The Armies of Labor | Page 9

pay from seven shillings sixpence
the job to eight shillings ninepence and "extras." At the same time the
pay of unskilled labor was rising rapidly, for workers were scarce
owing to the call of the merchant marine in those years of the rising
splendor of the American sailing ship, and the lure of western lands.
The wages of common laborers rose to a dollar and more a day.
There occurred in 1805 an important strike of the Philadelphia
cordwainers. Theirs was one of the oldest labor organizations in the
country, and it had conducted several successful strikes. This particular
occasion, however, is significant, because the strikers were tried for
conspiracy in the mayor's court, with the result that they were found
guilty and fined eight dollars each, with costs. As the court permitted
both sides to tell their story in detail, a full report of the proceedings
survives to give us, as it were, a photograph of the labor conditions of
that time. The trial kindled a great deal of local animosity. A newspaper
called the Aurora contained inflammatory accounts of the proceedings,
and a pamphlet giving the records of the court was widely circulated.
This pamphlet bore the significant legend, "It is better that the law be
known and certain, than that it be right," and was dedicated to the
Governor and General Assembly "with the hope of attracting their
particular attention, at the next meeting of the legislature."
Another early instance of a strike occurred in New York City in 1809,
when the cordwainers struck for higher wages and were hauled before
the mayor's court on the charge of conspiracy. The trial was postponed
by Mayor DeWitt Clinton until after the pending municipal elections to
avoid the risk of offending either side. When at length the strikers were
brought to trial, the court-house was crowded with spectators, showing
how keen was the public interest in the case. The jury's verdict of

"guilty," and the imposition of a fine of one dollar each and costs upon
the defendants served but as a stimulus to the friends of the strikers to
gather in a great mass meeting and protest against the verdict and the
law that made it possible.
In 1821 the New York Typographical Society, which had been
organized four years earlier by Peter Force, a labor leader of unusual
energy, set a precedent for the vigorous and fearless career of its
modern successor by calling a strike in the printing office of Thurlow
Weed, the powerful politician, himself a member of the society,
because he employed a "rat," as a nonunion worker was called. It
should be noted, however, that the organizations of this early period
were of a loose structure and scarcely comparable to the labor unions of
today.
Sidney Smith, the brilliant contributor to the "Edinburgh Review,"
propounded in 1820 certain questions which sum up the general
conditions of American industry and art after nearly a half century of
independence: "In the four quarters of the globe," he asked, "who reads
an American book? or goes to an American play? or looks at an
American picture or statue? What does the world yet owe to American
physicians or surgeons? What new substances have their chemists
discovered? or what old ones have they analyzed? What new
constellations have been discovered by the telescopes of Americans?
What have they done in mathematics? Who drinks out of American
glasses? or eats from American plates? or wears American coats or
gowns? or sleeps in American blankets?"
These questions, which were quite pertinent, though conceived in an
impertinent spirit, were being answered in America even while the
witty Englishman was framing them. The water power of New England
was being harnessed to cotton mills, woolen mills, and tanneries.
Massachusetts in 1820 reported one hundred and sixty-one factories.
New York had begun that marvelous growth which made the city, in
the course of a few decades, the financial capital of a hemisphere. So
rapidly were people flocking to New York, that houses had tenants long
before they had windows and doors, and streets were lined with

buildings before they had sewers, sidewalks, or pavements. New Jersey
had well under way those manufactories of glassware, porcelains,
carpets, and textiles which have since brought her great prosperity.
Philadelphia was the country's greatest weaving center, boasting four
thousand craftsmen engaged in that industry. Even on the frontier,
Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were emerging from "settlements" into
manufacturing towns of importance. McMaster concludes his graphic
summary of these years as follows: "In 1820 it was estimated that
200,000 persons and a capital of $75,000,000 were employed in
manufacturing. In 1825 the capital used had been expanded to
$160,000,000 and the number of workers to 2,000,000."*
* History of the People of the United States (1901), vol. V, p. 230.