A History of Trade Unionism in the United States | Page 7

and the labor party
gained the balance of power in the city. But the inexperience of the
labor politicians coupled with machinations on the part of "designing
men" of both older parties soon lost the labor parties their advantage. In
New York Tammany made the demand for a mechanics' lien law its
own and later saw that it became enacted into law. In New York, also,
the situation became complicated by factional strife between the
Skidmorian "agrarians," the Owenite state guardianship faction, and a
third faction which eschewed either "panacea." Then, too, the
opposition parties and press seized upon agrarianism and Owen's
alleged atheism to brand the whole labor movement. The labor party
was decidedly unfortunate in its choice of intellectuals and
"ideologists."
It would be, however, a mistake to conclude that the Philadelphia, New
York, or New England political movements were totally without results.
Though unsuccessful in electing their candidates to office, they did
succeed in placing their demands to advantage before the public.

Humanitarians, like Horace Mann, took up independently the fight for
free public education and carried it to success. In Pennsylvania, public
schools, free from the taint of charity, date since 1836. In New York
City the public school system was established in 1832. The same is true
of the demand for a mechanics' lien law, of the abolition of
imprisonment for debt, and of others.
(3) The Period of the "Wild-cat" Prosperity, 1833-1837
With the break-up of the workingmen's parties, labor's newly acquired
sense of solidarity was temporarily lost, leaving only the restricted
solidarity of the isolated trade society. Within that limit, however,
important progress began to be made. In 1833, there were in New York
twenty-nine organized trades; in Philadelphia, twenty-one; and in
Baltimore, seventeen. Among those organized in Philadelphia were
hand-loom weavers, plasterers, bricklayers, black and white smiths,
cigar makers, plumbers, and women workers including tailoresses,
seamstresses, binders, folders, milliners, corset makers, and mantua
workers. Several trades, such as the printers and tailors in New York
and the Philadelphia carpenters, which formerly were organized upon
the benevolent basis, were now reorganized as trade societies. The
benevolent New York Typographical Society was reduced to secondary
importance by the appearance in 1831 of the New York Typographical
Association.
But the factor that compelled labor to organize on a much larger scale
was the remarkable rise in prices from 1835 to 1837. This rise in prices
was coincident with the "wild-cat" prosperity, which followed a rapid
multiplication of state banks with the right of issue of paper
currency--largely irredeemable "wild-cat" currency. Cost of living
having doubled, the subject of wages became a burning issue. At the
same time the general business prosperity rendered demands for higher
wages easily attainable. The outcome was a luxuriant growth of trade
unionism.
In 1836 there were in Philadelphia fifty-eight trade unions; in Newark,
New Jersey, sixteen; in New York, fifty-two; in Pittsburgh, thirteen; in
Cincinnati, fourteen; and in Louisville, seven. In Buffalo the

journeymen builders' association included all the building trades. The
tailors of Louisville, Cincinnati, and St. Louis made a concentrated
effort against their employers in these three cities.
The wave of organization reached at last the women workers. In 1830
the well-known Philadelphia philanthropist, Mathew Carey, asserted
that there were in the cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and
Baltimore about 20,000 women who could not by constant employment
for sixteen hours out of twenty-four earn more than $1.25 a week.
These were mostly seamstresses and tailoresses, umbrella makers, shoe
binders, cigar makers, and book binders. In New York there was in
1835 a Female Union Association, in Baltimore a United Seamstresses'
Society, and in Philadelphia probably the first federation of women
workers in this country. In Lynn, Massachusetts, a "Female Society of
Lynn and Vicinity for the Protection and Promotion of Female
Industry" operated during 1833 and 1834 among the shoe binders and
had at one time 1000 members, who, like the seamstresses, were home
workers and earned scanty wages.
Where nearly every trade was in motion, it did not take long to discover
a common direction and a common purpose. This was expressed in city
"trades' unions," or federations of all organized trades in a city, and in
its ascendency over the individual trade societies.
The first trades' union was organized August 14, 1833, in New York.
Baltimore followed in September, Philadelphia in November, and
Boston in March 1834. New York after 1820 was the metropolis of the
country and also the largest industrial and commercial center. There the
house carpenters had struck for higher wages in the latter part of May
1833, and fifteen other trades met and pledged their support. Out of this
grew the New York Trades' Union. It had an official organ in a weekly,
the National Trades' Union, published from 1834 to 1836,