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Author: 
 
 Lowe, Boutelle Ellsworth 
 
 Title: 
 
 Representative industry 
 and trade unionism of... 
 
 Place: 
 
 New York 
 
 Date: 
 
 [1912] 
 
qi\-'^aoo\-\ 
 
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 267 
 L95 
 
 Lowe, Boutelle Ellsworth, 1890- 
 
 Ilepresentative industry and trade unionism of 
 an American city, by Boutelle Elsworth Lowe... 
 How York, Gray £l91J>, 
 
 vii, 78 p. 19 cm, 
 
 A study of tho industrial development of Roches^ 
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 Bibliographys p. 78, 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
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 School of Business 
 
 
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 I 
 
 Representative Industry 
 and Trade Unionism 
 
 of an 
 
 American City 
 
 BY 
 
 BOUTELLE ELSWORTH LOWE, A. M. 
 
 Published by 
 
 W. D. GRAY 
 
 106 SEVENTH AVENUE 
 NEW YORK 
 
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 US 
 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 Rochester is the third largest city in the State of New 
 York, possessing a population of approximately 230,000. 
 It IS neither a large city nor a small city but an aver- 
 age American city reflecting, in certain respects, average 
 mdustrial conditions in the United States. If, for ex- 
 ample, we draw a comparison between the United States 
 and this city in respect of the five leading causes of 
 strikes, we find that the same causes in the same order 
 of importance hold equally good for the city as for the 
 nation during the last twenty-five years. Again we find 
 that when during 1889-1890 the percentage of successful 
 stnkes m the United States was above the average the 
 same was true of Rochester; and when during 1892- 
 1894 the percentage was below the average, again the 
 same held true for Rochester, and when during 1890- 
 1905 the percentage rose approximately to 8 per cent 
 above the average throughout the country, it likewise 
 rose to 9 per cent in this city. In some respects the city's 
 industrial status is quite superior to average Ameri<L 
 conditions. It is claimed that Rochester industries are 
 60 per cent more diversified than the average conditions 
 
 11^177"^-^ °" *^ *'**'"'" ^""""^ *^ ^"<^««^ *-t has 
 attended the efforts of organized labor is somewhat be- 
 low the average as compared with the results achieved 
 by American trade unionism in other places 
 
 The city led in the transition from the handicraft to 
 the factory stage in the manufacture of men's ready- 
 Ill ^ 
 
FORE WORD— Continued 
 
 made clothing. It was the first city in the United States 
 to organize a City Central Trades' and Labor Council to 
 serve as a clearing house for the trade unions of the 
 municipality. Its example in this respect was widely fol- 
 lowed throughout the country. It has the largest manu- 
 factories of thermometers, optical instruments and pho- 
 tographic supplies in the world. The following pages 
 treat the principal phases of the city's industrial develop- 
 ment during the past quarter of a century. 
 
 This monograph had its origin in an investigation car- 
 ried on by the writer while a graduate student in The 
 University of Rochester. Documentary study has been 
 supplemented by personal interviews with trade-imion 
 officials and employers of labor and by the immediate 
 study of labor conditions. The writer wishes to express 
 his appreciation of the suggestions received from Pro- 
 fessor William Kirk, Head of the Department of Eco- 
 nomics, and of the helpful criticism received from Dr. 
 Frank T. Stockton of this Department. 
 Rochester, 191 2. B. L. 
 
 \ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 PART I. 
 
 Foreword . 
 
 • • • 
 
 y' I. A Brief Industrial Survey 
 
 Milling Interests . 
 Boot and Shoe Industry 
 Clothing Trade . 
 Nurseries and Seedfarms 
 Table of Industries . 
 Factory Conditions 
 Labor Force 
 
 Page 
 . Ill 
 
 3 
 3 
 3 
 4 
 4 
 5 
 17 
 17 
 
 IV 
 
 III. Strikes and Their Significance 
 
 Table Comparing the Relation of the Percent- 
 age of Successful Strikes to the Prosperity 
 of the Times, in Rochester and the United 
 
 States . 
 
 • • • . 
 
 The Causes of the Strikes . 
 
 " • • 
 
 For Increase of Wages 
 
 Concerning Recognition of the Union and 
 
 Union Rules 
 For Reduction of Hours 
 
 y 
 
 20 
 22 
 
 II. Growth and Extent of Trade-Unionism 
 Table of Unions . 
 
 Strength of Organized and Unorganized Labor 23 
 Central Trades and Labor Council and Build- 
 ing Trades Council .... 24 
 
 27 
 
 75 
 29 
 
 29 
 
 30 
 30 
 
CONTENTS— Continued 
 
 Against Reduction ^f Wages . . .30 
 
 The Sympathetic Strike . . . • 3© 
 
 Employers' Agreements . . . . 3^ 
 
 Piecework ....... 3^ 
 
 Other Causes . . . . . - Z^ 
 
 Table Comparing the Causes of the Strikes in 
 
 Rochester and the United States . . 76 
 
 Strikes According to Trades . . . -32 
 
 Building Trades ..... 32 
 
 Shoe Workers ...... 32 
 
 Printers ....... 33 
 
 Machinists ....... 33 
 
 Iron Molders 33 
 
 Clothing Workers . . . . -33 
 
 Factory Girls ...... 34 
 
 Strikes of Organized and Unorganized Labor 34 
 Status of Organized Labor in Rochester . 35 
 
 PART IL 
 
 
 
 
 
 . The Leading Industry 
 Development of Clothii 
 Factory Buildings 
 Welfare Work . 
 
 ig Tr; 
 
 ade 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 41 
 
 . 42 
 
 . 42 
 
 Hours of Labor . 
 
 
 
 
 
 • 43 
 
 Wages 
 Home Work 
 
 
 
 
 
 43 
 44 
 
 Living Conditions 
 Female Employees 
 Male Employees . 
 Child I-abor 
 
 
 
 
 
 45 
 . 46 
 . 47 
 
 47 
 
 Racial Characteristics 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 47 
 
 V 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 CONTENTS— Continued 
 
 II. Trade Unionism in the Clothing Trade . . 49 
 Conditions Leading to Lockout of 1891 . . 50 
 Clothiers' Exchange and Employers* Policy , 53 
 
 Lockout of 1891 55 
 
 Reorganization and Progress After the Lockout 56 
 Strike of 1903-4 . . . . . .58 
 
 Anti-union Shops . . . . .60 
 
 Present Status of Garment Workers' Unions . 60 
 
 III. Union Policies of Garment Workers 
 Forms of Organization 
 Interference of National Officers in Local 
 
 ters .... 
 Union Rules 
 Standard Wages . 
 Limitation of Work . 
 Shorter Workday 
 Overtime Work . 
 Apprenticeship Rules . 
 Methods of Rule Enforcement 
 Boycott .... 
 Blacklisting a Position . 
 Label .... 
 
 Qosed Shop 
 Welfare Features 
 Benefits .... 
 Labor Bureau 
 
 Aid Policy .... 
 Protection of Public Health . 
 Authorities Consulted . 
 
 Mat- 
 
 62 
 62 
 
 64 
 
 65 
 
 65 
 
 65 
 66 
 
 66 
 67 
 68 
 68 
 70 
 
 71 
 
 71 
 72 
 
 72 
 
 72 
 
 73 
 73 
 78 
 
 VII 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A BRIEF INDUSTRIAL SURVEY 
 
 The industrial beginnings of Rochester were very 
 humble. In 1789 Ebenezer Allan built a gristmill at the 
 Genesee Falls, — "a mill as yet without customers, and 
 which at its raising, although mustering every white man 
 in the region and the country round about, had but four- 
 teen wherewithal to make merry with the canoe load of 
 rum which arrived at the mouth of the river just in 
 season." ^ 
 
 Milling Interests. — A second mill was built in 1807, 
 and "by 1834 Rochester had become the greatest manu- 
 factory of flour in the world, turning out six hundred 
 thousand barrels of flour annually, — Genesee flour having 
 achieved a world-wide fame." ^ Numerous inventions 
 and improvements subsequent to 1870 have given an 
 added impetus to this branch of industry, and, although 
 Rochester has yielded to the West its pre-eminence as 
 the leading flour-producing center of the nation, its out- 
 put of this commodity has not diminished. 
 
 Boot and Shoe Industry. — For about fifty years the 
 city has been noted for the manufacture of shoes, turning 
 out in men's, ladies', boys', children's and infants' shoes 
 a product worth over $8,000,000 in 1905,^ and estimated 
 at present to be worth about $18,000,000. 
 
 1 Parker, Rochester, A Story Historical, p. 51. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 388. 
 
 ^See report of Federal Commissioner of Labor on Woman 
 and Child Wage Earners in United States transmitted to the 
 Senate, Aug. 8, 1910. 
 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 Clothing Trade. — ^The last mentioned industry is sur- 
 passed in magnitude by but one other and that is the 
 manufacture of men's ready-made clothing, of which a 
 more detailed study appears in succeeding chapters. In 
 1884 J. M. Parker wrote : "Forty years ago, when it was 
 feared by our citizens that, from one cause and another, 
 the milling interest might not keep pace with the same 
 industry in other parts of the country, thus retarding 
 the growth and prosperity of the city, it was hoped that 
 our excellent water power would attract other kinds of 
 business, and make up for what might be lost in connec- 
 tion with the manufacture of flour, which first gave 
 Rochester its early and rapid growth. This hope to a 
 considerable extent has been realized. Still it is plain to 
 be seen that Rochester no longer is dependent upon its 
 water power to insure its future prosperity. The 'Sewing 
 Machine' is already doing more than the water power can 
 do hereafter. The important industry of clothing manu- 
 facture is one of the most extensive and important in our 
 city. More than twenty firms composed of thorough 
 business men, and with ample capital are giving work 
 to thousands of operatives, thus indicating most plainly 
 its vast importance to our city."* The value of the 
 clothing output was over $i4,ooo,cxx) in 1905 and is esti- 
 mated at $22,000,000 now. Although the production of 
 clothing and shoes comprises the two leading industries 
 of the city, Rochester does not lead the country in the 
 output of either of these articles. 
 
 Nurseries and Seedfarms. — The nurseries and seed- 
 farms in and around, Rochester have become world- 
 famed. The celebratd firm of Ellwanger & Barry is 
 counted among the founders of the nursery industry, 
 
 ^Rochester, A Story etc., p. 390. 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 while James Vick is named the pioneer in America in the 
 systematic growing of flower seeds. 
 
 Other Important Industries.~The city possesses over 
 1400 manufacturing establishments ; among them a ther- 
 mometer plant, an optical works and a manufactory of 
 photographic supplies, each one of which is the largest 
 establishment of its kind in the world. Other important 
 commodities produced in large quantities are steel tanks, 
 paper boxes, buttons, lubricating oil, canned fruit and 
 vegetables, cider and vinegar, telephones, beer, furniture, 
 carnages, lithographic materials, perfumes, picture 
 frames, etc. 
 
 Table of Industries. 
 
 Agricultural and Dairy. 
 
 Agricultural Implements 
 
 Cream Separators 
 
 Fertilizer 
 
 Nurserymen 
 
 Seedsmen 
 
 Sprayers 
 
 Stanchions 
 
 No. of Firms. 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 26 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Amusement 
 
 Billiard Tables 
 
 Bowling Alley Balls and Ten Pins 
 Fishing Table 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 'Under this classification there is some repetition in stating 
 the number of firms. See publications of Chamber of Com- 
 merce. 
 
 till 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 Books, Paper, Printing and Supplies. 
 
 No. of Firms. 
 
 Blank Books 5 
 
 Blue Printing Machinery i 
 
 Book Binding 9 
 
 Die Stamipng 3 
 
 Electrotype Foundries 4 
 
 Engravers 26 
 
 Paste 3 
 
 Printers 85 
 
 Printers' Composition i 
 
 Printers' Rollers 2 
 
 Printers' Supplies 2 
 
 Publishers, etc 34 
 
 Sales Books i 
 
 Building Materials and Supplies. 
 
 Architectural Iron Works 7 
 
 Cabinet Makers 4 
 
 Cement and Concrete Blocks 12 
 
 Concrete Roofing Tiles 
 
 Conduit Pipe 
 
 Cornices (metal) 
 
 Cut Stone 
 
 Drain Pipe 
 
 Elevators 5 
 
 Elevator Doors i 
 
 Fence (iron) 4 
 
 Fire Escapes 3 
 
 Floor Tile 2 
 
 Flue Linings i 
 
 Furnaces 5 
 
 6 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 Grille Work ^"["'^r"" 
 
 Interior Wood Work 22 
 
 Iron Columns 
 
 Locks 
 
 2 
 
 Mail Chutes 
 
 Mantles, Grates and Tilings ^ 
 
 Marble Workers .....!.!... 5 
 
 Masons' Supplies ^ * \ 
 
 Mouldings ^ 
 
 Paints 
 
 Plaster ...'.!........ ^ 
 
 Radiators ^ 
 
 Roofing 
 
 Sash Balances and Locks j 
 
 Sewer Pipe 
 
 Sidewalks i 
 
 Structural Steel 
 
 Varnishes 
 
 Ventilators and Skylights !.......* 2 
 
 Weather Strips 
 
 Wire Screens (door and window) .!..... i 
 
 Chemical Products. 
 
 Barbers' Supplies 
 
 Disinfectants ^ 
 
 Fire Extinguishers 
 
 Fireworks 
 
 Germicides and Insecticides . 
 
 Manufacturing Chemists c 
 
 Medicine 
 
 22 
 
 Metal Hardening Solutions " * j 
 
 7 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 Q.< No. of Firms. 
 
 Perfumes ^ 
 
 Polishers 
 
 Toilet Specialties 7^ 
 
 Cutlery and Tools. 
 Cutlery 
 
 Edge Tolls *..'.*.!.!!!!!!!. ^ 
 
 Saws 
 
 Tools 
 
 5 
 
 Electricity and Gas, 
 
 Electrical Apparatus g 
 
 Electric Power 
 
 Electric Motors . 
 
