taking effect, the
undersigned had a meeting, to compare their experience,
and form a judgment as to their ability to adopt the
ten hour system : the result of our deliberations was then
recorded, and from the minutes we extract the follow-
ing-viz:

At a meeting of the proprietors of cotton mills, held in Pittsburgh,
on the 23d of May, 1848 -the subject of the late law of Pennsyl-
vania, regulating the hours of labor in cotton mills, after the 4th of
July next, being under consideration, it was unanimously

Resolved, that we cordially approve of the benevolent action of

204 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

the legislature, in excluding children under twelve years of age from
employment in factories, and believe that at no time w^as it the inter-
est of them or their employers; but that the practice originated
through the entreaties of indigent parents, whose wants were sup-
plied by their earnings. We at the same time sympathize with many
widows and others, in afflictive circumstances, in being thus deprived
of their ordinary supply of the daily necessaries of life.

Resolved, that the extensive and enterprising competition in the
various states of the Union, in producing coarse cotton goods, has re-
duced the business to an estimated and small profit, and that, whilst
other manufacturing communities, both in the free and slave States,
are untrammeled in the hours of their labor, any attempt on the part
of Pennsylvania alone to reduce the hours of labor, would have a
most destructive tendency on a great, growing and important branch
of industry, conducive alike to the comfort and prosperity of our
Commonwealth.

Resolved, therefore, that from necessity, we must continue to em-
ploy our machinery twelve hours per day, as heretofore, and in con-
formity with the provisions of the law, adopt a system of special con-
tracts with the operatives.

A common desire on our part, and amongst a respect-
able, industrious and orderly portion of the operatives
of both sexes, to resume our labors as usual, induced us,
not to evade the law, as has been reported, but to comply
with its terms and requirements by making the special
contracts for 12 hours. In this attempt of the employer
and employed, to execute their lawful business, in the
only way in which the Pennsylvania Mills can be saved
through the provisions of the law, the violence of the
mob is known to the public, and if approved and ac-
quiesced in by them, has effectually suspended opera-
tions, until such legislation shall prevail in Pennsylvania,
or be adopted in other states as may place the Cotton
Manufacturing interest of this great Union on one com-
mon footing as regards labor, which is only another term
for wages.

We have no desire to advert to the personal violence.

eight] HOURS OF LABOR 205

the abuse of our property and of our common rights as
citizens, which have all been outraged. We allude to
these proceedings incidentally, and only because we fear
and regret that the effect produced may be to prejudice
the good will, cordiality and friendly feelings, that hap-
pily have heretofore existed between the proprietors and
the operatives of the Allegheny Mills, and which need
not be impaired -if they are left to control and adjust
their own concerns, and consult their own interests.

We hope, therefore, that we may be correctly under-
stood by the public, in reference to the position we now
occupy, not through any choice of our own, but by rea-
son of the necessity that is laid upon us.

First, that whilst in other States they run their ma-
chinery 12 hours or more per day, we cannot successfully
compete with them, working 10 hours per day.

Second, that the mills must and will remain suspended
until we are placed on a common platform with other
States, of which we are now deprived, unless we can op-
erate under the special contract provisions of our Penn-
sylvania law.

Third, that we are ready and willing to resume our
business whenever we can do so, with no greater burdens,
restrictions and dangers, than what are common and in-
cident to the business elsewhere.

Blackstock, Bell & Co., Pitt Cotton Mill
P. McCORMiCK, Hope Cotton Mill
King, Pennock & Co., Eagle Cotton Mill
MoORHEAD, COPELAND & Co., Union Cotton Mill
Kennedy, Childs & Co., Penn Cotton Mill
N. VOEGTLY & Co., Star Cotton Mill
James A. Glay, Allegheny Cotton Mill.
Pittsburgh, August 2, 1848.

2o6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

(d) THE POLITICIANS

Pittsburgh Daily Morning Post, Aug. 25, 1848, p. 2.

The Federalists. Resolved, that the Whig party is
now, as it always has been, the true advocate of the in-
terests of the working classes -that they are the hope of
the country, and deserve the fostering care of the Gov-
ernment-that we ardently desire to see their condition
ameliorated, and will contribute all in our power to ac-
complish that object. That this Convention believes
that the moral and intellectual condition of the laboring
classes of the country, would be essentially improved by
laws establishing ten hours as the period of a day's labor;
and that we repel the often repeated charge, that the
Whigs are not the sincere and consistent friends of the
working classes. . .

The Democrats. Resolved, that this Convention,
acting for and in behalf of the Democratic people, in-
struct our members, in the event of their election to the
Legislature, to sustain ^'the ten hour law," and expunge
therefrom the special clause in said act ; that the law will
then be absolute and imperative on wealthy task masters :

Resolved, that the members from this county in the
last Legislature, in the place of performing an honest
duty to our people, refused to vote for a law calculated
to confer benefits on those that are obliged to labor, to
sustain themselves honestly; and who are not favored by
bank loans ; but at the same time took care to benefit rich
property holders, by placing a heavy tax on the county,
and by granting to speculators the bed of our rivers on
the mere pretext of mining for Coal, which is a direct
monopoly of the sand and gravel, to the manifest wrong
done our people ; and renders their conduct unworthy of
the support or confidence of the voters of this county.

eight]

HOURS OF LABOR

207

Resolved, that our Delegates are hereby instructed to
cast their votes for no man for Governor of this Com-
monwealth, until they are satisfied he is in favor of a
Ten Hour Law, the hope and consolation of the sons and
daughters of toil ; and we pledge such the votes of the
mechanics of this district; and it is to be hoped that me-
chanics and laborers and the humane of all parties, will
aid the good cause by their votes.

6. TEN HOURS BY TRADE AGREEMENT,

1853

New York Daily Tribune, Aug. 5, 1853, p. 4.

We have been so thoroughly gratified by a perusal of
the recent proceedings of the Operatives and Employers
engaged in the Manufactories of Delaware County,
Penna., that we must give a brief account of them for the
edification of others, trusting that they will be deemed
worthy of approval and imitation.

The factories of Delaware County are numerous,
though we believe few or none of them are very exten-
sive, nor are they concentrated in any one populous city
as at Lowell, Mass. or Manchester, N.H. They have
hitherto been working twelve hours per day. The work-
men generally considered this too much, and, after due
discussion and consideration, met by delegates from the
several establishments at Media on the i6th ult. They
there resolved that the regular Hours of Labor ought to
be reduced to ten per day, adopted an Address setting
forth their reasons for this conclusion, and appointed a
Committee of five to prepare a suitable memorial on the
subject, procure the signatures of operatives thereto, and
present it to their employers. All this was duly and re-
spectfully done -the Address being free alike from
Jacobinic rant and cringing subserviency- and on the
23d the employers met at Chester to consider the requisi-
tion. A Committee was appointed to take the workers'
request into consideration and report thereon, which was
done in a considerate and manly spirit; the report dis-
senting from some suggestions embodied in the workers'
memorial, but concluding with the following resolu-
tions :

HOURS OF LABOR 209

Resolved, that we unanimously accede to the request
to introduce the ten hour system into our respective
establishments, to take place on the fourth Monday in
August next.

Resolved, that prior to the time specified in the fore-
going resolution, each employer be recommended to ad-
just the wages with those employed on equitable prin-
ciples.

Resolved, that having acceded to the request of our
operatives, we now in justice to ourselves, as well as to
them, expect they will use every honorable exertion to
bring about the general adoption of the ten hour system
in all factories throughout the United States.

Here we see the whole question settled, so far as a
large manufacturing district is concerned, without de-
nunciation, bitterness or wrath, and without invoking
the interposition of laws or politicians. The laborers
simply consider the matter, resolve that sixty hours per
week are as many as they think they ought to work, and
they appoint a Committee to confer with their employers
and submit to them the considerations which have im-
pelled them to this conclusion. They urge that they
need more time for intellectual and moral culture, for
the training of their children, &c., than they can give
after having performed twelve hours' labor per day in
factories; and that, if they cannot earn their present
wages by working ten hours, they are willing to take
less. The employers meet in like manner, consider the
respectful but frank suggestions of their workmen, ac-
cede to the Ten-hour System, and ask the workmen to
use their best efforts to render the Reform universal.
And thus the matter is happily and kindly adjusted- we
confidently trust to the advantage of all parties. . .

V
LABOR ORGANIZATIONS

INTRODUCTION

The depression which followed the panic of 1837
lasted nearly seven years and was marked by reductions
in wages. Prices began to rise in 1843 and the upward
movement continued for two or three years. The effect
of the increase in the cost of living soon made itself felt
among the working classes. Complaints that the tariff
was protecting capital and degrading labor appeared in
the public prints, and soon the complaints were followed
by numerous strikes throughout the country. In Cin-
cinnati several trades were organized so that a trades'
union was proposed, but the project seems not to have
been carried out. There and elsewhere strikes were
sporadic and without concerted action.

How American industry had changed since the panic
is illustrated by these strikes. Factory operatives who
had been unimportant in the earlier labor struggles now
were the leaders. Machinery had created a place for
women in industry, and they were organizing with the
men to maintain the standard of living. Machinery,
too, was creating a class of unskilled labor, and a labor-
ers' union appeared. A strike of immigrant dock work-
ers showed that the foreigner was taking his place in
American industry. Finally, the development of trans-
portation facilities widened the sphere of competition
and made necessary the equalizing of competitive con-
ditions with respect to the cost of labor throughout the
country. We find, therefore, that the hatters, the tailors
and the weavers hold national conventions to fix uniform

214 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol

prices of labor for all the manufacturing centers; and
the Lynn shoemakers call upon their craftsmen through-
out New England to meet in convention for a similar
purpose.

Before the unorganized strikers could be united in
permanent labor organizations, however, prices had re-
sumed their downward course. Strikes were now futile
and the workers turned their attention towards labor re-
form through legislation and through cooperative pur-
chasing and mutual insurance. In Boston, they organ-
ized the Working Men's Protective Union to carry out
this plan. When the New England Workingmen's As-
sociations failed to shorten the hours of the factory sys-
tem, the operatives turned to the idea of the Protective
Union, or cooperation, as a means by which they could
themselves improve their conditions. They organized
local Protective Unions and affiliated with the Boston
Union. The divisions spread through all the New Eng-
land states, and the name was changed to the New Eng-
land Protective Union. It grew rapidly in power and
wealth.

In England at this time the Rochdale cooperative
system was entering a similar career of success. But
there does not seem to have been any connection between
the two movements ; and their methods of business were
wholly different. The Englishmen sold at market prices
and divided the profits among the purchasers. The
working men of New England wanted to abolish profits.
They aimed to sell at cost. The Protective Unions ex-
hibited a distinct class movement of working men to
whom the idea of profits appeared as an injustice. They
organized to protect their standard of living in the only
way in which they could succeed in a period of falling
prices, by eliminating all unnecessary expenses, and aid-
ing each other in sickness and misfortune.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 215

For a few years this purpose of the Protective Unions
was kept pure. But when the transactions of the divi-
sions mounted up to hundreds of thousands of dollars,
the profit-making idea intruded. Some divisions began
to sell goods to non-members at a price below that of the
market, but with a profit to the members. This and the
sick-benefit features caused the first disputes in the
Unions ; and the splitting off of the American Protective
Union from the New England Union was due to a desire
on the part of some members to have business principles
supersede the working men's notions of protection and
solidarity.

The organization of the New York Protective Union
in 1847 marked the addition of a new principle to the
Protective Union idea. The workers would not only
eliminate the menace to their wages by doing away with
but they would also employ themselves and thereby
abolish the profits on their labor, and assure themselves
of steady employment. Strikes and the law had both
failed to protect the workmen. They would therefore
eliminate the menace to their wages by doing away with
the employing class. In their own shops they would
establish the laws which the legislatures refused to enact.
And when a majority of the industries had been thus
transformed, there would be no need to petition the gov-
ernment for protective laws. It would be compelled to
recognize in law the conditions which already existed
in fact.

This plan was as revolutionary as the theories of the
Associationists and the Land Reformers; but it seemed
to offer immediate results to the workers. It contained
the elements of a comprehensive social reform, yet ap-
peared less remote than the recognition by society of the
"natural right to the soil" or the "right to labor." Mak-
ing its appeal to working men as a class, and growing out

2 1 6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

of their own experiences, the plan was quickly taken up
by their organizations which appeared with the rising
prices in 1850. The whole trade-union movement of
this and the following year in New York, Boston, and
Pittsburgh was permeated with the idea that coopera-
tion offered the best mode of protection to workmen and
the ultimate means of solution for the problems of labor.
The revival of business activity during the years 1853-
1854 brought forth a new type of union, now disdain-
fully called "pure and simple," by the radical socialist.
It steered clear of all programs of social and political
reform, and confined its activities to improving the con-
ditions in the trade. Its main weapon was the strike ; its
aim, to establish a minimum wage for the trade and to
maintain it by means of a closed shop. This new and
limited program made possible trade agreements be-
tween unions and employers, which fixed for a stated
period the wages, hours, and other conditions of employ-
ment.

I. SPORADIC UNIONS, 1842-1846
(a) THE CAUSES

(i) The Course of Wages.

Mechanic's Mirror,^^ ixxnt, 1846, p. 146.

The Price of Wages per day, for Masons and Laborers, in the month
of May, in the following years :

MASONS SHILLINGS LABORERS SHILLINGS

" 8

Rafter the great fire

" 10 <J in the city of New

g (York

„ ^ Jgreat expansion of

l^the currency
6
7
7
7
8
8

In addition to the rise in wages, from 1842 to 1845, there have
been employed from 50 to 75 per cent more men than there were
from 1838 to 1842.

Joseph Tucker, Wm. Tucker, James Harriot, Amos Wood-
ruff, James Webb, Samuel Oliver, Mechanics of the city of New
York.

By this table, it appears that ten years ago the wages of
masons in New York were exactly the same as they are
to-day. Has the expenses of mechanics increased or de-
creased since that period? What, with idle time, is their

^*The Mechanic's Mirror was published in Albany as the organ of the
Mechanics' Mutual Protection, a secret order of masters and workmen for
protection mainly against the competition of prison labor.

1832

1835

1836

1837

1838

1839

1840

I84I

1842

1843

1844

1845

2 1 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

average wages? How much can a mechanic lay up for
sickness and old age -and what comforts the mechanic
in New York can enjoy from his wages, in comparison
with those engaged in some other business, are questions
which we should like some of the brethren in New York
to answer.

(2) The Tariff and the Working Man.
Voice of Industry, July 17, 1845, p. 3.

Look at the two Pictures. The first is from the
Boston Morning Post: look at it and shout *4ong live a
protective tariff,'' which thus enables princely nabobs to
swell their overgrown coffer at the expense of the labor-
ing poor.

Cotton Factories. The Merrimac Manufacturing Company has
just declared a semi-annual dividend of 10 per cent and its profits for
the last six months having been 13 per cent. A surplus reserve fund
is accumulated in spite of its large dividends and large salaries to its
officers, which is sufficient to build a very large addition to its pro-
ductive power. Some years since it made a dividend of one third its
capital at one dash, and now puts its cash funds to a use that will
earn some 25 or 30 per cent return annually.

The Boott Mills Company is found to stand so well, that 25 per
cent advance is freely offered for it and for Suffolks, 40 is asked.
Indeed, the new copper mines of Lake Superior can hardly make
money so fast as the Lowell factories are now doing.

Then look at this - and exult at the prospect that opens
before you, if you can.

Protection to Home Industry. The Lowell Pa-
triot says :

We are informed that the wages of many of the operatives em-
ployed in one of the largest woolen corporations in this city have been
greatly reduced within a short time past. Hands who have had $1
per day now get $.75 and generally the reduction is in that ratio.

Twenty-five cents reduction! What blessed effect of
protection! The hard laboring community will soon
fully understand that fat dividends to stockholders afford
no surety of just and liberal wages.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 219

This is a progressive system. As agriculture in New
England decays, and the "populace" become more de-
pendent upon factory wages, their earnings will be re-
duced until their productions will, indeed be the result
of pauper labor.

(b) STRIKES AND ORGANIZATIONS

(i) "Rebellion among the Operatives."

New York State Mechamc,^^Mzy 18, 1843, p. 205.

Turn-outs. There are symptoms of rebellion among
the operatives in all quarters. At Lowell, Pittsburgh,
Philadelphia, Chicopee, and elsewhere, outbreaks follow
each other among different classes of mechanics. They
are attended by processions, that are in imitation^ if not
"as terrible as any army with banners." The evils of
which they complain, are, the order system, by which
they are subjected to extortionate prices for articles of
necessity, or to ruinous discounts for cash, which is in-
dispensable for many purchases ; and in some cases, they
are oppressed by a decrease of wages and an increase of
labor. This was the cause which led to the glorious
turnout of the fair operatives in the factories at Chico-
pee. They formed in solemn column, arrayed in their
best bibs and tuckers, and marched to the music of the
drum and fife through the streets, and waved their ker-
chiefs to the girls in the other mills to join them. Fail-
ing to enlist reinforcements, they returned to their
places. A few days afterwards they mustered their
forces again, with as little success as before, and to add
to their discomfiture, when desirous of turning in a sec-
ond time, they were turned out by their employers.
Processions and martial music are now the usual accom-
paniments of strikes. The brickmakers of Pittsburgh
made a parade of their forces recently, and joined other

'»The New York State Mechanic was the predecessor of the Mechanic's
Mirror.

220 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

bands of the disaffected in general assembly. We have
not been apprised of the result of their deliberations.

(2) Movements of the Trades.

IVorktng Man's Advocate^ July 27, 1844; quoted from the People's
Paper (Cincinnati), Oct. 14, 1843.

It gives US unspeakable pleasure to observe the prog-
ress the workies are steadily making. We have hitherto
contended that it was impossible, in large cities, for me-
chanics to redress their grievances, unless they formed
societies, resolved to firmly adhere to each other, and
boldly demand their rights. Experience proves that we
were correct in our opinions.

The wages of the Printers, in this city, had been re-
duced to such a degree that many of them could scarcely
procure the necessary comforts of life. . . They em-
bodied themselves into a society- their efforts proved
successful, and they are now receiving a fair compensa-
tion for their toil. Out of eighty-two Journeymen
Printers in the city, only five or six have been found
mean enough to succumb to their employers -or rather,
masters, for such men need masters -and work for less
than the wages established by the Society.

The Shoe-makers, the Tailors, the Cigar-makers, and
others, followed the example of the Printers. Each
class have formed a society and will consequently do
well. The Cabinet-makers and Carpenters should now
come up to the work. We believe they have been more
imposed upon than any other branch of mechanics in
this city. They should, therefore, throw off all seeming
meekness, boldly confront their oppressors, and fearless-
ly demand their just dues.

Working Man's Advocate, July 27, 1844.

By a report of the corresponding secretary of the
Typographical Association of this city, it appears that

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 221

several employers who had agreed to the prices estab-
lished by the Association in the spring have reduced
them, and others are about to do so. Among the rest it is
said that Mr. John F. Trow, the Corporation Printer,
^4s determined to set his face against the Association."
One employer who was interrogated, said he ^4ost a job
in consequence of being underbid by some who does not
pay Association prices," and that ^^he should be obliged
to reduce or lose his work." . . The Tailors of this
city, who are now on a strike for higher wages, walked
in procession on Monday through the principal streets,
accompanied by two bands of music. It is computed
that there were about two thousand in the procession.
Many of the Tailors are now looking for a radical rem-
edy for their grievances as well as the temporary one of
strikes. Their General Convention takes place on the
25th instant, and we trust the measure of the National
Reform Association will not escape their notice. The
Hand Loom Weavers of Paterson are also on a strike
for wages. Some of the employers have acceded to their
demands. . . The Cordwainers of Lynn, Mass., have
established a paper of their own, and are taking meas-
ures to send delegates to the New England Convention.
The resolutions of the Ladies' Corwainers of this city
have been republished by the Lowell Operative and
Boston Laborer^ and are promised in the Awl^ the new
paper at Lynn. . .

(3) A Trades' Union Proposed.

The People's Paper (Cincinnati), Oct. 26, 1843.

We obser/e by yesterday's Daily Sun that the mechan-
ics of our city are endeavoring to establish a "Trades'
Union Society." Nothing could have pleased us better,
for we have always believed that an association of this
kind cannot but be conducive of good. Through its in-

222 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

fluences our honest artizans would become united and
endeavor to assist each other all in their power. By it,
one branch would sustain and uphold another in seeking
for its rights, and being thus made somewhat dependent
upon each other, they would be bound by ties of friend-
ship and respect that it would be impossible for monop-
olists and speculators to sever.

Capitalists, within the last few years, have combined
together, in this city and elsewhere, for the purpose of
working to each other's advantage. For instance -
Builders have engaged hands to work for trade, stating
that they "could give nothing else," when, in fact, money
was paid to the employer for the work, or would have
been paid, if required. Prior to this, however, the mas-
ter-mechanic, or "boss", as he is technically termed, has
been to some merchant and made arrangements to "order
on him." When the poor laborer presents his order, the
merchant knows very well that the man has no other re-
source, and that he will be compelled, from absolute
want and necessity, to take the articles called for in the
order, no matter what be the price; consequently the
dealer charges whatever he pleases for an article, no
matter if it be three times its actual worth. By this pro-
cess, too, the "boss" makes not only a profit on his w^ork,
but he also achieves a vast deal of benefit by speculating
on the money he gets for it. He bargains with the pro-
duce dealers, etc., to trust him a year or so, and let those
whom they employ have goods on orders, while, in the
mean time, he withholds money from his journeyman
more than doubles in various speculations.

This kind of game has been played upon the indus-
trious portion of the population all over the country, and
it now behooves the mechanics to unite, as one man, if
they ever expect to obtain a redress of grievances. It is

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 223

the only way, in our opinion, by which the humble arti-
zan can obtain money or its equivalent for his toil. No
other method can be adopted to frustrate the disposition
of the avaricious few to grind down the honest laborer
and force him to toil for a compensation that will barely
furnish bread and water. Men, men -patriotic, hard-
toiling freemen, have been trampled and crushed be-
neath the feet of soulless and grasping speculators, until
they have grown desperate at the indignities and imposi-
tions heaped upon them. They find that, in order to
preserve themselves and their children from sinking be-
neath the grade of the serfs and boors of Europe, they
must throw off all seeming meekness and boldly con-
front those capitalists who would make a ten-fold profit
from their labor. A "Trades' Union" is well calculated
to benefit them much in their plausible exertions to gain
what they are indubitably entitled to, and we sincerely
hope that such a society will, ere long, be established in
this city.

New York Daily Tribune, Sept. i6, 1843, P« 3-

At a Mass Meeting of the Laborers' Union Associa-
tion held in the Park on Friday evening, the 15th instant,
Daniel B. Taylor was appointed President, James B.
O'Donnell, Vice President, and David S. Roach, Sec-
retary.

James B. O'Donnell, Esq., then offered the following
preamble and resolutions, accompanied by a' few re-
marks, which were unanimously adopted :

Whereas, a proper regard for the preservation of our
own rights and interests requires, on our part, the adop-
tion of measures for the attainment and maintenance of
those rights, so far, at least, as they relate to the wages of

224 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

the laboring class; and whereas a system has grown up
amongst us within the last few years affecting the inter-
ests of workingmen in general, by which unlimited pow-
er is given to petty persecutors under the name of Con-
tractors and Sub-contractors, to obtain our services at
their own will, and at their own price; and, whereas we
have heard it suggested that in order to remove the ob-
jections made by mechanics against the system of labor
now practised in our State Prisons, that it be abolished,
and the convicts employed upon our public roads, thus
transferring the oppression heretofore experienced by
every class of mechanics, to one body of workingmen -
the Laborers, those least able to bear it, and whose rights
and true interests it seems must be totally disregarded,
in order to redress a grievance which other modes will
as well accomplish ; and whereas the compensation re-
ceived at present by the Laborers of the City of New-
York is an inadequate return for the arduous services
they render their employers, and believing it to be the
duty of every man to procure by just and honest means a
proper remuneration for his labor, therefore,

Resolved, that we, the Laborers of the city and coun-
ty of New- York, will, orderly, peacefully, but resolutely,
demand of our employers an increase of wages; and for
the purpose of obtaining it, hereby unitedly pledge our-
selves to labor for no man who does not award to us an
equal compensation to that which the laborers in the
immediate employment of the Common Council re-
ceive.

Resolved, that the sum of one dollar per day is but a
reasonable remuneration for the toilsome and arduous
duties that we have to perform.

Resolved, that the Common Council of this city be,
and they are hereby requested to embody in all contracts

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 225

given by them to contractors, by which laborers will re-
ceive employment, a clause compelling the contractors
to award to their laborers wages equal to those paid by
the Common Council themselves.

Resolved, that we will support no person for the next
Legislature, or for the next Common Council, who will
not pledge himself to use his exertions to create such
laws as will place the Laborers upon an equal footing
with the most favored men who depend upon the sweat
of their brow for support.

Resolved, that the abolishment of Convict Labor in
our State Prisons, so far as it affects mechanical occupa-
tions, is a just and equitable measure; but the employ-
ment of Convicts upon our Public Roads is an interfer-
ence with the immediate interests of Laborers, and is, in
our opinion unjust, it being a transfer to which we never
shall quietly submit, and which no real friend of Work-
ingmen would desire. . .

The meeting was eloquently addressed by the Presi-
dent, Daniel B. Taylor, Esq. and Messrs. Abraham B.
Davis, Jas. B. O'Donnell, Webster and Murphy.
Daniel B. Taylor, President.
James B. O'Donnell, Vice President.
David S. Roach, Secretary.

(d) AN IMMIGRANTS' STRIKE

New York Weekly Tribune^ May 2, 1846, p. 3, col. 3.

. . . As we understand it, a large number of Irish
laborers have been at work in Winter for certain con-
tractors for sixty-five cents per day, and the days were
made pretty long at that. With this compensation,
amounting to $3.90 per week, the laborers must of course
live as they best could, some of them having large fam-
ilies to support. As the rent of any decent tenement in

226 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Brooklyn would absorb nearly the entire earnings of a
laboring man at this rate, they were allowed to build
miserable shanties on ground allotted them by the con-
tractors on the plot occupied by them in performing the
work.

