A good cigar is a smoke--and a cigar-maker was one of the founding fathers of American labor
The Molly Maguires are ever so much more glamorous than Samuel Gompers and the cigar makers, but the cigar makers, odd as it may seem now, are possily more important than the Mollies in the history of American labor. The reason for this lies in the career of Samuel Gompers.
Samuel Gompers was born in London in 1850 (his family had immigrated there from Amsterdam, and in the early 1860s moved on to New York); he left school and started work as an apprentice cigar maker when he was 10, and continued to work with his father in that trade once they came to the US. At that time, the cigar-making industry was undergoing a period of consolidation as the result of government regulation; the need for increased revenue during the American Civil war led to a tax on cigars, and a system of permits for cigar makers. Originally, cigar makers were able to work anywhere they chose, and often worked from their homes; after the permit system began, cigars had to be made on the premises of a bonded manufacturer. Workers who had purchased tobacco, worked where they pleased, and were paid when they turned in their finished product had to start working out of a shop. While this system had its drawbacks, it had advantages as well; like many people who are expert in performing hand work, the cigar makers had plenty of attention to spare for conversation while they worked; it was common for a group of cigar makers to have someone read aloud to them while they worked, and Gompers acquired a good bit of his education this way. He also took advantage of free lectures at Cooper Union, and attended political meetings and took part in debates with his friends,
The cigar makers were organized into what is called a craft union--a union designed to represent workers who had a specific set of skills. Among the other issues the cigar makers faced was the continual importation of new, cheaper labor, and throughout the 1870s and 1880s, the growth of industrialization in the field, as molds designed for use by unskilled workers were developed to replace the careful hand-rolling they were accustomed to.
Gompers became involved in his local union, and rose to prominence in the nationwide union.
At that time, the most important workingman's group in the US was the Knights of Labor--a group which started as a benevolent association, and gradually began to take on the characteristics of a nationwide confederation of local unions, somewhat to the surprise of some of its leaders, who were inclined to prefer cooperation with employers to such things as strikes and protests. During the 1870s and 1880s, annoyance with such attitudes increased among the various craft unions, many of whom wanted to see more organization and stronger leadership that was prepared to take a more oppositional stance to management. (To be fair to the Knights of Labor, they were dealing with a rapidly-changing situation, as the development of American industry after the Civil War produced a working environment radically different from what had come before, with small groups of workers dealing with a small business.)
Accordingly, in the early 1880s, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU) was formed. At their conference in Pittsburgh in November 1881, the FOTLU adopted a platform which was to set the terms for much of the work of American labor unions for the next fifty or sixty years. Its preamble declared: "A struggle is going on in the nations of the civilized world between the oppressors and the oppressed...a struggle between capital and labor, which must grow in intensity from year to year and work disastrous results to the toiling millions of all nations..."
The basics of the platform were:
1. The legal incorporation of unions
2. Compulsory education of children
3. Prohibition of child labor under the age of 14
4. Apprenticeship laws
5. Establishment of an eight-hour work day
6. Repeal of state conspiracy laws which did not provide a safe harbor for labor unions
7. Establishment of a federal agency to collect labor statistics
8. Abolition of convict labor
9. Prohibition of the importation of foreign workers
10. Federal legislation requiring ventilation and inspection of mines
11. Support for Irish liberation
12. Legislation making employers responsible for industrial accidents
13. A high protective tariff
It is amazing how much of this list represents things we take for granted*, 130 years later, but at the time, many of these items must have seemed like impossible goals.
Gompers played a leading role in the FTOLU, which broke up in 1886, to promptly be replaced by the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which continues to this day as the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations). The work of the AFL in forwarding the cause of the labor movement and supporting its member organizations has been crucial for most of the successes of the American labor movement. The AFL had many shortcomings. It stressed craft unions over industrial unions; it was slow to welcome women and African-Americans into its ranks, and it was implacably hostile to Chinese workers for a very long time indeed. The Knights of Labor were similarly hostile to Chinese workers, but saw, fairly early, the importance of women and African-Americans in the post-Civil War world of work, and was prepared to open its ranks (sometimes only technically--many locals refused to follow national leadership in this) and provide them with at least notional support. The Knights were likewise to ready to support industrial unionism, which would include all the workers in any given industry, regardless of specific skill--or even lack of skills. Competition between the AFL and the Knights of Labor would be a major factor in labor issues in the US throughout the 1880s and 1890s; both groups would have to contend with the rise of the International Workers of the World (IWW--the Wobblies), a more radical labor group.
So while the Molly Maguires have glamor, a movie with Sean Connery and Richard Harris, and the shadow of the villainous Pinkertons, the role of Samuel Gompers and the cigar makers in American labor history should not be overlooked.