 Gas ' '^ '.'.'.','/,'.[]' '. ' 
 
 Gas Applances 
 
 Gas Engines 
 
 Gas Machines ... 
 
 I 
 
 Founders. 
 Brass Founders ^ 
 
 Iron Founders . 
 
 7 
 
 Glass. 
 
 Cut Glass 
 
 Glass Workers ^ 
 
 Glass Manufacturers 
 
 Mirrors 
 
 Stained and Art Glass ^ 
 
 8 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 Household Equipment. 
 
 T» J ,-r ^°- ^^ Firms. 
 Beds, Mattresses, Supplies 3 
 
 Cans, Pails, Tubs j 
 
 Carpets and Rugs ^ 
 
 Chairs 
 
 Couches 
 
 Draperies, Curtains, etc j 
 
 Furniture 
 
 Furniture Supplies * ] ] ^ . 
 
 Hassocks 
 
 Iron Clothing Posts j 
 
 Ironing Boards j 
 
 Kitchen Apparatus - 
 
 Lamps 
 
 Refrigerators 
 
 Silverware 
 
 Stoves 
 
 Vacuimi Cleaners - 
 
 Washboards 
 
 Washing Machines j 
 
 Window and Door Screens j 
 
 Household Supplies. 
 
 Bakers 
 
 Baking Powder ^ 
 
 Bluing '.'.'.'.'.'.]'.]] 
 
 Brewers 
 
 _. 10 
 
 Brewers' Supplies ^ 
 
 Brooms 
 
 9 
 
 Brushes 
 
 Canned Goods 
 
 9 
 

 INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 No. of Firms. 
 
 Cider and Vinegar 3 
 
 Confectioners 21 
 
 Distillers 3 
 
 Evaporated Fruits i 
 
 Flavoring Extracts 12 
 
 Flour II 
 
 Food Products 7 
 
 Fruit Products i 
 
 Ice (artificial) 2 
 
 Ice Cream 9 
 
 Jams 3 
 
 Ketchups, etc i 
 
 Liquors, Wines, etc 2 
 
 Macaroni 2 
 
 Peanut Butter i 
 
 Pork Products i 
 
 Potato Chips 2 
 
 Sausages 6 
 
 Soap 4 
 
 Soda and Mineral Waters, Grape Juice, Ginger, 
 
 Beer 12 
 
 Spices I 
 
 Tissue Paper i 
 
 Leather, Rubber Goods, Furs. 
 
 Fur Tanners i 
 
 Leather Specialties 4 
 
 Rubber Goods 3 
 
 Machinery and Supplies. 
 
 Babbit Metal 3 
 
 Barrel Machinery 2 
 
 10 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 No. of Firms. 
 Belting ^ 
 
 Boilers c 
 
 Boiler Compound 2 
 
 Concrete Machinery ^ 
 
 Dishwashing Machinery j 
 
 Evaporating Machinery j 
 
 Hoisting and Carrying Devices i 
 
 Laundry Machinery and Supplies 2 
 
 Lubricating Devices j 
 
 Machinery .y 
 
 Machine Tools - 
 
 Machinists' Supplies 3 
 
 Pattern and Model Makers 7 
 
 Pumps ^ 
 
 Woodworking Machinery j 
 
 Merchandising Apparatus, Devices, Supplies 
 
 Advertising Novelties c 
 
 Badges 
 
 Calendars 
 
 Celluoloid Novelties j 
 
 Display Fixtures . 
 
 Office Furniture ^ 
 
 Office Specialties j^ 
 
 Show Cards 
 
 Soda Fountains j 
 
 Soda Fountain Requisites j 
 
 Stores and Office Fixtures 7 
 
 Vending Machines j 
 
 Metal Work. 
 
 Ball Bearings 
 
 11 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 No. of Firms. 
 
 Brass and Copper Goods 2 
 
 Drop Forgings i 
 
 Gold Leaf i 
 
 Hardware Specialties 12 
 
 Metal Specialties, Supplies 5 
 
 Screws i 
 
 Sheet Metal Work 14 
 
 Smelters and Refiners i 
 
 Solder I 
 
 Steel Balls i 
 
 Wire Goods 3 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 Abstracting Machines i 
 
 Awnings, Tents, Flags 3 
 
 Barber Chairs i 
 
 Charcoal 2 
 
 Check Protectors 2 
 
 Church Furniture 2 
 
 Cistern and Tanks 3 
 
 College Seals i 
 
 Commtmion Outfits i 
 
 Crayon I 
 
 Drafting Furniture i 
 
 Dust Collectors, Blower Pipes i 
 
 Faucets 3 
 
 Inks 2 
 
 Ladders 2 
 
 Lanterns 6 
 
 Parasolls and Umbrellas i 
 
 Picture Frame Mouldings 10 
 
 12 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 No. of Firms. 
 
 Pins I 
 
 Pipes 2 
 
 Pipe Cleaners and Stems 5 
 
 Poultry Coops i 
 
 Railway Signals i 
 
 Railway Specialties i 
 
 Rubber Stamps, Stencils, etc 4 
 
 Scales, Trucks, etc i 
 
 Statuary 2 
 
 Tacks I 
 
 Tallow 2 
 
 Telephones j 
 
 Thread 3 
 
 Tobacco 3 
 
 Typewriter Supplies 16 
 
 Wood Carvers 6 
 
 Mortuary 
 
 Caskets 2 
 
 Casket Trimmings i 
 
 Mausoleums i 
 
 Monuments i 
 
 Undertakers' Supplies 2 
 
 Musical Instruments 
 
 Musical Instruments 4 
 
 Pianos 4 
 
 Piano Cases 2 
 
 Piano Players 2 
 
 U 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 Packages and Materials 
 
 No. of Firms. 
 Paper Bags 2 
 
 Barrels ^ 
 
 Baskets o 
 
 Boxes — Fibre 2 
 
 Boxes — Paper 21 
 
 Boxes — Wood 7 
 
 Box Machinery a 
 
 Egg Carriers j 
 
 Egg Trays i 
 
 Suit Cases ^ 
 
 Traveling Bags, etc 3 
 
 Trunks 2 
 
 Personal Apparel. 
 
 Buttons -* 
 
 Caps ^ 
 
 Cloaks and Suits ^ 
 
 Clothing 2% 
 
 Cloth Sponging Machinery i 
 
 Coat Pads j 
 
 Collars and Cuffs 2 
 
 Corsets - 
 
 Feathers and Ostrich Plumes 2 
 
 Furriers jq 
 
 Gloves J 
 
 Hair Goods j 
 
 Hats 7 
 
 Hooks and Eyes (garment) i 
 
 Jewelers, Engravers 13 
 
 14 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 No. of Firms. 
 
 Knit Goods i 
 
 Neckwear 5 
 
 Regalias and Uniforms 3 
 
 Shirts 5 
 
 Shoe and Boot Patterns, Lasts, Tools 8 
 
 Shoe Machinery 3 
 
 Shoe Manufacturers 48 
 
 Shoe Racks 2 
 
 Shoe Supplies 12 
 
 Specialties i 
 
 Tailors' Accessories I 
 
 Trousers, Overalls i 
 
 Underwear 3 
 
 Woolen Goods i 
 
 Photographic Apparatus and Supplies. 
 
 Cameras 5 
 
 Fire Proof Film i 
 
 Photographic Supplies 13 
 
 Special Photographic Apparatus 2 
 
 Plating and Stamping. 
 
 Nickel Plated Goods 10 
 
 Perforated Metals 3 
 
 Stamping 3 
 
 Stencil Cutters i 
 
 Scientific Apparatus and Supplies. 
 
 Barometers i 
 
 Drafting Instruments i 
 
 Lens, Crystal i 
 
 15 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 No. of Firms. 
 
 Lens— Grinders (prescription) c 
 
 Microscopes * ? 
 
 Natural History Supplies and Apparatus i 
 
 Optical Goods * * - 
 
 Optical Instruments ] ^ 
 
 Surgical, Orthopedic, and Medicinal Supplies, 
 
 Arch Supports 
 
 Artificial Limbs * * * ^ 
 
 Deformity Appliances [ ^ 
 
 Dental Chairs * * * ^ 
 
 Dental Engines - 
 
 Scientific Instruments, not Otherwise Specified. .* i 
 
 Sterilizers and Bacteriological Apparatus i 
 
 Surgical Instruments j 
 
 Truss and Abdominal Supporters 3 
 
 Thermometers ^ 
 
 Thermostats j 
 
 Transportation Devices and Supplies 
 Automobiles 
 
 Automobile Accessories and Supplies 15 
 
 Automobile Motors \ j 
 
 Baby Carriages and Go-Carts * 2 
 
 Boat Builders 
 
 Carriages .....!.... 10 
 
 Carriage and Hearse Trimmings \.\\.\\ 3 
 
 Carriage Washers * ^ 
 
 Car Wheels * 
 
 Fire Apparatus ' ^ 
 
 Harness ' ^^ 
 
 23 
 
 16 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 No. of Firms. 
 
 Head Lights 4 
 
 Hearses i 
 
 Horse Collars 3 
 
 Wagons 10 
 
 Whips I 
 
 Factory Conditions. — The city is essentially a fac- 
 tory town and presents a noteworthy example of the 
 possibilities and advantages of factory distribution as 
 opposed to the factory concentration which is respon- 
 sible for the unsanitary, ugly and congested factory 
 sections in many of our industrial centers. The fac- 
 tories are scattered about the city and frequently are 
 surrounded by well-kept lawns; in many instances they 
 are in close proximity to elegant residence sections. For 
 example, adjacent to the campus of The University of 
 Rochester on the north and east is a row of large, mod- 
 em factories, but a few blocks from, and running par- 
 allel with, East Avenue, the wealthiest residence section 
 of the city. Of the many industrial establishments with 
 modern facilities conspiring for the health, well-being 
 and general convenience of the employees, the city has 
 reason to be proud. 
 
 These favorable observations, however, are not in- 
 tended to conceal the fact that there are conditions, 
 even in Rochester, which it would be better to improve ; 
 for on the Genesee (which, although it might be the 
 prettiest, is in many places the most unsightly and malo- 
 dorous, section of the city) are factory buildings and 
 basements in which distinctly bad conditions have been 
 known to prevail. 
 
 Labor Force. — The employees for the most part have 
 
 17 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 their own separate houses, enclosed by a small lawn and 
 located in various parts of the city, a condition greatly 
 facilitated by an efficient electric-car service. Of the 
 city's 75,000 wage earners, over 48,000 work in factories.^ 
 
 Men in factories 31,637 
 
 Youths (16 to 18) 972 
 
 Boys ( 14 to 16) 316 
 
 Women in factories 14,691 
 
 Girls (14 to 16) 450 
 
 Total 48,066 
 
 In the percentage of its population employed in shops and 
 factories the city ranks third in the state/ 
 
 The following table indicates the general distribution 
 of labor.® 
 
 Metals, Machines, Conveyances 14,986 
 
 Clothing, Millinery, Laundry 12,121 
 
 Leather and Rubber Goods 8,912 
 
 Wood Manufactures 4,596 
 
 Food, Liquors and Tobacco 4,404 
 
 Printing and Paper Goods 3,294 
 
 Stone, Clay and Glass Products 820 
 
 Chemicals, Oils and Paints 794 
 
 Textiles 7^6 
 
 Water, Light and Power 280 
 
 Paper and Pulp 25 
 
 6 See Publications of Rochester Chamber of Commerce, 1912. 
 ^ Article, as yet unpublished, by Dr. Paul Moore Strayer. 
 « See Publications of Rochester Chamber, etc., 1912. 
 
 18 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 This table serves to illustrate the diversity of the city's 
 industries, which makes it possible for labor to find em- 
 ployment the year round. "The industries of Rochester 
 are 60 per cent more diversified than the average con- 
 dition of the country." ® 
 
 A large percentage (about 31 or 32 per cent) of the 
 female population are breadwinners.^^ The main indus- 
 tries employing women are as follows: 
 
 Tailoring establishments 
 
 Boots and shoes 
 
 Canning and preserving 
 
 Optical and photographic apparatus 
 
 Laundry 
 
 Dressmaking 
 
 Buttonmaking 
 
 Chemical and drugs 
 
 Paper boxes and tubes. 
 
 It is claimed that the ratio of skilled to unskilled labor 
 is three to one. That the labor force is of unusually high- 
 grade character is borne out by a study of the population, 
 a condition largely due to the character of the indus- 
 tries of the city. A spirit of friendliness exists between 
 employer and employee which is unusual for this age of 
 economic and class competition. The situation in the city 
 with reference to organized labor will be considered in 
 following chapters. 
 
 » Ibid. 
 
 *o Paper by Dr. Strayer. 
 
 19 
 
 4 1 
 
 1 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Growth and Extent of Trade-Unionism 
 
 Rochester trade-unionism has had its ups and downs; 
 but looked at in perspective, it gives ample evidence of 
 a slow but steady growth, as a result of which over 
 15,000 workers out of a wage-earning population of 75,- 
 000 are at present organized. Among the unions which 
 early figured in this growth are Typographical Union No. 
 15 (i860), the Cigar Makers' Union (1879), the pres- 
 ent Cutters' Union (1891), and Local Union No. 82 of 
 Boot and Shoe Workers International Union (1892) 
 During the prosperous decade subsequent to 1895, imion 
 organization in the city became exceedingly active. It is 
 apt to be the case that, in periods when wages are good 
 and places in which to work are plentiful, workers be- 
 come emboldened to make more strenuous efforts to bet- 
 ter their conditions of labor; while in hard times, they 
 dare not risk the loss of their positions and income by 
 antagonizing employers. The extent of the "union re- 
 vival" at this time may be indicated by noting the variety 
 of trades in which new unions suddenly sprang up. In 
 1896, the steam engineers organized; in 1898, the barbers; 
 in 1899, machinists, bartenders, waiters, and over one 
 thousand street laborers who had called a strike ; in 1900, 
 laundry workers; in looi, paper hangers, metal workers 
 and milkmen ; in 1902, metal polishers and brass work- 
 ers entered the union ranks,— in fact, the number of 
 unions increased from 41 with a membership of 4,217 in 
 
 20 
 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 1897 to 103 with a membership of 13,165 in 1903. There 
 are at present about y; unions in the city with a total of 
 over 15,000 members. The following from the report of 
 the New York State Department of Labor ^ indicates 
 the general progress of unionism in Rochester since 1897. 
 
