the same period in 1833. These were but typical instances of a general condition which bore heavily on the banks, the manufacturers, the merchants, and the workingmen. It was better that wages be low and many have work, than be high and few find employment. The workingmen, however, thought otherwise, and the old agitation for shorter hours, better pay, and combined action went on with renewed energy. In October of 1833 committees of the various trade organizations in Philadelphia were appointed to confer on the ills of labor. In Boston, in January 1834, steps were taken to form a trades union of mechanics, and in March, in each of these cities a General Trades Union was formed, a constitution adopted, and officers elected. At Lowell in February the girls in the factories turned out to prevent a reduction of wages; but others from the country filled their places and the attempt failed. . . . ... ... Striking cabinet-makers in New York became so enraged at the importation of French furniture that a band of them entered an auction room where some was for sale, and destroyed bureaus, sofas, and tables to the value of a thousand dollars. . . . Coalheavers on the Schuylkill wharves in Philadelphia struck for a laboring day from six in the morning to six in the evening, with an hour for breakfast and another for dinner; assaulted those who would not join them, and raised a riot the mayor found it difficult to put down. ... The seamstresses, who made shirts and pantaloons, now appealed to the public and stated their grievances. For sewing shirts they were paid eight, ten, or twelve and a half cents each. By working from six in the morning till nine at night they could make nine in the course of a week; thus earning seventy-two, ninety, or a hundred and twelve per week. Carpenters were paid a dollar and a quarter for ten hours' work and masons a dollar and three quarters for ten hours of labor. That women should be given less for a week's work than carpenters and masons for one day's work was cruel and unjust. cents After a series of meetings in Independence Square, and a street parade, the carpenters adopted a report of a committee demanding a six to six day; divided the city into three districts with a committee for each to watch the shops, and petition councils to adopt the ten-hour system for all city work.. Catching the movement of the day, the plumbers and wo sawyers struck for higher pay, gangs of tipsy seamen para the streets with a banner inscribed: Eighteen dollars a mo and small stores [grog] or death!"; the tailoresses, seamstres binders, folders, and stockworkers demanded more wages, the block and pump makers, in a card, thanked their employ for accepting the ten-hour day without a struggle. . . . Members of the Philadelphia Trades Union met in Indep ence Square, heard speeches by labor leaders from New Engl approved the stand taken by the Boston house-wrights for a hour day, and were urged to give up some luxury, as toba and contribute twenty-five cents a week for the support of Boston strikers. . . . The following extracts from contemporaneous docum comprise (a) an appeal for the striking bakers in New Y (b) the call for a convention to organize a general tr union in Boston, and (c) a communication on child 1: from many operatives" in the Philadelphia factorie (a) STRIKE OF THE JOURNEYMEN BAKERS TO THE PUBLIC: the undersigned Committee, appointe the general Trades' Union, having now before them a we tested statement of facts which sufficiently prove that the dition of the Journeymen Bakers in this city has been for time in reality much worse than that of the southern sl submit for the inspection of the public a few instances from a very long list. 1st. Three men and a boy have had to bake 60 barrel week, have had to labor 115 hours each week (doing six 1 work) and have received about 50 cents per barrel. 2nd. Four men have had to bake 54 barrels per week, had to labor about 112 hours each week (doing nearly six work) and have received about 60 cents per barrel. . . . The above facts undoubtedly prove all that we have asserted, and now we call upon the public to know whether those employers who persist in requiring from their men much more than their nature can long bear, viz. : from 18 to 20 hours labor out of the 24- are to be sustained in their demands, or whether they will not assist the oppressed Journeymen in their present attempt to procure a fair equivalent for their labor. We have also to state that the General Trades' Union have resolved to support the Journeymen Bakers in their present course, and are determined by all just and honorable means, to raise them if possible to a fair standing among the other mechanics of the city. In conclusion, we respectfully suggest, that the public in general can in no way more effectually support our cause, than by bestowing their patronage on those employers who have nobly agreed to give the wages required.1 In order to accomplish this end, we give below a list of those employers, as far as we have ascertained, and shall continue to do so from day to day, until all difficulties are adjusted. William Hewitt, and others, Committee of the New York, June 10, 1834 (b) TRADES