in several cities, but it was not until long afterward that strikes, politics, and battles against judicial decisions began to turn the minds of trade unionists to organization on a municipal, state, and national scale. The day of the great newspaper, the railway, and the telegraph had not yet arrived. Trade unionism was local and confined to separate crafts.

CHAPTER III

THE CENTURY-OLD TACTICS OF LABOR

Labor tactics as important as labor organization. -An organization without policy and action is, of course, powerless to accomplish results. Naturally, therefore, the early local associations of craftsmen had to decide just what methods they were to follow in dealing with their employers. In the old days when they worked side by side with the master, and there were only a few in the shop, it was a simple matter for them to talk over in a friendly way any problems or differences that arose. As the cities grew in size and the shops increased in number, as the employees began firmly to close their unions to masters, the question of how best to formulate their demands, present them to their employers, and enforce them became a live issue. One by one the elements of the problem were worked out and a program of tactics and policies developed.

Collective bargaining.-Collective bargaining, meaning negotiations carried on between employers (or their representatives), on the one hand, and the chosen representatives of the trade union, on the

other hand, appeared in the early days of the American labor movement. It is recorded that the first attempt at regular collective bargaining of this kind was made by the Philadelphia shoemakers in 1799 when a "deputation from the society waited upon the employers with an offer of compromise." In this case the employers said they would consider the offer and appointed a committee of their own to meet with the journeymen. In 1802 the printers and shoemakers of Philadelphia and the shoemakers of Pittsburgh sent a committee to visit various employers and confer with them over the wage scales.

In 1809, when the New York printers submitted their lists to the masters, this courteous reply came back from the employers' association: "In presenting [a set of resolutions] to the consideration of the Typographical society, they [the employers] think it proper to remark that, although no circumstances have come to their knowledge which would justify on the part of the journeymen a demand for more than the customary wages, yet, desirous of meeting them in the spirit of conciliation and harmony and to remove every obstacle that might have a tendency to interrupt a mutual good understanding, the master printers have made considerable advances on the prices hitherto given and to as great an extent as the present state of the printing business would admit. The scale which is now offered may therefore be considered as a maximum beyond which it would be

highly injurious, if not ruinous, to the interests of the trade to venture." As a result of this courtesy on the part of the employing printers, committees representing both sides of the controversy met and finally agreed upon a compromise scale of wages. All over the country similar attempts were made so that we may say the nineteenth century opened with the principle of collective bargaining well understood in labor and employing circles and fre quently applied in trade disputes.

Strikes. The strike, meaning the action of workmen in quitting their employment in a body, is, of course, a natural corollary of organization and the formulation of demands as to wages and hours. Labor early recognized this fact. Ten years after the Declaration of American Independence in 1776, the printers of Philadelphia, after providing for a strike fund for the benefit of members, struck against their employers. In 1799 the skilled shoemakers of Baltimore and Pittsburgh struck for higher wages, against the competition of Lynn, Massachusetts, which had become a large center for the manufacture of coarse shoes—a center of cheap shoes and cheap labor. The practice thus early established was followed quite regularly when agreements over wages could not be reached by negotiations.

For the most part, it seems, these first trade disputes were conducted without any considerable disturbance. The journeymen simply remained away

from work until the employers gave in, or they were compelled to yield, or a compromise was reached. Violence and intimidation did however occasionally appear, as in the case of the shoemakers' strike in Philadelphia in 1806 when "scabs were beaten and employers intimidated by demonstrations in front of the shop or by breaking shop windows."

The walking delegate.-As soon as a labor organization began to fix a "price list" or wage scale, it adopted the practice of sending the paper around to employers. One of the representatives of the union might "walk" around to see the masters. In 1800 the Franklin Typographical Society of New York drew up the first complete wage scale in the country and sent it to the individual employers of printers. Some labor societies selected "tramping committees" to visit the various shops to see whether the workmen in the unions were abiding by the wage scale and were "honest to the cause." This took a great deal of time and it was not thought fair to ask members to do such work without remuneration. As early as 1799, the Philadelphia shoemakers substituted one delegate for the committee and arranged to pay him for his labor. Thus the paid walking delegate appeared on the scene. It was a long time, however, before the tramping committee was entirely set aside in favor of the paid agent.

The closed shop.-The term "closed shop" is of