 Year No. of Unions Men 
 
 1897 
 1898 
 1899 
 1900 
 1901 
 1902 
 1903 
 1904 
 
 1905 
 1906 
 
 1907 
 
 1908 
 
 1909 
 
 191 1 
 
 41 
 42 
 
 51 
 
 71 
 
 85 
 
 93 
 103 
 
 98 
 
 89 
 
 87 
 
 84 
 
 77 
 
 75 
 
 77 
 
 4,144 
 
 4,475 
 7,308 
 
 7,429 
 
 8,999 
 11,096 
 
 12,598 
 11,696 
 13,530 
 13,972 
 15,128 
 
 12,530 
 12,550 
 
 Women 
 
 73 
 
 48 
 
 13 
 
 III 
 
 284 
 
 371 
 
 567 
 
 559 
 401 
 
 322 
 
 268 
 
 324 
 348 
 
 Total 
 4,217 
 
 4,523 
 
 7,321 
 
 7,540 
 
 9,283 
 
 11,467 
 
 13,165 
 
 12,255 
 
 13,931 
 14,294 
 
 15,396 
 12,854 
 12,898 
 15,078 » 
 
 The majority of these unions are affiliated with the 
 American Federation of Labor. In the early nineties the 
 Knights of Labor had several important unions in the 
 city, but these have nearly all disappeared. The Eng- 
 lish organization of Amalgamated Carpenters has a Roch- 
 ester union which works in perfect harmony with the 
 local organization of Brotherhood Carpenters of the 
 American Federation. The local unions at present affi- 
 liated with the American Federation of Labor are as 
 follows : * 
 
 1 Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1909. p 38 
 *Ibid., 1911. ' ^ 
 
 ^Rochester Labor Journal, April 5, 1912. 
 
 21 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 Architectural Iron Workers 
 
 Barbers 
 
 Bartenders 
 
 Bakers 
 
 Bridge and Structural Iron Workers 
 
 Brewery Workers 
 
 Brewery Workers 
 
 Boot and Shoe Workers 
 
 Boiler Makers and Iron Shop Builders 
 
 Block Pavers and Curb Stone Setters 
 
 Carpenters and Joiners 
 
 Carpenters and Joiners 
 
 Carpenters and Joiners 
 
 Coopers 
 
 Coopers 
 
 Clothing Cutters 
 
 Cigar Makers 
 
 Electrical Workers 
 
 Electrical Workers 
 
 Garment Workers 
 
 Glass Bottle Blowers 
 
 Horseshoers 
 
 Hod Carriers and Building Laborers 
 
 Hod Carriers and Building Laborers 
 
 Hod Carriers and Building Laborers 
 
 Hoisting and Portable Engineers 
 
 Ice Handlers and Peddlers 
 
 Iron Molders 
 
 Iron Molders 
 
 Journeymen Tailors 
 
 Lathers 
 
 Lithographic Press Feeders 
 
 Millwrights 
 
 22 
 
 No. 115 
 No. 246 
 No. 171 
 No. 14 
 No. 33 
 No. 74 
 No. 156 
 No. 15 
 No. 229 
 
 No. ^2 
 No. 179 
 No. 231 
 No. 24 
 No. 68 
 No. 136 
 No. 5 
 No. 86 
 No. 44 
 No. 14 
 No. 26 
 No. 44 
 German 
 Italian 
 Polish 
 No. 483 
 No. 398 
 No. II 
 No. 12 
 No. 259 
 No. 14 
 No. 7 
 No. 909 
 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 Machinists 
 
 Metal Polishers 
 
 Meat Cutters 
 
 Musicians 
 
 Painters and Decorators 
 
 Paper Hangers 
 
 Pattern Makers' Association 
 
 Photo Engravers 
 
 Plumbers 
 
 Sheet Metal Workers 
 
 Stove Mounters 
 
 Stationary Firemen 
 
 Steam Engineers 
 
 Street Railway Employees, Division 
 
 Stained Glass Workers 
 
 Stone Cutters Association 
 
 Typographical Union 
 
 Typographia 
 
 Theatrical Stage Employees 
 
 Tobacco Workers 
 
 Truck Drivers 
 
 Truck Painters and Stainers 
 
 Upholsterers 
 
 Waiters Alliance 
 
 Wood Finishers and Polishers 
 
 Wood Carvers 
 
 No. 93 
 No. 113 
 No. 95 
 No. 66 
 No. 150 
 No. 286 
 
 No. 22 
 No. 13 
 No. 46 
 No. 39 
 No. 37 
 No. 71 
 No. 282 
 No. 47 
 
 No. 15 
 No. 5 
 
 No. 23 
 
 No. 304 
 
 No. 35 
 No. 763 
 No. 235 
 
 Numerical Strength of Organized and Unorganised 
 Labor by Groups. — The numerical strength of organized 
 and unorganized labor is indicated approximately by 
 the following table. The figures for the total number 
 of laborers in each group are taken from the publication 
 of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, 191 2, and the 
 
 23 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 figures for the number of organized laborers in each are 
 derived from the report of the New York State Bureau 
 of Labor Statistics, 1909.* 
 
 Total No. No. Or- P.C. 
 Group. in Group ganized Organ- 
 ized. 
 Metals, Machines and Convey- 
 ances 14,986 1,705 11.37 
 
 Clothing, Millinery and Laun- 
 
 <lry 12,121 155 12.78 
 
 Leather and Rubber 8,912 1,250 14.02 
 
 Wood Manufactures 4,596 496 10.79 
 
 Food, Liquors and Tobacco. . 4,404 758 17.21 
 
 Printing and Paper Goods 3,294 238 7.22 
 
 Stone, Clay and Glass Manu- 
 factures 820 82 10.00 
 
 Other Trades 25,000 8,214 3175 
 
 75,00 12,898 17.19 
 
 Of the 8,214 unionists in the last group, 4,144 were in 
 the building trades; 2,142, in the transportation trades; 
 and 1,928 in other miscellaneous trades and vocations. 
 
 Central Trades and Labor Council, and Building Trades 
 Council. — These Councils are the clearing houses for the 
 various trade-unions of the city and are affiliated with 
 the American Federation of Labor. From a publication 
 of 1897, entitled Rochester Trades Assembly and Build- 
 ing Trades Council, Illustrated History, is taken the fol- 
 lowing extract which sets forth the general history and 
 
 * Union membership since 1909 has increased from 12898 to 
 15,078. 
 
 U 
 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 structure of the Councils and at the same time gives 
 characteristic expression to the aims and sentiments of 
 organized labor in Rochester: "The Rochester Trades 
 Assembly and Building Trades Council were originally 
 patterned after Central Bodies in other cities,^ there being 
 two distinct sections, the Building Trades section and 
 Miscellaneous section. . . . Matters other than Trade 
 Unionism having crept into the Central Body caused its 
 disruption. The different local unions from then until 
 the organization of the Rochester Trades Assembly and 
 Building Trades Council were left to shift for them- 
 selves without any local head or Central Body. All pro- 
 tection was secured through the respective national un- 
 ions. . . . 
 
 "In order that both bodies should work harmoniously 
 together it was decided that a stated number of delegates 
 from one body should attend the meetings of the other 
 body. Up to the present writing this plan has proved 
 very successful and it can readily be seen that a con- 
 nection closer than this among a large number of unions, 
 whose interests at times are divided should not be ex- 
 pected under the present circumstances. It is to be 
 hoped that the time will come when all organized labor 
 shall unite under one flag for one purpose and with the 
 determination that labor of all kinds must and shall be 
 organized." 
 
 « This evidently does not take account of the following facts : 
 "Soon after these local unions came together in city central 
 bodies or 'trades' assemblies', the new name for the 'trades' 
 unions' of the thirties. The first one was organized at Roches- 
 ter, N. Y., in March, 1863, and thirty of them were organized 
 before the end of 1865." Commons and Andrews, Documentary 
 History of American Industrial Society, Vol. IX. p. 23. 
 
 25 
 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 Each union in good standing may send three delegates 
 to the Trades Assembly, which is now called the Roch- 
 ester Central Trades and Labor Council and holds fort- 
 nightly sessions at the Reynolds Arcade. Besides these 
 two councils, there are at present in the city an Allied 
 Printing Trades Council and a metal Trades Council; 
 there has also been organized a Woman's Union Label 
 League. Funds are now being raised for the erection 
 of a Labor Temple where the various organizations in 
 the interest of labor may find a permanent home. 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Strikes and Their Significance 
 
 The economic principle has become quite generally 
 estabished that the prevalence of strikes bears a close 
 relation to the industrial prosperity of the times, and the 
 total number of strikes and percentage of successful 
 strikes vary more or less in direct proportion to this 
 prosperity. The reasons for this are not hard to under- 
 stand. The laborer chooses a time of prosperity in 
 which to block the wheels of industry; because (i) at 
 this time, the Necessities of life are easily obtained and 
 opportunities to work are most numerous, and (2) at 
 Uiis time, the employer is least willing to shut down his 
 factory and, therefore, most apt to accede to the de- 
 mands of his employees. In hard times, jobs are scarce 
 and the necessaries of life, difficult to acquire; conse- 
 quently, the laborer does not dare to risk the loss of 
 his position by striking. In fact, employers frequehtly 
 are only too glad of an excuse to close their factories 
 at such times. 
 
 This principle is well illustrated by the history of 
 Rochester's strikes for the twenty-three years, 1887-1900 • 
 of 163 strikes,^ occurring in this period, just about 50 
 
 coui?fi ""'"''"'"^'"'led «11 the strikes of which the writer 
 
 Board of J7' • ^'!, *' ^''""^'^ "' ** ^ew York State 
 iJoard of Mediation and Arbitration. 
 
 27 
 

 INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 per cent succeeded wholly or in part ; and 50 per ce|nt 
 failed to gain the desired end of the strikers. Accord- 
 ingly, taking 50 per cent as the normal percentage of 
 success for the city's strikes, let us see how the periods 
 in which they have been most numerous and successful 
 have been the periods of greatest prosperity. 
 
 In 1890 occurred an unusual number of strikes; 53 
 per cent of them were successful and 15 per cent partially 
 successful. In other words, the percentage of strikes 
 attaining to at least some degree of success was 68 per 
 cent or 18 per cent above the average. Business at this 
 time was fairly prosperous. But in the following years, 
 1892- 1894, which, it will be remembered, were fraught 
 with great industrial disaster, the average number of 
 strikes per year appreciably decreased. Only 36 1-3 per 
 cent of the strikes of this period could boast of any 
 success at all, a drop of 13 2-3 per cent from the normal 
 percentage of success. As the industrial world became 
 more settled, we find that from 1895 on, the average 
 number of strikes per year begins to increase. This in- 
 crease reaches its high-water mark in the five prosperous 
 years, 1899-1903. Of the strikes during these five years, 
 59 per cent (9 per cent above the normal) were to 
 the advantage of the strikers. In the years following 
 (1905-1908) we once more come upon a business de- 
 pression which culminated in the panic of 1907. During 
 this period, only one-half as many strikes took place 
 as in the preceding period (1899-1903), and only 35 1-2 
 per cent of these disputes were successful; a decrease, 
 this time, of 14 1-2 per cent from the average standard 
 of success. In a following table these conditions are 
 
 28 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 compared with the average conditions of the country 
 at large,2 for the same periods. 
 
 Such in rough outline has been the proportional in- 
 crease and decrease in the number of Rochester's strikes, 
 and in the percentage of their success. Factors other 
 than the general prosperity of the times may have had 
 their effect, but the consistency of the relations as in- 
 dicated cannot be overlooked as significant of the fact 
 that prosperous times afford a strike stimulus. The 
 laboring man has learned to take advantage of the propi- 
 tious moment for bettering his condition and the Roches- 
 ter laborer has been no exception to the general rule. 
 
 The Causes of the Strikes 
 
 Increase of Wages.— In the causes of strikes 
 Rochester seems to reflect the average conditions of the 
 country to a very noticeable degree; of the five leading 
 causes, the order of importance for the nation^ is the same 
 as for the city, e. g. : the demand for higher wages has 
 been provocative of more strikes than any other single 
 cause both locally and nationally. The strikes for this 
 cause have decreased in number in the city since 1904, 
 
 « All national statistics referred to in this chapter are for the 
 years, 1881-1905. The national percentages are based on the 
 number of establishments in which the strikes succeeded par- 
 tially succeeded, and failed. The writer's percentages are based 
 on the strikes without reference to the establishments involved. 
 A^in, It may be noted that the years for which the national 
 and local statistics are compiled are not wholly identical See 
 the Twenty-fiirst Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor 
 1906. ' 
 
 » National statistics for causes of strikes (based on establish- 
 ments involved) refer to strikes due solely to each cause men- 
 tioned. 
 
 29 
 
II 
 
 INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 a tendency explained partially at least by two facts : ( I ) 
 The standard of wages has been raised sufficiently to 
 lessen the urgent demand of the laborers, a supposition 
 borne out by the fact that Rochester employees receive 
 fairly high wages as a general rule. (2) The employers 
 have become more ready to concede to reasonable de- 
 mands for increased pay. Thus, in the past number of 
 years, there have been wage increases among laborers, 
 printers, street-railway men, and others, with almost no 
 attendant trouble. 
 
