of the primary election of June 5, 1867, came in, everyone was surprised to find that the Workingmen's Party had won a large majority.48 49 The workingmen had planned to nominate Assemblyman Wilcox, who had championed the eight-hour law in the 1866 session of the Legislature, for Congress. They were unable to carry out this plan as he withdrew. It was claimed that he received a financial consideration for doing so. But undoubtedly this show of political strength was one of the chief factors contributing to the passage of the eight-hour law, the mechanics' lien law, and the act for the protection of wages, at the 1868 session of the legislature.50 On the whole, the Workingmen's Convention of 1867 was a memorable body in the history of the California labor movement. It was the first large assemblage of the representatives of the wage-workers of the state; it helped make possible the passage of three of the most important labor laws on our statute books; it planned the first successful Workingmen's Party,51 and won the first political victory in San Francisco; it was the culmination of the labor movement of the sixties; and inaugurated the efforts to unite the working people of the state in political activities, thus initiating the form of activity that was to be most characteristic of the labor movement of the next decade. During the years immediately following the first demonstration of the political power of the labor organizations, the attention and the energies of the California trade-unionist were absorbed in the eight-hour movement.52 While the eight-hour day was generally introduced in the building trades, the attempts to enforce it in other occupations soon led to strikes. Not only did the employers again resort to the importation of strikebreakers, but many competitors were brought by the large influx 48 The Alta, June 6, 1867, says that the Workingmen elected twenty-five delegates, but the Times of the same date says that they elected twenty-three and that the People's Party elected thirteen. 49 Alta, July 12, 1867. 50 A more detailed account of the efforts to pass these laws will be given in subsequent chapters. 51 There had been a Workingmen's Party in Sacramento prior to this time, but it was unsuccessful. San Francisco Daily Times, April 10, 1867. 52 The more detailed account of the eight-hour movement will be given in Chapter VII, dealing with the legislation on this subject. ! of immigrants seeking to escape the business depression which followed the Civil War, which was much more severely felt in eastern states than in California. It soon became evident that the period when the wage-worker could demand whatever he chose was past; already there were signs of the hard times of unemployment that were to be characteristic of the seventies. THE LABOR MOVEMENTS OF THE SEVENTIES. This period was marked by a radical change in the economic conditions in California. The Central Pacific Railroad was opened in 1869, thus bringing California into closer touch with other sections of the country. The men who had been employed in the construction of this road were turned back into other avenues of employment, and their numbers were swelled by the increased immigration from other states of the Union. The Burlingame Treaty, which by its favorable terms had seemed to invite immigration of Chinese, had been concluded in 1868 regardless of the protests of the Californians. Subsidized steamships gave increased facilities, and impelled by famines at home and offers of richly rewarded employment in California, the Chinese were pouring into San Francisco in numbers which, at times, averaged two thousand per month. As a result of this business depression and increase of competitors, the trade-unions were unable to retain the wages and hours of labor which they had won during the sixties. Only a few of them maintained a continuous existence during this period of extreme depression. While the agitation for the eight-hour day was carried over into the seventies, the chief organized activity on the part of the working people took the form of a great variety of anti-Chinese societies. As the Chinese question must be dealt with by state and national legislation, we are not surprised to find that there was a strong tendency throughout this period to go into polities. Many historians have treated the Workingmen's Party of 1878 as though it were a sudden, isolated phenomenon. Such was by no means the case; it was but the culmination of the political activities of organizations of workingmen during the previous ten years. This was also the period when the California organizations came into closer touch with the eastern labor movement. A. M. Winn, the president of the Mechanics' State Council, went to Washington in 1869, and spent some months in an unsuccessful effort to secure the passage of an amendment to the national eight-hour law which should positively require that all public work, whether done by the day or under contract, should be subject to the eight-hour work-day requirement. He was chosen chairman of the National Eight-Hour Executive Committee, which was composed of the presidents of state and national organizations of mechanics.53 M. W. Delaney was also sent as a delegate of the Mechanics' State Council to the meeting of the National Labor Union at Chicago in 1870. A letter from him, read at the meeting of the State Anti-Chinese Convention of August, 1870, gives a glowing account of his success in stirring up anti-Chinese feeling among the