As Spring opened and days became longer, labor more
effective and employment more general, the poor labor-
ers began to grumble at their hard lot, and at last united
in an effort to improve it. They asked for 87^4 cents per
day (about equal to 50 in Vermont, or 37^4 in the West)
and to have ten hours recognized as the limit of a day's
work. The contractors refused to comply with their de-
mands ; whereupon the laborers struck work. The con-
tractors hired a cargo of freshly landed Germans to take
their places, and ordered the old laborers to quit the
premises, which they refused to do, and resorted to the
lawless, unjustifiable step of endeavoring to drive the
Germans from the work by intimidation and violence.
Of course the Military were called out, the Irish over-
awed, the Germans protected in their work, and thus the
matter stands. So far, the contractors may be said to
have triumphed. . .

(e) WOMEN WORKERS

(i) Female Industry Association, New York.

Working Man's Advocate, March 8, 1845, p. 2, col. 3-4; quoted from the
New York Herald.

. . . Seldom or never did the Superior Court of
the City Hall contain such an array of beauty under suf-
fering, together with common sense and good order, as it
did yesterday, on the occasion of the meeting of the fe-
male industrial classes, in their endeavors to remedy the
wrongs and oppressions under which they labor, and, for
some time past, have labored. At the hour appointed
for the adjourned meeting, four o'clock, about 700 fe-

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 227

males, generally of the most interesting age and appear-
ance, were assembled ; and, after a trifling delay, a young
lady stepped forward, and in rather a low, diffident tone,
moved that Miss Gray take the Chair, which, having
been put and carried in the usual business-like way-

Miss Gray, (a young woman, neatly dressed, of some
22 or 24 years of age, fair complexion, interesting,
thoughtful and intelligent cast of countenance) came
forward from the back part of the room. She proceeded
to make a few observations on the nature and objects of
their movements and intentions, and stated that, finding
the class she belonged to were unable to support them-
selves, honestly and respectably, by their industry, under
the present prices they received for their work, had,
therefore, come to the determination of endeavoring to
obtain something better, by appealing to the public at
large, and showing the amount of sufferings under which
they at present labored. She then went on to give in-
stances of what wages they were in the habit of receiving
in different branches of the business in which she was en-
gaged, and mentioned several employers by name who
only paid them from $.10 to $.18 per day; others, who
were proficient in the business, after 12 or 14 hours hard
labor, could only get about $.25 per day; one employer
offered them $.20 per day, and said that if they did not
take it, he would obtain girls from Connecticut who
would work for less even than what he offered. The
only employer who had done them justice was Mr. Beck,
of Fourteenth street, who only allowed his girls to be
out about two hours, when he complied with their rea-
sonable demands. He was a man who was worthy of the
thanks of every girl present, and they wished him health,
wealth, and happiness. How was it possible that on
such an income they could support themselves decently

228 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

and honestly, let alone supporting widowed mothers,
and some two, three, or four helpless brothers and sis-
ters, which many of them had. Pieces of work for
which they last year got seven shillings, this year they
could only get three shillings.

A female stepped forward . . . and enquired if
the association was confined to any one branch of busi-
ness, or was it open to all who were suffering under like
privations and injustice?

The Chairwoman observed that it was opened to all
who were alike oppressed, and it was only by a firm co-
operation they could accomplish what they were labor-
ing for.

Another female of equally interesting appearance
(Mrs. Storms) then came forward and said that, it was
necessary the nature and objects of the party should be
distinctly understood, particularly by those who were
immediately interested; their own position should be
fully known. If the supply of labor in the market was
greater than the demand, it followed as a matter of
course that they could not control the prices ; and, there-
fore, it would be well for those present to look around
them and see into what other channels they could turn
their industry with advantage. There were many
branches of business in which men were employed that
they could as well fill. Let them memorialize the mer-
chants in the dry goods department, for instance, and
show them this also. That there were hundreds of fe-
males in this city who were able to keep the books as well
as any man in it. There were various other branches of
business in which men were employed for which fe-
males alone were suitable and intended. Let these men
go to the fields and seek their livelihood as men ought to
do, and leave the females their legitimate employment.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 229

There were the drapers also, and a number of other
branches of trade in which females could be as well if
not better and more properly employed. By these means,
some thousands would be afforded employment in
branches much more valuable to themselves and the com-
munity generally. She then proceeded to recommend
those present to be moderate in their demands, and not
to ask for more than the circumstances of trade would
warrant, for if they acted otherwise, it would tend to
their more ultimate ruin. Under present circumstances,
a very few years broke down their constitutions, and they
had no other resource but the alms-house, and what
could bring this about sooner than the bread and water
diet and rough shelter, which many of them at present
were obliged to put up with.

The proceedings of the previous meeting were then
read and approved of.

A number of delegates from the following trades en-
tered their names to act as a Committee to regulate fu-
ture proceedings: tailoresses, plain and coarse sewing,
shirt makers, book-folders and stitchers, cap makers,
straw workers, dress makers, crimpers, fringe and lace
makers, &c.

The following preamble and resolutions were agreed
to:

Whereas, the young women attached to the different
trades in the city of New Ybrk, having toiled a long time
for a remuneration totally inadequate for the mainten-
ance of life, and feeling the truth of the Gospel assertion,
that '^the laborer is worthy of his hire," have determined
to take upon themselves the task of asserting their rights
against unjust and mercenary employers. It must be re-
membered by those to whom we address ourselves, that
our object is not extortion ; our desire, not to reap advan-

230 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

tages which will be denied to our employers. The boon
we ask is founded upon right, alone! The high prices
demanded by tradesmen for their goods renders them
amply able to advance wages to a standard, which, while
it obviates the present cause of complaint, will render
laborers only the more cheerful at their work, and still
more earnest and willing to serve their employers. The
scarcity of employment, and the low rates of pay which
have so long prevailed, have, undoubtedly driven many
virtuous females to courses which might, otherwise, have
been avoided. Many of the female operatives of this
city have families dependent upon their exertions; aged
fathers and mothers -young brothers -helpless sisters,
who, but for their exertions, must inevitably starve, or
betake themselves to that scarcely less horrible alterna-
tive - the poor house ! Such a picture is enough to bestir
the most inert to active exertion ; the love of life is a pas-
sion inherent in us all, and we feel persuaded that we
need no better excuse for the movement to which the
glaring injustice of our employers has driven us ! There-
fore,

Resolved, that in order to carry out the views ex-
pressed in the preamble, and to raise the requisite funds
for the assistance of those whose situations render such
assistance necessary, that we thankfully accept the kind
offer of Signor Palmo, of his Opera House for a benefit,
to take place on (this) Friday, March 7th, and it is hoped
that all those who may feel an interest in our proceed-
ings will show their approval of our measures by attend-
ing the same.

Resolved, that an address be prepared by a committee,
presenting our wrongs to the public in their true and
proper light, and advising such measures as may be best
calculated to remedy them.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 231

Resolved, that we now adjourn, to meet again on Fri-
day, the 14th inst. at 4 p.m., at this place, to hear the
above mentioned address, and to listen to other matters
which may in any way interest the Association.

Elizabeth Gray, President.

Mary Graham, Secretary.

(2) Factory Women.

Voice of Industry y May 15, 1846.

. . . Some two months since, a plan was proposed
by the Massachusetts Corporation, to have the weavers
tend four looms and reduce the wages one cent on a piece.
Some of their number thought as a protection had been
given to industry, that their employers had not applied,
they would take the liberty to see to the matter them-
selves.

A meeting was called and a President and Secretary
appointed to carry out the proposed measure of "pro-
tective industry." Next in order, a Committee of three
was appointed to draw up a pledge, it was presented and
unanimously adopted. It read as follows :

In view of the rapid increase of labor without a cor-
responding remuneration, therefore, we, the weavers of
No. 2, Massachusetts Corporation, resolve, that we will
not allow ourselves to be physically taxed again, to add
to the already overflowing coffers of our employers, -
that we will not work under the proposed reduction, em-
bracing a fourth loom and receive a cent less per piece.

Resolved, that we will not tend a fourth loom, (ex-
cept to oblige each other) unless we receive the same pay
per piece as on three, and that we will use our influence
to prevent others from pursuing a course which has al-
ways had a tendency to reduce our wages.

This we most solemnly pledge ourselves to observe, in
evidence of which, we hereunto affix our names.

232 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Resolved, that any one giving her name, and violat-
ing this pledge, shall be published in the Voice of In-
dustry y as a traitor, and receive the scorn and reproach of
her associates.

It has the signature of every, or nearly every job weav-
er on the corporation, and has been kept inviolate. . .

(f) SHOEMAKERS

(i) Lynn Cordwainers' Society.
The Awlf July 17, 1844.

The object of the Mutual Benefit Society of Journey-
men Cordwainers of Lynn.

What do they intend to do? The design of this article
is to answer the above stated question, which has fre-
quently been asked. But, in the first place, we shall state
what we do not intend to do. i. We shall not declare
war with, not attempt to injure, our employers. 2. We
are not yet ready to demand the proposed prices for our
labor, for we are not as yet prepared for such a move-
ment. It must be apparent to all, that if we could obtain
our prices to-morrow, the benefit resulting therefrom
would be very effervescent; for, as soon as publicity was
given to the fact, that Lynn jours had obtained the prices
they demand for their work, if it be more than journey-
men are receiving in some other portions of our manu-
facturing communities, they, of course, or many of them,
would pack their kit, and wend their way to Lynn; and
this town would be over- run with workmen ; and the re-
sult would be, a tremendous cut, perhaps lower, if pos-
sible, than we were before we commenced this move-
ment. Thus far in relation to what we wish not to do.
Now to the question. What they intend to do.

I. We propose to hold a convention of cordwainers in
this place, two weeks from next Thursday. And prior
to that time, the visiting committee which has been

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 233

chosen from this society, are to go to all the towns in this
region at least, and recommend the forming of societies,
and also to induce the jours in each town where they
manufacture ladies' shoes to send delegates to this con-
vention, of which one object is to take preparatory meas-
ures, for a proposed New England convention of me-
chanics, which we presume will be held in Boston.
There we expect to meet delegates from every manufac-
turing town in this part of our country; and the shoe-
makers intend to hold one session at least by themselves,
at which time we shall agree to have a uniformity of
prices so fixed, that a journeyman can do as well in one
town as in another; and likewise to designate some day
when every journeyman cordwainer in this part of the
country, as far south at least as Philadelphia, shall march
up to his boss and demand a just, and fair compensation
for his labor. This is one thing at least, that they intend
to do. And can any reasonable man doubt our success,
after such measures are matured? We think not. And
it is plain to us that this will not injure our employers in
the least; for this being a general thing throughout the
largest portion of our manufacturing country, our em-
ployers can put such prices to their shoes, as will secure
them as much profits at least as they now receive.

2. This society intends to do away, if possible, with
that injurious practice of taking apprentices for a few
weeks or months, and learning them to make one kind of
a shoe, or what is called a shoe, and thereby multiplying
poor workmen, and filling our market with miserable
goods.

3. We intend to raise the character of our town, by do-
ing our work more faithfully.

4. We wish to raise the standard of self respect. Is it
not a positive truth, that the farmer, the laboring man,
and the mechanic, is looked down upon as though they

234 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

were some grades lower than their employers? This no
one can doubt. Now, we contend, that if any class of
men are worthy of respect, it is those who produce some-
thing by which the world is made better. This society
intends, therefore, to respect our employers, but no more
than every other man -and ourselves likewise.

These, and many other things, the members of this
society intend to do. We will here state, that we are
ready to answer any question respectfully submitted to
us, in relation to our intentions; for our cause is just, and
we do not wish to carry it on by secret combinations ; but
we come to the light that our deeds may be made mani-
fest. And may the God of light, of truth, and justice,
aid us onward in our cause!

(2) Attempt to Equalize Competition.

The Aivl^ July 17, 1844. "Circular, issued by the Journeymen Cord-
wainers of Lynn."

Gentlemen -We, your brother craftsmen of the
town of Lynn, have suffered much penury and privation
for several years past, in consequence of the very inad-
equate manner in which we have been paid for our labor.
We have been and are yet cursed with that most detest-
able of all other systems that can grow into use in any
manufacturing town -to wit, the order system. The
known tendency of this is, to rob our families of support,
our children of the benefits of the higher branches of ed-
ucation, and ourselves of many of the comforts of life;
whilst on the other hand, it enriches our employers and
the dealers in our wants, creates distinctions, anti-repub-
lican in their character, which assimilate very nearly to
those that exist between the aristocracy and the laboring
classes of Europe. It is the offspring of a careful, wilful,
and deliberate action of the mind, a production of the
colossal talent of a well educated, and, of course, hu-
mane, benevolent, and philanthropic moneyed aristoc-

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 235

racy, to degrade, freeze, and starve the poor -a system
studied with particular care, plan after plan relin-
quished for the still later patented one, until it has been
reduced to a mathematical certainty that none are gen-
uine, or answers the heartfelt desires of its authors^ if the
laboring man can pay his debts, maintain his family, ed-
ucate his children, and provide for the evening of life.

We, therefore, believing forbearance no longer a vir-
tue, have awoke from our lethargy, to a full sense of our
condition, and have formed ourselves into a society, and
have firmly resolved to seek by all honorable means in
this associated state, the final abolition of these innova-
tions upon our rights.

But, gentlemen, we are aware, that whatever may be
the character of our grievances, or the means we employ
to redress them, unless there is unity of action through-
out the manufacturing districts, our zeal and energy to
elevate our condition, as a class must prove partially if
not wholly abortive.

If this be true, and we believe it is, how important,
then, both for you and ourselves, that we should all be
united in this great and worthy work. We ask of you,
then, as men, supposing you, as a mass, to be similarly
circumstanced, to act in union and harmony with us, by
forming yourselves into societies, either auxiliary to or
independent of ours, as in the judgment of your several
associated conditions will best promote the oneness of
those interests common to us all. The necessity of this
union will appear the more apparent, when you re-
flect upon the fact that our employers will not comply
with our terms, however reasonable they may be, if they
can procure labor at a less rate elsewhere. . .

In our opinion, there is no substantial reason why we
should not be better paid for our labor; and we can if
we will but do our duty, which is to make a better article,

236 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

and thereby induce the manufacturers to draw a suffi-
cient price from the purchasers to indemnify them for
so doing. Our country is now at peace with all nations,
free from famine and pestilence, the moneyed institu-
tions in good condition, the harvests have been abundant,
the people industrious, and yet we are ground down and
oppressed. . .

We, therefore, the undersigned, in consideration of
the above facts, do recommend that a convention be
holden as soon as may be, in Lynn, or some other suitable
place in this county, that we may act together for the
common good. And we would request of all the mem-
bers of the craft to whom these presents may come, that
they will take action upon the same, that we may govern
ourselves accordingly.

Walter Sherrod, William A. Fraser,
Albert C. Hill, Caleb H. Alden-
In behalf of the Mutual Benefit Society of Journeymen

Cordwainers of Lynn.
Lynn, July 4th, 1844.

(g) HANDLOOM WEAVERS -A DECAYING
HANDICRAFT

(i) Complaints of the Weavers.

Young America, Jan. 3, 1846; quoted from the True Sun.

The Hand Loom Weavers of the city, in a communica-
tion in another column, complain loudly of the state of
depression to which they are crushed by the illiberality
of em.ployers; and from what we had yesterday an op-
portunity of seeing and hearing in regard to their pres-
ent pitiful condition, we are constrained to express our
surprise that the voice of complaint had not before been
publicly heard from them. It is hardly credible that
such inexcusable oppression of the necessitous and help-
less weavers, by their employers, could have existed so
long, and have been constantly increasing in its severity,

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 237

without having long ago attracted public attention, and
excited public indignation. We learn from them that,
a system of curtailment of wages has been prosecuted
upon the dependent workmen, by which they have been
reduced to a state of abject misery and suffering. No
longer ago than some three years, they were enabled, by
ceaseless labor at their looms, to realize from $4.25 to
$4.75 per week -but to so low a rate of pay have the em-
ployers reduced them, that the same degree of laborious
application will not now yield them above $2.50 per
week! Is not this monstrous? The broken down, hag-
gard, and toil-worn appearance of the men, bears faith-
ful witness to the severity and unceasingness of their
labors, while the squalid poverty which surrounds their
miserable homes, their ragged, haggard-looking wives
and children, are enough to move the stones themselves
to raise their voices against the heartless oppression
which produces such human suffering of thousands, that
the sweet morsels rolled under the pampered tongues of
the few, may be yet more honeyed.

What the proceedings were to which the weavers refer
in their card, we cannot say, unless it be their assemblage
for the purpose of consultation upon their deplorable
condition and its causes, and of devising some measures
of relief. We understand that in pursuit of these means,
they have called upon the master weavers of the city
and petitioned them for a slight relaxation of the
"screws" which have been for the past three years grad-
ually tightening upon and crushing them. We saw a list
of the names of employers who had given a favorable
ear to their petition, and learned that they had unani-
mously, with but one exception, agreed to make an in-
crease of the present wages. This exception is an
employer, who not only refuses to concede a single ad-
ditional farthing to the workmen, but threatens, in case

238

AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

[Vol.

of refusal on the part of those now employed by him, to
continue to work for the beggarly pittance he now
(grudgingly, no doubt) pays them, he will fill their
places with others who will work for less. We advise
him to take better counsel and show himself better de-
serving of the space on earth which God in his infinite
charity has granted him.

That the reader may judge for himself of the justness
of the complaints of this class of our hard working op-
eratives, and how they have shared in the general pros-
perity in every department of mechanical and other
business, which has distinguished the past six or eight
years, we annex the following table, exhibiting the prices
paid for their labor from 1836 to the present time. The
reduction here exhibited, runs proportionably through
all descriptions of "White work;" and all that is now
asked by these oppressed men is a mere addition of half
a cent on crown linings and mosquito netting, and one
cent on all sorts of check work.

The first table exhibits the reduction on check fabrics :

RECEIVED CHECKS

700

800

900

1000

The following exhibits the prices paid for book mus-
lin and crown linings, coming under the denomination
of white work:

RECEIVED CHECKS

900

800

700
600
500
400

1836

1840

1845

$.07

$.05/2

$.03 >

.08

.06

.04

.10

.063^

.05

.11^

.o9>4

.06

1836

1840

1845

•13/2

$.10

$.07

■ iiVa

.09

.06

•09K2

■07Va

.0414

.07

.06

.04

.06M

•04/2

.0254

•05/2

.04

,02

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 239

(2) Organization.

Foicf of Industry^ Sept. i8, 1846; quoted from Young America. Pro-
ceedings of the Carpet-weavers' Convention.

Agreeable to previous arrangement the Delegates
from the several Factories throughout the United States,
met on Tuesday at Tammany Hall, at 2 o'clock, p.m.
The meeting appointed Joseph Scott, Tariffville, Pres-
ident; John McNair, Haverstraw, Secretary, and John
Hallis, Tariffville, Assistant Secretary.

Thirty-four delegates made their reports from thirty-
one Factories, constituting a representation of one thou-
sand and ninety-nine Operatives.

The following gentlemen were elected a Committee of
Arrangements: George Sharp, Saxonville; John Jamie-
son, Yonkers; George Naylor, Danvers; David Stow,
Haverstraw; Robert McCrone, Thompsonville. Also,
as Committee of Ways and Means : Ambrose H. Lincoln,
Lowell; David Thompson, Greenville; John Dixon,
Tariffville. After arranging these preliminaries it was
resolved that this convention be open for all reporters
for the press. Adjourned to Wednesday at 9 o'clock.

On Wednesday morning the committee of arrange-
ments submitted the following resolutions, which, after
several of the delegates had spoken upon them, were
unanimously adopted one by one.

1. Resolved, that this Convention consider the pres-
ent attempt to reduce the prices of carpet weaving un-
neccessary and unjust, seeing the Tariff (the declared
cause of this attempt) does not come into operation for
three months; nor can we believe that its actual opera-
tion would justify the attempt.

2. That knowing from experience that our present
wages are no more than remunerative, and only sufficient
to afford us a tolerable subsistence, we cannot admit the
propriety of a reduction of our present prices.

240 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

3. Resolved, that the reduction of wages has never
been a permanent advantage to employers, for when
they cannot obtain a sufficient price in the market, the
just and proper remedy is to withhold the supply until
the demand causes a return to remunerative prices.

4. That this Convention look upon the present pro-
posal to reduce wages as ruinous, and that it is their duty
to resist by every legal means the carrying into effect
such a proposal. . .

(3) "A Constitution for the Regulation of the Carpet Trade." Weekly
Tribune, Sept. 12, 1846.

The objects of this Constitution are to institute a gen-
eral and proper understanding among the different fac-
tories of the Union, in order to support the interests of
all concerned, and also for the purpose of securing the
aid of the whole body employed in the Carpet Trade,
against any inroad that may be made on a part of the op-
eratives by any unprincipled employer, and for protect-
ing the Carpet-weaving Trade from the abuses of un-
principled operatives.

Section i. That a Convention of Delegates meet an-
nually in New- York on the first Tuesday of September,
to concentrate the views of the Trade as to the best
means of supporting its interests.

Section 2. That the Delegates shall be elected in the
proportion of one for every fifty looms, but a factory
consisting of a fewer number may send a Delegate, but
he shall only vote according to the number of looms he
represents. It will, however, be allowed for small fac-
tories to unite in sending a Delegate, so as to make the
representation as equal as possible.

Section 3. That every loom shall be equally taxed to
defray the expenses of Delegates to and from the place
of meeting, and whatever general expenses may be in-
curred during the sitting of the Convention.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 241

Section 4. That if any factory or body of operatives
be laboring under a grievance, they shall write to each
factory for advice, and if two-thirds of the whole Trade,
the number aggrieved included, approve and advise that
they shall make a demand upon their employers for re-
dress, it will then be proper for them to use all means in
their power to obtain their rights.

Section 5. When the operatives of a factory have a
grievance, they shall communicate with all the factories
in the trade, and after receiving returns from these fac-
tories and finding that two-thirds of the trade warrant
them to use stringent measures, it shall be the duty of the
officers of the shop to give a statement of the number of
married and single men, and it shall also be the duty of
the officers to make a calculation of the looms in the
Trade, and give a statement to each factory of the amount
of levy to be made on each loom.

Section 6. That all persons in the Carpet Trade who
may have acted contrary to the interests of the trade at
certain times, that is, in taking looms at the time of a
contest with the capitalist and operative, and any other
offense that may have been detrimental to the interests
of the trade, we do hereby, for the sake of good order,
forgive and absolve all such persons, if any such there
be, up to this date, the 28th of August, 1846.

Section J. That persons wishing to become operatives
in the Carpet Trade, shall pay the sum of ten dollars,
but a weaver's son shall only pay five dollars, as initia-
tion fee, before they can be admitted as operatives into
the Trade. Any operative assisting or giving instruc-
tions to any one that has not settled his initia-
tion fee, shall be liable to a fine of no less than ten dol-
lars.

Section 8. That the operatives of every shop, shall
manage their own funds ; but no initiation money shall

242 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

be applied to any other purpose than the general good
of the Trade.

Section 9. That in case of a struggle with any portion
of Carpet Operatives and a Capitalist, every loom in
operation in the Trade, shall be equally taxed to support
the operatives in the contest. The tax to be levied ac-
cording to the number engaged in the struggle; say each
married man shall be allowed $3 per week, and each
single man $2 per week.

Section 10. That if any body of Operatives be drove
to the extreme measure of making a stand; if any person
or persons shall step in betwixt the employer and opera-
tives, and take a loom or looms, he or they shall upon no
condition be admitted into the Trade, and if any opera-
tive in the time of a struggle, shall fall in with an em-
ployer and turn against the interests of his fellow-work-
men, he shall be expelled the Trade. And it shall be the
duty of the operatives in a struggle with an employer, to
give the names to each Factory of any who may violate
any section of the law, and each Factory shall record the
names of the offenders.

Section 11. That when any operative leaves a Fac-
tory, he shall receive a certificate from the President or
Committee to present to the President or Committee of
the Factory he goes to.

Section 12. That all the Carpet Factories in the
United States shall be served with copies of this Con-
stitution. And the President of each shop, along with
the Committee, shall be the executive, and it shall be
their duty to see the law duly executed. . .

2. MASTERS' AND JOURNEYMEN'S ORGAN-
IZATION-MECHANICS' MUTUAL
PROTECTION

(a) THE COMMON MENACE -PRISON LABOR
New York State Mechanic ^ Jan. 7, 1843, p. 53.

The legislature of the state commenced its session last
Tuesday, and already the mechanics begin to look for
some decisive action upon the state prison labor question.
In this they are right. The subject is one of paramount
importance, and under the circumstances of the case,
no other should be allowed to take precedence of it, or
interfere with its full consideration. We speak but the
sentiments of the whole body of the mechanics of the
state when we say, thus much is demanded in justice and
right of our legislature, this winter. The shuffling and
evasive policy that has characterized the movements of
that body at every session for the last ten years, in rela-
tion of this matter, we trust, is not to be repeated -and
we most sincerely hope that for once this subject will re-
ceive that attention to which, from its importance as
affecting not only the interests but the standing in so-
ciety of a large and useful class of our citizens, it is justly
entitled. . .