 Concerning Recognition of the Union and Union Rules. 
 — The second leading cause of strikes concerns the recog- 
 nition of the union and union rules, among which we 
 may note the principle of the closed shop. Even the 
 printers' establishments, frequently closed because of the 
 efficient organization of the trade, are, to a great extent, 
 open ; and the building trades, likewise frequently having 
 the closed shop, have not gained a completely closed 
 shop in the city. 
 
 For Reduction of Hours. — With reference to the third 
 cause, concerning reduction of hours, it is significant to 
 note that the eight- or nine-hour day is now quite gen- 
 erally enjoyed by workmen. Of forty- four imions re- 
 garding which special inquiry was made by the writer, 
 twenty- four had the eight-hour day; seven, the nine- 
 hour day; five, a week of from forty-eight to fifty- four 
 hours, while only eight unions had longer hours. 
 
 Against Reduction of Wages. — In the majority of cases 
 failure to withstand reduction of wages in the city has 
 been on the part of factory girls, generally unorganized. 
 
 The Sympathetic Strike. — The issue most uniformly 
 disastrous to the laboring man is that of the sympathetic 
 strike. In Rochester these strikes have generally failed. 
 
 30 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 Four-fifths of them usually fail according to national 
 statistics. Labor, as a whole, in city or nation, is not yet 
 enough of a unit to effectively wield the sympathetic 
 strike. 
 
 Employers' Agreements.— An issue which Rochester 
 labor has been most uniformly successful in defending 
 has been the refusal by employees to sign agreements sub- 
 mitted by employers. In five-sixths of these cases the 
 union men have forced the employer to withdraw his 
 demand. These strikes have comprised four per cent of 
 the total number. 
 
 Piecework. — Next to sympathetic strikes, piecework 
 disputes have been most unfortunate in their outcome 
 for local labor. While comprising but a little over two 
 per cent of the city's strikes, three-fourths of them have 
 failed. 
 
 Other Causes. — The remaining 18 per cent of Roches- 
 ter's strikes have been for various causes : 
 
 (i) In behalf of some individual. 
 
 (2) Concerning jurisdictional disagreements. 
 
 (3) Against some individuals. 
 
 (4) Concerning change in method or time of payment. 
 
 (5) Because of employers' failure to recognize a boy- 
 cott. 
 
 (6) Against use of certain machinery. 
 
 (7) For payment of an arrear in wages. 
 
 (8) Because of disagreement involving an apprentice. 
 
 (9) Over disagreement as to proper measurement of 
 type. 
 
 (10) Because of poor power curtailing piecework 
 earnings. 
 
 31 
 
II 
 
 INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 (ii) Against increase of hours of labor. 
 
 (12) For the aboHtion of night work. 
 
 (13) Because of rumor. 
 
 Strikes According to Trades 
 
 Building Trades.— Tht building trades have had 
 more strikes than any other department of labor in both 
 Rochester and the United States. The following trades 
 have called 18 per cent of the strikes of the city: Carpen- 
 ters, painters, plumbers, plasterers, stone cutters, stone 
 masons, tile workers, bridge and structural iron workers, 
 and sheet metal workers. Labor has succeeded in 79 per 
 cent of these strikes and gained a partial victory in 7 per 
 cent, a very unusual percentage of success for Rochester 
 trades. Nationally, these trades have attained to com- 
 plete success in 53 per cent of their strikes and partial 
 success in 17 per cent. They have usually met with 
 greater success than other trades in their strikes for the 
 following reasons: (i) The work of the building laborer 
 permits of effective standardization and hence effective 
 organization. (2) Working under a contract with a 
 time limit makes employers more ready to grant work- 
 men's demands. (3) The products of the building con- 
 tractor, vi2., buildings, are not moveable conmiodities, 
 and are not subject to cutthroat competition of other 
 cities ; hence, the employers of a given locality can grant 
 their employees' demands and shift the incidence of 
 added cost upon the customer. 
 
 Shoe JVorkers.—Next in number have been the dis- 
 putes of the shoeworkers whose strikes aggregate 14.7 per 
 cent of all those in the city. This trade has completely 
 failed in nearly one-half of its strikes. The industry is a 
 difficult one in which to standardize the work. 
 
 32 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 Printers— The printers and linotypists have occasioned 
 5 1-2 per cent of the strikes of the city, winning com- 
 plete or partial success in 45 per cent of them. Import- 
 ant issues of the printers have been the closed shop and 
 the shorter workday, the former of which has met with 
 only partial success. The eight-hour day, however, is 
 now quite generally enjoyed by the trade. 
 
 None of the strikes of the following trades have ex- 
 ceeded five per cent of the total number of strikes in 
 the city for the years, 1887- 1909. 
 
 Machinists.— Although the machinists' strikes, of 
 which about one-half have failed, involve the closed 
 shop, wage increase, and a shorter workday as important 
 causes, it is the piecework difficulty which has been 
 peculiar to the trade and has generally been the greatest 
 source of strife in Rochester as elsewhere. Ever since 
 the organization of this class of workers in England, 
 "piecework rates" have been their "bugbeatv" Compar- 
 atively few pieces of material upon which they work 
 are exactly the same ; hence, the constant higgling of the 
 employer and employee over the pay which they think 
 each separate piece of work should command, with 
 endless trouble and frequently a strike as the conse- 
 quence. 
 
 Iron Molders.—These workmen have been successful 
 in the majority of their strikes. 
 
 Clothing Workers.— Oi the strikes of the clothing 
 workers 71 per cent have failed. This craft has been one 
 of the most conspicuously least successful of any of the 
 ^bor organizations of the city. Its percentage of com- 
 plete success nationally (70.94 per cent) is as great as its 
 percentage of failure in Rochester. A more detailed 
 
 33 
 
 
 i 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 study of the garment workers is given in succeeding 
 chapters. 
 
 Factory Girls.— The strikes of girls in mitten, hosiery, 
 box, cigarette, and button factories have failed almost 
 invariably; such is the evidence of the general inability 
 of the girls to win their strikes. Against reduction of 
 wages they seem to be helpless. This condition is ex- 
 plained largely by the following facts: (i) There is an 
 over abundant supply of this class of labor. (2) Girl 
 workers receive partial support at home. (3) Many 
 leave the shop after the marriageable age. (4) The girls 
 have no efficient labor organization and seem to take little 
 interest in such. 
 
 The above are the trades in which the greatest num- 
 ber of strikes have occurred. We see that the building 
 trades have been most successful while the clothing work- 
 ers have been among the most unsuccessful. 
 
 ••••••••a 
 
 Strikes of Unorganised Labor. — Of the 163 strikes to 
 which reference has been made, 85 per cent were those 
 of organized labor and 15 per cent those of unorganized 
 labor. Of the strikes of the former, 40 per cent suc- 
 ceeded wholly, 18 per cent partly, and 42 per cent failed; 
 of those of the latter, nearly all failed. In other words, 
 whereas trade-unionists succeeded wholly or in part in 58 
 per cent of their strikes, non-unionists lost nearly all of 
 theirs. These figures become more significant in viev/ of 
 the fact that of Rochester's 230,000 inhabitants, 75,000 
 are working people of whom only about 15,000 * belong to 
 unions. 
 
 In the country in general 65 per cent of the establish- 
 
 * Report of N. Y. State Bureau of Labor, 1911. 
 
 34 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 ments, in which labor organization has ordered the 
 strikes, have forced entire or partial compliance with 
 their demands; while only 44 per cent of the establish- 
 ments in which the strikes were not ordered by labor or- 
 ganization, have gained similar success. Organized labor 
 has ordered the strikes in 90.34 per cent of the total num- 
 ber of establishments in which strikes have occurred. 
 
 Status of Organised Labor in Rochester. — We may 
 conclude in view of the comparative success and failure 
 of the strikes of organized and unorganized labor in the 
 city that trade-unionism in Rochester has demonstrated 
 itself to be a powerful factor in bettering the condi- 
 tions of the laboring man. Trade-unionism has borne the 
 brunt of the struggle in the vast majority of cases, and 
 unorganized labor has, to a large extent, reaped the bene- 
 fits of the reduced hours of labor and higher wage 
 standards established. It is affirmed in some cases that 
 a premium has been placed upon nonunion labor in op- 
 position to unionism's advancement; but, if this is so, 
 the increased remuneration, although enjoyed by the 
 nonunion man, is none the less due to the efforts of or- 
 ganized labor. 
 
 On the other hand, the history of strikes in the city 
 would seem to indicate that unionism has failed to achieve 
 the success in Rochester that it has in many other places 
 throughout the country. Whereas only 50 per cent of the 
 disputes in this city have met with any degree of suc- 
 cess, national statistics show that, throughout New York 
 State, 75 per cent, and, throughout the nation, 63 per cent 
 or all strikes have attained the partial or complete realiza- 
 tion of their purpose.** 
 
 « Twenty-first Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor 
 1906, pp. 80, 83. 
 
 35 
 
ri 
 
 INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 The following conditions are largely responsible for 
 whatever lack of progress trade-unionism has shown in 
 the city : ( i ) The employers are noted for their general 
 fairness; hence, there is less incentive for employees to 
 organize. (2) The laboring classes of Rochester are 
 more contented than is the case in many places. High- 
 grade industry only, has found Rochester atmosphere 
 congenial, and in consequence standards and conditions 
 oi life have always been comparatively high. Moreover, 
 the conditions of employment are generally good. Of 
 forty-four unions regarding which special inquiry was 
 made as to wage scales, nearly all had a minimum scale 
 and the average minimum was $2.85 per day. (3) The 
 large number of nonunion workers necessarily saps the 
 strength of the unionism that does exist. (4) The great 
 number of opportunities in Rochester makes it possible 
 for a man to obtain work whether a union man or not. 
 
 (5) Many girls in button, kodak and other factories 
 either refuse or are unable to organize ; at least, do not. 
 
 (6) Rochester labor does not have any one great leader 
 with time, money and energy for the cause. The leader- 
 ship is more or less divided. (7) There are many indus- 
 tries in which general technical knowledge is not re- 
 quired; hence, inexperienced hands can quickly become 
 of service. (8) There is a large foreign element which 
 it is hard to organize. 
 
 PART II 
 
 36 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Leading Industry 
 
 The leading industry of Rochester is the manufacture 
 of clothing. By the time of the Civil War, men's ready- 
 made clothmg was quite extensively produced in New 
 York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Boston, Baltimore, and 
 Rochester.' Th« present industry in the city has develop- 
 ed out of the wholesale clothiers' trade as it was carried 
 on m the sixties. There seems to be no peqhliar ad- 
 vantage which attracted the clothing manufacturers to 
 Rochester m preference to any other place. In fact 
 one of the leading employers of the city, when questioned 
 on this point, said that he knew of but one or two clothing 
 manufacturers who were ever attracted to Rochester be- 
 cause of any special advantages which the city offered 
 The enterprise and thrift of the clothing dealers here 
 built up the business, which, according to federal investi- 
 gation for i905,» ranks fifth» in the nation in point of the 
 value of the product produced and among the very first 
 m point of quality. There have been certain local con- 
 
 .liu'^^'^f^ Commissioner of Labor on men's ready-made 
 clothmg industry .„ the United States, August 8, 1910. Federal 
 Senate Document No 645 (6Ist Congress. 2nd Session). See 
 Federal Report on the condition of Woman and Child IVaae- 
 Earners m the United States, Vol 2 
 'Ibid. 
 
 lr\'^* ."'"'"'y of Rochester and Monroe County by Peck 
 pubhshed in ,908 the statement is made that Rochester not 
 
 sTateL r- '^' """" °f '='°*'"«" Authority for the 
 
 Statement is not given. 
 
 39 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 ditions, however, which have made possible the growth 
 of an industry of this character. The industry itself has 
 been possible; because, in the first place, there has been 
 a labor supply suitable to, and sufficient to maintain, the 
 trade. A large proportion of Rochester's population is 
 composed of working people as is shown by the fact that 
 it has the third largest percentage of shop and factory 
 workers of any city in the State. In Schenectady 28 
 per cent of the people, in Troy 25 1-2 per cent, and in 
 Rochester 23 per cent are occupied in shops and factor- 
 ies.* In the second place, there is little competition for 
 female labor which is an asset peculiarly important for 
 the clothing producer : there is in Rochester a higher per- 
 centage of female clothing workers than will be found in 
 almost any other city of the country.' The industry has 
 been of high-grade character because the labor supply has 
 been of such character, e. g. : there is in the city a class of 
 exceptionally fine German tailors who could not be em- 
 ployed with profit on cheap clothes. This characteristic 
 of the labor force is largely due to the fact that the city 
 escapes the lower classes of immigrants found in an 
 important port-city. Consequently local conditions have 
 never been suited to the sweat-shop regime which has 
 been considered necessary for the production of cheap 
 clothes on a big scale. The labor supply is restricted to 
 a high-class working population and the production of 
 high-grade articles only is the result. 
 
 It may be well to note that there are what might be 
 considered by a clothing manufacturer, distinct disad- 
 vantages to the industry in the city; for, by some, the 
 
 * Article, as yet unpublished, by Dr. Paul Moore Strayer. 
 5 See Federal Report on the condition of Woman and Child 
 Wage-Earners in the United States. Vol. 2. 
 
 40 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 very scarcity of cheap immigrant labor would be con- 
 sidered a disadvantage and the shipping facilities are 
 not equal to those of some of its rivals in this industry. 
 