delegates to this convention.54 He returned with authority to grant charters to branches of the National Labor Union in California.55 It is impossible to distinguish clearly the many forms of labor organizations which sought to find remedies for the hard times of the seventies. The only principle of unity in these manifold combinations for the agitation of labor problems was their opposition to the Chinese. We will content ourselves with a brief summary of the history of the more important organizations in the order of their origin, noticing (1) the trade-unions, (2) political parties, (3) anti-Chinese societies. (1) Trade-unions Surviving, 1870-1880. While one hears but little of the regular trade-unions during this period, it is evident that some of them maintained a precarious existence. Attempts were made to form them into federated unions in 1874 and 1878. The tailors made the first of these attempts. It is said that six unions came together and drew up a constitution, but they fell to quarreling over the 53 Winn, Valedictory Address. 54 Alta, August 24, 1870. question of whether they should have a permanent or temporary chairman, and failed to complete their organization. Another attempt to form a trades assembly was made during the early stages of the Workingmen's Party. Haskell says there were fourteen unions in this assembly, with a total membership of 1,500.50 It continued to meet in a somewhat irregular way until 1882. Thus it is evident that, though inactive, some of the tradeunions held together during this period. The Carpenters' Eight-Hour League was reorganized, soon after the return of A. M. Winn from his eastern trip, into a branch of the Eumenic Order of United Mechanics.57 For a few years this body continued to agitate in favor of the eight-hour day, particularly in work for the public,58 and then it dropped out of existence. The carpenters reorganized their union in 1882.59 The last notices of the Mechanics' State Council which we have found appeared in 1877,60 so that this organization which came into existence during the eight-hour campaign of 1867 survived for ten years. This was chiefly due to the persistent activity of its president, A. M. Winn.61 Indeed it is claimed that during the later years his list of unions represented was fictitious, as some of them had ceased to exist.62 While chiefly devoted to the cause of the eight-hour day, we find this organization also active in the formation of anti-Chinese societies. 56 Haskell, in McNeill, The Labor Movement, etc., 609. In the sketch of the life of Frank Roney, the first president of the Federated Trades Council, it is claimed that he suggested the formation of this Trades Assembly at the first Workingmen's Council. (San Francisco Daily Report, May 11, 1886.) 57 Winn, Valedictory Address. 58 Alta, May 3, 28, 1873. 59 Organized Labor, February 8, 1902. 60 Alta, January 14, May 12, 21, 23, 1876; November 6, 1877. 61 A. M. Winn was born in Loudoun County, Virginia, and went to Vicksburg, where he became a brigadier-general of the militia. He came to California in 1849, was the first Mayor of Sacramento, and commanded the militia in the difficulties with the squatters. He was a contractor and builder, and on coming to San Francisco engaged in the planing-mill business. He founded the organization known as the Sons of Revolutionary Sires, and was also one of the originators of the Native Sons of the Golden West. He died August 26, 1883. 62 San Francisco Daily Report, May 11. 1886. (2) Political Parties, 1870-1877. Early in 1870 the meetings of the unemployed began in San Francisco. They were followed in July by a great anti-Chinese demonstration, which was led by the Knights of St. Crispin, an organization of shoemakers.63 At this meeting it was decided to call a State Anti-Chinese Convention to convene in the following month. When this convention met a part of the delegates, led by the Knights of St. Crispin, were in favor of nominating a political ticket, and another faction, under the leadership of the Mechanics' State Council and the eight-hour leagues, were opposed to all separate political action, claiming that more could be accomplished by using their influence with the older political parties. When it became evident that the convention would nominate a municipal ticket, these latter organizations withdrew, and afterwards formed a separate society known as the Industrial Reformers. 64 The remaining members of the convention proceeded to organize as a branch of the National Labor Union. They adopted a platform which declared, in addition to favoring the eight-hour law, that "the conditions of labor should be positively fixed by the laws of the Nation. Free labor must not be made to compete with labor in restraint, nor should labor under our system of civilization be allowed to come into competition with a lower order of men and system of civilization. ''65 They opposed the election of any candidate who employed Chinese or favored their admission to the state. Before adjourning, they nominated a complete municipal ticket."6 While the members of this organization declared themselves to be acting as a branch of the National Labor Union, the organization of the California branch of the society does not seem to have been perfected until March, 1871.7 From that time until 63 Alta, July 9, 16, 1870. 64 Winn, Valedictory Address, p. 5. 65 Alta, August 11, 12, 17, 19, 20, 24, 1870. See p. 138. 66 Ibid., August 31, September 16, 1870. 67 Bulletin, March 15, 1871. |