that in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Stockton, the three most important municipal centers of this early gold-mining period, there was much trade-union activity during the fifties. These rapidly developing centers of distribution of the population and of supplies for the mining regions were in need of buildings of all kinds, so that carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons, and hodcarriers were in great demand. We find frequent mention of their strikes to obtain better conditions of work, nor were the other trades slow in adopting the same policy. The house carpenters of Sacramento seem to have initiated this early movement, as they struck for higher wages in November and December, 1849. In the following year the sailors, bricklayers," and musicians1o conducted strikes; in 1851 the printers followed suit; while in 1853 there was quite an outbreak of strikes.11

As a rule the workmen had the sympathy of the public, and the employers generally acceded to their demands with but little resistance. While the strikers do not seem to have been disorderly, they occasionally called forth criticism by their highhanded methods; as, for example, when the striking firemen and coal-passers made all the passengers on an outgoing vessel show their tickets in order to make sure that no strike-breakers were among them.13 The editor of the Alta ventures to administer a mild reproof, at the same time expressing a hearty approval of trade-unions and strikes.13

12

Alta, November 22, 1849; December 6, 1849.

8 Ibid., August 10, 12, 1850.

9 Ibid., September 11, 1850.

10 Ibid., October 26-7, 1850.

11 In July and August, 1853, a few months after the passage of the ten-hour law, we find the carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons, and hodearriers of San Francisco, Sacramento, and Stockton engaged in strikes for higher wages. (Alta, July 8-19, August 7, 18, 1853.)

12 Alta, August 2, 1853.

13 Ibid., August 3, 1853. He said: "It has been held by some authorities that combinations to raise wages are contrary to justice and to the policy of our laws, but that position can never be maintained by anyone who has a clear idea of justice or of the spirit of American institutions. It is a matter of congratulation that the carpenters and stonecutters get eight to ten dollars for every faithful day's work in San Francisco. But though we approve of striking for higher wages if it is probable that they can be fairly obtained, yet we cannot approve of the manner in which some of the strikes and combinations have been conducted and maintained.'

14

While these strikes were accompanied by public meetings, processions and other demonstrations, it seems probable that they were sometimes conducted by temporary organizations. We have found direct evidence of fully organized trade-unions among the printers, the carpenters, 15 and the laborers of Sacramento.16 Mr. Ira Cross, of Stanford University, who has made a careful study of these early trade-union activities, says: "During the fifties nearly all the trades in San Francisco had become organized and had succeeded in materially bettering the condition of the workers. The printers had formed a protective association as early as 1850. The teamsters, draymen, lightermen, riggers, and stevedores had organized in 1851; the bricklayers and bakers in 1852; the blacksmiths, plasterers, brickmasons, shipwrights, carpenters, and caulkers in 1853; while even the musicians had organized and had struck for the enforcement of the union scale in 1856.''17

Even though organizations were formed in these trades, it does not necessarily follow that they succeeded in maintaining a continuous existence. The history of the printers' union is probably typical of the other trade-unions of this period. This was organized in 1850 with eight members, and increased rapidly in membership, having 100 on the roll in 1851 and 147 in 1852. It then fell to pieces and was reorganized with a national charter in 1855, only to go through the same experiences. The third attempt was more permanent, as the Eureka Typographical, chartered by the national union in 1859, lasted until 1870.18 The history of the Ship Carpenters' Union affords another illustration of the instability of these early organizations. It was quite successful, and accumulated funds so rapidly that a discussion arose about the proper method of spending the surplus. Some of the members thought the laying of the Atlantic cable a suitable excuse for a special jollification, while others preferred some

14 Organized late in the spring of 1850.

15 Alta, July 19, 1853.

16 Ibid., August 7, 1853.

17 First Coast Seamen's Unions, in Coast Seamen's Journal, July 8, 1908, p. 1.

18 My information about the Typographical Union is drawn from the records of the union, which were destroyed in the fire of April, 1906.

other method of emptying the overloaded treasury. The disputes on this subject finally disrupted the union.1

19

In California, as in other parts of the United States, there was a strong trade-union movement in the sixties. In 1863 the scarcity of artisans, owing to the heavy drafts for the army, and the increased cost of living prompted a completer organization of the workers in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other eastern cities, and many strikes for higher wages. The conditions were by no means so hard in San Francisco, as gold had continued to circulate in California, and the prices of necessities had not advanced so much as in the East.20 Nevertheless the eastern labor movement was promptly duplicated in San Francisco.

In the fall of 1863 the first central trades assembly was formed in San Francisco. As this organization was conducted as a secret society, it is difficult to find contemporary information about it. The editor of the Alta, writing in 1867, says, "About seven years since a Trades Union was organized in the East intended to include in its councils representatives from every state. A body was formed in California to take part in this Union, but it fell to pieces in 1864.''21

John M. Days, a state senator, was the first president of this Trades Union.22 He was succeeded by A. M. Kenaday who had been secretary. Kenaday, who was a delegate from the Eureka Typographical Union, gives the following history of this first central body: "The riggers and the stevedores and the printers formed a nucleus around which in a few months, we organized some eighteen trade organizations in this city. As its chosen secretary, I labored incessantly, against all manner of reproach, to make it effective. When it was about to dissolve for want of

19 San Francisco Daily Report, May 11, 1886.

20 Editorial, Bulletin, December 11, 1863. The same number of the Bulletin reprints accounts of the strikes in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia taken from eastern papers.