 Development of Clothing Industry. — The evolution of 
 the clothing industry forms an important and interesting 
 feature of its history. A demand for cheap clothes ready 
 for immediate use was originally responsible for the in- 
 troduction of "ready-made" clothing as distinguished 
 from "custom-made." Prior to the Civil War most of 
 the "ready mades" were worked up by hand although the 
 fcewing machine came gradually into use during the fifties. 
 Until about 1880, the manufacture of clothing was car- 
 ried on largely under the "family system;" that is, the 
 clothing materials to be made up were let out by whole- 
 sale merchants, and sometimes sublet, to various families 
 in whose homes the clothes were made. In the latter part 
 uf the period, the cutting and buttonhole machines nm 
 by foot power were introduced. Between 1880 and 1895, 
 the "family system" was displaced by the "shop system," 
 and has since been generally adopted throughout the 
 country. Under this system steam- and electric-power 
 machinery has come into general use and our large 
 clothing factories have been built. 
 
 In Rochester the eighties witnessed a partial introduc- 
 tion of the "factory system;" indeed, the city has the 
 honor of being the recognized pioneer in the introduc- 
 tion of this system.® Of course it must not be thought 
 that all clothing is now made in factories; for home 
 work, out-side-shop work, and sweat-shop conditions still 
 prevail to a greater or less degree in the various clothing 
 centers of the country as will be shown later. Since 
 
 « Federal Report on the condition of Women and Child Wage- 
 Earners in the United States. Vol. 2. 
 
 41 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 1890 there has been a steady increase in the magnitude 
 of this industry in the city. In 1890 there were 192 estab- 
 lishments with an annual output of $9,133,562 worth of 
 goods ; in 1900, 307 establishments with an output worth 
 $11,138,220; and in 1905, 219 establishments with a prod- 
 uct valued at $14,948,913. Although there has been 
 a decrease in the number of the establishments since 
 19CX), nevertheless, there has been a steady increase in 
 the amount of goods produced, or in other words, a steady 
 growth in the industry.^ 
 
 Factory Buildings.— The more recent clothing factories 
 have been built according to the most up-to-date, twent- 
 ieth-century models. It has been said that between New 
 York and Chicago there can be found no clothing factory 
 superior, if indeed equal, in architectural beauty and 
 scientific equipment, to the lately constructed plant of 
 Adler Brothers. As one enters the building from the 
 carefully kept lawn and ascends the marble stairway, 
 he can easily imagine himself entering an art gallery 
 rather than a clothing establishment. The construction 
 of modem buildings with landscape gardening on the 
 outside and scientific equipment and conveniences on 
 the inside is becoming the prevailing policy of Rochester 
 employers. Among the numerous conveniences to be 
 found in the well-lighted and spacious establishment of 
 Adler Brothers may be mentioned private dressing rooms 
 and lockers, cozy dining rooms, rooms for smoking and 
 the playing of games, and a fully equipped emergency 
 hospital ready for immediate use in case of accident. 
 
 Welfare Work.— Th\s firm also mamtains a Mutual 
 Benefit Association to which the employees may belong 
 
 ''Ibid. (A large proportion of the statistics quoted in this 
 chapter are drawn from this source.) 
 
 42 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 if they desire. The object of this Association is "to as- 
 sist sick and disabled members, to aid in the support of 
 members in certain contingencies of family life and to 
 pay death benefits." The dues range from twenty cents 
 to forty cents per month according to the employee's 
 rank which is determined by the amount of his weekly 
 wage. The sick or disabled members receive from $2.00 
 to $8.00 per week according to their rank and the length 
 of their illness. The death benefits range from $50.00 to 
 $100.00. 
 
 Hours of Labor.— With reference to the number of 
 hours per week the employees are required to work in the 
 shops, the policy of the employers may be ascertained 
 from the report of a special commission sent out by the 
 Bureau of Commerce and Labor of the United States :« 
 "The average establishments' hours (for clothing factor- 
 ies) are shortest in Chicago and Rochester for all 
 classes ; men, women, and children. The hours in both 
 these cities are approximately 54 1-2 per week for men 
 and women, for children, 45.8 and 44.5 hours respect- 
 ively." Moreover, a full noon hour is the rule among 
 the factories. 
 
 Wages.— Ag^m, Rochester has little cause to blush un- 
 less it be for pride when the payrolls of the different 
 cities are compared with a representative week in repre- 
 sentative establishemnts. In Chicago, 29.5 per cent of 
 the employees earn less than $5.00 per week; in New 
 York, 37 per cent ; in Philadelphia, 42.2 per cent ; in Balti- 
 more, 64.2 per cent, while in Rochester only 17.3 per 
 cent earn less than $5.00 per week. 
 
 The average wage per week for home workers has 
 
 « Ibid. 
 
 43 
 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 been found to be as follows : Baltimore, $2.24 ; Philadel- 
 phia, $2.88; New York, $3.61 ; Rochester, $4.14; Chicago, 
 $4-35. 
 
 Of women sixteen years of age and over, the largest 
 number earn $7.00 or $8.00 per week. In Chicago and 
 Philadelphia, the largest group earn $5.cx) to $6.00 per 
 week, and in Baltimore, $4.00 to $5.00. In Rochester the 
 ages at which the greatest percentage of females earn 
 $8.00 or more range from thirty to thirty-four years. 
 About one-third of the total female force earns $8.00 or 
 over per week, while about four-fifths of the men report 
 these earnings. The wage conditions prevalent among 
 the female clothing workers in the city rank among 
 the very best in the country. 
 
 The percentages of males earning $i2.cx) per week or 
 over in the various cities are: Baltimore, 18.4 per cent; 
 Philadelphia, 27.5 per cent; Chicago, 34.6 per cent; New 
 York, 34.7 per cent; Rochester, 43.1 per cent. 
 
 In comparing the average hourly earnings of the dif- 
 ferent races in the city, it is found that, among the men, 
 Lithunians earn 13 per cent above the average; Germans, 
 9.6 per cent above ; Hebrews, 4.2 per cent above ; and the 
 Poles .5 per cent above ; the Americans earn 8.4 per cent 
 below the average, and the Italians, 13.5 per cent below. 
 Among the females the (jermans lead with hourly earn- 
 ings 8.4 per cent above the average; Americans, i per 
 cent above ; Poles, 4.4 per cent below ; Hebrews, 8.6 per 
 cent below ; Italians, 18.2 per cent below ; and Lithuanians 
 16.6 per cent below. 
 
 Home Work. — Although the conditions generally con- 
 noted by the term "sweat shop," exist but rarely in 
 Rochester, nevertheless, a certain amount of work is let 
 out by factories to outside shops and home workers. 
 
 44 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 About 60 per cent of the tailored product® is done in the 
 factories, 32 per cent in the outside shops, and 8 per cent 
 in the homes. About 6.7 per cent of the total force 
 of female employees are home workers here, as against 
 17. 1 per cent in New York City. Home work in this 
 city is done under exceedingly favorable conditions when 
 compared with other cities : wages are above the average, 
 the homes, generally comfortable ; and the houses usually 
 stand apart with a small lawn surrounding each. The 
 poorest houses are among the Italians who, however, 
 constitute only a minority of this class of workers; but 
 even the Italian quarters present a favorable appearance 
 in comparison with other cities. Home work, neverthe- 
 less, is not desirable and various Rochester manufacturers 
 are reported as making the following assertions : "Home 
 finishings cannot be counted on as sanitary." "The aboli- 
 tion of home finishing would be a good thing making for 
 more sanitary production." "Home finishers are prob- 
 ably employed chiefly by outside shops. Most of the 
 manufacturers do not believe home finishing to be a good 
 thing for the commtmity, but the outside shops have to 
 employ them on account of the scarcity of labor. It is 
 no cheaper as a mode of production." 
 
 Living Conditions. — In considering the living condi- 
 tions of the whole class of garment workers in the city, 
 it is found that extreme overcrowding in the homes is 
 not prevalent; that rents compare favorably with other 
 places ; and that, in consequence of the large number of 
 workers who live in homes of their own, the boarder and 
 lodger do not present the problem here that they do in 
 many other cities. In order to better understand the em- 
 
 fi i 
 
 •Article by Dr. Strayer. 
 
 45 
 
 (J 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 ployed classes and their condition, the following is a brief 
 discussion of them according to sex, age, and race. 
 
 Female Employees. — About 61.3 per cent of the cloth- 
 ing employees are women, comprising about one-third 
 of the number employed by manufacturing plants of the 
 city. The ages of the largest group range from sixteen 
 to twenty years ; the women comprising the second larg- 
 est group are thirty years old or more. The percentage 
 of older women working in Rochester clothing factories 
 exceeds that of other cities, due to the fact that there 
 is a highly skilled class of Germans, English and Irish 
 whom the employers are loath to lose. About 58 per 
 cent of the workers, from sixteen to twenty- four years 
 of age, are away from their homes ten to eleven hours 
 per day. Work is to be had 90.1 per cent of the full 
 time, a most favorable circumstance to which, among 
 cities elsewhere. New York City approaches the nearest 
 with the female force working 87.3 per cent of the full 
 time. 
 
 An investigation on the part of the federal commis- 
 sion as to the literacy of these women gave the following 
 results: Out of 198 representative women and children 
 in the clothing industry, 167 had attended school, leaving 
 it after an average attendance of 68.7 months and at the 
 average age of 13 1-2 years. Of this number, 154 could 
 read or write English, 29 others could read or write some 
 other language, while 15 could not read or write at all. 
 Compare this with an investigation in New York City. 
 Of 488 females there examined with regard to literacy, 
 120 had attended school on an average of 38.2 weeks, 
 leaving it at the age of 12 1-2 years; 367 never attended 
 school ; only 7 of the whole number could read or write 
 
 46 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 English; 108 others could read or write some foreign 
 language, while 373 could not read or write. 
 
 In the local industry, 15.8 per cent of the women are 
 married; 78.3 per cent, immarried; and 5.9 per cent are 
 widowed or divorced. 
 
 Male Employees.— The clothing trade employs 11 per 
 cent of the men in the manufacturing industries of the 
 city. Of the entire force of clothiers* employees, 36.8 
 per cent are men. They work about 92.5 per cent of the 
 full time ; 45.8 per cent of them are married. 
 
 Child Labor.— The percentage of child labor in this 
 industry is so small as to be almost negligible. But 1.9 
 per cent of the clothing employees can be classed as 
 child laborers, for whom the manufacture of men's cloth- 
 ing affords the second largest field in the city : the boot 
 and shoe shops employ one-third of the child workers 
 and the clothing factories, one-fifth. The low percentage 
 of this kind of labor is due to the general character of 
 the city's population. The parents among the employed 
 classes are able to, and do, keep their children in the 
 schools; consequently, the children employed in all the 
 manufactories put together comprise little over one per 
 cent of the employees. Illegal employment is of com- 
 paratively rare occurrence in the city. 
 
 Racial Characteristics. — The labor force is divided 
 among various nationalities in the following proportion : 
 
 American 8.7 per cent 
 
 ^™an 35.7per cent 
 
 Hebrew 20.5 per cent 
 
 ^^^^^^^ 16.0 per cent 
 
 P^^^s 3.1 per cent 
 
 ^^^rs 16.0 per cent 
 
 47 
 
 i i] 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 The Germans not only constitute the largest element 
 in the working class, but are also the oldest of these 
 races in the city, having maintained themselves in the 
 vest making part of the business, which is the easier and 
 more agreeable of the departments in the trade. This is a 
 branch in which the Scandinavians predominate in Chi- 
 cago. In the local clothing industry, 53.2 per cent of 
 the male employees, sixteen years of age and over, are 
 Hebrews; 24 per cent, Italians; 13. i per cent, Germans; 
 .5 per cent, Americans; among the women workers of 
 like age, 41.6 per cent are Germans; 13.9 per cent, Ital- 
 ians ; 1 1.3 per cent, Hebrews ; and 11 per cent, Americans. 
 Thus, whereas the German race predominates among the 
 female employees, the Hebrew predominates among the 
 men ; among the women 46.3 per cent are native-born of 
 foreign parents, and 38.9 per cent are foreign-bom. 
 
 It is interesting to note the race preferences for certain 
 kinds of work. In representative establishments, it was 
 found that among the female operators nearly 34 per cent 
 are Germans and 19 per cent, Americans; less than 6 
 per cent are Italians and only 3 per cent are Hebrews. 
 Hand sewing attracts much larger percentages of Ital- 
 ians and Hebrews who constitute 25 per cent and 13 per 
 cent of this force, respectively ; while of the same force, 
 Germans constitute 30 per cent, and Americans, 14 per 
 cent 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Trade-Unionism in the Clothing Trade 
 
 Prior to 1880 there existed an organization of garment 
 workers known as the Sons of Adam, concerning which 
 little is known save that it was a social organization 
 whose treasurer absconded with $300.00.^ 
 
 In 1 88 1 the Knights of Labor formed a cutters' union 
 in the city, but in 1882 a strike was called in J. W. Rosen- 
 thal's shop against the employment of a nonunion man 
 for whom unionists entertained a dislike. The shop was 
 not a closed shop and Mr. Rosenthal continued to em- 
 ploy the man. The General Assembly of the Knights 
 of Labor condemned the strike and the local organization 
 was disrupted. 
 
 The cutters remained unorganized until 1884 ; and then, 
 under the direction of a special agent, a new union was 
 called into being under the name of a benevolent society, 
 which by 1888 had become openly affiliated with the 
 Knights of Labor, under whose direction for several sub- 
 sequent years the organization of the various trades in 
 the industry was rapid and most successful. By 1890 
 five local unions, comprising nearly all the garment work- 
 
 * Many facts concerning the early history of unionism in this 
 industry were gained principally from Mr. Christian Miller, 
 President of Cutters Union, No. 136, and an old-time unionist 
 and resident of Rochester. 
 
 49 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 ers of the city, had affiliated with the Knights of Labor, 
 and were designated as follows : 
 
 Garment Cutters and Trimmers No. 1727 
 
 'T^i^o^'s No. 1910 
 
 '^^^^ors No 2930 
 
 Stockkeepers Nq. 2742 
 
 Lady Tailors No. 2558 
 
 The Lady Tailors' Local last named was accredited 
 with a membership of 2100. These local unions were 
 connected with National Trades Aseembly No. 231 with 
 headquarters at Chicago and with Mr. James Hughes 
 as chairman of the Executive Board; this National 
 Trades Assembly was in turn a department of the inter- 
 national organization of the Knights of Labor. 
 