A glance at the legislative history of the prison ques-
tion would but confirm what we have stated, and, did
time and space allow, it would be interesting to take a
retrospective view of the action thereon, for the past ten
years. But, as this is not practicable, under the circum-
stances, it may be well to review the precise state of the
question as it stood at the adjournment of the last winter
session of the legislature, and as it now stands. It is well

244 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

known that in the early part of the last session a report
was presented, from the committee on state prisons, in
relation to the subject, together with a bill, of the pro-
visions of which our readers are not ignorant. This bill
was the third introduced in the house, but, notwithstand-
ing its priority, it was postponed upon one pretence or the
other, from time to time, until within ten days of the
close of the session. It was then impossible, "of course,"
to act upon the question at all, for precipitancy in mat-
ters of such grave importance was an evil of which our
sage legislators possessed a "terrible dread." After a
deal of conversation, to no purpose, the bill was lost, and
that too by the evasion of men who had pledged them-
selves to the mechanics, before election. Under the cir-
cumstances, another bill was got up, as the best thing at-
tainable, and the mouth-stopping law of 1835, with
certain penal enactments affixed, (to compel the officers
of the state to obey the laws of the state) was adopted by
the house, "to take effect immediately." This bill also
provided for the appointment of a commissioner to in-
quire into the propriety and expediency of employing
convicts in the mines, and to report to the next (the pres-
ent) legislature. The vote was 76 to 24. After passing
the house it went to the senate, and sundry amendments
were proposed, in which the house refused to concur.
A committee of conference was appointed, and, after
this consultation, the bill passed -amended, however, so
as to take effect the ist of May, 1843 -after the session
of another legislature! -instead of immediately.

This law, as we remarked at the time, saving the prom-
ise that it held out of something decisive this winter,
amounted to just nothing at all, and after events have
shown us that we were correct.

The commissioner whose appointment was provided

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 245

for in the bill has been appointed, and his report, we
trust, will be speedily presented. Thus stands the mat-
ter, as far as the legislature is concerned.

At a convention of the mechanics themselves, held last
summer, in this city, the subject was fully discussed,
and the convention, without admitting that it was their
duty to recommend the adoption of any plan of employ-
ing the convicts, or of taking upon themselves the re-
sponsibility of recommending any new measure, never-
theless coincided in opinion with the members of the
legislature who had proposed the commission, that the
contemplated plan would meet the ends desired, and fur-
nish employment for the convicts, at the same time that
it relieved the mechanics. Upon this point, however, in
order to avoid misapprehension, it may be well to add,
that, as a body, the mechanics do not consider themselves
called upon to answer the question put to them so often,
when speaking on this subject, ' 'what will you do with
them (the convicts) ?" They do not consider themselves
bound to propose a remedy. They themselves are the
sufferers. It is the duty of the state, which imposed the
unjust burthen, to take it off ; and thus much is demanded
by the mechanics. . . There are other arguments
[against convict labor] of equal weight, which might be
adduced if necessary. The monopolizing character giv-
en to prison contracts, and to which the spirit of a free
government is deadly hostile, to say nothing of the moral
effect upon the mechanics as a class, of having the re-
proach law-fastened upon them, of embracing in their
ranks every convicted felon in society.

Thus stands the question, both as regards the legisla-
ture and the mechanics; and the latter, this winter, have
a right to expect that something definite and conclusive
shall be adopted, so that, as a class, they may receive from

246 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

the government what every individual, however humble,
has a right to expect -strict justice. . .

(b) OBJECTS OF THE ORDER

Mechanic's Mirrofy Aug., 1846, p. 197; quoted from the South Western
Mechanic (Nashville, Tenn.).

. . . The Mechanics' Mutual Protections, are as-
sociations instituted for the purpose of accomplishing
these objects -or rather this grand object- "the elevation
of the mechanic to his true position in society." It is not
a union of journeymen mechanics for the purpose of
forcing employers into the payment of such wages as the
journeymen may demand, but by education and a culti-
vation of the arts and sciences, we have the object in
view, to get such wages as will enable the mechanic with
prudence, temperance, economy and industry, to lay up
a store for sickness and old age -so that when his arm is
no longer able to wield the hammer or the plane, he may
be able to walk about with his staff in hand, an example
and praise of those who do well. . .

To get as much labor out of the working man as pos-
sible, has been and is the only aim of money making cap-
italists, and to do an easy day's labor, and get as much for
it as possible, is too much the aim of journeymen. These
two spirits are at war with each other, and are destruc-
tive to the interests of both the employer and employed.
To enlighten the mind of employer and employed upon
this subject, to make them feel (as they are in reality)
that their interests are the same, is one of the leading
objects of Mechanics' Protections. Some employers
and journeymen also, look suspiciously upon our efforts ;
this is to be expected, but we hope that prejudice will yet
give way to truth and sound sense, and that every me-
chanic in our state will yet be a member of the Protec-
tion, and also every employer; so that they may meet

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 247

and mingle together for the purpose of mutual benefit
and cultivation of the mind. The Protection admits
none but practical mechanics into the Brotherhood. Me-
chanics' associations have been instituted long ago for
the purpose of elevating the working man and defending
his rights, but nothing essential was ever accomplished
by them, for want of persevering effort, from the fact
that persons were admitted members who had no interest
in the welfare of the cause, but whose interests being
established on wrong, would have suffered if the me-
chanics had been successful; therefore crafty and de-
signing men became members for the purpose of creat-
ing jealousy and sowing discord. No class of men can
now be one of us, who are not of us -this is the fragrant
breeze which like sacred incense shall keep pure the
atmosphere in which we breathe. We have also polit-
ical evils to complain of and war against. The state
prison labor system, in our state, is a burden imposed on
our mechanics by our Legislature, whereby convicts and
criminals are not made to compete with honest mechan-
ics; but a system established by law for the purpose of
dragging down mechanics to work for thirty and forty
cents per day -this being about the rate paid for con-
victs' labor. This is an evil in state policy, borne alone
by the mechanics, for the benefit of others; but it is an
evil which shall yet hurl those from place and power
who have been its advocates and upholders; and when
facts shall be brought to light and concentrated action
taken on the subject, those who have fattened and rioted
on this system, which has been preying upon the me-
chanics' vital interests, shall be covered with obloquy
and scorn. To abolish this system entirely, and for me-
chanics to obtain their just rights in all things, they have
but to be united, to understand their true interests, know

248 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

their power and wield it. There are 125,000 mechanics
in the Empire State, and if they were united upon any-
one thing, what could resist their strength? There is
no evil that they need complain of politically -it is their
own fault if such an evil exists. The Protections have a
true insight into this mighty power, and for three years
they have been silently but steadily increasing in num-
bers and power. Our motto is, intelligence; we know
that we cannot do anything right if done by mere force -
we are foes to ignorance warring against evils -against
no class and no men but evil doers. . .

From the action of the New York legislature, our
southern and southwest brethren may be led to suppose
that our state prison labor system has been so reformed
that it interferes not with the dignity or interests of the
New York mechanics, but you will be surprised to learn
that no alteration in the evils of prison labor interfer-
ence have been the result of all the struggles of our me-
chanics for freedom and reform. All our efforts have
been vain, the statute forbidding the learning of trades
to felons is a burlesque on ourselves, for men are elected
and re-elected to legislate for us, who, like Peter Dow,
have a face to God and a face to the devil. These evils
will yet cease to exist, but not until the mechanic knows
his own power and knows how to wield it -to under-
stand the principles of moral as well as physical force.
The Mechanics' Mutual Protection is also a benefit as-
sociation: we provide for members and visit them in
sickness, and allow a certain amount on the decease of a
Protector, or a Protector's wife. This simple principle
in itself will always keep us together, because it is a
principle of mutual association. It is also our object to
call out the talent of our members, by inviting them to
lecture upon practical and familiar subjects, and thereby

ight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 249

qualify them to occupy a dignified position among their
fellowmen, and have more confidence in their own pow-
ers, being qualified to reason upon the causes of right
and wrong, and to understand the principles which op-
erate in their several callings, not being mere handi-
craftsmen, but knowing all the principles which govern
the manifold operations of mechanical arts. To culti-
vate the mind and be guided by the pure virtues engraven
in the Law of laws, cannot fail to elevate our mechanics
to an equality with any of what is called the professions.
To accomplish this much to be desired object, all that is
wanted, is united and persevering efforts. . .

Mechanic's Mirror ^ July, 1846, pp. 173, 180. The Proceedings, aside
from the following resolutions and report, dealt with the rites, cere-
monies, and organization of the order.

The committee on Art. 5, on report to lay out work,
made the following report:

Resolved, that the members of this Convention will
in every way discountenance the use of articles manu-
factured by convict labor; and that we recommend all
Protectors to discountenance the use of any article made
in Prisons by convicts as a punishment for their crimes.
And that we hold that system of criminal jurisprudence
in utter abhorrence, which makes the learning and pur-
suit of any profession or business the punishment for
crime, and we pledge ourselves to oppose it in every hon-
orable way in our power, until the Mechanics are re-
lieved from their present unjust competition with felon
labor; and be it further

Resolved, that it shall be the duty of the delegates of
this Convention to bring the subject of State Prison in-
terference before the Sub. Protections, and that they be
requested to procure and embody all facts in relation to

250 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Prison labor interference, both as regards the business
and morals of Mechanics, and that such facts shall be
sent to the G. Secretary. And it shall be the duty of the
G. Protector to lay such facts before the G. Convention
at its annual meeting, and he shall communicate such
facts to all or any of the Sub. Protections, at any time he
may deem action by any or all of them upon such sub-
jects necessary. A. DoWNER.

The Report was unanimously adopted. . .

J. Tanner moved that the G. Secretary be empowered
to get a number of thousand cards printed, containing
our principles, for distribution by the Protectors among
Mechanics, the same not to exceed $i.oo per thousand -
carried. The committee for the spread of our principles
among Mechanics, made the following report:

Your committee, to whom was referred the subject of
suggesting a plan for the spread of the principles of the
Protection, would respectfully report: That every Pro-
tection be strictly requested to establish the system of lec-
turing on practical subjects by Protectors, so that every
Mechanic might bring his practical knowledge to bear
upon his own particular occupation, thereby arranging
in correct system the scattered items of his practical
knowledge, in this manner forming his theory from
every day experience, and by this means correcting the-
ories formed from general suppositions, unconfirmed
by strict experience; also that every Protector should
use all his influence to get all good Mechanics of his ac-
quaintance to become Protectors, and that each Pro-
tector now belonging to our Order should at least get one
good Mechanic to become a Protector next year. If
these suggestions would be carried out (from the rapid
increase of Protections lately), we might justly antici-
pate our numbers to be four times more than they are at

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 251

present, at this period in 1847; and also that our prin-
ciples would be beautifully exhibited in the elevation
(of the minds at least) of great numbers of Mechanics
throughout our State and the United States of America.
Robert MacFarlane, C. Shults, Committee.

(d) GROWTH OF THE MOVEMENT

Address delivered by Robert MacFarlane,^® before the Mechanics of
New York, in the Broadway Tabernacle, June 10th, 1847 (New
York, 1847).

The Order of the "Mechanics Mutual Protection,"
is the result of certain causes, which about five years ago
led a few Mechanics in the city of Buffalo, to adopt such
measures and forms of organization which now consti-
tute the basis of our sacred Edifice. Since the Corner
Stone of our Order was laid, we have through innumer-
able difficulties established thirty-eight Institutions in
this State; seven in Ohio; one in Pennsylvania; one in
Wisconsin and three in Michigan, and at the present
moment we can safely say, that our Building is as firmly
founded, as it is sublime in its design, "like some tall
rock on which the sunbeams sleep."

The principles of our Association and the objects we
purpose to accomplish, I will endeavor to explain in as
brief and prudent a manner as possible.

We believe that the Mechanic and Artist, generally
speaking, have never held that just position in Society
which their real importance to the civilized world, de-
mands they should, and having taken council as to the
cause of this depreciation of our true value, we have
come to the settled conviction that a want of sound know-

!<* MacFarlane was a Scotchman who came to this country in 1836 at the
age of twenty-one. He was a dyer by trade, but when he settled in Albany
he became editor of the New York State Mechanic, and later of the Mechanic's
Mirror, In 1848 he was appointed editor of the Scientific American^ which
post he held for seventeen years. He then returned to his old trade of dyeing.
From 1874 until his death in 1883, he lived a retired life in Brooklyn.

252 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol

ledge among ourselves, has disabled us from exerting
that influence upon our destinies and that of the Com-
monwealth, which otherwise from our numbers, we
ought to have done, and which, if we act wisely, we as-
suredly can.

To acquire this knowledge then, it is our first duty to
get good Mechanics into our Order, Men of good heads,
if possible, but especially of good hearts; Men who can
safely be recommended to any employer as worthy and
good Mechanics. Having brought together into one
Association men of such a stamp and having bound them
together by the most sacred ties, it is our duty to act in
the capacity of Reformers. We do not war against
wealth; we would not tear down the proud pinnacles
which have been erected above us. We are not the level-
ers of the French Revolution, that would drag down the
rich to the miserable condition of too many of ourselves,
but with the means at our command and the tools in our
hands we would raise our battlements as high as their
lofty towers. Ours is an elevating, not a degrading
cause, and as such every Mechanic who wishes well for
his fellow craftsmen, ought to be found in our ranks.

We believe that a more general knowledge of the sci-
ences governing our respective occupations, would in a
great measure give us that advantage over the merely
book-learned, which they have too long had over us. But
to accomplish this will not be such an easy matter as
some suppose, for sound thinking and solid reading are
the first steps to this attainment; and sound, close and
connected thinking, is not such an easy task. The fac-
ulty of revolving a subject over and over in our minds,
is an attribute of genius, and it is one which we must cul-
tivate and encourage, if we wish to be successful in the
pursuit of our objects. The taste for solid reading too.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 253

SO much to be desired especially by our young mechanics,
will not be so easily acquired, when we take into con-
sideration how much the public mind is unhinged by a
prodigal indulgence in impure and light literature, but
sound thinking and solid reading are the very first re-
quirements in teaching us how to act aright for our mu-
tual benefit. "The clear dictates of policy points to
knowledge as the polar star by which we should be guid-
ed in our course!" With equal knowledge no class can
claim preeminence with us in respectability, as none can
truly in usefulness, and a knowledge of our means, our
mutual relations and the confidence we repose in each
other are the very first requisites to that union of inter-
ests and union of effort among mechanics, essentially
necessary to be successful in accomplishing our objects.
I am happy to say that in a great number of instances the
Mechanics' Mutual Protection, has exerted a happy in-
fluence, in bringing Mechanics to associate together and
destroying that rivalry of unjust competition, for which
we above every other class have been distinguished. We
have fought against each other's interests, while the av-
aricious speculator gazed quietly on at our struggle,
ready to reap the spoils of our warfare.

The means of our information regarding the pay of
different branches of mechanical work is exceedingly
correct, and our system well regulated, and by this, we
can exert an influence in proportion to our numbers, far
greater than any other Institution. We can tell at any
time, what is paid for wages in this State, and other
States; also, how it is paid; store pay or cash, also, the
price of board, and the common hours of daily labour.

Our Institution has prospered exceedingly well con-
sidering the natural distrust against Mechanics' Associa-
tions, arising from the fact, of so many having been for-

254 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

mcrly organized, just as it were, to spring up, fall, and
die, but we have struck one blow more by the Mechanics*
Mutual, and it is to be hoped that we have learned wis-
dom from past failures. Hitherto we have scarcely
been known, we have marched along in silence and under
a cloud, but like Gideon of old, our lights are in our
pitchers and we shall yet bear down with the swoop of
the falcon, and the victorious shout of a fair remunera-
tion for American mechanical labor, and a ten hour sys-
tem for American factory operatives. . .

There are few who are aware of the mighty power of
union, and for this reason we should all reflect solidly
upon it. . . One penny per week paid by every Me-
chanic in this State would amount to $62,400 per annum,
a sum which would abolish store pay, and easily bring
about the ten hour system, if Mechanics were but united.
I instance these things to shew what has been and can be
done by Union, in the hope that many good Mechanics,
who are not yet of us, but who wish well to the Mechanic,
may be constrained to join our ranks, and by their labors
and council assist us in the task of mutual elevation.
From past experience, we know that we cannot do much
until we become strong in numbers and well organized.
To attempt to do anything without this strength of or-
ganization, would be as quixotic as battling with the
winds.

None but practical Mechanics are admitted into our
Membership. To Professional men it would be of little
benefit, but although exclusively a Mechanics' Order,
yet this much I can say regarding our secrecy, that not a
word is breathed against any other class, party, or faith.
Our forms and ceremonies may not be so imposing and
splendid as those of some other bodies but we have the
advantage I believe of more simplicity. A Secret So-

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 255

ciety above all others is the most powerful for good or
evil. When ours become evil it will cease to exist, as it
should ; but merely because it is a Secret Association, we
believe that no reasonable man will find fault with it,
any more than he would with the faculty of memory
which bids the past scenes of life pass in review before us
at will, yet of this strange magic power, in the language
of Scripture, we scarce can tell ^Vhither it cometh or
whence it goeth." . .

The better education of Apprentices, is also one of our
principles. It is a sad truth that our Apprentices have
but little time for moral and mental improvement, and
it is also more sad to know, that the spare time which
they do have, is not generally well spent. It has been a
disgrace to the Apprenticeship system, that as far as it
regarded education, you would generally find some-
thing in the corner of an indenture, about, three months
education at some Evening School. In country places
Apprentices were too often the footballs of the Family.
If sent to an Evening School, they were generally more
able to doze than study, or if there were any of the other
sex there, a little frolic was preferred to acquiring know-
ledge. Could it be possible, I would desire to see a time
when the schoolboy left not his class at fourteen, a mere
tyro, to learn his trade and lose all the education he ever
had received; but when in the first year of his appren-
ticeship, one third of his time was spent at school, in his
second, one fourth; in the third, one sixth; and in his
fourth, and last, one eighth; and when his apprentice-
ship was completed, he would come forth a man, edu-
cated in mind, regarding physical sciences, religion and
philosophy; a man also in practical mechanics. It is a
sad truth, that our young Mechanics are more fond of
the Play house and Circus, than the Lyceum and Lee-

256 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

ture room; and instead of finding them discussing the
principles of Machinery betimes; you will hear them
talking Othello and Richard, forgetting that a Repub-
lican and mountebank are just as great antipodes, as a
Mechanic and Knight of the buskin. It would indeed
be cheering to look forward to a time when our young
Mechanics would be pursuing a judicious course of
study from the day they entered the work-shop to learn
their trades, until strong in physical and mental capacity,
the hammerman might be called from the forge to the
Senate and when by the might of mind upon any subject,
society would totter in regard to all its false distinctions
and all would feel the moral force of the ancient maxim,
*^ 'Tis worth that makes the man." . .

It is another of our principles to raise the dignity of
our callings by honoring labor. Honest Industry is the
true wealth of nations. To honor labor we must feel our
importance and assume a loftier tone and a higher posi-
tion in Society, by exhibiting a manly, generous and in-
tellectual independence and direct attention to the true
value of the producers of wealth. We must not forget
that the Reformer of Judah labored as a Carpenter, and
those whom he chose for his followers were men of toil.
We must remember that the gem which glitters on the
finger, and the ring which trembles in the ear are the
fruits of the Mechanics' skill. We must never forget
that the Palace and the Hall, are the fruits of our toil.
We must never forget that the glittering carriage and the
gorgeous robe, are the fruits of our toil. The walls that
are now arched over our heads responding in echoes to
your speaker's voice, are triumphant evidences of the
Mechanics' skill and toil. Reflect then upon your true
value, and honor labor, never forgetting, that

Honor and shame from no condition rise,
Act well your part, there all the honor lies.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 257

It is another of our principles to labor for the reduc-
tion of the hours of labor to that limit which will con-
duce to health, and give time to improve the mind; also,
to obtain quietly, and as far as we possibly can, a fair re-
muneration for our labour, and assist each other to get
employment. These objects are truly worthy from their
nobility of sentiment, the consideration of every Me-
chanic. We are the first society of the kind that has in-
corporated the principle of assisting each other to get
employment along with other beneficent objects. As it
regards the payment for labor, it is a very delicate sub-
ject for me to touch. No course of policy has as yet been
adopted by us, that has any relative connection with it,
except an honest payment for what is justly due from the
employer to the employed, and from the employed to the
employer- the just fulfilment of an honest contract; also
to do away with that unjust rivalry of laboring men
against each other, and to abolish if possible, the secret
contract system, which has proved so injurious, to em-
ployers above every other class of men. In the City of
New- York especially, the Mechanics have suffered
much from unjust competition -working for prices by
which an American Mechanic cannot live, as a citizen
of our Republic should -in comfort, while able to labor,
and the fair means for his toil, of being able with prudent
economy to give his children a good education, and to
lay up something against an evil day- Sickness and Old
Age. The happiness of our whole people depends up-
on the remuneration which our Mechanics receive for
their labor and skill, and our freedom reposes on this
anchor. Let our Mechanics be nothing but stinted and
poverty-smitten, and our farmers could not be paid for
their produce, and the channels of trade would soon be-
come dry and exhausted. The perpetuation of our Free
Institutions, depends on the remuneration of Industry.

258 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Let our Mechanics -yea, all that labor, be well paid for
their toil, and our liberties are safe, though the storms
of party should rage like the troubled sea. With a fair
remuneration for labor, there will always be a good
education in the working classes, and beside, it confers
an honor on the working man to be in easy circumstances,
which gives him a nobility of soul, and an erect and man-
ly republican independence which cannot but be a bless-
ing to the whole commonwealth, as it is a fulfilment
of the divine injunction "the laborer is worthy of his
hire"; but deprive the American Mechanic of this, and
behold what our children's children may become, when
you see a descendant of ancient Rome, wandering with
his pipe and tabor through our streets, callous to the self-
ish position, of piping for a penny or a crust of bread.
Therefore brother Mechanics, when we know that pov-
erty crushes and enslaves both soul and body, let us, oh
let us strive, quietly, but perseveringly "for a fair re-
muneration for our toil," by exhibiting the necessity of
comfort to the workingman, by informing the rich as
well as ourselves, that the safety of all property in a Re-
public, depends on the virtue, comfort, and good-will
of the working classes.

We are also pledged to labor for "a reduction of the
hours of labour, to that limit which will conduce to
health, and give time to improve the mind." The neces-
sity of the working man, having time to think, as well as
time to work, is self-apparent-it is necessary for his
health - his moral and physical health. At one period it
was considered that the working classes were the most
healthy, and longest lived. It was a false doctrine, cal-
culated as by the policy of ignorance, to keep the slave
content with his Iron Shackled condition. The excel-
lent system of national health statistics, has developed

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 259

the sad truth, that Mechanics are the shortest lived class.
Some of the trades are healthy, but on an average the
whole Mechanical tradesmen exceed not thirty-five years
in longevity. This is a sad feature in our industrial eco-
nomics, but it is a true one. The Printer, the Hatter, the
Tailor, the Dyer, and Shoemaker, live continually in an
atmosphere the very opposite of that which would con-
duce to health, but above all the factory operative. It is
well known that most of our factory operatives labor 12
and 13 hours per day, in an unhealthy and confined at-
mosphere. It is in no manner creditable to the religion
and civilization of modern times, that children or adults
should labour so long as they do in our factories, for this
system is a modern system of labour, and the ten hour sys-
tem for masons and machinists, and some other trades,
has come down to us from the days of old. The factory
system has been long rooting out the Anglo Saxon energy
of England, and fears of a most serious result to the phy-
sical constitution and moral nature of the people, has
compelled the Government to arrest the destroying An-
gel that was hovering over the pent-up walls of Leeds,
Manchester, and Glasgow. In our country, the evil
is but faintly discerned, because we are young in man-
ufactures, but. Oh! I have seen enough of it to convince
me of its future evils, unless we stand between the living
and the dead. I have been long and intimately ac-
quainted with the factory system, I visited no less than
thirty different factories in various parts of our State
and Massachusetts, last winter. I have made it my bus-
iness to ask the opinions of the Operatives regarding a
ten hour instead of a twelve hour system, and without a
single exception, I have not met a factory operative
whose heart did not glow with animation in the pros-
pect of a ten hour factory reform. There is one thing

26o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

however which I regret, viz: a want of action -united
co-operation in the factory districts of the State. Ener-
gy appears to be lost, or there is some power that deters.
I have been sorry to perceive this, but although the fac-
tory operatives have not united with us -the Male por-
tion-we must labor for them -all men are our brethren
and above all the gentle females want advocates, and the
more helpless children want our support and protection.
There are hundreds of Children in our factories under
twelve years of age, that labor twelve unremitting hours
every day,

Feeding the weary turning Mill,
At early morn and evening still,
And as they view the close of day,
Oft' sigh that time would flee away.

The Mechanics' Mutual Protectors are Champions
of these helpless beings, and we have instituted a mode
of action which will yet carry out triumphantly, Ameri-
can Factory Reform. Ye fathers and mothers who are
here, you can give us your prayers, we know that we
must have your best wishes. In one place, Waterloo,
Seneca County, through the influence of one of our Pro-
tections, a ten hour system has been brought about among
a number of trades ; in other places our moral power will
soon be felt. It would be a great source of rejoicing to
us, were some large manufacturers to join our ranks and
assist us in this reform. The earlier they do so, the bet-
ter for their fame, for assuredly their hour is at hand.
We are not united to co-operate by force, ours is a moral
warfare. We believe in the rights of labor, and the
rights of capital, and we wish the protection of both.
In political economy, labor has not the recognized rights
of capital, but it has rights for all that, and if by mutual
good will, we can cultivate the right spirit between the
employer and employed, the sacred cause is won -we

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 261

can then protect each other, we are one individual and
harmonious family.

We are opposed to combinations for Wages. Strikes
are an imperfect and injurious warfare upon the interests
of all classes, and it is a great pity that civilization has
only resulted in such strifes, the fault of both employer
and employed. We wish to raise a more noble, wise and
exalted mode of procedure, when differences arise be-
tween the employer and his workmen. From an early
age, I have been the stern opponent of Strikes, because
I have perhaps, experienced, at least in feeling, much
poignant anguish from an act committed against an in-
nocent, near and dear relative, by a combination of
workmen for wages. I am therefore, personally, the
honest advocate of arbitration for settling disputes be-
tween the two classes. I blame employers, at least the
more wealthy, as being more the cause of Strikes than
the workmen. For with a superior education in them,
it has always appeared to me, (and I have seen it acted
upon) that a plain, friendly relationship and statement
of facts on both sides, would have reconciled both par-
ties, with a little concession by each. I am therefore
happy, to belong to an association of men whose prin-
ciples are reconciliation, not hostility to any class.

