A History of Trade Unionism in the United States

A History of Trade Unionism in
the United
by Selig Perlman

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Title: A History of Trade Unionism in the United States
Author: Selig Perlman
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Language: English
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EDITED BY RICHARD T. ELY

A HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONISM IN THE UNITED STATES
BY
SELIG PERLMAN, PH.D.
Assistant Professor of Economics in the University of Wisconsin;
Co-author of the History of Labour in the United States
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1922
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. October, 1922.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE
The present History of Trade Unionism in the United States is in part a
summary of work in labor history by Professor John R. Commons and
collaborators at the University of Wisconsin from 1904 to 1918, and in
part an attempt by the author to carry the work further.
Part I of the
present book is based on the History of Labour in the United States by
Commons and Associates (Introduction: John R. Commons; Colonial
and Federal Beginnings, to 1827: David J. Saposs; Citizenship,

1827-1833: Helen L. Summer; Trade Unionism, 1833-1839: Edward B.
Mittelman; Humanitarianism, 1840-1860: Henry E. Hoagland;
Nationalization, 1860-1877: John B. Andrews; and Upheaval and
Reorganization, 1876-1896: by the present author), published by the
Macmillan Company in 1918 in two volumes.

Part II, "The Larger Career of Unionism,"
brings the story from 1897
down to date; and
Part III, "Conclusions and Inferences," is an
attempt
to bring together several of the general ideas suggested by the History.
Chapter 12
, entitled "An Economic Interpretation," follows the line of analysis
laid down by Professor Commons in his study of the American
shoemakers, 1648-1895.[1]
The author wishes to express his strong gratitude to Professors Richard
T. Ely and John R. Commons for their kind aid at every stage of this
work. He also wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. Edwin E.
Witte, Director of the Wisconsin State Legislative Reference Library,
upon whose extensive and still unpublished researches he based his
summary of the history of the injunction; and to Professor Frederick L.
Paxson, who subjected the manuscript to criticism from the point of
view of General American History.
S.P.
FOOTNOTE:

[1] See his Labor and Administration, Chapter XIV (Macmillan, 1913).

CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v

PART I. THE STRUGGLE FOR
SURVIVAL

CHAPTER
1
LABOR MOVEMENTS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR
(1) Early Beginnings, to 1827 8 (2) Equal Citizenship, 1827-1832 9 (3)
The Period of the "Wild-Cat" Prosperity, 1833-1837 18 (4) The Long
Depression, 1837-1862 29
2 THE "GREENBACK" PERIOD, 1862-1879 42
3 THE BEGINNING OF THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR AND OF THE
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR 68
4 REVIVAL AND UPHEAVAL, 1879-1887 81
5 THE VICTORY OF CRAFT UNIONISM AND THE FINAL
FAILURE OF PRODUCERS' COOPERATION 106
6 STABILIZATION, 1888-1897 130

7 TRADE UNIONISM AND THE COURTS 146

PART II. THE LARGER CAREER OF
UNIONISM
8 PARTIAL RECOGNITION AND NEW DIFFICULTIES, 1898-1914
163
(1) The Miners 167 (2) The Railway Men 180 (3) The Machinery and
Metal Trades 186 (4) The Employers' Reaction 190 (5) Legislation,
Courts, and Politics 198
9 RADICAL UNIONISM AND A "COUNTER-REFORMATION"
208
10 THE WAR-TIME BALANCE SHEET 226
11 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 245

PART III. CONCLUSIONS AND
INFERENCES
12 AN ECONOMIC INTERPRETATION 265
13 THE IDEALISTIC FACTOR 279
14 WHY THERE IS NOT AN AMERICAN LABOR PARTY 285
15 THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT AND TRADE
UNIONISM 295
BIBLIOGRAPHY 307

PART I
THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONISM IN THE U.S.
CHAPTER 1
LABOR MOVEMENTS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR
(1) Early Beginnings, to 1827
The customary chronology records the first American labor strike in
1741. In that year the New York bakers went out on strike. A closer
analysis discloses, however, that this outbreak was a protest of master
bakers against a municipal regulation of the price of bread, not a wage
earners' strike against employers. The earliest genuine labor strike in
America occurred, as far as known, in 1786, when the Philadelphia
printers "turned out" for a minimum wage of six dollars a week. The
second strike on record was in 1791 by Philadelphia house carpenters
for the ten-hour day. The Baltimore sailors were successful in
advancing their wages