 By 1890 the wage rate had increased over that paid 
 in the early eighties, and in 1889 the nine-hour day in- 
 stead of the ten-hour day was conceded by the employers 
 to the unionists.* 
 
 Conditions Leading to the Lockout of /^p/.— The phe- 
 nomenal success of this labor movement tended to make 
 the labor men so over confident and arrogant in their 
 demands that the employers became exasperated and 
 finally decided upon a lockout as the best means of self- 
 defence. Among the most important of the numerous 
 regulations which had caused the employers no little trou- 
 ble were the apprenticeship rules f and of the many inter- 
 esting cases* in which such trouble occurred, that of the 
 wholesale establishment of Michael Kolb & Son is typi- 
 cal. 
 
 2 See Union Policies— Shorter Workday, p. 66. 
 « Ibid., Apprenticeship rules, p. 67 
 * Ibid., p. 67 
 
 50 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 Mr. Kolb, employing a young man who was a relative 
 as an apprentice, was informed by the union that such 
 employment was in violation of its apprenticeship rules, 
 and that the individual in question should be discharged. 
 In consequence of Mr. Kolb's refusal to take this action, 
 a boycott was instituted against his firm through the 
 agency of the National Trades Assembly, by informing 
 its patrons that they could no longer buy his goods with- 
 out incurring the loss of trade and enmity of organized 
 labor throughout the country. Mr. Kolb, after experienc- 
 ing for a short time the disastrous results of this hostility, 
 changed his attitude, complied with the unionists' de- 
 mands, and began to negotiate the lifting of the boycott 
 with Mr. Hughes of Chicago. This official demanded 
 $287.00 to defray expenses already incurred by the affair, 
 and Mr. Kolb promptly paid the sum; but then, to 
 finance the raising of the boycott, $971.00 more were de- 
 manded, upon the asseveration that it would cost on an 
 average $50.00 to lift the same in the case of each indi- 
 vidual customer. On investigating the list of firms for 
 which he was charged $50.00 each, Mr. Kolb discovered 
 the names of many that did not trade with him, and that 
 by striking these off the list, instead of $971.00, the in- 
 demnity required should be $500.00, an amount which 
 he immediately added to his former payment, much to 
 the disgust of Mr. Hughes who still demanded $471.00 
 more. 
 
 This affair raises the problem as to how far it is ad- 
 visable for an outside union official to interfere in local 
 union affairs. The officials of the Knights of Labor 
 seemed to follow frequently, as in the present case, a 
 policy of general interference, in contrast to which it is the 
 policy of the American Federation of Labor to practise 
 
 51 
 
 'r 
 
 y 
 
 y 
 
\\ 
 
 INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 the minimum of interference and that only in such 
 matters as involve the interests of organized labor in 
 general.* 
 
 Mr. Thein, Vice Chairman of the National Executive 
 Board, of which Mr. Hughes was chairman, and a citizen 
 of Rochester as well as a leader among the local gar- 
 ment workers, agreed with Mr. Kolb that $500.00, rather 
 than $971.00, constituted the amount which should be 
 required of him upon the basis specified. Consequently, 
 when Mr. Hughes refused to raise completely the boycott 
 in consideration of the $787.00 of fines already paid, Mr. 
 Thein wrote letters to customers in Mr. Kolb's behalf. 
 Upon hearing of this, Mr. Hughes, under date of March 
 7, 1890, sent to Mr. Kolb the following statement :« "Mr. 
 Thein cannot release embargo against your product and 
 the fact of your having him write will only make mat- 
 ters worse." In view of this and other similar cases, it 
 is evident that the national organization resorted to, and 
 drove local unionists to, harsh measures, which in all 
 probability the Rochester men of themselves would not 
 have executed. Messrs. Hughes and Kolb finally com- 
 promised upon an additional payment of $300.00, instend 
 of $471.00 as previously demanded, and the boycott was 
 lifted after a total cost to Mr. Kolb of $1087.00 and the 
 temporary demoralization of his business. As has been 
 said, this case was but one of several which involved the 
 employers in many thousands of dollars of fines. 
 
 Among other causes of frequent trouble between union- 
 ists and employers were the union regulations as to the 
 limitation of the number of workers, the time during 
 
 «See Union Policies— Interference of National Officials in 
 Local Matters, p. 64. 
 
 •See N. Y. State Senate Documents, 1891. 
 
 52 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 which they might work and the amount of work that 
 they might do. All these restrictions with others, dis- 
 cussed at length under the topic "Union Rules," so har- 
 assed the employers that they organized themselves into 
 a body called the Clothiers' Exchange, incorporated in 
 November, 1890. 
 
 Clothiers' Exchange and Employers* Policy. — The fol- 
 lowing extracts from the by-laws of the Exchange will 
 clearly set forth the purpose and character of the organi- 
 zation. 
 
 Article I. Section 2. Purpose.— The purpose of this organiza- 
 tion shall be to foster trade and commerce, to reform abuses 
 in trade and business, to secure freedom from unjust or unlaw- 
 ful exactions, to diffuse accurate and reliable information among 
 its members, as to the standing of merchants, to produce uni- 
 formity and certainty in the customs and usages of the trade 
 and commerce, to settle differences between its members and to 
 promote a more enlarged and friendly intercourse between mer- 
 chants and business men. 
 
 Article V. Section 3, Executive Committee. ... It shall take 
 such measures and make such rules as it may determine . . . 
 to collect and furnish accurate and reliable information among 
 its members concerning employees. . . . 
 
 Section 6. Committee on Exactions. — The committee on un- 
 just and unlawful exactions shall have exclusive jurisdiction 
 and cognizance ... of any and every alleged, unjust arfd un- 
 lawful exaction ... of or against this corporation . . . the com- 
 mittee may order and direct that the persons, partnerships and 
 corporations represented in this corporation . . . shall totally 
 shut down and cease to manufacture or operate their respective 
 factories or give employment to their respective employees for 
 such time as may be necessary and until such unjust and unlaw- 
 ful exaction shall cease . . . 
 
 Article VIII. Section 1. Acts Prohibited.— "Mo member of 
 this corporation . . . shall employ . . . any employee of any 
 
 53 
 
 t 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 other member . . . without the consent in writing of such mem- 
 ber .. . unless three months have elapsed since said employee 
 has been in such employment; the time of any strike, shut-down 
 or lockout, not however, to form any part of said three months. 
 
 The policy stated in this last section is sometimes term- 
 ed "blacklisting." The laborer's point of view concern- 
 ing the same was stated to the writer by a prominent 
 labor leader in the city to the effect that this agreement 
 between the manufacturers made it impossible for any 
 employee to better his condition by obtaining a job with 
 some other firm without his employer's consent, atid 
 thus at the mercy of the latter, the laboring man was 
 often deprived of the opportunity to rise. On the other 
 hand, the employer's point of view was stated by a 
 Rochester manufacturer, Bernard Rothschild, before rep- 
 resentatives of the State Board of Mediation and Arbi- 
 tration, as follows : "Well I would say that it has always 
 been customary among the merchants here not to hire 
 each other's help away as a matter of courtesy, but when 
 we found that these officers of the union commenced to 
 trade in our men, took them away from one place 
 to another; when we found that we could not employ 
 nonunion help, could not take young men and teach them 
 the trade— union cutters we could not get— it was a rather 
 dangerous thing for us to go to New York and contract 
 for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods and 
 not be able to depend on the help we had at that time 
 to cut them up; we then came to the conclusion, that 
 as a matter of financial safety, it was necessary for us 
 to adopt some means, in view of the restriction which 
 the union had put on us, to secure for ourselves at least 
 
 54 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 that help which we had at that time in the house, so that 
 we could make our contracts accordingly." 
 
 Lockout of i8gi. — As a result of their conflicting 
 policies, there continued to be constant friction between 
 the organized employers and employees, until, on the 
 morning of the seventh of March, three hundred and 
 fifty cutters found themselves locked out and one of the 
 greatest, if not the greatest, labor struggle in Rochester's 
 history was on. Work ceased throughout the entire in- 
 dustry, thus depriving 20,000 people of their means of 
 support. The fight was extremely bitter. In the Roches- 
 ter Times of March 27, 1891, appeared a statement of 
 the employers' case as follows: "We are convinced that 
 the branch of the Knights of Labor which includes the 
 clothing industry in Rochester has been directed by a 
 set of unscrupulous men to serve their own means, re- 
 gardless of anything else. They have terrorized their 
 followers; they have also made every effort to terrorize 
 us. They have subjected us to all manner of insult and 
 imposition until they have compelled us to rise up and 
 take the steps we have. 
 
 "We believe that we are not safe in fostering this 
 branch of the Knights of Labor and for this reason re- 
 fuse to hire them." 
 
 None of the cutters were allowed to return to work 
 until they had withdrawn from the labor organization 
 and advertisements appeared in the New York World 
 for 250 more cutters to come to Rochester. Several labor 
 leaders were arraigned on the charge of conspiracy, 
 while an additional charge of extortion was preferred 
 against Mr. James Hughes, under which he was con- 
 victed and sentenced to the Monroe County Penitentiary 
 for one year. 
 
 55 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 A statement of the employees' side of the case aooeared 
 m the Journal of the Knights of Labor: "TrwEale 
 clothmg manufacturers of Rochester, N Y havrfo^P^ 
 
 ly pa>d mto the treasury of the Exchange by the employ- 
 ers) pa,d ,n to stand together and break up the lScI 
 of our order .... They (manufacturers) have the 5? 
 tnct attorney of Rochester in their employ to send ihe 
 members of our district board to the state prison " 
 
 The unionists were not without their supporters. The 
 t^^f Express came out with the following: "We think 
 the clothmg manufacturers were wrong in declaring that 
 they would en:p,oy no Knights of Labor." In comment- 
 ing on th,s statement, an editorial of the Times for 
 March 25, 1891, said: "You think so. We know that 
 they are wrong." 
 
 The lockout nevertheless proved disastrous to the 
 Knights. It has been averred that only 5, members re- 
 mamed m the ranks of the cutters' union. An editorial 
 of the T^mes for April ,, ,891. stated that the employers 
 were allowmg their men to go back to the factories on 
 cond.t.on that they had severed all relations with the 
 Knights of Labor. 
 
 Reorganization and Progress After the Lockout -^ot 
 long after these events, another cutters' union was form- 
 ea by the United Garment Workers of America, affiliated 
 with the American Federation of Labor, under the direc- 
 tion of a Mr. White, who, it is confidently avowed bv 
 some, though not admitting of adequate proof, formed 
 this loca union with an understanding between the cloth- 
 ing employers of the city and himself, for the purpose 
 of nullifying the effects among labor sympathizers of the 
 
 56 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 boycott instituted by the Knights of Labor against 
 Rochester-made clothing. In support of this supposi- 
 tion, the words of Mr. Chambers, President of the Cut- 
 ters' Union, in the Rochester Labor Journal, Oct. 24, 
 1903, may be noted: "Moreover, the present union (Cut- 
 ters No. 136 of U. G. W. A.) is a creation of the manu- 
 facturers of this city brought into being some time after 
 Hughes had been disposed of." It certainly appears 
 strange that the employers should countenance the form- 
 ation of a union so soon after the struggle with the 
 Knights of Labor, unless they had some ulterior end in 
 view; while, on the other hand, it does not seem at all 
 strange that members of the American Federation of 
 Labor should be found willing by them to antagonize a 
 definite policy of the Knights. That very bitter enmity 
 existed between the two Orders was evidenced by an 
 incident which occurred in the city before the lockout. 
 Certain Knights who were required by their Order to 
 take stock in a concern in Chicago rebelled and secretly 
 prepared to join the American Federation of Labor. 
 There is nothing to show that they did so, but the bitter 
 feeling engendered and the charges preferred against a 
 member who was alleged to be of this number betrayed a 
 spirit of jealousy and enmity from which one might na- 
 turally infer that the Federation would have had slight 
 scruples in antagonizing a boycott of the Knights such 
 as existed against Rochester clothing after the lockout 
 of 1891. 
 
 Beside the union of the United Garment Workers, a 
 purely local union was established, while a feeble organi- 
 zation maintained by the Knights still existed. The latter 
 died out and the local union in a few years joined the 
 
 57 
 
 iS 
 
 II 
 
 Oi 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 United Garment Workers who made such steady pro- 
 gress that by 1903 their membership hst contained the 
 names of between 400 and 500 cutters. Subsequent to 
 1899 agitation in favor of the union labeF was carried 
 on with vigor by this union as was also an aid poHcy.« 
 In 1900 the Garment Workers had a disagreement with 
 other unionists in the city, in consequence of which the 
 former withdrew from the Central Trades and Labor 
 Council; an action for which the Labor Journal, Feb. 
 3, 1900, had the following explanation to give : "Commit- 
 tee to visit the Garment Workers and Shoe Workers 
 Unions who had served notice of withdrawal reported 
 that their organization claimed the Assembly was so 
 rotten and contaminated that they were in order to pre- 
 serve the good and welfare of themselves and fellow 
 members compelled to cease affiliating with the nest of 
 unclean birds." Unionism suffers not a little from strife 
 within its own ranks; in this instance, however, the 
 Garment Workers not long after re-established their con- 
 nection with the "unclean birds," although just what 
 manner of regeneration had in the meantime been ex- 
 perienced by the latter is not stated. The union of the 
 local clothing workers had again become very prosper- 
 ous when in 1903 they entered upon the second great 
 crisis of their career as an organized body. 
 