Our principles are also to trade with each other, pre-
ferring one another- and it is to be hoped that this prin-
ciple will be carried out in purity, so far as we can do so
without injury to ourselves or families.

We inculcate, also, simplicity of habits ; and let me
say, that when you behold a workman simple in his
tastes, intelligent in his conversation, industrious in his
habits, and moral in his deportment, you behold a fit
representative of a republic. Let those who wish well
for the welfare of our country, keep a warm heart to the

262 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

Mechanic, and be interested in his comfort, condition,
and welfare, and let our Mechanics be zealous for their
own interests.

Thus have I briefly scanned the most important fea-
tures of our Institution, for your inspection, and I hope
yet to have your assistance, good Mechanics, who are
now here, but who are not yet of us. You perceive our
good intentions, and we want the advice and counsel of
all the good, to assist us in the task of self reform.

The main good that I expect from the Mechanics'
Mutual, is by the old and young associating together
and becoming familiarly acquainted throughout a large
circle. In some measure, this good has been done al-
ready. Our Conventions make us acquainted with one
another far and near, and the grand thing to make our
Order all that is desirable and beautiful, is only to carry
out the grand principle which affiliates our hearts to one
another, and which is the corner stone of our Institution,
"Love one another." . .

Directory of Mechanics' Mutual Protections. No.
I, Lockport; 2, Rochester; 3, Utica; 4, Schenectady; 5,

New- York; 6, L. Lockport; 7, Brooklyn; 8, ; 9,

Waterloo; 10, Troy; 11, New- York; 12, do.; i3,Batavia;
14, Geneva; 15, S. Troy; 16, Buffalo; 17, Medina; 18,
New- York; 19, do.; 20, Frankfort; 21, Albany; 22, do.;

23, ; 24, Auburn; 25, Buffalo; 26, Ithaca; 27, Can-

andaigua; 28, New- York; 29, Pen Yan; 30, Syracuse;
31, Watertown; 32, Salina; 33, Little Falls; 34, Lan-

singburgh; 35, ; 36, Dansville; 37, New- York; 38,

Troy; 39, New-York; 40, Middleport.

3. COOPERATIVE AND BENEVOLENT
TRADE UNIONS, 1845-1851

(a) COOPERATION

(x) Working Men's Protective Union - Boston.
(i) Cooperation and the Working Men.
Working Man's Advocate, Jan. ii, 1845.

A committee of the Boston Mechanics' and Laborers'
Association have published a Report, recommending
the formation, in Boston, of a sort of Fourier Association.
The Report is signed by S. H. Sanborn, J. M. Eddeys,
Benj. Linikin, Arthur Burnham, and John Allen, who
compose said committee. . . The Report commences
by the following enumeration of existing evils: -Ed. of
the Advocate.

It is our belief that the same causes of evil and suffer-
ing are operative in this country, that, in the Old World,
are developed to giant magnitude, and are crushing the
producers of wealth to the very dust, and that unless a
speedy change can be effected in our social condition the
time is not far distant when the laborers of the United
States will be as dependent, as oppressed, and as wretch-
ed, as are their brethren in Europe. Here, as there, the
soil, motive power and machinery are monopolized by
the idle few; all the sources of wealth, all the instru-
mentalities of life, and even the right and privilege of
industry are taken away from the people. Monopoly
has laid its ruthless hands upon labor itself, and forced
the sale of the muscles and skill of the toiling many, and

rpnder the specious name of "wages" is robbing them of
the fruits of their industry. Universal monopoly is the
bane of labor not less in America than in Europe. . .

264 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

The remedy lies in a radical change of principle and
policy. Our isolated position and interests, and our
anti-social habits, must be abandoned. The Money-
power must be superseded by the Man-power. Univer-
sal Monopoly must give place to Societary ownership,
occupancy, and use. The right of every human being
to the soil whereon, and the tools and machinery where-
with to labor must be established ; the right of every man
to the productions of his hands must be acknowledged,
and the law of God universally applied, " If a man will
not work neither shall he eat."

It is the belief of your Committee, that these objects
can only be gained by Industrial Association, or union
among the laboring classes. The direction and profits
of industry must be kept in the hands of the producers.
Laborers must own their own shops and factories; work
their own stock, sell their own merchandise, and enjoy
the fruits of their own toil. Our Lowells must be owned
by the artizans who build them, and the operatives who
run the machinery and do all the work. And the divi-
dend, instead of being given to the idle parasites of a
distant city, should be shared among those who perform
the labor. Our Lynns must give the fortunes made by
the dealer and employer, to those who use the awl and
work the material. Our Cape Anns must exchange their
own oil, combine the vast benefits of commerce with
their poorly paid navigation, and not pay the rents of so
many city stores, nor support in luxury so many city mer-
chants. In other words, all interests must be united, all
trades combined, and all branches of usefulness be equal-
ly paid. The farmer, manufacturer, the mechanic, and
the merchant, must belong to the same Firm, and share
the proceeds proportionally to the labor each has con-
tributed. The country's wealth belongs to, and must be
given to the country's labor.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 265

As the means of applying this remedy, your committee
recommend, that an Industrial Firm of this description
shall be immediately established in the city of Boston,
and that an effort be put forth by this Association, to in-
duce the industrial classes to combine their skill, and
capital, and labor in this undertaking, as the only hope
that is now left, of ameliorating their condition, and
remedying the evils to which they are exposed. . .

(ii) Protection against Capital.
Voice of Industry, Nov. 28, 1845.

. . . The success of the Boston "Union" has ex-
ceeded the expectations of its warmest friends, and
promises fair to accomplish the great objects its f ramers
had in view, viz :

First, a Union of the producing Classes -second; the
gradual accumulation of a surplus fund to protect the
laborers against encroachments of capital and piratical
speculation -third; to encourage useful producing in-
dustry, by patronizing the producer instead of the ex-
changer, thus doing away with monopolies and much of
the present useless trade and traffick, which is living and
speculating upon the real products of labor. This meas-
ure has not originated with visionary enthusiasts, seek-
ing after phantoms, but is the result of the experience
and investigation of practical working men, who have
carefully and critically observed the operations of the
present system of organized monopoly and fraud, and
the suicidal competition, which is every where exhaust-
ing the strength of industry, and sacrificing its treasures
to grasping capital or intrigue and artifice -men who
know the evils, the laboring classes suffer under, from
some degree of experimental knowledge, and therefore
are better prepared to meet the wants of their fellow la-
borers than mere theorists. . .

The first great desideratum then, is union -a union

266 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

among the now divided and confounded sons and daugh-
ters of industry is of absolute moment to the toilers of
the present age! What cannot be accomplished by
union? With the present light and knowledge in the
community, the noble strugglings of humanity's divine
pulsations, which are everywhere manifesting them-
selves for some state of society more congenial, rational
and humane; what holy aims might not the useful pro-
ducers of our country realize, if they would be united!
In view of the alarming increase of monopoly, wrong,
poverty and misery in the country and the consequent
development of vice and crime, will not the workingmen
and women of New England be induced to adopt some
such course of united action as suggested by the Boston
^Trotective Union" and the ''Industrial Convention" at
New York. Under an organization of this character,
such a fund would accrue in a few years, as to enable
the workingmen and women to buy all the articles for
consumption at wholesale prices and directly of the pro-
ducer, instead of paying such large profits as they are
now obliged, to support the horde of useless exchangers
and speculators who are living upon, and monopolizing
the products of industry. Could this become general, it
would be a blessing of no small importance to the labor-
ing classes, when we take into consideration the vast
numbers that are subsisting, perhaps in luxury and
affluence upon that which they never produced. So long
as this state of things exists, and continues to augment,
the producer will be taxed and oppressed to support and
gratify the almost numberless interlopers, who stand be-
tween them and the consumer and who occupy every
avenue of industry, that they may clutch the fruits of
honest toil as soon as they look red with value, or can ad-
minister to their selfish aggrandizement. . . This

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 267

unjust and unnatural state of things, the "Protective
Union" is instituted to remedy, by preventing specula-
tion in the necessaries of life, and by creating a fund by
which our workingmen and women may become, to a
great degree, their own employers and disposers of the
products of their own labor. . .

(iii) Constitution of the Working Men's Protective Union.
Voice of Industry y Nov. 28, 1845.

Whereas there are many of our fellow workingmen,
who have so small an equivalent returned them for their
toil - although laboring excessively, to the deterioration
of health as well as to the neglect of the intellect- that in
very many cases, no surplus remains after the purchase of
the necessaries of life ; hence indigence, and in the event
of sickness, not only destitution, but without that kind-
ness and sympathetic attention to which their case lays
claim, whereas, many evils arise from the isolated way
in which the laborer, as a man of small means, has to
purchase the necessaries of life; therefore, to unite the
little fund of the producers, and purchase in season, as
do the wealthy class, their fuel and groceries, would, it
is obvious, secure to the brothers a larger share of their
products than otherwise can be, and, whereas, we most
firmly believe it is the imperative duty we owe one an-
other and ourselves, to give all the information in our
power to the procurance of sure, steady and profitable
employment, that we may have deeds of genuine sym-
pathy, which not only manifest themselves in relieving
the destitute, administering to the sick, but those which
strike at the root of poverty; such as w^ill secure good
pay and fewer hours of labor, and thereby in no ordinary
degree remove the cause of poverty and sickness. There-
fore, for the better securing of these principles and the
obviation of the forementioned ills, we resolve ourselves

268 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

into an Association, and agree to be governed by the fol-
lowing Rules and Regulations :

Article i. This Institution shall be called the Work-
ingmen's Protective Union.

Article ii. Divisions how formed. Any number of
persons, not less than fifteen constitutionally qualified,
who shall combine together and agree to be governed by
this Constitution may form a Division of the Union, and
when organized, the Division shall immediately notify
the First Division of the fact, giving the names of the
President and Secretary of the new Division. Upon re-
ceiving this information the First shall designate the
number of the new Division, and notify all other Di-
visions of its admission into the Union.

Article hi. Associations composing the Union shall
be termed Divisions; and be numbered in the order in
which they adopt the Constitution.

Article IV. Officers. The officers of each Division of
this Institution shall consist of a President, Vice Presi-
dent, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary,
Steward, Treasurer, a Board of Commerce, consisting
of five and a jVisiting Committee of five; they together
shall constitute the Government of the Society, who shall
be elected annually by ballot, on separate tickets.

Article V. Duty of the President. . .

Article vi. Vice President. . .

Article vii. Duty of the Recording Secretary. . .

Article VIII. Duty of the Corresponding Secre-
tary. . .

Article ix. Duty of the Steward. It shall be the
duty of the Steward to keep a register of each mem-
ber's name, age, occupation, and place of residence; to
collect all money due the Division, and not hold it longer
than one week at a time, but shall pay it to the Treasurer
and take a receipt for the same. On a member's neglect-

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 269

ing to pay his assessments after the lapse of two months,
he shall notify the delinquent in a written communica-
tion ; should he further neglect, the Steward shall erase
the delinquent's name from the roll of the Division in
one month after the issuing of his notification, and shall
immediately notify all other Divisions of the fact ; and he
shall monthly report to the Division what money has
been received and what may be due the Division.

Article X. Duty of the Treasurer. . .

Article xi. Duty of the Board of Commerce. It
shall be the duty of the Board of Commerce to trans-
act all mercantile affairs of the Division. They shall in-
troduce all new members to the Division in the most
social manner, who have complied with the requisitions
of the Constitution; and shall audit the Records, Ac-
counts, and Bills of the Secretary, Steward and Treas-
urer, and make a report of the same at least once in three
months, and a summary of a report at the expiration of
the year. All bills must be signed by at least two of
them, before being paid, and at intervals of the Divi-
sion's meetings they shall have such a general inspection
of its affairs, as its interests may demand.

Article XII. Duty of the Visiting Committee. The
duty of the Visiting Committee shall be to visit those
members who are said to be sick, within twenty-four
hours of the reception of the intelligence; to report to
the Division without delay the brother who is sick, and
subsequent to the Division's examining into the sick
member's claims, shall pay to the sick member his bene-
fit as the Division shall direct, and let no means what-
ever be unexerted that may tend in the slightest to al-
leviate the brother's sufferings. Finally, it shall be their
duty to report to the Division their doings once a quarter,
and a summary of a report once a year.

Article XIII. Eligibility to Membership. When any

270 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

person of good moral character, capable of earning a
livelihood, or with some visible means of support, and
who does not use intoxicating drinks as a beverage, and
who possesses such other qualifications as the Divisions
may deem proper, signifies a wish to join the Division,
in writing, or through some member with whom he is
personally acquainted, it shall be the duty of the pre-
siding officer to propose him and appoint a committee
of three to ascertain whether he is in every respect worthy
of membership, who shall report at a following meeting.
Should the report be favorable to his admission, he shall
be balloted for, and upon receiving two-thirds of all the
votes cast, and signing the Constitution, paying an initia-
tion fee of Three Dollars shall receive a certificate of
membership from the Secretary, which shall guarantee
to him all the rights and privileges of the Division.
When a member wishes to withdraw from his Division,
if he has performed his Constitutional obligations, he
shall receive from the Secretary of his Division a certifi-
cate of honorable discharge from the same.

Article XIV. Admission Fee and Assessment. Each
member shall pay into the Treasury the sum of Three
Dollars as Initiation fee, and be subject to a monthly
assessment of twenty-five cents, which shall be paid at the
regular meetings of the Division.

Article xv. Funds and Objects. The money received
as Initiation fee shall constitute a standing fund, three
fifths of which may be invested in fuel and groceries, or
such other objects as the Division may deem best. The
money arising from the assessments, interest on the
standing fund, and donations, shall constitute a general
fund, which shall be devoted to the use of sick members -
or any others should there not be a dissenting vote -or
those past labor, as described in Article XX, and for the
general expenses of the Division.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 271

Article xvi. Finance. In the ratio that the funds
arise to hundreds of dollars it shall be the duty of the
Treasurer to make known the fact to the Division, when
a member shall be appointed to deposit each hundred in
his own name, which member shall give a written ac-
knowledgment of the same to the Treasurer, and the
acknowledgment, with the Bank Book shall be kept by
the Treasurer, subject to the order of the Division. This
fund shall not be drawn upon except by vote of the Di-
vision, and an order to be valid must be signed by the
President and Recording Secretary.

Article XVII. Benefits. Each member's name shall
be enrolled upon the Division's list six months before he
becomes entitled to its Benefits. At the expiration of
that time, having conformed to the requisitions of the
Constitution, he shall receive Three Dollars per week in
case of sickness, provided that he has no constitutional
infirmity of long standing when admitted to member-
ship, or afterwards, by debauchery or licentiousness, in
which cases he shall forfeit his Benefits and be expelled
from the Division.

Article XVIII. The Course to be pursued on a Mem-
ber's being sick. Any individual of the Division becom-
ing sick, shall notify either member of the Government,
and from that date he shall be entitled to his Benefits,
provided he is a suitable subject. No member shall re-
ceive a Benefit for a shorter time than one week, or
longer time than thirteen. Should a member be taken sick
at a distance from his Division, he shall notify some one
member of the Board of Government, within fourteen
days after the first appearance of the disability. And
should there be a Division in the place where he is taken
sick, he shall, upon proving his constitutional claim to
Benefits have a right to call upon such Division for aid,
the amount of which benefits shall be refunded to such

272 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Division by the Division of which he is a member, upon
their presenting and proving their claim.

Article XIX. Forfeiture of Privileges. Any member
omitting to pay his assessment for three months, shall
forfeit all Benefits of the Division, unless it is proved
not to have been caused by carelessness or willful neglect.

Article XX. Pensions. When a member arrives at
the age of sixty-five years, who having been a member at
least ten of them, he shall receive a pension of one dollar
and fifty cents a week.

Article XXI. Money obtained by false pretenses.
Whoever shall procure money by misrepresenting the
length of time sick, shall, by a vote of the Division, be
expelled.

Article XXII. Place of Residence. It will be the duty
of any member on changing his place of residence, to
make it known to the Steward.

Article XXIII. Quorum. The meeting shall be called
to order ten minutes after the expiration of the time ap-
pointed, provided a quorum be present. Seven members
shall constitute a quorum.

Article xxiv. Adjustment of Differences. . .

(iv) Report of Board of Trade.
The Harbinger^ Oct. 28, 1848, p. 204.

The Board of Trade respectfully submit the follow-
ing Report for the Quarter ending September 30, 1848:

The Board are happy to report that the success and
progress towards a concentration of capital, in order to
obtain a power in the market, have increased during the
present quarter. The competition to obtain the trade,
increases exactly in proportion as the capital of the dif-
ferent Divisions is concentrated in one agency, thus low-
ering the profits on consumable articles. Instances
could be cited to prove the correctness of this statement,
were it necessary.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 273

The Board have done what they could to bring about
the System of Exchanges which we all aim at, by order-
ing shoes and boots made for Divisions; and in this
branch they have been successful, and there is reason to
hope that the laborers on this kind of work will be able
eventually to exchange their work for other productions
at such rates as will better remunerate them for their
labor than heretofore.

Some of the Divisions have sent orders for the pur-
chase of manufactured cottons, calicoes, &c., in the Dry
Goods line, and we have been able to purchase for them,
as far as we have learned, to their satisfaction and ad-
vantage.

Hardware and crockery have also been ordered, and
these the Board purchase of the first hands. In lamp oil
the Board have made some efforts to effect an exchange
with the 48th Division, at Nantucket, and have received
a few barrels from them, which gave good satisfaction.
We then wrote to them and tried to get a price fixed for
two or three months, in order that Divisions might lay
in a winter stock; but the holders there, anticipating
higher prices, this proved impracticable at the present
time, and we found that we could do better in Boston.

The Board received 275 barrels of Flour from Mr.
Hugh T. Brooks, in the month of July, which were taken
up by the different Divisions, and gave general satis-
faction. A number of the barrels were weighed, and
overrun the usual weight four pounds. We shall expect
some more flour from him, and also some cheese, as soon
as the wheat market is a little settled. We also expect
to receive some cheese from the 26th Division, Winooski
Falls, (Vt.,) which we have ordered.

There has been a rise on most goods within the last
four or five weeks, and the Board, anticipating the state
of the market, used their endeavors to persuade those

274 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Divisions that had the means, to lay in large stocks of
sugar, molasses, and black tea, and it is believed that a
considerable sum has been saved by those Divisions that
availed themselves of the opportunity. Hogshead sugars
have advanced Yz ct. per pound. Box sugars, J4 ct. per
pound. East Boston crushed sugar has been kept out of
the market two weeks, and is now selling at 8^ cts. per
pound. Black teas have advanced at from 5 to 7 cts. per
pound. Molasses has advanced 5 cts. per gallon, for
such as is in general use. Sumatra coffee has advanced
y^ cts. per pound. Porto Cabello and Gonaives coffee
is a little lower. St. Domingo is a little higher. The
continual fluctuations in the market require the most
constant vigilance, and one of the most essential services
the Board have been able to render the Divisions, is the
securing large quantities of goods when they are at the
lowest points, and thus having the advantage of the rise.
This principle should be carried out by every member
of the Union, by laying in all he can of such articles as
will keep, when they are at their lowest rates.

The amount of goods purchased for Divisions during
the quarter, is thirty-six thousand four hundred dollars.

At the last meeting of the Board of Trade it was re-
solved, that we recommend to the Supreme Division,
that the commissions paid to the Board of Trade for
purchasing, be reduced to % per cent.

John G. Kaulback, Jr., Chairman,

No. ^Yz Congress Square.
Peter I. Blacker, Clerk.

(2) New England Protective Union,
(i) Central Division.
Spirit of the Age, Jan. 19, 1850, p. 45.

Boston, Jan., 1850. The government are reminded by
the return of the Annual Session of the Central Division,

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 275

that it may be proper for them to submit a few remarks,
and to congratulate the Union on the continued increase
and general prosperity of the Sub-unions.

The Supreme Division of the Working Men's Pro-
tective Union was organized in January, 1847. At this
time there were only 12 Divisions in the Union. No
special efforts were made to propagate the plan of our
organization, and yet, as a proof that the plan commend-
ed itself to the good sense of the people, when known,
we are able to state that in January, 1848, one year from
the organization of the Supreme Division, our Sub-
divisions numbered as high as 42; and previous to Jan-
uary, 1849, we numbered 64 Sub-divisions. During this
period nine of the divisions had either withdrawn from
the Union or ceased to exist, from various causes inci-
dent to any new enterprise; and we were all astonished
as well as gratified at the general steadiness and firm ad-
herence to the principle of Union manifested by the
Sub-divisions during the infancy of our Institution.

In January, 1849, an important step was taken in the
organization of our body, which we believe has been
followed with most happy results. The proper and
necessary preliminaries having been taken for a revision
and alteration of the Constitution, the good work was
happily consummated at the annual session of 1849. We
are happy to bear testimony to the adaptation of our
present Constitution, after a year's experience under it,
to meet the necessities of a body like the New England
Protective Union. The change of name, both for the
Institution itself and this important and central branch
of it, has given us new strength by removing from our
path those titles which to many were only stumbling-
blocks.

We commenced the year 1849 as the New England

276

AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

[Vol.

Protective Union, and this body has since been known as
the Central Division. The increase of Sub-divisions the
past year has exceeded our most ardent expectations. In-
structions for the organization of Divisions have already
been issued as high as No. 106, besides the filling up of
some vacant numbers, made such by the withdrawal or
dissolution of the Sub-divisions to whom such Nos. were
originally given. The records show the number of such
failures to be only five during the past year. If there are
others, the Secretary has no official notice of the fact.
During these past three years the trade of Sub-divisions
through our Central Agent has rapidly increased, until
now it appears that there are but few Divisions who do
not embrace and improve this channel for their pur-
Chases ; a fact which shows the well-merited confidence
reposed in our trusty agent, and an approval of the Union
principles; and we venture to express the hope that the
time is not distant when each Division in the Union will
consider it for their advantage to help to swell our united
capital by adding to it as far as possible the amount of
their purchases.

The first Report of the Committee on Trade that we
find on our file, was made in January, 1848, for the pre-
vious quarter; the amount purchased is stated at
$18,748.77. Since that time, the amount purchased
through the Central Agent each successive quarter we
find to be as follows :

And to-day we learn from the
Committee that the purchases for
the past Quarter amount to

$102,353.53

1848 April . $24,359.02
July . 33,000.00
Oct. . 36,400.00

1849 Jany. . 40,910.24
April . 49,601.14
July . 60,439.00
Oct. . 69,851.22

This does not look like going backward or dying out,
but rather fills us with courage for the future; and we

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 277

have reason to thank God to-day for the success of this
People's Institution, and to encourage ourselves in the
belief, that v^hile our brothers remain true to themselves
and to each other, our beneficent Union shall increase
and strengthen with each successive year.

The expenses of our Central organization are not
necessarily very great, and we trust the provision of our
Constitution for meeting these expenses will be cheer-
fully complied with. The printing of documents, ser-
vices of a Secretary, use of Hall for meeting, and
stationery, constitute the chief objects of expense; and
obligations arising from such sources, we have no doubt
will be promptly provided for.

There have been received by the Treasurer of the Cen-
tral Division assessments from Sub-divisions as follows:

During the year 1847 . . .$ 41.38

" " "1848 . . . 115.44

" " " 1849 . . . 42.77

Amounting in all to ... $199.59

There has been expended by the Treasurer during this time, as ap-
pears from approved bills, for the legitimate expenses of the Di-
vision ....... $258.74

From which deduct the amount received . . 199-59

And we are indebted to the Treasurer . . $ 59-15

Which must be met from the assessment which shall
be levied on Sub-divisions for the current year, and the
subject is referred to the attention of the Division. The
Government recommend an Assessment to be levied at
this Session on each Division now formed, or that shall
be organized previous to July next, which shall be suf-
ficient to defray this debt and the probable expenses of
the year.

Respectfully submitted for the Government.

A. J. Wright, Secretary.

278 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

(ii) Extracts from Reports of Divisions.
Spirit of the Age, Jan. 12, 1850, p. 28.

The Report from a Delegate of Div. 59 says: "I ex-
pect soon to forward you more petitions. The cause is
gaining ground rapidly in Vermont. The system is the
system that is destined to do the mercantile business of
the State."

Division 73. "Capital $560. We are expecting our
capital increased $100 or $150 in one or two months. Our
prospects are very favorable. There is evidently a grow-
ing interest in favor of the Union."

Division 3. "About a year ago, Division No. 3 com-
prised nearly 300 members; a large majority of whom
were determined to withdraw from the general *Union/
vainly supposing that they were not benefited by the
Board of Trade, and could trade to better advantage if
disconnected from it. The Division had sold their goods
at an advance on the prime cost of 8 per cent, and dis-
covered that they had lost money. A minority of the
Division, believing that ^union' was the only safe course,
withdrew from the location and started another store, re-
taining their number after the majority had adopted a
new style. Fearing that 8 per cent would not pay, the
Division voted to put the per centage at 8 to members
and 10 to the public, and after nine months, finding the
increase of capital to be too speedy, the per centage was
reduced to a mere trifle, as it is not the desire of this Di-
vision to make money. The profits since last November
amount to over $850. The Division voted, that, since ad-
hering to the Union has proved to be the only safe
ground, they will give it all the support in their
power. This Division supplies the poor of South Bos-
ton with the goods at prime cost. So far as the old ma-
jority (now known as ^Laborers' Union') is concerned,

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 279

the impression is, that their 'tale would soon be told.'"
Division 55. "Division 55 pays for rent of Store and
Hall for meetings, $108 per annum; pays storekeeper
$700 ; three Directors and Treasurer $25 each. Amount
of sales for the quarter ending August 24th, 1849,
$8,265.41. The sales to members are at cost of goods at
the store ; six per cent advance is charged on goods sold
to persons not members; paying all the expenses,
and leaving a surplus of $190.50. There are about forty
widows and indigent persons trading with the store on
the same terms as members."

