which they had become familiar during the preceding years of the labor movement. It was a protest against the business and political corruption of the times, an effort to find relief for economic distress, an expression of class feeling that had been voiced in the bitter and extravagant oratory of the sand-lot, and given literary form and extended influence by the newspapers; the whole movement being greatly assisted at every stage of its development by the folly of the San Francisco municipal authorities.

The leaders of the movement were crude, ignorant men, devoid of any real statesmanship. They were incapable of either conceiving or executing any consistent programme of reform. Their platforms were a restatement of the measures of older labor parties, and suggested no unified policy. The unlimited self-assurance of a man like Kearney may win temporary confidence, but the native common sense of the American workman soon discovers a lack of solid attainments. Even with abler leadership it is doubtful whether the party could have been held together, for the history of the next twenty years proves that much additional discipline was necessary to bring the California labor organizations to the state of development where they were capable of continuous, unified activity.

We have seen that there were defections within the ranks of the party before the election for the Constitutional Convention. With the adoption of the new constitution, the reception of news of the first congressional action on the Chinese question, and an improvement in the economic conditions, the motives for the maintenance of the Workingmen's Party were weakened. While it continued to be influential in the San Francisco elections for two or three years, it was soon evident that it was not to be a permanent power in the state. When James Bryce visited California in 1883, he found the people in San Francisco somewhat irritated at the disposition of eastern writers to magnify the importance and significance of this chapter in the turbulent political history of the state,113

113 Bryce, American Commonwealth, Vol. II, pp. 425-448.

GROWTH TOWARDS A UNIFIED TRADE-UNION MOVEMENT,

1878-1885.

Aside from any political significance, the Workingmen's Party had a permanent educational value in promoting unity of feeling and action on the part of the labor organizations of the state. We have already referred to its efforts to form a central representative assembly of the trade-unions of San Francisco. The Cigar Makers' Appeal publishes the proceedings of this body in July, 1880, so it is evident that it survived. The same number of this paper gives a directory of unions which contains twenty-one names. It seems probable that this list was incomplete, as it does not include the ironmoulders, though this is one of the unions mentioned in the minutes of the Representative Assembly of Trades and Labor Unions. A later list of tradeunions in the report of the Labor Commissioner for 1887-1888 also gives additional unions which claimed to have been organized in the later seventies,115 probably under the stimulus of the Workingmen's Party.

The period of greatest activity of the Representative Assembly was in 1881-2. Ira Cross thinks this was due to the energetic leadership of Frank Roney,116 the representative sent

114 I have been able to find only one copy of this weekly paper, that of July 21, 1880.

115 Third Biennial Report, Bureau of Labor Statistics, pp. 128-131.

116 Frank Roney was one of the ablest of the early California labor leaders. He was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1841, and had received a good education. At an early age he suffered imprisonment for over a year on account of his activity in the movement for the overthrow of the English rule in Ireland. After his release he traveled on the Continent, where he was initiated in the famous revolutionary Order of the Carbonari. On his return to Ireland, he renewed his activities, being elected a member of the newly planned Provincial Council. The day before its first meeting its members were arrested. After spending ten more months in jail, Roney was sent to America. On coming to this country he continued his career as an organizer by entering the labor movement. Before coming to California he had been the first president of the Nebraska Labor Reform Party, and a contributor to the Workingmen's Advocate. He came to California in 1874, and we soon hear of him in the Workingmen's Party. He was president of one of the ward clubs, chairman of the first state convention, and member of the state executive committee. He wrote the constitution and plan of organization of the party. But he soon fell out with Kearney, and was the leader of the defection at the time of the non-eligibility resolutions. He next became a socialist, and we hear of his activities among the seamen, who were peculiarly in need of some effort for their betterment. In addition to these manifold public activities, Roney pursued the trade of an ironmoulder. (San Francisco Daily Report, May 11, 1886. Compare the account by Ira Cross, in Coast Seamen's Journal, July 8, 1908, p. 2.)

from the Seamen's Protective Association in June, 1881.117 This activity took the form of another great anti-Chinese demonstration, to which representatives, not only from California, but also from Oregon and Nevada, were summoned. The convention which met in April, 1882, organized the League of Deliverance for the purpose of continuing its work.118 An attempt was made to enforce a general boycott of Chinese goods, but this failed as even the workingmen could not be made to purchase the more expensive products of white labor. The plan was changed, and an effort was made to enforce boycotts on those dealing largely in Chinese-made goods. But this also failed, as those conducting the boycott were repeatedly arrested.119 The passage of the exclusion law of 1882 decreased the need of the League, and both this and the Trades Assembly soon dropped out of existence.120

THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR.