21 Alta, June 2, 1867.

22 The account of this first trades union given in the San Francisco Daily Report, May 11, 1886, and that written by Burdette Haskell in MeNeill's The Labor Movement the Problem of Today, seem to have been written by the same person, or possibly the newspaper copied Haskell's article. The article is not accurate. It says that there were fourteen unions at the end of the first year, and that a year later the number had decreased to six.

encouragement, I was selected as its presiding officer, and, at my suggestion, we made an appeal to the organized workingmen to rally in a mass meeting to agitate an eight-hour law. ''23

This first central council was formed at a period of great trade-union activity; as in the East, one trade after another struck for higher wages. The interesting labor situation in San Francisco at this time can be best shown by quoting an editorial from the Bulletin of November 6, 1863:

"Striking for higher wages is now the rage among the working people of San Francisco. There are few employers that have not felt the upward pressure within three months, and probably some branches of business that hitherto proved fairly profitable are now pursued at a loss, on account of the increased expenses of labor. Doubtless in many cases the wages paid in the early part of the year, when more men were in the City than could find employment, were unreasonably low. It is only just that workingmen should improve the present occasion, when the rush for distant mines has drained the city of its surplus population, to compel the payment of fair wages for their services. Under wise counsel the various trades unions can now do something to permanently improve the condition of those who labor for hire. But great care should be taken not to overdo the thing. The multitude of men who have gone out from all parts of the State to the mines of the adjacent Territory, added to the 50,000 immigrants who are supposed to have come over the plains from the western states this summer, are all now within a few days' travel of San Francisco. The winter is at hand, and the mines are so poorly provided with comforts that many thousands now engaged in 'prospecting' would gladly hasten to San Francisco, if the inducements of sufficient employment to procure board and clothing during the inclement season were held out. . . . Continual strikes for higher wages have the effect to create the impression abroad that there is a scarcity

In an

23 A. M. Kenaday came to California in 1847 and left to return in the gold rush. He was president of the Typographical Union which he organized in 1851. He was a charter member of the Typographical Union of 1855, and took an active part in organizing the Trades Union. address delivered in 1890 he said that he had in his possession a pamphlet printed in 1867, entitled "The Record of the Eight-Hour Bill in the California Legislature, Session 1865-66, embracing an account of the Preliminary Agitation of the Subject by the Workingmen of the State, the Debates in Senate and Assembly, the means resorted to by its enemies to defeat the measure, and the records of its friends and opponents. Prepared at the request of Theophilus Tucker, and Jer. J. Kelley, Special Committee of the Trades Union, by A. M. Kenaday, Special Agent selected by the Mechanics and Workingmen, and late President of the Trades Union of San Francisco." If one may judge by the title, this must have been a somewhat voluminous account. Since Kenaday had this contemporary account on which to base his remarks, it is probable that the information given in this address is fairly reliable. The remarks quoted are published

in the Pacific Union Printer, December, 1890.

Kenaday was expelled from the Workingmen's Convention of 1867, because he issued a call for a state convention without authority. (Bulletin, May 10, 1867; Daily Times, May 1, 1867.)

of laborers here. We do not believe such to be a fact, but that there is simply no great surplus. Let our well-employed men enforce as nearly as possible uniform rates of wages, and in no case make unreasonable demands simply because they have the power to enforce them, and they will receive the sympathy and encouragement of all without increasing the competition for their places which a general disturbance of the labor market would bring upon them."

Unfortunately, not all of the trade-unions were willing to take this sage advice. Evidently some of them failed to realize that there were limits to the possibility of gaining increased wages, even under such extraordinary conditions as were prevalent in California at that time. Hitherto the employers had yielded to their demands, at least for the time being, but in 1863 and 1864 we find them forced to adopt a different policy. We have already referred to the extreme example of trade-union demands, that of the bakers in November, 1863.24 While their employers were obliged to pay the additional thirty to forty-five dollars per month demanded, they hastened to import bakers from Hamburg, who gladly worked under worse conditions than had prevailed before the strike.

In April, 1864, the foundrymen reached the limit of their willingness to accede to the demands of their workmen. At this time the moulders and boiler-makers went on strike, demanding an increase of fifty cents to a dollar, making their wages range from four to five dollars a day.25 The proprietors of the foundries declared that they had already advanced wages to the limit of what was possible to pay, and still compete with eastern productions. One foundryman employing twenty-five men offered to advance the wages of seventeen of the journeymen in his employ, but refused the uniform advance demanded.26 The moulders sent out circulars warning other workmen not to come to San Francisco, and firmly refused to make any concessions.

24 Bulletin, November 4, 1863.

25 Alta, April 3, 8, 1864; Labor Clarion, September 4, 1908, p. 34. The Daily Report of May 11, 1886, gives the following account of the Moulders' Union. "The Ironmoulders' Union was organized in 1867, and almost immediately thereafter entered upon a strike for higher wages. Large numbers of men were induced to come hither from New York and other eastern cities, and although the union was mainly successful in so far as gaining the objects of the strike was concerned, the ultimate outcome was the disruption of the organization." This account is manifestly incor