Division 31. "This Division has been formed some-
thing less than two years, and has in every sense exceeded,
in point of usefulness, all our expectations. From a sale
of $150 per week, we have increased to something over
$500 per week, and I doubt whether there is another
store in the place that sells near as much. We have prob-
ably increased the last three months, over and above our
actual expenses, $60."

(3) Boston Tailors' Associative Union,
(i) A Strike and its Result.

Spirit of the Age^ Sept. 29, 1849, p. 187; quoted from the Boston Chron-
otype. (See also chap, v, 3.)

At the request of their Committee, we commence pub-
lishing the Preamble and articles .of Association just
adopted by a portion of the journeymen tailors who have
been "on strike." It seems that they really mean to try
to do something; that they mean to be their own employ-
ers and test the virtue (so far as it can be tested in a single
trade) of the divine principle of Association.

Our informant states that about seventy persons have
already united in the adoption of these articles, who to-
gether have invested $700 in the business, which they are
preparing to carry on co-operatively. Fifty dollars, pay-

28o AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

able at once, or in installments to be deducted from the
earliest wages, is the sum required of each associate.
Each is to receive wages at the rates for which the tailors
struck, and each to have a proportional interest in the
annual division of profits.

It is hoped that nearly all, now unemployed, will
be induced to enter this association. And it is for their
instruction that these persons wish this Constitution, as
yet in a crude shape, and before mature revision, to be
printed. The main essentials, probably, will not be al-
tered. J. S. D.

Preamble. Whereas, it has become evident that a
fundamental change must take place in our social and in-
dustrial relations, and that our competitive society must
be re-organized upon the principle of co-operation, be-
fore Labor can be protected against the despotic weight
of capital : and

Whereas, every effort of working men in Europe or
America, to improve and elevate their position in so-
ciety by "strikes" or "trades' union combinations," has
hitherto, after the expenditure of millions of dollars,
failed, or at best afforded only temporary relief, while
their position was daily becoming more wretched; and

Whereas, while the laboring classes, who are the pro-
ducers of all wealth, are being reduced to the most ab-
ject and degrading position, their employers are daily
accumulating immense riches, until at length capital
must center in the hands of a few individuals or corpora-
tions, and be used with fearful effect in still further de-
preciating, oppressing and degrading the laborers; and

Whereas, it is clearly impossible for labor to occupy
that noble and dignified position which it ought, until
the relations of Capital and Labor are changed, by la-

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 281

borers becoming their own employers and dividing the
profits of their labor among themselves :

Therefore we, whose names are hereunto signed, do
hereby form ourselves into a co-operative society, to be
called "The Boston Tailors* Associative Union," having
for our object, the providing of labor for each other, by
the manufacture and sale of clothing of every descrip-
tion, and the purchase and sale of such other articles as
are generally sold at clothing establishments. This we
propose to do by mutual co-operation and association,
by an equitable division of the profits of our labor, and
by all measures which may promote union, peace, justice
and brotherly love amongst us. . .

(ii) A Year of Cooperation.

Spirit of the Age,, Jan. 19, 1850, pp. 44, 45 ; quoted from the Boston
Chronotype.

Gentlemen -The Constitution of our infant society
requires that on the ist day of January, in each year, a
report of the progress we have made, together with a
statement of our position and prospects should be given
to you. In accordance with this wise provision, I pro-
ceed to give you a full detail.

This society, it will be remembered, was begun during
the late memorable strike, at the close of a severe and
protracted struggle of fourteen weeks' duration, when
the pecuniary means of the members of your trade were
necessarily very much exhausted. The consequence was,
that many who felt desirous of becoming members, were,
for the want of funds prevented doing so, and the amount
of stock subscribed for by those who originally became
members, was, from the same cause, much less than was at
first anticipated. After considerable difficulties and dis-
appointments we at length resolved to commence busi-

282 AxMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

ness, even with the very slender capital in our possession,
then only $483, and to trust to our own humble efforts
and the kindness and sympathy of an indulgent public
for success.

On the 2 1 St September, we opened our store at 88 Ann
street, with a stock of goods that only served to make the
nakedness of our shelves more visible. However, we
had a firm faith in the good cause in which we had em-
barked, and determined to persevere. In a short time we
were visited by several kind friends who had encouraged
us to form our society, who ordered several garments,
and by their kind words cheered us on in the path which
then looked so dark and dismal. In a few days business
began to increase, and we soon discovered that there was
an amount of sympathy with us, of which we had no pre-
vious conception. Dr. Channing, of this city, who is
ever ready to assist any good cause, called and left with
us $20, as a loan, and this was immediately followed by
another loan of $25 from a kind and philanthropic gen-
tleman of Providence, R.I., who wishes to do good by
stealth. This convinced us we had friends where we
least expected, and that we had sympathy and support in
circles of which we had no knowledge, and stimulated
us to renewed efforts. At the end of six weeks we "took
stock," and although we had considerable extra expense
in fitting out our store, yet we found in that time that we
had increased our capital by $76. Since that time, eight
weeks have elapsed, and we have continually found a
firm and steady increase in our business. I will present
you with an accurate account of the money we owe for
loans, &c., the debts owing to us, and the amount of stock
on hand. This will, more than anything I can say, show
to you our true position.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 283

BALANCE SHEET

DR.

To total amount of Cash
paid in by Shareholders
since commen't to Dec. 31st,
1849, inclusive . $ 868.74

To Cash borrowed from va-
rious friends . . 260.00

To Cash owing sundry per-
sons . . . 206.20

CR.

By Shares returned . $ 30.00
By Debts owing to us . 133-92

Amount of Stock on hand 1,575.28
By Cash in Treasurer's hand 107.09

Total . . $1,846.29

Deduct . . . 1,335.60

Nett profit, after paying all
$1,355-60^'^ debts, dues and demands $510.60^®

The result must indeed surprise you ; it was not to be
expected by the most sanguine, that success so complete
and triumphant should in so short a time have attended
an effort originally so humble. To me as the founder
of your society, the result is indeed pleasing, and I trust
it will tend to convince all workingmen of the immense
lever they possess within themselves, by simple co-opera-
tion and association, to remove all the evils of which they
complain.

And now, gentlemen, permit me to say that, having
been the first to teach the working men of these States
how to emancipate themselves from the mighty power of
Capital, it is fit that you persevere to the end, in the great
work which you have begun. For myself, I can see in
the dim vista of futurity a glimpse of great magnitude
and importance, to which our society must speedily ar-
rive. You should bear always in mind that millions of
the sons and daughters of toil are watching your efforts,
with the most anxious feelings, and are only watching
to see the problem, which you have undertaken to un-
ravel, solved, to imitate your glorious example in hun-
dreds of instances. See then that you cherish the holy
cause committed to your keeping; watch over your so-

17 $1,334.94. -Ed.

18 $1,846.29 -$i334.94=$5"-35-- Ed.

284 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

ciety with the most anxious solicitude ; above all things
preserve it against the malice or cupidity of any v^ho
might wish to convert the work of your hands into a
source of profit and emolument to themselves, and who
would not hesitate to crush the hopes and aspirations of
millions, to put a few paltry dollars additional into their
own private pockets.

I cannot too forcibly impress this upon your attention ;
as it is from this cause that so many similar efforts of
workingmen in Europe have hitherto failed. Do you
then in time make such regulations as will preserve to
you and to your children this institution, and prevent it
from being converted into a means of aggrandizing a
few at the expense of the many, by building up a few of
your own class into employers as despotical, tyrannical,
but more unprincipled than the class already in exist-
ence.

I think we have now demonstrated the practicability
of labor associations, and proved that the only safe, and
easy way, to improve and elevate the producer to the
position which he ought to occupy, is by simply keeping
the profits of his industry to himself. The Printers of
this city have, in two instances, imitated your example,
and I hope to see it followed by many others. Let us
always remember that the remedy is in our hands, and
that "God helps those who help themselves." . .

It will be necessary in another month to open an addi-
tional store in connection with our society, as business is
increasing so rapidly that the present store will not be
sufficient for our purpose; and I trust by ist of January
in next year, you will have not less than half a dozen
stores in full and active operation, in various parts of the
city.

For this purpose I would urge upon all the associates

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 285

the propriety of paying up their shares, in order to afford
sufficient means to carry on with energy and success our
business operations. . . I remain, Gentlemen,

Yours fraternally, B. S. Treanor, Sec'y.

(4) New York City Industrial Congress,
(i) Formation.
New York Semi-iueekly Tribune^ June 5, 1850, p. 7, col. 6.

Forty-three different Benevolent, and Protective So-
cieties have chosen Delegates to the Workingmen's Con-
vention (so far as we learn) among which we may enum-
erate all the different Associations of Boot and Shoemak-
ers, Painters, Bricklayers and Plasterers, Sash and Blind
Makers, Porters, House Carpenters, Riggers, Plumbers,
Cabinet Makers, Turners, ^^the Protective Union," Iron
Molders, Upholsterers, Bakers, Brotherhood of the Un-
ion, Bookbinders, Paper-box and Pocket-book Makers,
Central Commission of the United Trades, Mechanic's
Mutual Protections, Hat Finishers, Gold and Silver
Artisans, Silversmiths, Steam-boiler Makers, Cigar
Makers, Dyers, Printers, Brush Makers, Land Reform-
ers, Tin and Sheet-iron Workers, Smiths and Wheel-
wrights, Coopers and a great number of other Associa-
tions from which we have not as yet received any reports.

We trust no branch of Industrial will be unrepresented
at the first meeting as the basis of representation must
soon be determined.

Daily Tribune, June 7, 1850, p. 4.

. . . The Congress organized on motion of John
H. Keyser, by calling Bartholomew Derham temporari-
ly to the Chair. . . Messrs. Alex. Morrison, Charles
McCarthy, Andrew White, Ira B. Davis and Henry J.
Crate were then appointed a Committee on Credentials,
when, after investigating all the credentials presented, a
motion was made and carried to divide the House, so that

286 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

it might be known who were the unaccredited Delegates.
The roll of those who had presented credentials was then
called, and the unaccredited Delegates were afterward
received and recognized. No volunteers appeared.

A Delegate moved that the representatives from the
various Societies should give the number of their con-
stituents, in order to properly apportion the representa-
tion, which was seconded by Mr. Wm. S. Gregory, and
laid over until next meeting night. It was the intention
of the mover to suggest that all Societies of one hundred
or less members, should be entitled to one delegate, and
one for each additional hundred. It was moved that a
Committee of Nine be appointed to nominate officers.
After considerable debate the motion was lost, and it was
moved that "we go into a Committee of the Whole for
the purpose of nominating and electing officers," which
was carried. The delegates resolved themselves into
Committee of the Whole, appointing Mr. Doheny Chair-
man, and the assistant officers as before. On taking the
Chair, he thanked the members for the honor conferred
upon him, expressing his great sympathy for the objects
the various branches of Industry had in organizing into
benevolent, protective, associative and cooperative So-
cieties, for benefit and protection, and trusted that this
Congress would set an example to the body of the same
name now sitting at Washington doing comparatively
nothing. The expeditious manner in which the Work-
ingmen disposed of the business attending the organiza-
tion, corroborated Mr. D^s hopes. Before going into
an election for officers, Mr. Daniel B. Taylor hoped the
Congress would postpone the election of officers to the
next session, which was lost, and various candidates pro-
posed for presiding officer. Mr. K. Arthur Bailey hav-
ing the greatest number of votes recorded for him, was

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 287

declared duly elected. The nominations for the other
officers were afterward made, resulting, as we have pre-
viously announced, in the election of John Stephens, Par-
sons E. Day, John F. Mitchell and J. G. Brawbach, .Vice
Presets ; H. J. Crate, Recording and Financial Secretary ;
John H. Keyser, Corresponding Secretary; David
Marsh, Treasurer. Vigilance Committee, Patrick
Dillon, B. Derham, W. S. Gregory, Alex. Morrison,
Jacob W. Seaman, T. Redderson, and Samuel Pancoast.
Resolutions were then adopted to apply for the use of
the City Hall, and to advertise the next meeting, which
is to be called at the instance of the Vigilance Commit-
tee and officers. The officers are ex officio members of
the Vigilance Committee.

The most of the following named Delegates were pres-
ent, took their seats, and participated in the business :

Cordwainers' Protective Society (Men's Branch) -
Chas. McCarthy and Redmond Sheridan; Practical
Painters' Benevolent Protective Society -Wm. S. Greg-
ory, Thomas Malone and E. R. Wood; United Associa-
tion of Coach Painters -Edward Glassey, J. Weldon, G.
McDonough; Bricklayers' and Plasterers' Protective
Association -P. J. Downey; Window Shade Painters'
Protective Union -Griffith Morgan; Sash and Blind
Makers' Protective Union -William H. Housner; Boot
and Shoemakers' Working Union -Silas N. Hamilton;
Porters' Protective Association -D. Campbell Hender-
son; House Carpenters' Benevolent Association -Havi-
lah M. Smith; House Carpenters' Protective Associa-
tion-Andrew White, James Bassett; Bloomingdale
Carpenters -George Ceis; Riggers' Union Association -
Martin J. Brown; Plumbers' Benevolent Society- James
H. Wheeler; Cabinet-makers- John G. Braubach ; Pro-
tective Union -George Adam, Ira B. Davis and John

288 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Commerford ; Tobacco Pipe Makers -Dennis Murney,
Matthew Keogh; United Workingmen's League -Wm.
West; Iron Moulders -Robert Irving; Upholsterers -
Charles Crux; Operative Bakers' Union -Bartholomew
Derham, Alex. Morrison; Brotherhood of the Union,
Ouvrier Circle No. 3 -Parsons E. Day, Israel Peck,
David Marsh; Bookbinders, Pocket-book and Paper-
box Makers -John C. Toedt; Coopers' Protective Un-
ion, No. I -Joshua A. Heath; Central Commission of
the United Trades -Messrs. Weitling, Kaufmann, Hof-
er, Braubach and Beckmeir; Mechanics' Mutual Pro-
tection, No. 41 -Ben Price, Gilbert C. Dean, Stephen
Brooker; Journeymen Hat Finishers- Adolphus J.
Johnson, Nelson Crawford and Francis C. Loutrel;
Gold and Silver Artisans, and Manufacturing Jewelers -
R. C. Pond; Journeymen Silversmiths' Protective and
Beneficial Association- John Lowe and Joseph Adding-
ton; Steam Boiler Makers' Protective Society- John M.
Wilson and John O'Hara; Mechanics' Mutual Protec-
tion, No. 19- Geo. R. Clark; Cigar Makers -Wm. Col-
ony, Charles Wagenfuhr and John ScuUin; Stove-mak-
ers-David Morgan, John H. Keyser; Eleventh Ward
National Reform Association -John B. Brennan;
"Church of Humanity" -K. Arthur Bailey; Central
National Reform Association - Geo. H. Evans, and Wm.
Rowe; Sailors -Watson G. Haynes; Brotherhood of the
Union (Nazarene Circle, of the Eleventh Ward) -Jac-
ob W. Seaman, Egbert S. Manning and Daniel C.
Smith; from the Social Reform Society, Economical
Exchange Association, and the Benevolent Society of
Social Reformers -John O. Hund, Gustav Sark, Fred-
eric Weiss; Chronopress Printers- Alba Honeywell;
Benevolent Dyers' Association -Robert Donaldson and
T. Redderson; Printers' Union -Horace Greeley (ab-

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 289

sent) and Henry J. Crate; Brush Makers' -Wm. Wain-
wright; Seventeenth Ward Land Reform Association -
Wm. V. Barr, Francis M. Smith and A. W. Day; Tin
and Sheet Iron Workers' Association -Charles A. Gui-
nan, J. Willis and Wm. Hewitt; Smiths and Wheel-
wrights-Phillip Hassinger and Louis Jonassohn; Mar-
ble Polishers -Thomas Somerville, Arthur Conlan and
Michael Rigney; Mechanics' Mutual Protection, No.
1 1 -J. Steners, John F. Mitchell, Samuel Pancoast; La-
borers' Union Benevolent Society -Patrick Dillon,
Thomas Nicholson, Michael Doheny and Daniel B.
Taylor; Operative Bakers' Industrial Association of 54
Houston-st. between Lewis and Goerck sts.- John Hunt-
er, Charles Morgan and John Urquhart; Ship Sawyers -
Joseph Eustace.

At length the Laborers of our City have formed a
central organization, and a most powerful one too, in
which the most of the branches of Industry is represent-
ed. We trust that no class of workingmen will be un-
represented at the next session of the Congress, and we
are pleased to learn that the Societies which are about
to meet will also move in this matter.

Eighty-three delegates were present, and all seemed
animated by an earnest zeal, which augurs that some-
thing will be done to render working men less dependent
on the fluctuations of trade and the caprices of the em-
ployers than they have hitherto been.

The daily and Sunday papers. Young America^ the
People^s Weekly Journal^ Boston Protective Union,
America's Own, the American Chronopress, and all oth-
er papers friendly to Labor Protection, are requested
to publish these delegates and a sketch of the proceed-
ings. . .

290 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

(ii) Constitution and Principles.

New York Daily Tribune^ July 3, 1850, pp. i, 2. Proceedings of New
York City Industrial Congress, sixth session.

Met on Monday evening at the Operative Bakers' Un-
ion House of Call, third story of the Grand-st. Hall near
Broadway, and was much more numerously attended
than any previous meeting at this place- K. Arthur Bai-
ley (a working Journeyman Printer) presiding, and H.
J. Crate, Recording and Financial Secretary, also offici-
ating. After the Council of Delegates from the differ-
ent benevolent and protective Associations of the City
and vicinity was called to order, the roll of officers called,
and the minutes read and confirmed, the Committee of
Thirteen on Resolutions reported that they had under
consideration the resolution of Mr. S. N. Hamilton, "and
although favorable to the object set forth, think it would
be premature to adopt it without first submitting it to
the various societies, and would therefore offer the fol-
lowing resolution and recommend its passage:"

Resolved, that it be recommended to the different
mechanical and laboring Associations to take into con-
sideration the propriety of establishing Cooperative
Unions to conduct their business for their own benefit.
(This was substituted for Mr. H's resolution.)

The Committee reported favorably to the passage of
Mr. Wild's ist proposition, also the 2d, and after amend-
ing the 3d recommended its adoption:

1. To consider the propriety of appointing delega-
tions from this Congress to wait upon the various Trades
and Industrial Associations, with a view to promote
their more efficient organization. Such deputations
may also be effective by aiding in the organization of
other bodies of mechanics or laborers, not united, should
application be made to this Congress.

2. To consider the propriety of devising the most

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 291

efficient plan for drawing off the surplus laborers or
unemployed hands in each department of labor.

3. To consider the propriety of recommending the
mechanics and laborers of New York to agitate with a
view of creating public opinion in favor of shortening
the hours of labor, pursuant to the enactment of a bill
limiting the working hours of the laboring man to 48
for the week, or 8 hours per day.

No action was taken on this Report, and it lies over,
under the rule.

Mr. Crate, of the Protective Union of Printers, pre-
sented a resolution in favor of the cooperative system,
which was referred to the Standing Committee of Thir-
teen on Resolutions, who, it will be seen from the above,
have reported the subject back to the Societies represent-
ed in the Congress.

Wm. V. Barr presented a new Preamble as a substi-
tute for the one which elicited so warm a discussion at
the last meeting, and trusted all unnecessary agitation
about so trifling a matter would be allayed, and that the
Congress should enter at once upon the business before it.

The following is the new Preamble and the Consti-
tution, as adopted, each section separately:

The Delegates appointed by the several organizations
of Mechanics and Laborers of the City of New York,
for the purpose of forming a Central Industrial Council,
being deeply sensible of the privations and sufferings
imposed on the Laboring Classes by the hostility of the
relations which now exist between Capital and Labor,
and of the constant tendency of these relations to increase
the evils complained of, do hereby form ourselves into
a permanent organization for the purpose of devising
means to reconcile the interests of Labor and Capital -
to secure to the Laborer the full product of his toil -to

292 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

promote union, harmony, and brotherly feeling among
all the workmen, of whatever occupation -and to use
all available means to promote their moral, intellectual
and social elevation: and for the attainment of these
objects we adopt the following Constitution :

Article I. The style of this instrument shall be the
^'Constitution of New York City Industrial Congress."

Article ii. This Congress shall be constituted on
the following principles:

1. Its members shall be elected annually by industrial
bodies or associations of men who subscribe to these prin-
ciples, to-wit: ''That all men are created equal -that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalien-
able rights, among which are the right to life and liberty,
to the fruits of their labor, to the use of such a portion of
the earth and the other elements as shall suffice to pro-
vide them with the means of subsistence and comfort, to
education and paternal protection from society."

2. The members shall be elected by Association, con-
sisting of three Delegates chosen from each body.

Article hi. Delegates. That all Associations of
Industrials, Mechanics and Laborers, whether Benevo-
lent or Protective (chartered or not) shall be entitled
to three Delegates, who must be members of the organ-
ization they represent. (This section elicited much un-
necessary discussion, and after being passed twice, once
by a stand up vote, and again by calling the yeas and
nays -35 for and 20 against.)

Article iv. Meetings. . .

Article v. Election of Officers. . .

Article VI. Funds. The Constitutional Commit-
tee recommended that each Association should pay $1
on the presentation of the credentials of the Delegates,
which was amended on motion of Mr. Gregory, second-

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 293

ed by Mr. Cornelius McClosky (President of the First
Division of the Bricklayers and Plasterers' Association)
by giving the Council power to assess each such sum as
was necessary to defray expenses, which had been done
at a previous meeting, by requiring fifty cents from the
Representatives of each Society, and which has been
complied with by many of the Delegates, as appears
from the statement rendered by Mr. Crate.

Article vii. Vacancies. . .

Article viii. Vigilance Committee. During the
session of this Industrial Congress, fifteen persons shall
be appointed, who, together with the officers of this Con-
gress, shall constitute a Vigilance Committee, whose
duties shall be to appoint time and place for meeting of
this Council (unless otherwise provided for), &c.

Article ix. Amendments to this Document and
Rules of Order Previously Adopted. . .

. . . Congress then proceeded to the order of the
day, (the adoption of the Constitution) the Preamble
and first two articles having been previously adopted
separately. Before the third article relating to who
shall be received as Delegates, was read, Mr. Charles
Crux, (of the Journeymen Upholsterers' Society) said
he was opposed to the admission of Delegates from "Be-
nevolent" Associations, he supposing that Delegates
might be sent from the Free Masons, Odd Fellows, Sons
of Temperance, and other exclusively secret orders of
this class, who might be opposed to the cause of Labor,
and come into the Congress for the purpose of sowing
the seeds of discord. The section was read again, but
so indistinctly that the Delegates did not perceive the
words. Industrials, Mechanics, Laborers. It can be seen
at a glance that the article as it stands could only admit
Delegates from Associations of Workingmen, and we

294 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

regret so much valuable time was wasted in discussing
so trivial a question. Look at the Constitutions of the
Benevolent Societies of Saddlers, Stone Masons, La-
borers, Cordwainers, Coopers, Iron Molders, Plumbers,
Hat-finishers, Tailors, Smiths, Carpenters, Brotherhood
of the Union, "Church of Humanity," &c. (a powerful
workingmen's Association, holding regular weekly
meetings at the Assyrian Rooms, Third-st. to which a
great portion of the Industrials employed in the Navy
Yard have joined) and what do we find? Every docu-
ment expressly states that these Associations are organ-
ized for the relief of their members, and that no person
can join them who has not been regularly bred to the
business they work at, and Labor is recognized as para-
mount in all the Constitutions. Read the eloquent ap-
peals in behalf of the Rights of Man Societies, and the
various reforms of the day eloquently set forth in them,
and say these Associations are doubtful in their support
of Progress. The idea is preposterous. Secret Socie-
ties of the Odd Fellows, &c. have no idea of sending
Delegates ; and furthermore, a re-perusal of Article III
would convince any person that no Association could
send Delegates to the Industrial Congress who were not
composed of laboring men- Industrials. Our best Pro-
tective Labor Associations have adopted the "benevo-
lent" feature. If all societies with beneficial provisions
were excluded, the Social Reform League now in session
would be dwindled down to one or two Associations.
Not a Society in the City has declared in favor of estab-
lishing a General Trade's Union, yet we understand the
Delegates from the Bricklayers are favorable to such a
scheme. It would prove a failure, as every calling
(which is united associatively) is a Trade's Union in
itself, and opposed to spending their money in support-

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 295

ing other trades in striking against their employers. The
Labor Congress now sitting is what the Industrials of
our cities want, where their grievances can be canvassed,
and proper means for their alleviation proposed.

The question of the admission of Benevolent Socie-
ties was fairly established twice by a two-thirds vote,
and we trust that subject will be set at rest at the next
meeting, by the adoption of the whole of the Constitu-
tion, as prepared by Messrs. Downie, Keyser, McCar-
thy, Adams and Heath, over the factious and litigious of
the disappointed Delegates, bent on the perversion of
the glorious Labor movement now in progress through-
out the country. We are surprised that the Bricklayers
and Plasterers' Delegates should lead off in attacking
the prominent Reformers in the Industrial Congress,
and we are rejoiced that Mr. McClosky apologized,
before he sat down, for the hasty remarks he had uttered.
This is right, as the Bricklayers are the offspring of the
present movement, and should be last to attempt its
destruction. . .

In the course of the debate on Benevolence, Mr. Pat-
rick Dillon read an interesting document giving the
views of the Laborers' Union Benevolent Society in
favor of the Industrial Congress and the great principle
of Protective Benevolences generally. In reading this
Report, Mr. Dillon was frequently applauded. Its
great length precludes us from publishing it. This old
established, chartered Benevolent Society takes a proud
stand in the cause of Labor and is strongly in favor of a
" Union" of the working classes, where bickerings and
heart-burnings will not be tolerated. All the Laborers
desire of Congress, is to recognize an increase of their
wages to ten shillings per day, (which many employers
admit is small enough) and thus extend a helping hand

296 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

by recognizing the Laborers' rights to elevate them-
selves in the social scale. They have rallied under the
banner of " Charity and Self Protection," procured their
charter from the State, and trimmed their gallant bark
to the breeze. We make the following extracts :

Thus far we have made good our principle of charity -we have
acted in fulfillment of the command from on High, and have done
our duty to our fellow men on earth, by visiting the sick and burying
the dead; we have made by our liberal donations the orphan's heart
glad, and dried many a widow's tears; we have pressed on firm and
united, and now number in our benevolent folds Six Thousand of
good citizens, and in our first organization we were only six individ-
uals to commence with; we have received during our organization
the sweetest smiles of Heaven, and we have therefore every thing to
cheer us on to the great and glorious destiny that awaits us.