 Strike of jpoj-^.— After having given previous notice 
 to their employers, four hundred and twenty cutters 
 struck for the eight-hour day on Oct. 2, 1903. The nine- 
 hour day, it will be remembered, had been gained in 1899. 
 Given among the reasons for this demand was the fact 
 of a similar movement throughout the State, coincident 
 
 ^ See Union Policies— Label Agitation, p. 71 
 « Ibid., Aid Policy, p. 73. 
 
 58 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 with the introduction of new cutting machines which 
 reduced the nimiber of working days per year.® The 
 trade-unionists of Chicago took active measures to help 
 the Rochester strikers, instructing retail clerks of the 
 city to cease pushing Rochester clothing, and voting as- 
 sessments amounting to $3,000.00 for aid. By Novem- 
 ber of the same year, $22,000 had been pledged to the 
 assistance of the striking cutters. 
 
 As usual the strike generated very bad feeling between 
 the contending parties. Mr. Chambers, President of 
 Local Cutters' Union No. 136, was arrested on a charge 
 of grand larceny. Upon his acquittal he commenced ac- 
 tion against Mr. Sole Wile, Secretary of the Clothiers* 
 Exchange, for $50,000.00 damages. Numerous conflicts 
 between individuals took place, resulting in arrests and 
 indictments for assault or incitement to riot, some of 
 which led to conviction on pleas of guilty, involving a 
 striker, in one case, in a fine of $250.00, and, in another 
 instance, a three months' term in the penitentiary. 
 
 The firm of Rothschild's agreed to the eight-hour day 
 on the following condition: "If within six months the 
 eight-hour day should not be granted also by a majority 
 of the other firms, then the nine-hour day should be re- 
 stored. "At the expiration of the time set the firm re- 
 turned to the nine-hour schedule. The strike was an 
 utter failure. The factories trained apprentices and im- 
 ported help so that by January, 1904, they were operating 
 the cutting departments full-handed. The seventeen) 
 clothing companies which thus again broke the back of 
 unionism in this trade were : 
 
 Stein-Block Co. 
 Michaels, Stem & Co. 
 » Ibid., Shorter Workday, p. 66. 
 
 59 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 Garson, Meyer & Co. 
 
 Adler Bros. 
 
 Solomon Bros. & Lempert 
 
 Moore & Biers. 
 
 Meyer & Simon. 
 
 A. Dinkelspiel. 
 
 Block & Co. 
 
 Hickey Freeman Co. 
 
 Steefel, Straus & Connor. 
 
 R. Goldstein. 
 
 H. A. Hayes. 
 
 Herman Stem. 
 
 Holtz & Son. 
 
 Levy Bros. 
 
 Rosenberg Bros. 
 
 o? le i^' n "''\'^^ ""^"^ '" *^'"- Member^ 
 
 from the Untn '. l^"""" '° --^^'S" ^"""^"y 
 
 PuTi -Wn ; '^°"^"'l"^""y." as the Labor Journal 
 
 were obli^Ttot^- "''' "'T """'"^ °^ '"e Union 
 
 closed shop. '''' ^"^ ""^'"^^-"^ ^ «tri<:tly 
 
 Prw^n/ Status of Garment Workers' IJninn. a. 
 rr t"^ ^" *"° ""^'^^ Garment Wor^^^^LT^ 
 
 '^nion, jNo. 14, which was organized in 1910 
 
 60 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 There is also a third but very small clothing workers' 
 organization among the Lithuanians v^ho work at Gold- 
 water's union factory. The union movement in this 
 industry is now very weak so that the clothing trade may 
 be said to present one of the most conspicuous failures 
 in all Rochester trade-unionism. Constant friction be- 
 tween large German and Jewish elements in the industry, 
 rendering cooperation on the part of these employees 
 very difficult, does not help the situation any. Never- 
 theless the spirit of organization among these workers 
 is not dead and one would not dare to predict what its 
 future may be. 
 
 When we endeavor to look at these industrial problems 
 from the viewpoint of both the employer and employee 
 and then judge impartially and sympathetically, but with 
 due justice to each, we are forced to the conclusion that 
 the unionist for adherence to his principles has frequently 
 suflFered gross injustice ; on the other hand, the employers' 
 assertion that trade-unionism is often very unfair in its 
 demands and that in the height of its power it has been 
 guilty of rank injustice to its employers, is equally true. 
 The fact is we are all more or less selfish whether em- 
 ployers or employees and, when possessed of power, are 
 in grave danger of exercising it to our own advantage 
 regardless of the rights of the other side. Under our 
 present industrial regime, the employees have rights to 
 protect, rights often best defended by organization ; like- 
 wise, employers have rights, for the maintenance of 
 which corporate cooperation on their part is not to be 
 arbitrarily condemned. 
 
 61 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Union Policies of Garment Workers 
 
 The general purpose of a union is substantially indicat- 
 ed in the preamble of the old Rochester Cutters' Union 
 of the Knights of Labor: • 
 
 "The object of this organization shall be for the protection 
 
 £r.p=; f fa- Ta^of^la- -i't^oC: 
 tt' oTthfS;^f.rLrV" -^ — c Of the Cons^ 
 
 The purposes of unionism, as set forth by the Ameri- 
 can Federation of Labor, may be enumerated under six 
 general head.ngs: (i) A minimum wage enabling a man 
 to live in conformity to American standards. (2) An 
 eight-hour day. (3) The nonemployment of children 
 .nH r k" T /^^ Legislation safeguarding the lives 
 and limbs of workmen. (5) Compensation for the death 
 or injury of the workman. (6) Improvement in sanitary 
 conditions m factories and in the housing of the work- 
 
 Forms of Orgam.ation^-Belonging to the Knights of 
 Labor m 1890, there were in Rochester five garment 
 workers unions representing various divisions of the 
 trade, m^., cutters, stockkeepers, shipping clerks, and 
 
 T^j7''"m'''"''"w ^'^'"'"' °^ ^^"^^^^ ^^^' federations see 
 I r. ^'\T'^- "-'^^ Federations in the United State"' Par; 
 ;. Chapter II m Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical Zd Pol 
 ttcal Science, Ser. XXIV, p. 631. 
 
 62 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 tailors. These locals were amalgamated with National 
 Trades Assembly, No. 231, which had its headquarters at 
 Chicago and which represented numerous clothing work- 
 ers' unions in various cities. This Assembly was in turn 
 subordinate to the General Assembly of the Knights of 
 Labor, which had under its jurisdiction many other Na- 
 tional Assemblies representing unions in various indus- 
 tries and of various types. Each local elected its own 
 officers ; the National Assembly had an Executive Board 
 whose chairman devoted his time to the management of 
 the locals in its jurisdiction; and the activities of the 
 entire Order were directed by a president^ and other offi- 
 cers elected by representatives from the affiliated bodies. 
 In Rochester the clothing workers' unions of the Knights 
 of Labor were disrupted in 1891 and an entirely new 
 organization entered the city. 
 
 Local Cutters' Union, No. 136, and Tailors' Union, No. 
 14, under this new regime are federated with the United 
 Garment Workers of America, a national society of cloth- 
 ing workers, which, in common with state and national 
 organizations of other trades, is one of the parts consti- 
 tuent of the American Federation of Labor. The officers 
 of the American Federation, like those of the national 
 unions, are elected in convention to which the affiliated 
 bodies send representatives. But aside from this mode 
 of representation, the two local unions referred to are at 
 present connected with the American Federation in still 
 another way, viz., through the Rochester Central Trades 
 and Labor Council, which is entitled to a delegate in the 
 annual convention of the Federation, and in which, as 
 a clearing house for the unions of tlie city, each local 
 
 2 Called the General Master Workman in the Knights of 
 
 Labor. 
 
 63 
 
 I 
 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 body may have a stipulated number of representatives • 
 provided the Council sees ht to seat them. The local 
 officers elected by the city unions are: President, Vice 
 President, Secretary, Treasurer, Guard (for outside pass- 
 word), Gmde (for inside password), and the Executive 
 Board, composed of the four principal officers and three 
 other members, whose duty it is to tend to important 
 matter., of business, and deal with questions demanding 
 immediate attention between regular meetings of the 
 union. 
 
 Interference of National Officers in Local Matters — 
 The national officials of the Knights of Labor took an 
 active part m local disputes often without regard to the 
 desires of the local unionists and to the great aggrava- 
 tion of employers. An important example of this has 
 been cited.^ Another instance in which a national officer 
 mterfered, this time in a petty local quarrel, occurred in 
 the shop of Max Brickner, a clothing merchant of the 
 city. Mr. Katz, unionist and employee, told a new em- 
 ployee that, unless he joined the union, he could not 
 work there, to which the newcomer replied that he had 
 not money sufficient to meet the expense of joining the 
 union. Mr. Katz, however, caused this man to leave 
 and as a result, Mr. Brickner discharged Mr. Katz for 
 interference in his business. Mr. Thein, a resident of the 
 city, member of the local union, and Vice Chairman of 
 the National Executive Board of Trades Assembly, No. 
 231, seemed satisfied with Mr. Brickner's explanation 
 that Mr. Katz had exceeded his duty as an officer of the 
 union; but Mr. Hughes of Chicago, Chairman of the 
 Executive Board of Trades Assembly, No. 231, took up 
 the case and wrote Mr. Brickner in threatening language 
 ». See Trade-Unionism in the Clothing Trade, p. 49. 
 
 64 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 to the effect that Mr. Katz must be re-employed. Mr. 
 Brickner hastened to adjust the matter, but the affair by 
 no means increased his love of the union. Such outside 
 interference involved local unionists in frequent trouble 
 which placed them in a bad light before employers to a 
 degree that might have been avoided. 
 
 The policy of the national organization with which the 
 Garment Workers are at present affiliated is to inter- 
 fere as little as possible in purely local affairs, but to 
 enforce only such regulations as are necessary for the 
 welfare of the organization nationally. This policy is 
 a marked characteristic of the American Federation of 
 Labor as distinguished from the old policy of interfer- 
 ence of certain branches of the Knights of Labor. 
 
 Union Rules 
 
 Standard Wage. — It has always been a rule of the Gar- 
 ment Workers to maintain if possible a standard rate of 
 wages. Among the cutters the standard wage for a nor- 
 mal week's work is $20.00. Those who are unable to 
 earn this amount may be allowed to work, but must be 
 paid for what they do turn out on the basis of the 
 standard rate. 
 
 Limitation of Amount of Work to Be Done.— Although 
 there was nothing in the Constitution of the Cutters' 
 Union of the Knights to so indicate, they seemed to 
 adhere to a policy of limiting the amount of work to be 
 done in a certain time. Mr. Rothschild, a wholesale 
 clothier, in testifying before the State Board of Media- 
 tion and Arbitration presented instances of such limita- 
 tion among his workmen. 
 
 The present unions do not have any rule as to such 
 limitation. Each shop has a tacit understanding, how- 
 
 65 
 
\: 
 
 INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 ever, as to about what amount of work should be done 
 in a given time for a given wage. The logical effect 
 of this policy is to protect the standard rate of wages. 
 
 Shorter Workday.— In 1899 the Knights agitated for, 
 and gained a nine-hour day. The working day had 
 previously been ten hours. A manufacturer by the name 
 of Jacob A. Britenstol made an attempt to withstand the 
 demand, but when threatened with a boycott yielded to 
 the unionists. 
 
 In 1903 the cutters instituted a strike for the eight- 
 hour day, after having given previous notice. The eight- 
 hour day had been granted in New York, Utica and 
 Syracuse. Employers in Buffalo had conceded a week 
 of fifty-one hours, and promised one of forty-eight 
 hours when Rochester should obtain the same. Balti- 
 more had made the same concession and the same promise 
 to be fulfilled upon the introduction of the week of forty- 
 eight hours in both Rochester and Buffalo. 
 
 It was claimed by advocates of the union that the in- 
 troduction of cutting machines had reduced the number 
 of working days per year, thereby necessitating a shorter 
 day to insure steady employment. Also, as the credit 
 for inventing the machine was claimed by labor, it was 
 argued that labor should have a share in the profits 
 accruing therefrom. Although the strike was a failure, 
 a week of forty-eight hours has come to be quite gen- 
 erally enjoyed by the trade. 
 
 Overtime Work.— The Cutters' Union of the Knights 
 prohibited overtime, or night work, although the em- 
 ployers were willing to pay extra wages and many union- 
 ists would have been glad to have earned them. It was 
 feared that, if overtime work was allowed, it would 
 tend to undermine the standard workday, the destnic- 
 
 66 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 tion of which would also involve the overthrow of the 
 standard wage rate. This policy was especially exasper- 
 ating to the employers as may be surmised from the fol- 
 lowing statement of Mr. Rothschilds regarding it, in 
 describing a futile attempt to obtain overtime work in his 
 shop: "I went down to see Mr. Archer myself and told 
 him : 'Now I think this is a perfect outrage, here my men 
 are willing to work ... I am willing to pay for it, and 
 your union won't allow it, I think it is arbitrary and ty- 
 rannical.' " 
 
 The unions at present allow night work at the rate of 
 "one and one-half" which is the rate for all overtime 
 work. 
 
 Apprenticeship Rules. — The Knights' apprenticeship 
 policy as set forth in the local Cutters' Constitution was 
 as follows: 
 
 Article IV. Section 1.— Apprentices shall be regulated by the 
 local. 
 
 Section 2. — The number of apprentices to be taught are one 
 to every shop; two to every twenty journeymen and one to every 
 additional ten journeymen in a shop and are to serve three years 
 until they become competent cutters or trimmers. All cases not 
 in strict accordance with the above shall be left to the discre- 
 tion of the executive board of the local assembly. 
 