UNION OF BOSTON AND VICINITY FELLOW CITIZENS: At a meeting of the workingmen of this city, holden at the old Common Council Room, Court Square, School Street, January 21, 1834, the subject of Trades' Unions came before the meeting. After many interesting remarks, a Committee was appointed to take such measures as they should deem expedient to effect the formation of a General Trades' Union of the mechanics of this city and vicinity. The Committee thus appointed assembled at Bascom's Hotel, Schoolstreet, on the evening of January 28th ult. They took the 1 A list of twenty-three such employers followed. The terms demanded by the three hundred members of the Bakers' Trade Union were a dollar per barrel with an average of nine barrels a week for each man, and no work on Sunday before 8 o'clock in the evening. subject into deep and serious consideration, which resulted in a vote to issue a Circular to the Mechanics of Boston and vicinity, in order to lay before them the nature and design of the proposed Union of Trades. The several trades were generally represented in the committee.1 Judging by past experience, and close observation of causes and effects, which act in reducing the Working Class in all countries to a situation far from enviable, your Committee deem it of the very highest moment, that something should be done to improve the condition of the mechanics of our city and vicinity, which will prevent the fatal results which have followed the adoption of a cruel and heartless policy towards the Mechanics of Europe.... The cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, have adopted this method of concentrated action [in trade-unions] to the satisfaction of all concerned. Since the formation of Trades' Unions in those cities, we hear nothing of difficulties and dissentions between employers and employed, which in all cases produce dissatisfaction, discontent, and distress; but employers and employed seem to be harmoniously united for the mutual benefit of both, which ought always to be the case. If there are a few in those cities more avaricious than others, who wish to oppress their fellow men to aggrandize themselves, the good sense and humanity of the greater number of honest employers forbid the attempt, which, if made under the present circumstances growing out of Trades' Unions would inevitably result in total failure. . . . It would be impossible to give a detail of all the advantages of such a Union of the Trades, but one advantage will be apparent to you all at first sight. Such a Union will produce a friction of mind, and no doubt that sparks of intellectual fire will be thus elicited, which will electrify, enlighten, and warm the whole body. . . . The Committee earnestly recommend that the Mechanics of the towns in the vicinity of Boston would send delegates to the 1 In the convention which met March 6, in response to this call, there were delegates representing curriers, cabinetmakers, tailors, masons, coopers, shipwrights, painters, ropemakers, iron founders, printers, carpenters, sailmakers, pianomakers, and machinists. proposed Convention, furnished with the proper credentials.... Those trades which have societies already formed are requested to take measures to be represented in the Convention. All of which is respectfully submitted by the Committee Boston, Feb. 11, 1834 (c) CHILDREN IN THE PHILADELPHIA FACTORIES In looking over one of your late numbers [of the Mechanics' Free Press] I was rejoiced to find that some friend has noticed the sufferings of people employed in our manufactories; particularly in that of cotton. It is a well known fact, that the principal part of the helps in cotton factories consist of boys. and girls, we may safely say from six to seventeen years of age, and are confined to steady employment during the longest days in the year, from daylight until dark, allowing at the outside. one hour and a half per day. In consequence of this close confinement, it renders it entirely impossible for the parents of such children to obtain for them any education or knowledge, save that of working that machine, which they are compelled to work, and that too with a small sum, that is hardly sufficient to support nature, while they on the other hand are rolling in wealth, of[f] the vitals of these poor children every day. We noticed the observation of our Pawtucket friend in your number of June 19, 1830, lamenting the grievances of the children employed in those factories. We think his observations very correct, with regard to their being brought up as ignorant as Arabs of the Desert; for we are confident that not more than one-sixth of the boys and girls employed in such factories are capable of reading or writing their own name. We have known many instances where parents who are capable of giving their children a trifling education one at a time, deprived of that opportunity by their employer's threats, that if they did take one child from their employ, (a short time for school,) such family must leave the employment and we have even known these threats put in execution. Now, as our friend observes, we may establish schools and academies, and devise every means for the instruction |