. . . We regret that any acrimonious feeling
should have been exhibited in the Workingmen's Coun-
cil, and trust for the future that such a spirit should be
very properly frowned down. The Laborers have set
the ball rolling, and let every other benevolent or Pro-
tective Society follow its noble example in maintaining
*^ Union" at all hazards.

A Delegate, toward the adjournment, very unjustly
attacked the "Church of Humanity" -the powerful
Workingmen's Association situated in the Eleventh
Ward, and so popular with the Journeymen of that
vicinity. . .

(iii) The Tailors.

New York Daily Tribune y July 19, 1850, p. i, col. 3.

Another monster mass meeting of the Journeymen
Tailors was held last night at the Sixth Ward Hotel,
Center-st. In the morning, the members brought their
work, and it was resolved that the chief part of it should
be returned to the stores. . .

The pantaloon makers held a branch meeting at the

eight]

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS

297

same place, and we publish herewith their prices, which,
according to the judgment of very competent men, are
at a thorough moderate scale :

NEW-YORK JOURNEYMEN TAILORS' BILL OF PRICES FOR
SOUTHERN PANTALOONS

Pants of black or blue Cassimere, Doeskin, &c. made plain . $.75

EXTRAS

Canvas in bottoms . . . . . . $.12%

Straps of same material, detached or sewed on . . .12^

Binding tops ...... .06^

Stripes down the side . . . . , .25

Cords down the side, per pair . . . . .12%

Inside Waist-strap ..... .06^

Lined all through ... . . . . .12%

Half lined ....... .06^

For Merinos, or any kind of fancy Doeskin or Cassimere Plain

Pants, commence at .... . .62^

Extras -same as above.

The Tailors will hold another meeting to-day at i
o'clock, ana at 7 o'clock in the evening, for the purpose
of cooperating with the German Tailors, who are hereby
particularly requested to appear. We learn also that
the Germans have a meeting of their own on Monday, to
cooperate with their " English" brethren. This is right,
and we trust the Tailors will be found cooperating with
each other without distinction of nationalities or trifling
peccadillos.

Daily Tribune, July 26, 1850, p. 3.

Declaration of the German Central Committee of the

United Trades in reference to the movements among

the Tailors.

We, the Delegates of seventeen Protective Societies
numbering about 4,500 members, hereby declare to the
public as follows :

I. We have witnessed with pain and indignation the
false reports that have been circulated by the daily press

298 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

of this City in relation to the recent movements among
the Tailors -which reports have had a tendency to de-
stroy that sympathy of feeling on the part of the public
which would otherwise have conducted the cause of
Truth and Right to victory. The object of the Tailors'
movement was not to attack persons and property, but
only to present to their bosses their bill of prices, and to
unite together all the Journeymen Tailors, as well as
their Employers who adhere to this bill, into one great
Protective Union, which should guard the rights and
promote the interests of all.

2. Never was the demand for a rise of wages more
moral, moderate and just, than in the present instance.
Even many of our most esteemed employers acknowl-
edge this, and not only adhere to the new bill of prices,
but also favor this movement in other ways -inasmuch
as it secures the interest of the employer as well as the
employed, by guaranteeing to each proper protection
against losses which, until now, have too often occurred
from the dishonesty of their workmen.

3. We especially protest with all the power of a re-
volted feeling against the brutality and insolence with
which many of our Policemen have conducted them-
selves in the numerous arrests which have been made.
We did not expect to find in this free country a Russian
Police, nor do we believe that the people will sustain
these officials in their evident abuse of power.

We therefore rally our voices to the unanimous dec-
laration of the Representatives of the New York City
Industrial Congress as follows:

Resolved, that we sympathize with the Tailors, now
struggling for the maintenance of a standard of wages
that will enable them to live without being dependent
upon charity, and that we regard the old game of legal

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 299

prosecution again put in operation, as in 1835, as a base
attempt to crush the effort now being made for their
relief. (Signed) CENTRAL CoM. OF United Trades.

New York Daily Tribune^ Aug. 8, 1850. Proceedings of New York
City Industrial Congress.

W. Weitling reported for the German Tailors' Com-
mittee of Thirteen the following resolutions, taken this
day by that body :

Whereas, we employed in the beginning of our strike
all possible reasonable means to bring the bosses to an
understanding of the object of their own interest, and all
this was of no use, because they declined for the most
part our just demands ;

Whereas, we find ourselves among those who do not
understand our indignation and misrepresent us, with
our feelings abused;

Whereas, we cannot any longer wait without acting,
we now employ the following means to reach our object:

1. We appeal to our friends here and abroad and to
the public at large, to help us in the establishment of an
Association Clothing Establishment.

2. We accept gratefully every assistance as a loan
which we will retribute by giving clothes for the money
received.

3. We will charge the public for the work done in our
establishment only the prices set down in our list of
prices.

4. So long as the establishment does not realize so
much as to repay all loans made, we only will take for
our work so much as to pay our board, and leave the re-
mainder in the general stock.

5. The establishment shall remain the property of all
the adhering tailors.

6. We accept gratefully the offer of the different

300 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Trades Delegates present and hope to be able to show to
the world what by energy and sympathy, by courage and
sacrifice, can be done.
Received with applause.

Daily Tribune, Aug. 13, 1850, p. i.

Shortly after the appointed hour, (5 o'clock, p.m.) the
space immediately in front of the City Hall Park, began
to be thronged with Industrials of all branches, who
came to manifest their sympathy with the establishment
of a Cooperative Clothing store by the Journeymen
Tailors' Protective Union, (German and English
branches.) The meeting was held in pursuance of the
recommendation of the Industrial Congress, both
branches of the Tailors' Society, and of the only exten-
sive Cooperative Association in the city, (the Protective
Union.)

The meeting organized on the motion of David
Marsh, who nominated as President, Gilbert C. Deane,
and Mr. Wm. V. Barr then read the following list of
Vice-presidents and Secretaries, composed, as it will be
seen, of prominent men engaged in the Labor movement
from most of the organized benevolent and protective
Labor Societies in the city:

Vice-presidents. I ron-molders- Robert Irving, Thom-
as Middleton, Robert Yates and David Bloom; Up-
holsterers-Charles Crux, George Hoyt, A. A. Gaut-
ier and J. P. Evans; Tobacco-pipe Makers -Reuben
Smith, Denis Murney and Matthew Keogh; Operative
Bakers- J. Z. Renne, G. Vogelgesang, Louis Hallbauer,
Ira A. Campbell, Bartholomew Derham and John Ur-
quhart; Bookbinders- John C. Toedt; Coopers -Joshua
A. Heath, James W. Flinn, H. J. Hanson, George Riter;
Hat-finishers- Adolphus J. Johnson, Nelson Crawford,

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 301

Francis J. Loutrel; House-carpenters -James Bassett,
Ben. Price and George Ceis; Sash and Blind Makers-
J. E. Colgrove, W. H. Housner and Isaac Torboss;
Plumbers -James H. Wheeler, Andrew Melville, Dav-
id Kennedy; Cabinet-makers -John G. Braubach, H.
Toaspern, F. Steffen; Coach Painters -Selah H. Burtt,
Robert McCafferty, Edward Glassey; Ladies Cord-
wainers- Stephen Dunn, Robert McCabe, Lewis W.
Ryckman, A. Connolly; Men's Branch of the Cord-
wainers- Charles McCarthy, Wm. O'Driscoll, Mich-
ael McMahon, Thomas Baker, Wm. Tyson, Silas N.
Hamilton, John Reid, Redmond Sheridan; Window
Shade Painters -Griffith Morgan, Jno. C. Hubbs,
Thomas .Villiers, Ferdinand Berger; House Painters -
Wm. S. Gregory, James Bradley, John Delany; Brick
and Stone Masons -Francis Flanagan, Wm. Richard-
son, John O'Connor; Bricklayers and Plasterers -Cor-
nelius McClosky, P. J. Downie, Wm. Crussell, Jacob
Clark, Alexander Wiseman, Thomas Quin, E. J. Flem-
ing, Wm. Coppinger; Dyers -Robert Donaldson, Rob-
ert List andT. Redderson; Silversmiths -P. M. B. Rid-
ley, John Lowe, Joseph Addington, John P. Brinkerhoff
Steam Boiler Makers- Patrick Brady, John M. Wilson,
John Dean, Solomon Jamieson, John Walker and F.
Rogers; Cigar Makers -John J. Kuhn, C. Wagenfuhr,
C. A. Story and Louis Troug; Printers -E. H. Rogers,
Charles C. Savage, Wm. H. Prindle and Robert H.
Johnston; Brush Makers- Wm. Wainwright, Peter
Peck, Wm. Alphonso; Marble Polishers -Thomas Som-
erville, John Woolsey, James Elliott; Tin and Sheet
Iron Workers -Charles A. Guinand, J. Willis and Wm.
Hewett; Smiths (Iron and Metal Workers)- Peter V.
Garrett, Philip Hassinger, T. F. Ailing, Frederick
Eisart, Charles Fisscher; Tailors- John Donnelly, Wm.

302 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

J. Leonard, J. Andrew Handschuch, C. Buschmann;
Saddlers -Richard A. Chambers, W. H. Plant, Hamil-
ton H. Murray; Laborers -Thomas Colohan, Patrick
Tracy, Matthew Carr, James Cummings, Thomas Nich-
olson, Thomas McKiernan, Patrick Halpen, John
McGlynn, and P. Dillon; Ship-sawyers -Joseph Eus-
tace, James Gallagher, Thos. Beacon; Lithographic
Printers - Charles Hart, Francis Wogram, John Elliott ;
Stove Makers -David Morgan; Ship-wrights and
Caulkers -Robert McGowan, Andrew Thompson and
Hamilton Wade; Wrought Spike-makers -E. Lea,
James Long, Wm. Owens, Peter Mahony, J. W. Price,
Thomas Parks; Cartmen-John McMuUen, Wm. C.
Foster, Wm. H. Losee and David Banks; Watchcase
Makers -R. W. G. Simpson, Edward Humbert, F. H.
Griffin; Grocers' Clerks- Wm. H. Van Cleef, W. S.
Hutchings, Wm. H. Gardner; Button and Fringe Mak-
ers-A. Aurnhammer, H. Fuchs and T. Gerner; Hat-
ters-Geo. H. Richards, John Staginus and Henry Wal-
lenberger; Riggers- Wilmot Jackson, Walter S. Jarboe
and Martin J. Brown; Quarrymen- Thomas Kearnan,
Bartholomew Monaghan, Thomas Cramer, Bernard
Smith and Thomas Donley; Carvers -Thomas Somer-
ville and Edward ConoUy; Block and Pump Makers -
Wm. Smith, Isaac Greenhalgh, John Whitehead and
James Evans; Licensed Public Porters -David M. Oak-
ley, Thomas McAndrew and John Landers; Sailmak-
ers -James Daly, Wm. Recor and James G. Lent;
Stone Cutters -Wm. Young, Wm. Karnes, Michael
Murphy, Henry Wilson, Michael Cotter; Varnishers
and Polishers- Jacob J. Brinkerhofif, Christopher Mon-
ahan; Ship Joiners- Henry W. Collins, Francis B.
Ferry, John Weed, Abraham B. Wright, Anson P. San-
ford ; Chair Makers -John Commerf ord ; Boot Makers -

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 303

F. Jung, G. A. Munsch, and Nietzel; Gilders-

Charles R. Hatfield, Henry Felton ; Dry Goods' Clerks-
George T. E. Sheldon, Wm. R. Harrison and Wm. S.
Clapp; Confectioners -A. Pfeiffer and Wm. Barthel;
Brooklyn Masons' Laborers-John Ferrall and Martin
Galvin; Butchers -Wm. H. Cornell, Samuel P. Patter-
son and Moses E. Crasto; Umbrella Frame Makers -
T. Miller, E. Lamb and E. Love; Marble Cutters -
Joseph Dugan and Alexander Smith.

Secretaries, K. Arthur Bailey, P. E. Day, J. M.
Tobitt, George Arch-Deacon, F. Kavanagh, A. Honey-
well, G. Vale, G. H. Evans, F. J. Otterson, C. W. Col-
burn, Louis Jonassohn, Wm. Weitling, Wm. Granger,
Charles Scheer.

K. Arthur Bailey, President of the Industrial Con-
gress, then presented the following Address and Resolu-
tions, as prepared by the Committee, which were adopt-
ed:

Friends and Brothers: It is an undeniable truth
that God, the common and beneficent parent of all man-
kind, in the creation of the world, designed all the ele-
ments thereof to be the common property of all his
children, together with the fowls of the air, the fishes of
the sea, the beasts of the field, and all things, whether
animate or inanimate, therein contained, to be made sub-
servient to the universal interest, happiness and inde-
pendence of all mankind; and has enjoined upon us the
duty of replenishing and subduing the earth, to cause it
to bring forth abundantly that which will sustain the
life of the beast, gladden the heart, satiate the desires
and supply the necessities of men ; and were it not that
the law of men has interdicted the law of God, and
locked up the land from its rightful owners, who, with
hopeful hearts and willing hands, would gladly become

304 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

the cultivators of the land which God gave them for
their possession, make the fair face of this Republic a
second Garden of God, a Paradise on earth, beneath the
branches of whose trees the birds of the primeval Para-
dise would be glad to sing.

And, whereas, the history of this country and the his-
tory of the world evidently shows that under the present
system of landlordism, monopoly and wrong, that no
permanent benefit can arise from periodical irruptures
of isolated trades, which only give to the capitalists a
pretext to raise his rents, which like the laws of the
Medes and the Persians, admit of no alterations, at least
in a diminutive point of view, and, as it is a duty which
man owes to God, to society, and posterity, and those
henceforth dependent on him for subsistence, to produce
as much as he and they can consume, it is no less a duty
incumbent upon him to secure the productions of his
labor to himself, and those legitimately entitled thereto,
and for the accomplishment of this noble purpose, has
this vast assembly been congregated to consummate
among the Tailors, an Union, indissoluble, just and
strong, whereby they may judiciously establish a Co-
operative store, and henceforth cease work for the bene-
fit and aggrandizement of others, and commence to labor
for themselves, in the primeval independence in which
God created men, and from you, friends and brethren,
they require, what you will readily accord, a support,
effective, sincere, lasting and strong; be it therefore.

Resolved, that it is the imperative duty of the In-
dustrial classes throughout the city, to aid and support
the Operative Tailors in their establishing a general
Union, where all will be mutually interested, and equal
shareholders in the profits of their own labor.

Resolved, that this meeting hail with great pleasure

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 305

the noble and praiseworthy efforts of the Tailors to
establish a cooperative store, and thereby sustain the
Tailors by any and every means within their power, in-
asmuch as they regard the principle of cooperation as
one of the chief means whereby the masses may redeem
themselves and posterity from a state of degradation and
destitution. . .

Ira B. Davis (the Business Agent, Inspector and Sub-
treasurer of the Protective Union Labor Association, a
real working Industrial Congress) announced that his
Association sends you the following, which was received
with applause during its perusal :
The Protective Union of the City of New- York to the

Useful Classes in the Park assembled, August 12, 1850.

Sons of Toil- You live in an epoch fraught with cir-
cumstances of momentous importance to the present and
future generations of humanity.

The time has arrived when stern necessity requires
that you should arouse from your position of slavery and
adopt measures by which your rights may be regained
and in future preserved.

Plans have been devised, in language more simple and
methods more practicable than at any former period in
the history of oppression.

The question for solution now is :

Have you suffered sufficient to arouse you to the full
determination to surmount every obstacle in the way of
obtaining your proper position of equality and unity?

Or has your long-suffering so impaired the intellect
and brutalized the heart as to disqualify you from com-
prehending the one or practising the other?

If you would be free to labor when you please, and
secure the fruits thereof, it is you who must remove the
cause that binds and plunders you.

3o6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

If you would realize the full advantages of brother-
hood, you must fraternize with every useful class upon
the broad principle of Equality.

If you would destroy avarice and competition -if you
would prevent wretchedness and crime -if you would
relieve the laborer of onerous toil, and stimulate the in-
dolent to wholesome industry, you must remodel society
upon a basis where proprietor and laborer are united in
the same person.

And while the Protective Union most deeply sym-
pathizes with those workmen on strike for an advance of
wages, yet it would call their earnest attention to the
more effectual method of gaining their object and re-
moving forever the necessity of another strike.

By forming Associations similar to or joining the pres-
ent organized Protective Union, the present employers
would be dispensed with, the Association taking their
place, in which the members would establish their prices
for labor without interference from parties whose in-
terests are opposite.

The object of the P. U. is to establish equality of con-
dition, by uniting all useful classes, and those friendly
to equal rights and duties being enjoyed and fulfilled by
all ; to extend succor to the indigent and furnish employ-
ment to the healthy.

The plan of operation is simple and practicable, as has
been proved by two and a half years of business life.

Persons becoming members pay an initiation fee of
five dollars; and with this capital every branch of in-
dustry is to be established. The profits accruing from
the prosecution of trade are also invested to aid the
work of emancipation, and no dividends are to be de-
clared until the entire trade of society is absorbed and
the labor so apportioned that all shall be required to

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 307

earn their bread by the performance of some useful
service.

For said fee and the payment of weekly dues, mem-
bers are entitled to employment and four dollars per
week in sickness.

The P. U. now invites the working classes and friends
of justice to unite with it and aid the speedy establish-
ment of every branch of useful industry.

It also offers to assist (as far as able) all Industrial
Reform Associations.

The Tailors are invited to call at the P. U. in Seventh-
av. corner of Nineteenth-st. where they may be assisted
to organize that trade.

Ira B. Davis, George Adair -Delegates
from the Protective Union.

After he had concluded the reading of the Protective
Union's Report, he gave some of the workings of that
established Cooperative Association, and said all work-
ingmen were invited to inquire into its principles, ob-
jects and aims. The time must come when every trade
shall be cooperatively organized. As to strikes, he did
not believe in them, and said that the money expended
in getting them up could be more profitably invested in
means for the real benefit of the working classes. Un-
fortunately for the worker, visionary schemes had been
proposed to them, and it was time to be on their guard.
As a sure and safe way of getting rid of surplus labor and
invention of machines, Labor must be so organized as to
stay the further inroads of these improvements, unless
the people reap their benefits. Man has a natural right
to a portion of the earth, and that right must be guaran-
teed. What shall be done? At the primary elections,
question all the candidates who are nominated, and see
that fit and capable men are chosen for offices of trust

3o8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

and responsibility. Apply this question. If you are
elected, will you vote for a law declaring the right of
all to a portion of the earth to grow the necessaries of
life? . . .

New York Daily Tribune, Aug. 21, 1850, p. i, col, 4.

A large meeting of all the German trades was held on
Monday morning, 9 o'clock, at Hillenbrand's, Hester-
st. to take into consideration the organization of the
Tailors for the Cooperative Union. There were some
differences to be removed, and a perfect Union should
be established. The result turned out very favorably
for Law and Order. A small Association, numbering
about 250 members, existed among this trade since last
Spring, which has a capital stock of about $7,000, partly
procured by contributions and partly by gifts received
from trades in different States of the Union. A large
Association, of about 3,000 members, has been formed
within the last few weeks, with the same objects, origin-
ating out of the general strike of the Tailors.

The old Association had refused to hand over their
funds to the newly organized Society, saying that each
member should first contribute as much as they had giv-
en-the amount of $10- as fixed by the Constitution.
The Committee of Thirteen, representing the 3,000
Tailors, said : "We are exhausted in consequence of our
last strike ; you will receive the regular contributions of
3,000 members, and this will be of a great advantage to
you, and will equalize your contributions."

After elaborate addresses by Messrs. Weitling, Schill-
ing, Steffens, Buschman and others, which all tended
to show how peace, union and fraternity only would
strengthen their cause and procure to the German Tail-
ors the respect of the community, it was

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 309

Resolved, that a Tailors' Association shall be insti-
tuted as soon as possible.

Every Tailor may become a member who pays $.25
initiation-fee, and $.25 weekly, up to the sum of $2, and
afterwards one shilling, until the sum of $10 be paid.
Whoever desires to become a member after one month
from to-day, is to pay $.50, instead of $.25 initiation fee.
Those who pay by their contributions the sum of $5, and
who receive low wages at their shops, are the first en-
titled to receive work from the shop of the Associations.
Nevertheless, the Directors are entitled to procure work
for those who are poor or became destitute through other
circumstances. . . Towards the close of the meet-
ing, a third Committee was elected for supervising the
defense of committed Tailors, and providing for those
who are still in prison. . .

(5) "Industrial Harmony."- The Cincinnati Molders.
New York Weekly Tribune, Dec. 15, 1849, p. 6. Editorial Correspond-
ence of the Tribune.

On the Ohio, Nov. 30, 1849. The business of Iron-
moulding, Casting, or whatever it may be called, is one
of the most extensive and thrifty of the Manufactures of
Cincinnati, and I believe the labor employed therein is
quite as well rewarded as Labor generally. It is entirely
paid by the piece, according to an established scale of
prices, so that each workman, in whatever department
of the business, is paid according to his individual skill
and industry, not a rough average of what is supposed to
be earned by himself and others, as is the case where
work is paid for at so much per day, week or month.
I know no reason why the Iron-moulders of Cincinnati
should not have been as well satisfied with the old ways
as anybody else.

Yet the system did not "work well," even for them.

310 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY Vol.]

Beyond the general unsteadiness of demand for Labor
and the ever-increasing pressure of competition, there
was a pretty steadily recurring "dull season," commenc-
ing about the ist of January, when the Winter's call for
stoves, &c. had been supplied, and holding on for two or
three months, or until the Spring business opened. In
this hiatus the prior savings of the Moulder were gen-
erally consumed -sometimes less, but perhaps oftener
more -so that, taking one with another, they did not
lay up ten dollars per annum.

By-and-by came a collision respecting wages and a
"strike" wherein the Journeymen tried the experiment
of running their heads against a stone wall for months.
How they came out of it, no matter whether victors or
vanquished, the intelligent reader will readily guess.
I never heard of any evils so serious and complicated as
those which eat out the heart of Labor being cured by
doing nothing.

At length -but I believe after the strike had somehow
terminated -some of the Journeymen Moulders said to
each other: "Standing idle is not the true cure for our
grievances: why not employ ourselves?" They finally
concluded to try it, and, in the dead of the Winter of
1847-8, when a great many of their trade were out of
employment, the business being unusually depressed,
they formed an association under the General Manufac-
turing Law of Ohio (which is very similar to that of
New- York) and undertook to establish the Journeymen
Moulders' Union Foundry. There were about twenty
of them who put their hands to the work, and the whole
amount of capital they could scrape together was $2,100,
held in shares of $25 each. With this they purchased an
eligible piece of ground, directly on the bank of the
Ohio, eight miles below Cincinnati, with which "the

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS * 311

Whitewater Canal" also affords the means of ready and
cheap communication. With their capital, they bought
some patterns, flasks, an engine and tools, paid for their
ground and $500 on their first building, which was erect-
ed for them partly on long credit by a firm in Cincin-
nati, who knew that the property was a perfect security
for so much of its cost, and decline taking credit for any
benevolence in the matter. Their Iron, Coal, &c. to
commence upon were entirely and necessarily bought on
credit.

Having elected Directors, a Foreman and a Business
Agent (the last to open a store in Cincinnati, buy stock,
sell wares, &cc.) the Journeymen's Union set to work, a
little more than a year ago. Its accommodations were
then meagre; they have since been gradually enlarged
by additions, until their Foundry is now the most com-
modious on the River. Their stock of Patterns, Flasks,
&c. has grown to be one of the best; while their arrange-
ments for unloading coal and iron, sending off stoves,
coking coal, &c. are almost perfect. They commenced
with ten associates actually at work; the number has
gradually grown to forty; and there is not a better set of
workmen in any foundry in America. I profess to know
a little as to the quality of castings, and there are no
better than may be seen in the Foundry of "Industry"
and its store at Cincinnati. And there is obvious reason
for this in the fact that every workman is a proprietor in
the concern, and it is his interest to turn out not only his
own work in the best order but to take care that all the
rest is of like quality. All is carefully examined before
it is sent away, and any found imperfect is condemned,
the loss falling on the causer of it. But there is seldom
any deserving condemnation.

A strict account is kept with every member, who is

312 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY Vol.]

credited for all he does according to the Cincinnati
Scale of Prices, paid so much as he needs of his earnings
in money, the balance being devoted to the extension of
the concern and the payment of its debts, and new stock
issued to him therefor. Whenever the debts shall have
been paid off, and an adequate supply of implements,
teams, stock, &c. bought or provided for, they expect to
pay every man his earnings weekly in cash, as of course
they may. I hope, however, they will prefer to buy
more land, erect thereon a most substantial and com-
modious dwelling, surround it with a garden, shade-
trees, &c. and resolve to live as well as work like breth-
ren. There are few uses to which a member can put a
hundred dollars which might not as well be subserved
by seventy-five if the money of the whole were invested
together.