In the interval between 1882 and 1885, the Knights of Labor supplied the need for a central labor union in San Francisco. Since the establishment of the first Sacramento Assembly in 1878, they had increased rapidly in power. Between 1879 and 1882 they organized eight local assemblies in San Francisco, and in September, 1882, these were united to form District Assembly No. 53. During the next three years the number of assemblies in California increased to twenty-five. While the California assemblies refrained from promoting any local strikes, they are said to have contributed generously to the support of assemblies in eastern states engaged in controversies,121

117 Coast Seamen's Journal, July 8, 1908, p. 2.

118 Mass-meetings under the auspices of the Trades Assembly were held on February 15 and 16. See Bulletin and other papers of February 16 and 17, 1882. The convention met on April 24, 1882; see daily papers of April 25.

119 A vivid account of this attempt at boycott is given in the speech of Haskell before the convention meeting in December, 1885. See San Francisco Daily Report, December 7, 1885. Roney, the president of the Trades Assembly, was arrested for boycotting, but was acquitted. Haskell says Starkweather, who carried the placard in front of one of the stores, was arrested nineteen times.

120 McNeill, The Labor Movement, etc., p. 609.

121 San Francisco Daily Report, November 28, 1885.

THE INTERNATIONALISTS.

The International Workingmen's Association, an organization of socialists, was also quite active in the formation of tradeunions during this period. The California Internationalists included among their organizers a number of men of ability and great devotion to the cause, though they were the most radical of the early California labor leaders. Their enthusiasm and highly idealistic but impracticable teachings enabled them to arouse the interest of the workingmen, and made them effective preachers of the new gospel of united effort. But they were very troublesome when the organizations reached the point where they were ready for the sober management of the business affairs of their members. The Knights of Labor found it necessary to expel the socialists from their assemblies, and in time, the trade-unions that had been organized by the Internationalists freed themselves from their influence.122

Early in 1885 the Internationalists called a convention for the purpose of again forming a central labor union. Two hundred and fifty delegates are reported to have attended on the opening night of the convention, but there must have been an immediate defection, as only half that number are said to have been present on the second night.123 After some discussion, a platform and list of organizers were produced which at once made it evident that the convention was completely dominated by the socialists.124 The trade-unions of Internationalist affiliations held a few meetings, but the new Central Labor Union soon fell apart. Haskell, who was the chief promoter of the enterprise, charges its defeat to the politicians in the trade-unions; but it seems more probable that the older, more conservative unions

122 We have been able to follow the history of Internationalist influence in detail in the case of the Coast Seamen's Union, which they organized in 1885.

123 San Francisco Daily Report, March 17, 19, 30. McNeill, op. cit.,

p. 609.

124 It declared that hard times were due to the monopolization of natural resources, tools of production, and medium of exchange by nonproducers, and favored state employment of labor and nationalization of land, means of transportation, and implements of production, as furnishing the only satisfactory solution of the labor question. All but one member of the organizing committee were Internationalists.

objected to the pronounced socialistic tendencies of the movement.125

THE CONVENTION OF 1885.

Late in 1885 another convention was called by the Knights of Labor for the purpose of discussing the need of further legislation against the Chinese, and the question of contract prison labor. On November 30 some two hundred delegates, among whom were representatives from the Los Angeles Trades Council, the Stockton branch of the Internationalists, Sacramento Knights of Labor, Vallejo mechanics, machinists of Storey County, Nevada, and from Oakland and Alameda unions, in addition to those sent from the San Francisco organizations.126 Though called by the Knights of Labor, the convention quickly passed from their control to that of the Internationalists and the trade-unions under their influence. Frank Roney was elected chairman, and B. G. Haskell, with a large following of seamen, was the most influential member on the floor of the convention. The passage of the radical resolution calling for the removal of the Chinese in sixty days resulted in the withdrawal of the

125 Haskell was born in Sierra County, California, June 11, 1857, his parents being among the earliest pioneers of the state. After graduating from the public schools he was sent to college, but remained there for only a short time. He then interested himself in the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1879. He soon tired of the law, and when, in 1882, he was given an opportunity of taking charge of a weekly paper, he quickly assented to the proposition. Thus it was that the latter became the editor of Truth.

"Several numbers of the paper had been issued when one evening Haskell happened to attend a meeting of the Trades' Assembly in search of news. He sat and listened to the proceedings and finally offered to make his paper the official organ of the body. After some discussion the offer was accepted.

"At that time Haskell knew nothing whatever about trade-unionism or the labor problem. He came of wealthy and aristocratic parents and had never become interested in such matters. However, as the weeks passed he read all of the available literature and in a short time became the best-posted man on the labor question in the western states. As he read and studied the situation, he became an ardent socialist.

"Truth suspended publication after having been issued for a few years, but by this time Haskell had become one of the foremost men in the labor movement. In 1883 he founded the Pacific Coast Division of the International Workingmen's Association and in a few months had succeeded in organizing branches of the order in all the territory west of the Rocky mountains."-Ira Cross, in Coast Seamen's Journal, July 8, 1908, p. 7.

126 San Francisco Daily Report, December 1, 1885.