*Including a free Ireland, which was not achieved by the efforts of American labor, but
is still a good thing. Protective tariffs have been brought low by the various free trade acts.
Next--to the coalfields!
Samuel Gompers was born in London in 1850 (his family had immigrated there from Amsterdam, and in the early 1860s moved on to New York); he left school and started work as an apprentice cigar maker when he was 10, and continued to work with his father in that trade once they came to the US. At that time, the cigar-making industry was undergoing a period of consolidation as the result of government regulation; the need for increased revenue during the American Civil war led to a tax on cigars, and a system of permits for cigar makers. Originally, cigar makers were able to work anywhere they chose, and often worked from their homes; after the permit system began, cigars had to be made on the premises of a bonded manufacturer. Workers who had purchased tobacco, worked where they pleased, and were paid when they turned in their finished product had to start working out of a shop. While this system had its drawbacks, it had advantages as well; like many people who are expert in performing hand work, the cigar makers had plenty of attention to spare for conversation while they worked; it was common for a group of cigar makers to have someone read aloud to them while they worked, and Gompers acquired a good bit of his education this way. He also took advantage of free lectures at Cooper Union, and attended political meetings and took part in debates with his friends,
The cigar makers were organized into what is called a craft union--a union designed to represent workers who had a specific set of skills. Among the other issues the cigar makers faced was the continual importation of new, cheaper labor, and throughout the 1870s and 1880s, the growth of industrialization in the field, as molds designed for use by unskilled workers were developed to replace the careful hand-rolling they were accustomed to.
Gompers became involved in his local union, and rose to prominence in the nationwide union.
At that time, the most important workingman's group in the US was the Knights of Labor--a group which started as a benevolent association, and gradually began to take on the characteristics of a nationwide confederation of local unions, somewhat to the surprise of some of its leaders, who were inclined to prefer cooperation with employers to such things as strikes and protests. During the 1870s and 1880s, annoyance with such attitudes increased among the various craft unions, many of whom wanted to see more organization and stronger leadership that was prepared to take a more oppositional stance to management. (To be fair to the Knights of Labor, they were dealing with a rapidly-changing situation, as the development of American industry after the Civil War produced a working environment radically different from what had come before, with small groups of workers dealing with a small business.)
Accordingly, in the early 1880s, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU) was formed. At their conference in Pittsburgh in November 1881, the FOTLU adopted a platform which was to set the terms for much of the work of American labor unions for the next fifty or sixty years. Its preamble declared: "A struggle is going on in the nations of the civilized world between the oppressors and the oppressed...a struggle between capital and labor, which must grow in intensity from year to year and work disastrous results to the toiling millions of all nations..."
The basics of the platform were:
1. The legal incorporation of unions
2. Compulsory education of children
3. Prohibition of child labor under the age of 14
4. Apprenticeship laws
5. Establishment of an eight-hour work day
6. Repeal of state conspiracy laws which did not provide a safe harbor for labor unions
7. Establishment of a federal agency to collect labor statistics
8. Abolition of convict labor
9. Prohibition of the importation of foreign workers
10. Federal legislation requiring ventilation and inspection of mines
11. Support for Irish liberation
12. Legislation making employers responsible for industrial accidents
13. A high protective tariff
It is amazing how much of this list represents things we take for granted*, 130 years later, but at the time, many of these items must have seemed like impossible goals.
Gompers played a leading role in the FTOLU, which broke up in 1886, to promptly be replaced by the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which continues to this day as the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations). The work of the AFL in forwarding the cause of the labor movement and supporting its member organizations has been crucial for most of the successes of the American labor movement. The AFL had many shortcomings. It stressed craft unions over industrial unions; it was slow to welcome women and African-Americans into its ranks, and it was implacably hostile to Chinese workers for a very long time indeed. The Knights of Labor were similarly hostile to Chinese workers, but saw, fairly early, the importance of women and African-Americans in the post-Civil War world of work, and was prepared to open its ranks (sometimes only technically--many locals refused to follow national leadership in this) and provide them with at least notional support. The Knights were likewise to ready to support industrial unionism, which would include all the workers in any given industry, regardless of specific skill--or even lack of skills. Competition between the AFL and the Knights of Labor would be a major factor in labor issues in the US throughout the 1880s and 1890s; both groups would have to contend with the rise of the International Workers of the World (IWW--the Wobblies), a more radical labor group.
So while the Molly Maguires have glamor, a movie with Sean Connery and Richard Harris, and the shadow of the villainous Pinkertons, the role of Samuel Gompers and the cigar makers in American labor history should not be overlooked.
*Including a free Ireland, which was not achieved by the efforts of American labor, but
is still a good thing. Protective tariffs have been brought low by the various free trade acts.
Next--to the coalfields!