The members are now earning an average of fifteen
dollars per week and mean to keep doing so. Of course,
they work hard. Many of them live inside of four dol-
lars per week, none go beyond eight. Their Business
Agent is one of themselves, who worked with them in
the Foundry for some months after it was started. He
has often been obliged to report, "I can pay you no
money this week," and never heard a murmur in reply.
On one occasion he went down to say, "There are my
books ; you see what I have received and where most of
it has gone; here is one hundred dollars, which is all
there is left." The members consulted, calculated, and
made answer: "We can pay our board so as to get
through another week with fifty dollars, and you had
better take back the other fifty, for the business may
need it before the week is through." When I was there
on Wednesday, there had been an Iron note to pay,
ditto a Coal, and a boat-load of Coal to lay in for the

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 313

Winter, sweeping off all the money, so that for more than
three weeks no man had had a dollar. Yet no man had
thought of complaining, for they knew that the delay
was dictated, not by another's interest, but their own.
They knew, too, that the assurance of their payment did
not depend on the frugality or extravagance of some em-
ployer, who might swamp the proceeds of his business
and their labor in an unlucky speculation or a sumptuous
dwelling, leaving them to whistle for their money.
There were their year's earnings visibly around them,
in Stoves and Hollow Ware, for which they had abun-
dant and eager demand in Cincinnati, but which a break
in the canal had temporarily kept back ; in Iron and Coal
for the Winter's work; in the building over their heads
and the implements in their hands. And while other
Moulders have had work "off and on," according to the
state of the business, no member of the Journeymen's
Union has stood idle a day for want of work since their
Foundry was first started. Of course, as their capital
increases, the danger of being compelled to suspend
work at any future day grows less and less continually.

The ultimate capital of the Journeymen's Union
Foundry (on the presumption that the Foundry is to
stand by itself, leaving every member to provide his own
home, &c.) is to be $18,000 of which $7,000 has already
been paid in, most of it in labor. The remainder is all
subscribed by the several associates, and is to be paid in
labor as fast as possible.

That done, every man may be paid in cash weekly for
his work, and a dividend on his stock at the close of
every business year. The workers have saved and in-
vested from $300 to $600 each since their commencement
in August of last year, though those who have joined
since the stand have of course earned less. Few or none

314 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY Vol.]

had laid by so much in five to ten years' working for
others as they have in one year working for them-
selves. The total value of their products up to this
time is $30,000, and they are now making at the rate of
$5,000 worth per month, which they do not mean to
diminish. All the profits of the business, above the cost
of doing the work at journeymen's wages, will be dis-
tributed among the stockholders in dividends. The of-
ficers of the Union are a Managing Agent, Foreman of
the Foundry and five Directors, chosen annually, but
who can be changed meantime in case of necessity. A
Reading Room and Library are to be started directly; a
spacious Boarding House (though probably not owned
by the Union) will go up next season. No liquor is sold
within a long distance of the Union, and there is little or
no demand for any. Those original members of the
Union who were least favorable to Temperance have
seen fit to sell out and go away. . .

(b) THE COST OF LIVING

/ New York Daily Tribune, May 27, 1851, p. 7, col. i. Correspondence
from Philadelphia.

. . . The Carpenters of our city are upon a strike
for an advance of $.25 a day; this will make $10.50 a
week. . . Take a workingman at from 30 to 40 years
of age, with his wife and three children. . . To take
away all opportunities of dissatisfaction, I will average
the family at five. Now what will it take to maintain a
family of the last mentioned number weekly? . . .
A barrel of flour, $5, will last 8 weeks -this will leave
flour $.625^ per week; sugar, 4 lbs. at $.08 per lb., $.32
per week; butter, 2 lbs. at $.31^4 per lb., $.62^^ ; milk,
$.02 per day, $.14 per week; butcher's meat, 2 lbs. of
beef at $. 10 per lb. per day, $1 .40 per week ; potatoes, half

eight]

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS

315

a bushel, $.50, coffee and tea per week, $.25 ; candle-light
$.14 per week; fuel, 3 tons coal, $15 per annum; char-
coal, chips, matches, et cetera, $5 year. This makes $.40
per week for fuel. Salt, pepper, vinegar, starch, soap,
soda, yeast, now and then some cheese, eggs, &c., $.40 a
week more, for all these sundries; wear and tear and
breakage of household articles, such as cups, saucers,
plates, dishes, pans, knives, forks, &c., $.25 per week;
rent $3.00 per week ; bed clothes and bedding $.20 ; wear-
ing apparel $2.00 per week; newspapers $.12. Let us
now sum all up :

Flour

$ .621/2

Sundries

$ .40

Sugar

.32

Household articles

.25

Butter

,62y2

Bedding

.20

Milk

.14

Rent .

3.00

Butcher's meat

1.40

Wearing apparel

2.00

Potatoes

.50

Newspapers

.12

Tea and Coffee
Candles and Oil

.25
.14

Total .

. $10.37

Fuel

.40

I ask, have I made the working man's comforts too
high? Where is the money to pay for amusements, for
ice creams, his puddings, trips on Sunday up or down
the river, in order to get some fresh air ; to pay the doctor
or apothecary, to pay for pew rent in the church, to pur-
chase books, musical instruments? . . .

(1) The Call.

New York Daily Tribune, July 23, 1851, p. 4, col. 5.

The New- York State Industrial Legislature is hereby
called together to hold its first annual session in the Cap-
itol at Albany on Wednesday, the 3d of September, 1851,
at nine o'clock, a.m. All Mechanics' and Workingmen's
Associations, all Co-operative Labor Establishments, all

3 1 6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Land and Labor Reform Associations, all those opposed
to Land Monopoly, all those opposed to Feudal Tenures,
emanating from the rotten despotisms of Europe, all
those who believe that all persons have a natural right
to earth, to land enough from which to dig subsistence,
are requested to send Delegates. Any Association of
five or more are entitled to one Delegate.
Albany, July 21, 1851.

Wm. Manning, J. Smith Washburn, Philip
HoYLE, James Kilbourn, Aaron Hall, George
HucKETT, James Gray, John McCaffit, Jr.-
State Central Committee.

New York Daily Tribune, Aug. 30, 1851, p. 7.

The New- York State Industrial Legislature holds its
first Annual Session at Albany, Sept. 3, pursuant to the
call of the Workingmen's State Organization Commit-
tee, consisting of the following gentlemen :

Messrs. Isaac F. Clark, Laurens, Otsego; James
Casham, West Troy; G. Huckett, Troy; T. C. Witten-
berg, Poughkeepsie, Dutchess; O. Davis, Herkimer;
Jonathan Sawyer, Jefferson; J. P. Murphy, Niagara;
Ben Price, New York; A. Hanna, Oswego; J. Snell,
Orleans; James Stuart, Utica; J. E. Vedder, Schenecta-
dy; J. M. Ring, Broome; Charles Guinand, Kings; J.
W. Palmer, Chautauqua; E. Williams, Auburn; A. B.
Hauptman, Morrisania, Westchester; James M. Cavan,
Rochester, Monroe; Chas. Sentell, Waterloo, Seneca;
Albert Brisbane, Batavia, Genesee; Charles E. Young,
Buffalo, Erie; G. B, Richardson, Bath, Steuben; John
Downie, Ulster; J. I. Nicks, Elmira, Chemung; W. H.
Doxtater, Ames, Montgomery ; J. H. Manchester, Mad-
ison; E. Bannan, Warren; J. W. Wilcox, Rockland
Lake, Rockland; Chas. L. Dibble, Devereaux, Fulton;
A. Wallace, Greene; S. H. Mix, Schoharie; H. T.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 3 1 7

Brooks, Wyoming; Stephen Hubbard, Greenfield Cen-
ter, Saratoga; Peter F. Proseus, Valatie, Columbia; E.
Robbins, Salina.

(2) Proceedings.

New York Daily Tribune, Sept. 4, 1851, p. 4.

The Convention reassembled at i o'clock, George P.
Clarke in the Chair. Mr. Wittenberg read the minutes
of the Morning Session. Before they were adopted,
Mr. Murphy called for the reading of the communica-
tions ; and the title of the Convention was changed to the
New- York State Industrial Legislature, and the min-
utes arranged accordingly. A National Reform Con-
vention is however to be held.

The Report of the Nomination Committee was as fol-
lows: President -]2imts P. Murphy, Lockport, Niag-
ara Co. Vice-presidents -]ohn White, New York City,
and John G. Woodruflf, Rensselaer Co. Secretaries-
Benjamin Hutchins, Albany Co., and Matthew A. Wil-
son, New- York. . .

A Business Committee, consisting of John A. Smith of
New- York; J. S. Washburn of Troy; J. M. Brown,
Cohoes ; James Casham, West Troy ; and G. W. Stewart
of Cayuga Co., were appointed by the Chairman.

Vice-president Woodruff made a few remarks on
political action, and said that in Rensselaer County the
working men had their County and Assembly Commit-
tees, and held their County Conventions and polled 300
votes last year, and could poll the same this year, or more,
just according to the efforts made. He also explained
the course pursued by the workingmen in Rensselaer
County last Fall in voting a clean Reform Ticket, State
and local. He urged the appointment of a State Cen-
tral Committee, to recommend the proper course of pol-
icy for the National Reform Democrats.

3 1 8 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Mr. William Arbuthnot, of New- York City, was for
the nomination of a separate ticket, to be withdrawn in
case favorable responses are received from the candi-
dates of the old parties to the National Reform prin-
ciples.

The President, Mr. Murphy, said that for his part he
was instructed to urge the nomination of a ticket of their
own. The feeling in Niagara County was strong for
such a movement.

Mr. P. Manning, Chairman of the National Reform
State Central Committee, while the Business Commit-
tee had retired to prepare business, noticed the frauds
connected with the Land system in this State, and urged
action as to the division of the public lands of New- York
State among the landless, actual settlers, in limited quan-
tities. He thought this ought to be the subject of dis-
cussion this Winter, and wanted memorials circulated
throughout the State in favor of those subjects. A ten-
hour law was also demanded as a compromise between
twelve and eight; and minors should work but five hours
per day, and thus decrease the labor of children. He
saw much of the suffering of children in factories at
Cohoes, his residence, and if the oppressions he daily saw
lasted much longer, he would oppose the erection of an-
other manufactory. A decided stand he thought ought
to be taken on Land Reform, in order to operate on the
Legislature and govern the State officers in their future
action. Committees should also be appointed on the
various important reforms now so much demanded.

Mr. John A. Smith, from the Business Committee,
reported the following resolution: Resolved, that a
Committee be appointed to draft a Memorial to be pre-
sented to the coming State Legislature, praying for the
abolition of the Contract System at present pursued in

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 319

the public works, and the establishment of a uniform
rate of wages per day, not less than $i.i2>^, ten hours to
constitute a day's labor. . . The resolution was
adopted. . .

Mr. Fannington Price was received as a delegate by a
vote of the Convention, as he had not his credentials with
him. Mr. John A. Smith then introduced further reso-
lutions from the Business Committee, which were adopt-
ed. They read as follows :

Whereas, in the administration of criminal justice the
State appoints a public prosecutor for the purpose of ad-
vocating the interests of the State; and whereas, in civil
jurisprudence, a citizen who prosecutes a just claim, is
compelled to expend double the amount of his claim in
procuring justice - therefore

Resolved, that we petition the Legislature to provide
such means as may be necessary to enable our citizens to
procure the gratuitous administration of justice, with-
out the present tedious and expensive process.

Resolved, that the present Registry clause in the
Homestead Exemption Bill is unnecessary and unjust,
and that the Legislature be instructed to repeal the said
clause at its next session.

Minor Fink, Jr., and Hugh J. Hastings were admitted
to seats in the Convention as delegates.

The Business Committee reported the following:

Resolved, that the State Legislature be requested to
pass a ten-hour bill in regard to factories and other in-
stitutions chartered by law, making it a misdemeanor
for any person to force a laborer, either male or female,
to work more than the hours specified ; and also, that all
children under sixteen years of age will not be allowed
to labor more than five hours per day.

Resolved, that a Committee be appointed to report on

320 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

the frauds and impositions at present practiced by the
Contractors on the public works, and also those of the
proprietors of institutions chartered by law.

Messrs. Manning, Casham and Washburn were ap-
pointed such Committee.

Mr. Hagadorn read some resolutions on Prison Labor
and Contracting, adopted by a meeting in Dutchess
County. Referred, on motion, to the Business Com-
mittee.

Mr. Fannington Price then read some Resolutions
adopted by the Board of Supervisors of Dutchess Coun-
ty, on the subject of Free Schools. Referred to the
Business Committee.

A Resolution on State Land Reform was referred to
a Special Committee, consisting of Messrs. Manning,
Price and Wittenberg.

Adjourned until 9 o'clock to-morrow morning.

New York Daily Tribune^ Sept 5, 1851. Proceedings of Industrial
Legislature, second day.

The Industrial Legislature assembled this morning-
James H. Murphy, of Lockport, in the Chair, and M. A.
Wilson, officiating as Secretary. After reading the min-
utes, the credentials of new Delegates were received.
A Resolution was offered, calling upon the State Legis-
lature to pass a Bill providing for a State Mechanical
and Agricultural School for the purpose of forwarding
the interests of the mechanical and agricultural popula-
tion of the State, in pursuance of the recommendation
of Governor Hunt in his last Message, on the Reform
organizations throughout the State.

John White of New- York, one of the Vice-presidents,
then took the Chair, and President Murphy gave his
views on the creation of such an institution. He thought
that an appropriation of $50,000 should be made by the

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 321

next Legislature for the purpose of properly endowing
this Manual Labor College. Competent persons should
be engaged, and all applicants for admission should
have first availed themselves of the excellent free school
system. One thousand dollars thus distributed would be
$1 to each mechanic, and might, after great efforts, be
raised by ourselves. The improvements in mechanism
and science were discovered by the educated mechanics,
which should be an additional reason for workingmen
to arouse themselves from their lethargy. Ignorance
was the cause of much of the swindling practices sub-
mitted to by the mechanic. While the State is giving
$55,000 annually to schooling the sons of the rich only,
to railroad corporations, &c., they dare not deny $100,000
to this undertaking. He desired the action of a Special
Committee on the subject, as Governor Hunt and others
were warmly in favor of the project. The sooner a
movement of this kind was commenced the better.

John A. Smith inquired as to the appointment of rep-
resentatives to this school. Mr. Woodruff urged the
reference of the resolution to a Special Committee. J.
M. Brown of Cohoes also discussed the resolution and
favored the movement. Mr. Geo. P. Clarke of New-
York thought this movement was a vital one. Miner
Frink said it was gaining ground, and thought lecturers
should be engaged to advocate the project throughout
the State, and that it should be submitted to the next
Legislature.

Mr. Clarke moved that the Special Committee be
composed of five, with no two of one trade. Messrs.
Brown, Manning, Wittenberg, Farrington, Price, John
A. Smith, Geo. P. Clarke, John Webster of Long Island,
Frink and Murphy, made some further remarks, and it
was ordered to refer the whole subject to a Special Com-

322 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

mittee of three. Messrs. James P. Murphy of Niagara
Co., John Webster of Kings, Joseph M. Brown of Al-
bany, were appointed said committee.

Mr. G. W. Stuart, of Auburn, from the Business Com-
mittee, reported as follows :

Whereas, the Legislature did enact a law in 1844,
abolishing the system of employing convicts at mechan-
ical labor in the State Prison, except they were practical
mechanics before conviction, and to be certified to as
such : and

Whereas, this law is not in the least regarded by the
Judges of the Courts in this State, in sentencing felons
to the State Prison the enactment of the law of 1844 has
been of no benefit whatever to mechanics.

And whereas, the system of making mechanical trades
a punishment for crimes, is unjust and injurious to me-
chanics, as a class, both professionally and morally, the
Committee recommend the adoption of the resolution
adopted at Poughkeepsie, viz:

Whereas, the hiring of felons in the State Prison to
pontractors in mechanical employments, at the present
prices, enables the contractors to sell the products of me-
chanical labor so low that the lowest mechanic is obliged
to work for starving prices, to enable his employer to
compete with them in the market:

And whereas, the education of felons in the State Pris-
on in the mechanical arts results in scattering abroad
among honest mechanics and mechanics' families and
apprentices a class of degraded men as their associates-
thereby poisoning the atmosphere of our workshops,
converting them into schools of vice and crime, under
the tuition of graduates from the State Prison, and bring-
ing disgrace on an honorable class of citizens ; therefore.

Resolved, that we solemnly protest against this un-

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 323

just and odious competition, and this foul disgrace upon
respectable men ; that we will never cease our exertions
against this prime evil, till the last vestiges of the stat-
utes which uphold it are totally eradicated from the
records of the State.

Resolved, that we call upon the Legislature of this
State to abolish the present system of contracting for
mechanical labor in the State Prison, and to relieve the
mechanics of this State from the prison monopoly, and
that we will not hereafter give our support to any man,
as a candidate for the Legislature, who is not willing to
comply with our wishes, as expressed in this resolution.

These resolutions were discussed by Messrs. John A.
Smith, J. M. Brown, Wm. Manning, Price, and others,
and finally adopted. Recess.

Afternoon Session. Mr. Woodruff introduced the
following:

Resolved, that a Committee of three be appointed by
the Convention to enter a complaint against Alex. E. H.
Wells, Darius Clark and Wm. P. Angell, States Prison
Inspectors, for a dereliction of duty in violation of an
act passed at the Legislature of 1842, Chapter 142.

Debate ensued, and a resolution adopting a call on the
Legislature to take such measures as shall ensure en-
forcement of the law in relation to Convict Labor as
passed April 9, 1842.

A report in favor of abolishing the present contract
system was made, and the form of a memorial to be pre-
sented to the Legislature for the establishment by law of
the ten-hour system, and fixing 9s. as the lowest day's
wages for laboring men, was adopted.

The Committee to present a memorial for the division
of the Public Lands in the State of New- York, present-
ed a resolution which was adopted, that the next Legis-

324 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

lature be requested to pass a law providing for the di-
vision of the Public Lands of this State into fifty-acre
farm lots, and one-acre village lots, and granting a title
to one of either, free of cost to all actual settlers, not
possessed of other land equal to the amount of above
divisions of land. Long discussions ensued, when the
report was adopted without amendment. On motion,
Messrs. Manning, Washburn and James Casham, were
appointed a Committee to report on the frauds and im-
positions at present practiced by the contractors on the
public works, and also those of the proprietors of In-
stitutions chartered by law. Adopted. The State Cen-
tral Committee authorized to circulate the report.

Mr. Harrington Price presented the following resolu-
tion: That the following National Reform State Cen-
tral Committee be appointed for the ensuing year, and
that its headquarters be in New- York: New- York-
John A. Smith, William Arbuthnot, and Benj. Price;
Lockport- James P. Murphy; Albany Co.-Wm. Man-
ning; Cohoes- James Gray, Albany; Poughkeepsie-
Theo. C. Wittenberg; Troy- John G. Woodruff; Au-
burn - Gilbert W. Stuart.

Resolved, that a State Organization Committee also
be appointed, composed of members from every County.

John G. Woodruff, of Troy, spoke in favor of a de-
cided political action, and calling upon the Reform or-
ganizations in the different Counties to interrogate the
local candidates, &c., and offered the following:

Resolved, that we now proceed to the nomination of
State officers to be supported by the workingmen at the
coming election, in case the candidates of the two great
parties refuse to pledge themselves to support our meas-
ures, the said nominees to be questioned by the Industrial
State Central Committee.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 325

A long debate ensued; when the resolution to go on to
nominating was adopted, and the nominations deferred
until the report was heard.

The report of the Committee on the Mechanical Col-
lege was adopted, and B. F. Price, of New- York, Geo.
Morgan and Geo. G. Cooper, of Rochester, were ap-
pointed a Committee to carry out the objects of the re-
port.

The Committee to whom was referred the resolution
calling upon the legislature of this State to endow an
Agricultural College and Mechanical School, present-
ed a report approving of the object, but recommended
its consideration to a special Convention. They then
proceeded to ballot for state officers. [Ticket, follow-
ing item.]

New York Daily Tribune, Sept 6, 1851. Third Day.

This body adjourned its session Friday forenoon, after
a sitting of three days, and most of the Delegates left
Albany the same day [September 5], first visiting sev-
eral of the public institutions of that city, and paying a
visit to Governor Hunt, who in the course of his remarks
announced that he favored many of the principles enun-
ciated by the Reformers. As the telegraph made some
blunders in the names of the State Central Committee,
and the candidates for State officers, we publish a cor-
rection :
State Central Committee -(Headquarters, No. 162 Nas-

sau-st., New- York City.)

New- York City-John A. Smith, No. 466 Houston
St.; William Arbuthnot, No. 94 Vesey-st; Benjamin
Price, No. no Fulton-st; Lockport- James P. Mur-
phy; Troy -John G. Woodruff; Albany Co.- William
Manning, Cohoes; James Gray, Albany City; Pough-

326 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

keepsie- Theodore C. Wittenberg; Auburn -Gilbert
W. Stuart. The nomination of Isaac P. Walker, U.S.
Senator from Wisconsin, was responded to.

State Ticket. For Judge of the Court of Appeals -
L. Ward Smith, Monroe county; Secretary of State -
Jeremiah S. Washburn, Rensselaer Co.; Controller-
Henry B. Stanton, Seneca Co.; State Treasurer- John
Windt, New- York City; Attorney General -Azar Ta-
bers, Albany City; State Engineer and Surveyor -Rob-
ert McFarland, (Editor New- York Scientific Amer-
ican), Kings Co.; Canal Commissioner- Caleb Lyon,
Lewis Co. ; Inspector of State Prisons- Elias Pitts, (Ed-
itor of the Poughkeepsie American) , Dutchess Co.

On Thursday evening a Public National Reform
meeting was held at the City Hall, Albany, over which
William Manning of Albany Co. presided, with John
Webster of Kings Co., as Secretary. Speeches were
made by J. S. Washburn, Theodore C. Wittenberg, D.
Ferguson, James P. Murphy, John A. Smith, and
George P. Clarke, warmly approving both Social and
Political Reform, and urging upon the friends of labor
throughout the State to cooperate with the Central Or-
ganization.

(d) NEW ENGLAND INDUSTRIAL LEAGUE

(i) The Industrial Movement.

New York Daily Tribune^ June i8, 1850, p. 3, col. 3.

The Boston Protective Union of the 15th gives the re-
port of the first meeting of the New England Industrial
League (delegates from the various callings) under its
constitution. Edward Coddington, printer, was ap-
pointed Chairman; B. S. Treanor, Secretary pro tern.
The credentials of the South Boston Machinists, Print-
ers' Union, Printers' Cooperative Company, (who pub-

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 327

lish the Protective Union, &c.) Working-men's League
of Holyoke, Boston Union of Associationists, Seam-
stresses' Cooperative Society, Cabinet Makers' Society,
&c. were received. Delegates to this league -among
others the Slaters' Union, the Boot-makers of Randolph,
Mass. -have formed a Mutual Labor Association for
the purpose of becoming their own employers. On the
7th inst. 30 journeymen of this far-famed boot-making
town subscribed $487 as a beginning for a Cooperative
Association. In Hardwick, Mass., a Cooperative Paper-
mill is to be established by the operatives themselves.
The New-England Industrial League has appointed
Messrs. Coddington, Riley and Treanor a Committee to
draw up an address to the Workingmen of New Eng-
land, and a general meeting of the various Societies com-
posing the League (beneficial and protective) will be
held on the 4th of July next in Boston, for the purpose
of adopting such measures as may then seem necessary
for the improvement and elevation of the laboring
classes, and for the purpose of declaring the indepen-
dence of Labor. The meeting of the League, will be
held every Monday evening at 22 Broomfield st. . .

(2) The Political Movement.

New York Weekly Tribune, Oct. 26, 1850, p. 6, col. 6.

The Chronotype and other Boston papers contain the
proceedings of the State Convention of the friends of
Industrial Reform, held in that city on Thursday, at
which the following resolutions were adopted :

Whereas, the present condition of Labor and the la-
boring interests of the country, clearly indicate the im-
perative necessity of some thorough and radical change
in our State and National legislation, to save the people
from Industrial, Political and Social degradation ; and
whereas, the history of the two great political parties of

328 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

the land, for at least the last 25 years, is one of assump-
tion, usurpation and treachery, whereby they have for-
feited all claim to the confidence and support of the hon-
est working classes, rendered their longer supremacy a
disgrace to the Union, and a curse to every honest and
useful interest -therefore

1. Resolved, that we call upon our fellow working-
men, throughout Massachusetts and the Union, to ab-
solve themselves from all connection with these parties,
and unite upon one common platform of Justice to La-
bor and Justice to Humanity.

2. Resolved, that our object is not so much the polit-
ical triumph of parties and men as the practical recogni-
tion of rights, through which we become men, and which
form the basis of all civil governments.

3. Resolved, that the land of this continent is the
property of the people, and ought to be held sacred from
the grasp of speculators and monopolists, and be secured
by an act of Congress for the use of actual settlers in
limited quantities, free from all cost, except the cost of
transfer.

4. Resolved, that the homestead ought in every in-
stance to be preserved against all execution and process;
the misfortune or extravagance of a father ought never
to be visited on his innocent wife and offspring.

5. Resolved, that it is the duty of every State to pro-
tect the labor of every person against the fraud of dis-
honest employers, by giving the laborer a lien on
property which he has made valuable by his labor, in
preference to all other claims against it.

6. Resolved, that as ten hours a day is allowed by all
medical authorities who have written on the subject, to
be sufficient for a man to work, a law ought to be enacted
prohibiting all Incorporated Companies from working

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 329

one set of hands more than ten hours a day, as without
such a law the wealthy employer will take advantage
of the necessities of the poor, to compel them to work
the hours he may dictate.

7. Resolved, that it is the duty, as well as the interest
of workingmen, to form Mutual or Cooperating Labor
Associations, in order to abolish, as far as they can, the
system of wages slavery, a law ought to be enacted in this
State, by which all such Associations can receive the
advantages and benefits of Incorporation, without the
trouble and expense of obtaining a special enactment.

8. Resolved, that the late Act of Congress, which con-
verts the citizens of the free States into man-catchers for
the slave owners of the South, is a gross violation of the
Constitution, an infamous usurpation, and a despotic
enactment, not binding in law or conscience on the peo-
ple, and ought to be resisted, if necessary, to death, by
every friend to our country, to humanity, and to justice.

9. Resolved, that the Land Bounty Act, which has
recently passed both Houses of Congress under the spe-
cious plea of rewarding soldiers engaged in certain wars,
is a gross and infamous swindle, got up by speculators to
traffic in the people's inheritance, and is a bare-faced
robbery, which calls for the reprobation of all honest
men.