 The wages of the apprentices were to be as follows : 
 
 First year $3.00 per week 
 
 Second year 5.00 per week 
 
 Third year 7.00 per week 
 
 Difficulties with the employers over these rules were 
 frequent and serious in the few years previous to the 
 lockout of 1891. The history of Mr. Kolb*s case has 
 
 67 
 
 I 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 already been recited.* Henry Michaels, wholesale cloth- 
 ier, found himself unable to teach his own son the trade 
 through the operation of these laws. Stein-Block & Co. 
 endeavored to oppose these regulations, but they soon 
 received a letter from the union official, Mr. Hughes, 
 threatening to boycott their goods in a long list of cities 
 specifically named where their customers were located. 
 The threat was executed and immediately Stein-Block 
 & Co. received a letter from a patron in Albany desiring 
 them to settle with the Knights, as this Albany firm did 
 not dare risk buying their goods under a boycott. These 
 boycotts almost invariably succeeded in bringing the em- 
 ployers to time. Abram Adler of Adler Co. and Isaac 
 Wile of Wile, Stem & Co., after refusing to remove 
 certain apprentices, were boycotted and forced to pay 
 $1,000.00 or more each in fines. 
 
 After the downfall of the Knights in the city, the Unit- 
 ed Garment Workers maintained very similar apprentice- 
 ship rules until the strike of 1903. Since that time the 
 unions have been too weak to enforce such rules. 
 
 Methods of Rule Enforcement 
 
 Boycott. — The chief weapon by which the Knights en- 
 forced recognition of their policies by the employers 
 was the boycott. The union had means of finding out 
 who their employers' customers were. Mr. Lewis Steller, 
 a shipping clerk, for Rothschild, Hays & Co., when ques- 
 tioned by the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration 
 in 1891, testified that he had been indirectly asked to 
 furnish a list of customers to the union. Also, Mr. 
 Frederick Thon, stockkeeper for Stein-Block & Co. when 
 
 « Ibid., p. 49. 
 
 66 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 asked: "Have you been requested to furnish a list of 
 the customers of the house that you serve?" replied, "I 
 have." When asked, "To whom?", he said, "I think I am 
 now fully able to state that it was given out by the union 
 that we must make up a list of all the customers of 
 our houses and forward them to the union." After thus 
 learning who the customers of their employers were, the 
 Knights would warn them not to patronize a boycotted 
 firm on penalty of losing the trade of labor sympathiz- 
 ers and being themselves boycotted. To accomplish 
 these ends money was not spared. This method of en- 
 forcing their policies was finally declared unlawful and 
 involved the leaders of the union in criminal proceedings 
 for extortion, under which Chairman Hughes, as has 
 elsewhere been stated, was convicted and sentenced to 
 prison for one year. 
 
 In enforcing their rules against employers, the United 
 Garment Workers resort to the label, the unfair list, 
 and the strike. If an employer refuses to comply with 
 the regulations of a union, he is denied the use of the label 
 without which loyal trade-unionists will not buy his 
 product. Moreover, his firm may be placed upon the 
 unfair list in labor papers, which exhort their readers 
 not to patronize any firm so listed ; but no further steps 
 are taken in the direction of a boycott. These devices 
 at present do not seem to hamper seriously the clothing 
 manufacturers of Rochester, as nearly all local shops are 
 nonunion. 
 
 In forcing the observance of the union's rules upon 
 their own members, the Knights boycotted any oflFender. 
 The employers were warned not to hire him at the risk 
 of a boycott of their firm until the man in question made 
 his peace with the union. These measures were usually 
 
 69 
 
 i 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 very effective. Moreover, the Knights took special pains 
 to disciphne their members if guilty of unreasonable con- 
 duct toward their employer as is set forth by Article 
 VIII in the Constitution of the Cutters' Union: 
 
 Section 1. — Any member of this assembly who shall wilfully 
 violate his position, namely: when absenting himself from the 
 shop without proper cause when he had ought to be at work 
 and thereby be discharged or censured by his principals, he will 
 not be sustained by this assembly for his action and he must 
 consider that he is doing himself a personal injury. 
 
 At the present time, although an offender might suffer 
 expulsion from the union for violation of its rules, the 
 organization can do nothing to hinder him from obtain- 
 ing work, since local employers discriminate in favor of 
 nonunionists. It is not the policy of the union to sus- 
 tain any member in unreasonable conduct toward an em- 
 ployer ; but a guilty member, in all probability, would not 
 be censured ; because the union is in too great need of the 
 few members it has to risk offending any. 
 
 Blacklisting a Position. — Another method of enforcing 
 the union's policies in spite of the opposition of employ- 
 ers is explained in the following section from the Con- 
 stitution before referred to: 
 
 Article VII. Section 2. — When a member shall be discharged 
 by his employer without a satisfactory cause for his dismissal, 
 no other brother shall be allowed to take his vacancy until satis- 
 factory proof has been given to the executive board. 
 
 A similar policy would probably not be adhered to 
 now; because, as a cutter said to the writer, the imion 
 would prefer to have one of their number hold the po- 
 
 70 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 sition even if the employer could not be persuaded to re- 
 employ the discharged unionist. 
 
 Label.— The label signifies that the goods bearing it 
 have been made under the conditions prescribed by the 
 union, and no employer is allowed the use of it until he 
 has met all such requirements. Those who sympathize 
 with labor are urged by members of the union to pur- 
 chase no goods which do not bear this emblem. 
 
 In 1898 the local Garment Workers pronounced the 
 Flour City Manufacturing Co. to be the only Rochester 
 establishment selling clothing with the union label. Seem- 
 ingly there had been little or no action previous to this 
 time concerning its use, but a very definite movement 
 was now inaugurated. Firms were investigated as to 
 whether or not they handled union-made clothing bear- 
 ing the label and those not doing so were advertised as 
 unfair. Thus in the Labor Journal, June 3, 1904, ap- 
 peared the following admonition: "Stay away from the 
 Union Clothing Company, Garsons, McFarlins and 
 Strauss Brothers as they don't want your patronage." 
 This agitation has been carried on more or less spasmodi- 
 cally ever since; but it has never attained to a great 
 degree of success in the city. In 1909 it was announced 
 that the McFariin Gothing Company would handle a 
 large line of union-made clothing; but the movement 
 in Rochester is so weak that many stores, which carry 
 few or no labeled goods, are advertised in the Labor 
 Journal It seems somewhat incongruous to read in one 
 section of this paper a request to purchase only union- 
 made goods and then find, on the opposite page possibly, 
 the prominent advertisement of a firm which pays but 
 scant attention to the label. 
 Closed Shop.— The Knights adhered strictly to the 
 
 71 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
« 
 
 INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 policy of the closed shop. Although they frequently 
 were not able to furnish the employers with all the 
 union help they desired, the employment of nonunionists 
 was not permitted. Thus Adler Brothers and many 
 other firms found themselves unable to fill their orders 
 because nonunion help they could not hire and of more 
 union help they was none. The boycott was again 
 the chief instrument in the enforcement of this policy. 
 The Knights resorted to but few strikes, but maintained 
 a closed shop in almost every factory in the city. 
 
 Under the United Garment Workers, before the strike 
 in 1903, the principle of the closed shop was tacitly, 
 though not by written agreement, enforced by the Cut- 
 ters* Union and recognized by the employers; but now 
 a member of the union will work wherever he can get 
 a job ; for the clothing makers to-day have but one closed 
 shop in the city, vis., Goldwater's. The local unions are 
 practically powerless to force the closed shop upon un- 
 willing employers. 
 
 Welfare Features 
 
 Benefits. — It was the policy of the Knights to pay 
 sick benefits. Subsequent to the disruption of that local 
 organization and previous to the strike in 1903, the United 
 Garment Workers of the city also paid sick and death 
 benefits ; but since the strike the union has been too weak 
 to carry out any beneficiary policies. 
 
 Labor Bureau. — The cutters who belonged to the 
 Knights of Labor and were out of work procured posi- 
 tions in the manner described in their Constitution : 
 
 Article V. Section 1. — This assembly shall have a labor bu- 
 reau under the control of the executive board. No person shall 
 make application for work in any shop without permission from 
 
 72 
 
 OF AN AMERICAN CITY 
 
 the board and they shall send members in the order in which 
 they applied or had their names registered on the books of the 
 secretary of the labor bureau. 
 
 Section 2.— Should any firm apply for any particular man, 
 such a man may be sent regardless of what position his name 
 occupies on the book. 
 
 Section 5.— No member of this assembly shall be permitted to 
 apply for work in any shop unless sent there by the secretary 
 of the labor bureau and no organized shop shall permit any 
 brother of this class to work in their shop unless they have an 
 order from the secretary of the bureau after being notified by 
 the executive board through their shop committee. 
 
 The United Garment Workers maintained a similar 
 bureau previous to the strike in 1903. Since then the 
 bureau has ceased to exist. 
 
 Aid Policy.— A voluntary aid policy to help unionists 
 of other trades has been supported by the clothing work- 
 ers of the city. In 1898 they adopted measures to pro- 
 hibit members patronizing nonunion dailies; in 1899 they 
 contributed to the Pennsylvania coal miners, and in 1901 
 to needy metal polishers in Dayton ; they even threatened 
 members with punishment who patronized a nonunion 
 barber shop. These measiu-es tend to bind organized 
 trades together in common sympathy and reciprocal sup- 
 port. 
 
 Protection of Public Health.— The policy of the unions 
 is to eliminate as far as possible all conditions of gar- 
 ment making inimical to the health of the ultimate pur- 
 chaser. The following cases will illustrate. In 1905 a 
 special committee investigated and made public imsani- 
 tary conditions in a certain sweatshop. The publicity 
 helped to correct the evil. In 1906 Secretary Bohrer of 
 the Central Trades and Labor Council wrote the Board 
 of Health as follows : "I was instructed to notify you 
 
 73 
 
 I 
 
INDUSTRY AND TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 of the fact that the parties residing at No. i6, Philander 
 St., had a scarlet fever sign tacked on the house and 
 were at the same time working on clothing on said 
 premises." Needless to say this was speedily attended to. 
 This policy of the unions is of inestimable value to the 
 commimity in general as well as to each one of us in 
 particular when we wear ready-made clothing. 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 k. 
 
 fe; 
 
 ft. 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 
 to 
 
 k, 
 O 
 
 to 
 CO 
 
 s 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 ft, 
 
 o 
 
 The average percentage of strikes 
 
 in the United States (on basis of 
 
 establishments involved, wholly or 
 
 partially successful is 
 
 63.22% 
 
 o 
 c 
 
 G 
 
 V> 
 
 Qi 
 
 •c 
 
 -4-> 
 
 w 
 
 O 
 
 c 
 
 u 
 
 l-l 
 
 <u 
 0, 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 Succeed- 
 ing 
 wholly 
 
 or 
 in part 
 
 O 
 
 NO 
 
 On 
 
 to 
 
 ei5 
 
 On 
 
 d 
 
 Below 
 
 average 
 
 per cent. 
 
 of 
 success 
 
 
 o 
 o\ 
 
 
 Above 
 
 average 
 
 oer cent. 
 
 of 
 success 
 
 00 
 
 d 
 o 
 
 
 »o 
 
 The average percentage of Rochester 
 strikes, wholly or partially successful is 
 
 50% 
 
 V3 
 
 ■c 
 
 •t-> 
 w 
 
 u 
 
 o 
 
 tn 
 
 .c 
 o 
 o 
 
 Vt-I 
 
 o 
 
 • 
 
 c 
 
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 O 
 
 U 
 Qi 
 
 Failing 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 ^0 
 NO 
 
 to 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 y-* 
 
 Succeed- 
 ing 
 wholly 
 
 or 
 in part 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 vO 
 
 NO 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 >o 
 
 Below 
 
 average 
 
 per cent. 
 
 of 
 success 
 
 
 \o 
 
 NO 
 
 
 Above 
 
 average 
 
 per cent. 
 
 of 
 success 
 
 8 
 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 On" 
 
 This table shows 
 
 the relation of 
 
 the per cent, of 
 
 strikes that are 
 
 successful to the 
 industrial pros- 
 perity of the times 
 
 Condi- 
 tion of 
 business 
 
 Pros- 
 perous 
 
 o 
 
 • «-< 
 
 c 
 
 Pros- 
 perous 
 
 en 
 i-i 
 
 1889 
 1890 
 
 1892 
 1894 
 
 1899 
 1903 
 
 u 
 
 15 
 
 \ 
 
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 s 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 CO 
 
 k. 
 
 
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 '-n 
 
 f^ 
 
 tij 
 
 "-. 
 
 2 
 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 •5 ° 
 
 . c 
 
 (A 
 
 73 
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 C 
 
 
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 w^ 
 
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 ''J' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 00 
 
 00 
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 •4-> C 
 
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 Co j3 
 
 15 ^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 CA^ 
 
 J5 O 
 
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 6 >> 
 
 c 
 
 76 
 
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED 
 
 !{■' 
 
 w 
 
 1 1 
 
 ' .i. 
 
 Annual Reports of N. Y. State Board of Mediation 
 and Arbitration for the years, 1888-1909. 
 
 Reports of New York State Department of Labor. 
 Twenty-first Annual Report of the Federal Commis- 
 sioner of Labor, 1906. 
 
 Federal Report on the condition of "Woman and Child 
 Wage-Earners in the United States." Vol. 2. (Report of 
 Commissioner of Labor on men's ready-made clothing 
 mdustry in the United States, August 8, 1910. Federal 
 Senate Document No. 645 (Sixty-first Congress, Second 
 Session.) 
 
 Complete Files of the Labor Journal of Rochester. 
 Files of the Rochester Times. 
 
 Annual Reports of the Rochester Chamber of Com- 
 merce. 
 
 History of Rochester and Monroe County.— William 
 F. Peck. 
 
 Rochester, A Story Historical.— J. M. Parker. 
 
 Rochester Trades Assembly and Building Trades 
 Council. Illustrated History. 
 
 Article on Rochester Labor.— Paul Moore Strayer, 
 
 i 
 
 78 
 
 1r 
 
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 OCT 3 1 1949 
 
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