10. Resolved, that the present unequal representation
in our State calls loudly for reform.

11. Resolved, that at the present time we deem it
inexpedient to form a separate and independent party,
but strongly recommend our brother workingmen to
question every candidate who offers himself for office,
whether in town, city, county or State, and vote for no
man who will not advocate and support the principles
contained in the preceding resolution.

330 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

The delegates met in Hancock Hall and were in ses-
sion the whole day. Appleton Fay of Worcester, pre-
sided; Messrs. W. F. Young of Lowell, and Daniel N.
Smith of South Boston, acted as Vice Presidents; and
Mr. B. F. Treanor of Boston, was Secretary.

Messrs. Young, H. P. Trask, Brown of Lynn, Smith
and Treanor were appointed a Committee to prepare
Resolutions and an Address to the Workingmen of the
Commonwealth.

Dr. Douglas of Conn, was introduced to the meeting,
and gave an interesting account of the efforts made in
previous years in the cause of Labor; he himself had at
one time published a paper devoted to the cause. He
concluded by condemning apathy among Workingmen,
and called on them to arouse themselves to their true
interests, believing sincerely that the welfare of the Re-
public depended on them.

Hon. Wooster Sprague of Vermont, called on Work-
ingmen to persevere in their efforts ; to organize as a dis-
tinct party. He had left his party because it proved
false to its principles.

Messrs. Wilmarth and Devereux of Providence,
Young of Lowell, Parkman, Trask, Treanor, Madigan,
Brown and Fay also addressed the Convention. These
gentlemen spoke warmly upon the important topics
which interest them -such as the freedom of the public
lands, the passage of a lien law, and a ten hour law,
abolition of the banking system, the iniquity of the Fugi-
tive Slave law.

The speeches were all of a nature well calculated to
adorn our halls of legislation, and truly more divested
of selfishness and chicanery than any we (the Chrono-
type) ever heard from those who squander the people's
money by one-sided legislation.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 331

The President and Secretary of this meeting were
appointed a Committee to address the several candidates
for Governor and Lieut. Governor in relation to the
sentiments of this meeting and publish their answers.

The New-England Industrial League were empow-
ered to call future meetings, and the Convention ad-
journed.

With regard to nominations they pursue the same
policy recommended for the season by the New York
and New Jersey Reformers.

Twenty organized labor Associations were represent-
ed at the Massachusetts Convention, and the Chrono-
type^ in speaking of their Delegates, says, they were men
of the right stamp, imbued with a zeal for the welfare
of the laborer, and a determination to work by all laud-
able means for the improvement of his condition.

(e) PITTSBURGH WORKINGMEN'S CONGRESS
New York Daily TribunCy April 22, 1850, p. 3, col. i.

A Convention of Delegates from several Trades at
Pittsburgh, assembled on the 15th inst. The following
branches were represented: tailors, tinners and copper-
smiths, printers, coach-makers, shoemakers (ladies'
branch), puddlers and boilers, saddle and harness mak-
ers, bootmakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, pattern makers,
watchmakers and paper-hangers. Delegates appointed
by the Workingmen of Elizabeth Borough presented
credentials and took their seats.

A Committee of 14 was appointed to prepare a plan
of organization, and another of 5 to request the cooper-
ation of other branches not yet represented in the Con-
gress. Five members were appointed a Committee to
draft a platform and resolutions, viz: Jas. T. Thom-
burgh, W. J. Marks, S. J. N. Smith, Jas. Watson and J.

332 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

Reese. In the evening an address was delivered to the
Congress by Hon. Charles Naylor, for which a vote of
thanks was unanimously adopted. The body then ad-
journed to next Saturday evening.

New York Daily Tribune^ June 25, 1850, p. 6, col. i.

Met, pursuant to adjournment, in Union Hall on
Monday evening. The President being absent, Mr.
Stewart was called to the chair. Messrs. A. Keevil, E.
Hoag, John F. Duff and R. Savory were proposed and
duly elected members of the Congress. Mr. Watson
presented the following resolutions:

Resolved, that we attribute much of the mal-adminis-
tration that has disgraced our State, and involved her in
a debt of $42,000,000, to the scandalous and pernicious
system of boring that has been openly carried on for
years at the Seat of Government; and we will vote for
no man for the Legislature who will not pledge himself
to use his utmost exertions to drive these political leeches
from our legislative halls.

Resolved, that we will support no man for public
office who may be known to have attained a nomination,
either directly or indirectly, through the influence of his
wealth.

The resolutions having been read, on motion, it was
ordered that they be the next business in order when the
subject now before the Congress should be disposed of.

The Congress proceeded to the consideration of the
resolution to form a separate political party, and Messrs.
Sprinkle, Hoag, Burtt, Watson and Sawyer addressed
the Congress on that subject. On motion, it was ordered
that the further consideration of the subject be laid over,
and that Mr. Watson's resolutions be the order of the
business for the next meeting.

The Pittsburgh Congress meets every Monday even-
ing.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 333

New York Daily Tribune^ July 8, 1850, p. 3, col. 2.

Met on the ist inst. and Messrs. John Ferral, A. Burt
and J. Nichols, Committee on a Union Store, reported
for the organizing of a cooperative public Bakery, and
the adapting of the business of the Union Store to the
sale of the products of every branch of useful industry,
for the smallest compensation that will cover the storage
and the time of the storekeeper. The report was con-
fided to the care of Mr. Ferral, to give it publicity, pre-
paratory to final action thereon, and a resolution to give
seats to a delegation from the German organization of
workingmen was adopted unanimously. Mr. Watson's
resolutions against the system of legislative boring for
special statutory enactments, and against nominations
for office, got up through the influence of wealth, were
adopted unanimously. Mr. Colvin, in his speech on the
last resolution, said that the $300 Homestead Exemption
Law had been rendered entirely nugatory by a rider to a
bill passed last session, at Harrisburg, that took away
the exemption principle, excepting only the necessary
tools for the workman to toil with. Mr. C's speech ex-
cited great surprise, and was very appropriate. . .

New York Daily Tribune, July 18, 1850, p. 3, col. 3.

Pittsburgh Workingmen's Congress - German
Branch. The Pittsburgh Evening Tribune of the loth
furnishes the following report of this powerful organ-
ization which met the previous evening in great force:
Mr. Roth, President; Mr. Wangner, V. P. ; Mr. Hange,
Rec. Sec; Mr. Hesse, Cor. Sec; and Mr. Beuerman,
Treasurer. A large amount of dues was subscribed, and
a cooperative Delegation of five members were chosen
to represent the German Congress in the "American"
branch of the Congress with which they fraternize in all
things. The Folks-Tribun, (People's Tribune) is the

334 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

title of the organ of the German Industrials. It has
upwards of 500 subscribers pledged and will be out on
the first of August. Mr. Hesse is to be principal editor.
The Pittsburgh Cabinet Makers (mostly German)
met last Wednesday, and proposed to start a Coopera-
tion Shop on a capital of $1,000. The Post gives a very
favorable report of a Union Coach factory, and says the
public properly appreciate the enterprise the Journey-
men Coach Makers have embarked in. Glad to hear it.

4. "PURE AND SIMPLE" TRADE UNIONS.
I 853- I 854

(a) CHARACTER OF THE NEW MOVEMENT

Hunfs Magazine^ April, 1853, vol. xxviii, 594.

. . . Since our last, the expenses of living have
been somewhat increased at nearly all points. The
prices of sundry articles of general consumption have, it
is true, been somewhat reduced, but most other avenues
of expenditure have been widened. Labor of all kinds
demands higher reward, and in almost every branch of
industry, organizations, combinations, and in some cases
^'strikes," have been resorted to in order to obtain the
desired advance. This system of combined demand,
although it has many able advocates, it is hardly based
upon sound principles, and as now acted upon in this
country, has been connected with exactions so manifestly
unjust, that it cannot much longer be sustained. Were
its advocates content to confine its operation simply to
demands for increased wages, the system would be more
tolerable ; but such terms are now dictated by associations
of workmen to their employers, that capitalists shrink
from enterprises requiring the employment of a large
manual force. After prescribing the rate of remuner-
ation, many of the Trades' Unions go on to enact laws
for the government of their respective departments, to
all of which the employer must assent, before he can be
allowed to proceed with his business. The result even
thus far is, that there is found no limit to this species of
encroachment. If workmen may dictate the hour and
mode of service, and the number and description of

336 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

hands to be employed, they may also regulate other items
of the business with which their labor is connected.
Thus, we find that within a few days, in the city of New
York, the long-shore-men have taken by force from their
several stations the horses and labor-saving gear used
for delivering cargoes, it being part of their regulations
not to allow of such competition ; and in some places in
the interior the new excavating machines have had to
give way before the brute force of the mob. . .

(b) AMALGAMATED TRADES' CONVENTION

New York Daily Tribune, Sept.-Oct., 1853.

Labor Demonstration -over 2,000 mechanics in
Council. [September i, p. 5, col. 2-4] A spirited and
imposing demonstration of Operatives took place last
night at Metropolitan Hall, with the general object of
strengthening the claims of Labor for its rights and fair
recompense, and especially to aid the House Painters of
the City, who for some time past have been on a strike for
higher wages.

The immense assemblange of all crafts filled the Hall,
and demonstrated the general interest which the work-
ingmen of New York feel in the success of this struggle
of their brother mechanics for the maintenance of those
rights which the employing Painters guaranteed to their
workmen during the past spring; and yet, in the month
of June attempted, in some instances did, defraud them
of. We allude to the fact that in March last, the em-
ploying Painters promised to pay their men the sum of
$2 per day up to November next, and when the seasons
became dull, would pay no more than the old rate, $1.75
per day, from which attempt this strike resulted.

The meeting was called to order by Mr. Copping, who
nominated David A. Cooke, President of the Printers'

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 337

Co-operative Union, as President. The following Vice-
presidents, as representatives of their several trades were
elected and took their seats on the stage; David A.
Cooke, J. A. Smith, Printers; J. J. Crugier, Daguerre-
otypist; H. S. Smith, Engraver; John W. Fisher, T.
Hennesy, Carpenters; Charles Buckheister, President
of the Fresco-painters' Society; W. A. Gamble, Presi-
dent of the Shoemakers' Society ; William CoUiff, Rich-
ard Diddler, Charles Kenney, Saddlers; John Swartz,
Brush-maker; James Calder, Jackson Co., Iron Rail
Maker; Matthew Delany, Gas Fitter; Richard Milner,
Plasterer; J. C. Wilson, Harness Maker; Julian L.
Martin and W. A. King, Sign Painters; P. Dunn, Pa-
per Stainer ; John Scully, Blacksmith ; James Daly, Bar-
ber ; Edmund Burgess and John Mannise, Stone Cutters ;
Wm. Merritt, House Smith; J. W. Bohn and Wm.
Ridenhure, Sash Blind Makers; Hannah & Mcllvaine,
Tailors; David G. Crosby, Silversmith; F. C. Loutrell,
President Hatters' Association; John Sheppard, Cab-
inet Maker; Pond, Jeweller; Edward Morris, Ship
Joiner; Wm. Casey, Stair Builder; James Devereaux,
Mason; E. W. Morgan, Brass Finisher; D. McDonald,
Glass Cutter; G. Davis, Chair Painter; John Byron,
Walter S. Beman, Christopher Bryan, Robert Boyce,
Fire Engine Builders; Thomas Anderson, Fire Cap
Manufacturer; B. H. Gandens, Ladies' Shoemaker;
Francis Gilmore, Hibernian U. B. Society; and oth-
ers. . .

Mr. Magagnos concluded by proposing the follow-
ing resolution, which passed unanimously: Resolved,
that all trades and societies represented here this even-
ing agree to send three delegates to a Mass Convention
of the trades of this city, to meet at Convention Hall, on
Saturday evening next, September 3, 1853; and then

bo-

338 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

and there to devise means for the purpose of forming a
General Trades' Union, to adopt more permanent meas-
ures for the protection of workingmen.

[September 14, p. 7, col. i] At 8 o'clock last even-
ing, the representatives of the various trades and trade
societies of the City met at Military Hall, Bowery, to
take measures for the amalgamation of the mechanics
and laborers of all professions into one large Union.
The minutes of the previous meeting were read and ap-
proved.

In order to receive the credentials of delegates, the
Convention was temporarily organized, and the officers
of the previous meeting- Mr. Croley as President, and
Mr. Coulson, Secretary -continued in their offices. The
following names were then handed in, and their creden-
tials received:

Pioneer Temple No. i. House Carpenters' Protective
Association -Messrs. Havilah M. Smith, Patrick Hen-
nessy, and Benjamin Price; Silver Knife Makers' Asso-
ciation-David G. Croley, Isaac Blanvelt, and Henry
J. Dixon; Operative House Carpenters -Wm. J. Mas-
terton, and Ambrose Blake; New York Saddle and
Harness Makers' Association -John M. Walsh, Hart
R. Sherriff, and Wm. Pollock; Ship Joiners' Union -
Edward Morris, John A. Lawrence, and Charles Borst;
Practical House Painters' Benefit and Protective Asso-
ciation-John Camion, John English, and Stewart Ban-
non; Practical House Painters' Protective Union -Jo-
seph Rogers, John Saunders, David Baillie; Printers'
Co-operative Union -K. A. Bailey, Wm. Moore, D. A.
Cooke; Riggers' Union Association -Thos. Blair and
Samuel Weeks. . .

The Committee on the Basis of Representation pre-
sented the following report:

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 339

1. Every Trade Association shall have the privilege
of sending three delegates ; the said society to be a known
organized body, and the said delegates to be journey-
men working at the trade.

2. Every shop having employed twenty, and less than
one hundred men, shall have one delegate.

3. All shops having one hundred, and less than two
hundred, shall have two delegates.

4. All shops having two hundred or more men em-
ployed shall have three delegates.

5. All shops, before sending their delegates, shall pub-
lish in one or more of the City papers the proceedings of
their meetings when appointing delegates. Respect-
fully submitted, JULIAN A. Magagnos, Chairman.

These regulations were taken up singly and discussed.

Mr. Price moved the substitution of the term Work-
ingmen's instead of "Trades' Association." Mr. Mag-
agnos thought the change was uncalled for, and support-
ed his position in a speech of considerable length. Mr.
C. A. Bailey, of the Printers' Cooperative Union, did
not think the Committee was competent to say what man
or men should be appointed as delegates, by any society.
No matter if the delegate be a lawyer, so long as the
society which appoints him as a delegate, be satisfied
that he can represent their interests in this Convention.

Mr. Doyle did not wish to hold his position as a dele-
gate in the Convention, if other than mechanics and
laborers be admitted as delegates. He would move to
amend the first rule by substituting the following: All
organized bodies of laboring men shall be entitled to a
representation in this Convention, the delegate being a
workingman, and a member of the body which he rep-
resents.

Mr. W. J. Masterton, of the Carpenters, seconded the

340 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

amendment, and hoped that business would be proceed-
ed with rather than unnecessary discussion.

Mr. Croley, of the Silver Knife makers, thought pro-
fessional men should be excluded altogether. It has
been a too common practice among workingmen to ad-
mit wirepullers, and such designing persons, as would
make these Workingmen's Association mere tools for
the furtherance of their own personal or party interest.

Mr. Price again spoke in defence of his amendment.

Mr. Mathers moved that the phrase "Workingman's"
be struck out from Mr. Doyle's amendment. Lost.

The question on Mr. Doyle's amendment was then
unanimously carried.

On the second rule, Mr. Reardon, from the Masons,
was opposed to the idea of any body of operatives being
represented in the Convention, unless as members of
some organized body of men, or Society.

Mr. Magagnos explained that the rule was designed
to take in all mechanics -the minority only, as a general
rule, being members of an organized body.

Mr. Reardon thought the adoption of such a rule as
the one under discussion, would be eminently produc-
tive of evil, and completely subversive of the principles
the Convention sought to carry into effect.

Mr. Masterton indorsed the sentiments of Mr. Rear-
don.

Mr. Magagnos reiterated his reasons.

Mr. Price thought that a man who would not join an
organization of his trade, would be unworthy of being
represented in the Convention.

Mr. Bulger, of the masons, was of the same opinion,
and supported it at considerable length.

Mr. Magagnos moved that the matter under debate
be laid on the table until the Convention be organized.
Carried.

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 341

Mr. Bailey, from the Printers, proposed that each
delegate, on taking his seat, shall pay into the treasury
the sum of one dollar.

Mr. Magagnos seconded the motion. Carried.

After a collection to defray expenses, the Convention
adjourned to Tuesday evening next.

[September 21, p. 7, col. i] . . . The delegates
present subscribed $5 to meet the expenses. Creden-
tials from the following societies were then received:

Men's Branch of the Journeymen Boot and Shoe-
makers' Society- Chas. McCarty and Felix O'Neil;
Ladies' Shoemakers' Union -B. St. Ganden, Wm. AU-
wright, Jas. Dooley ; Hat Finishers' Trade Association -
Geo. W. Weed; New York Practical House Painters'
Benefit and Protective Association -D. C. Wendell, Jas.
Galway, as substitutes for former delegates. . .

Remarks were then made by several delegates, who
advised that a Constitution be drawn up, discarding all
pretensions to political action, and publishing the same
to the world.

Mr. Cowton proposed the following : Resolved, that
this Labor Convention is and shall be solely a Social
organization, for the protection and elevation of Manual
Labor; and that we will use all such means as future
experience may show to be most expedient, for the ac-
complishment of the above object.

After some little discussion, the resolution was car-
ried, and the Convention adjourned to such time and
place as the Committee may announce.

[September 28, p. 5, col. i] This body met last night
at Keene's Hotel, corner of Grand and Elizabeth-sts.
David G. Croly was called to the Chair. John A. Law-
rence, the Secretary, read the minutes of the last meet-
ing, and called over the list of Delegates, when those
from the following trades answered: Ladies' Shoe-

342 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

makers, Ship Joiners' Union, Silver Knife Makers,
Cordwain Boot and Shoe Makers, Hatters, Tallow
Chandlers, Practical House Painters' Benevolent So-
ciety, Printers' Union, and Tailors' Protective Socie-
ty. . .

The Secretary read the report of the Business Com-
mittee, which recommended that three from each So-
ciety should be considered as the basis of representation
from each Society, and that workingmen of all descrip-
tions of business be requested to meet and send Dele-
gates, and that no Delegates should be received from
Benevolent or Secret Societies. The report stated that
the Committee had not time to draw up an address to
the trades of the City, but would have it prepared by
next night of meeting. One or two of the Delegates
objected to the resolution, which would exclude secret
and benevolent societies, as there were then Delegates
in the room from such Societies in the body. This re-
port was laid on the table for the purpose of appointing
a committee to draw up a constitution and by-laws. . .

Mr. K. Arthur Baily replied to Mr. Doyle and said,
a Constitution was necessary, for as yet men were not
sufficiently enlightened to act in combination without
some rule to govern them ; nor did he think that even the
gentleman himself, who proposed that mode of govern-
ment, could well do without some restraint. The
workingmen were their own tyrants, for if Republican
doctrine was true, the majority govern and the idlers
were certainly not the majority, and yet they govern-
ed. . .

Mr. Mathers considered the course just pursued by
the gentleman was the strongest proof that could be of
the necessity for the adoption of a constitution to govern
the body, as he rose to make a motion and then took occa-
sion to make sarcastic remarks on the press. This was

eight] LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 343

making one motion and speaking to another. He was
against receiving delegates from shops. Let them or-
ganize the trade to which they belonged if they desired
to be represented in the body. Several members spoke
on this question.

A resolution was moved by Mr. Galway that the
thanks of the meeting should be given to the Press, and
considered that the constant snarling at the Press and
Reporters, pursued by some of the members of the Con-
vention, was very unbecoming.

Mr. Baily said he did not consider the Press would
thank the body for a stereotyped resolution, but he be-
lieved that a resolution to state that the room was free
to the Press, and that they would be admitted to be pres-
ent at their proceedings, would be acceptable. This
would be of some utility to them, as they really did not
know whether they were welcome or not, as yet. . .

Mr. Cowton moved that all shops numbering twenty
be allowed to send a delegate to the Convention, until a
Constitution be adopted. This resolution was lost. . .

New York Daily Tribune^ May 16, 1854, p. 5, col. 4.

A State Convention of the Journeymen and Employ-
ing Cigar-makers has been in session in this city for two
days past, composed of Delegates from Albany, Troy,
Rochester, Auburn, Watertown, Rome, Elmira, Ithaca
and Syracuse, who assembled for the purpose of agree-
ing upon a scale of prices. The Convention tempor-
arily organized yesterday by the election of Edward
B. Van Cott of Albany as Chairman. In the afternoon
the Committee on Organization submitted the follow-
ing report, which was adopted:

President -]ohvi G. Woodruff, Troy; Vice-presi-

344 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY [Vol.

dents-Fctcr Doyle, Utica; John O'Brien, Auburn;
Chauncey C. Smith, Syracuse; Secretaries -Theodore
Fitzgerald and Peter Lee of Syracuse.

The Committee on Credentials reported a list of dele-
gates, comprising 38 names, as follows: from Syracuse,
20; Utica, 6; Albany, 3 ; Auburn, 3 ; Rochester, 2 ; Troy,
I ; Watertown, i ; Ithaca, i ; Corning, i.

Action was taken on the employment of apprentices,
discouraging the employment of runaways, and requir-
ing them to serve out their time. Four years was fixed
on as the time for learning the trade.

This afternoon Mr. Woodruff presented an address
and series of resolutions, which were unanimously adopt-
ed, and ordered to be communicated to our Senators and
Representatives in Congress, urging upon our National
Legislature, "in behalf of the trade, to impose a specific
duty of $.40 per pound on all cigars imported to this
country," and pledging their political support to those
candidates for Congress who favor the levying of this
duty.

Mr. Pierce being called for, presented the following
statistics of the tobacco culture: In Ohio are raised
10,000,000 lbs., one-fifth of what is produced in Ken-
tucky; in New York 83,000 lbs. ; in Pennsylvania 60,000
lbs.; in Connecticut and Massachusetts from 1,000,000
to 3,000,000 lbs.; in Florida 800,000 lbs. Few of the
southern States raised tobacco for cigars -Florida only.
If Nebraska became a slave region, the negroes, who
live in uncarpeted houses, on plain fare, and are at no
expense for watches and schooling, would cultivate the
article, and so produce a ruinous competition with free
laborers. Mr. P. urged this at length and to acceptance.

eight]

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS

345

The following scale of prices was adopted to go into
force the 29th inst. :

Regalias, clear Spanish, per thousand , . . $10.00

Half Regalias, clear Spanish .... 7.50

Seed and Spanish Regalias .... 8.00

Seed and Spanish Half Regalias, 5% inch . . . 6.50

Spanish La Normas, 5 inch long, 25, 13% box . . 5.50

Spanish La Indas, 5 inch long .... 5.50

Spanish La Normas, 5 inch long, 25, 13^ box . . 5.50

Seed and Spanish La Indas, 5 inch long . . . 5.00

Clear Seed La Normas, 5 inch long . . . 5.00

Clear Seed La Indas, 5 inch long .... 5. 00

Florida and Spanish La Normas, 5 inch long . . 5.00

Florida and Spanish La Indas, 5 inch long . . 5.00

Spanish Plantation, 6 inch long .... 7.00

Seed and Spanish Plantations, 6 inch long . . 6.50

Spanish Londons, 4.^ inch long .... 5.50

Clear Seed Principe, 4.% inch long . . . 4.50

Principes, all old fashion Cubas, 4.% inch long . , . 5.00

Principes, Seed and Spanish, 4.]^, inch long . . 4.50

Spanish Congressors, 6 inch long .... 7.00

Seed and Spanish Congressors, 6 inch long . . . 6.50

Spanish Jenny Linds, from 5 to 53^ to 5^ inch long . 6.00
Seed and Spanish Jenny Linds, from 5 to 5^ to 5^ inch long 5.50

Londons, Seed and Spanish, 4% inch long . . 5.00

Spanish Panatellas, 5I/2 inch long . . . 6.00

Seed and Spanish Panatellas, 5^^ inch long . . 5.50

Spanish Panatellas, from 5 to 5^4 inch long . . 5.50

Seed and Spanish Panatellas, from 5 to 5^4 inch long . 5.00

Spanish Cazidoras, 5% inch long .... 6.00

Seed and Spanish Cazidoras, 5^ inch long . . 5.50

Spanish Californians, from 4% to 4^ inch long . . 5.00

Seed and Spanish Californians, from 4% to 4^ inch long . 4.50

Spanish Ponies, from 4 to 4^ inch long . . . 4.50
All Scrap Cigars $.50 advance.

On motion of Mr. Pierce of Utica, it was
Resolved, that it is for the interest of the Cigar-mak-
ers and manufacturers to support the principles of the
Protective-tariff.

346 AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

Mr. John G. Woodruff, the President of the Conven-
tion, was elected as a Delegate to the National Indus-
trial Congress, to be held at Trenton, N.J., in June, and
on motion of Mr. Hofle of Ithaca, his expenses were
paid by the Convention.

After passing various resolutions of thanks to the offi-
cers and others, the Convention was closed by some elo-
quent and pertinent remarks from Messrs. Woodruff
and Pierce, on the cause of labor generally, and in favor
of rebuking the Democracy for its transfer to Slavery
by its leaders, and for the advantage given by a Demo-
cratic Congress by the Tariff of 1846 to foreign and
pauperized labor.

The following members were appointed a State Cen-
tral Committee: John G. Woodruff of Troy; Walter
B. Pierce of Utica; Geo. W. Keisinger of Syracuse;
William H. Lisk of New York; Charles Hofle of Itha-
ca; John O'Brien of Auburn; James H. Patterson of
Rochester.

Mr. Woodruff offered the following, which was
adopted :

Resolved, that the trade of Connecticut, Massachu-
setts, and such other places as could make it consistent
are invited to cooperate with us in the action of this
Convention.

Adjourned, sine die.

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