Nationalization of the unions was hardly possible until industries were enlarged and dis tribution more rapid and general. This trans formation was under way in the fifties. Rail roads were being built and disconnected lines were being consolidated into greater systems. Epoch-making inventions, such as the sewing machine, the reaper and mower and shoe ma chinery had already been registered in the Pat ent Office. Expansion and consolidation were going on. In 1840 there were 1,240 cotton fac tories with $51,000,000 capital, employing 72,000 workers. In 1850 the number had been re duced to 1,074, the capital increased to $76, 000,000 and the workers to 95,000. The woolen and other industries were undergoing the same change. Many local unions were formed, sev eral of larger scope. At least two national or ganizations still in existence date from this period, the International Typographical Union (1850) and the Iron Moulders (1839). The revolution in industry, instead of being checked, was rather stimulated by the Civil War the next decade. Associations of manufacturers were common and business was assuming the monopolistic type. The absence of so many workers on the firing tine weakened the labor ing classes and their organization was strength ened but little while the war lasted, though one union, that of the cigar-makers, dates from 1864. The increased use of woman, child and convict labor, the influx of immigrants, espe cially from southern Europe, and the freeing of the negroes, whose low standards were said by the workers to misfit him for La fair com petition of the white and multiplica tion of machinery, all added to the perplexities of the laboring men and made organization in evitable.
The most significant demand of this period was the' 8-hour day.' The basic philosophy of this demand was somewhat different from that for the 10-hour day. As formulated by Ora Stewart, a Boston mechanic, this philoso phy held that this increase of the worker's lei sure would raise the standard of living. This would cause a rise in wages and an increased use of machinery. The carrying out of the program would, he said, eliminate the capital ists for the rise in wages would make the cap italist and laborer one. The specific program naturally arising from such a philosophy called for the establishment of co-operative production and distribution and of emigration to the West ern lands as a remedy for unemployment; it demanded the abolition of monopoly, of the contract system of convict labor, educational advantages suitable for laboring people and better housing. Gresham's law, said Stewart, operated in the labor world as surely as in money and these measures should be taken to guard against it.
A natural corollary of this last was oppo sition to convict labor, Chinese immigration and the coming of Europeans under contract. Even the recently freed negro was an object of fear, and demands were made for some kind of pro teetive regulations. With the help of the human itarians the convict lease system has been prac tically abolished and the working of convicts under contract considerably modified. The agi tation for Chinese exclusion was finally success ful in 1882 and other Asiatics except Japanese were included in 1916. A law against the im portation of laborers under contract was passed in 1885, amended in 1907.
Coincident with some of the significant changes in production was the development of the middleman who pushed in as a connecting link between producer of raw materials and the manufacturer and the manufacturer and the consumer. This was particularly noticeable 1860-80. The same period also saw the capi talization of intangible wealth, good will, trade marks, franchises, etc., interference with which was a violation of property rights. Intangible
capital became an effective security for bank ing and credit business through which the mer chant could control the products of laborer and employer. Such a situation was of first int. Portance to the farmers and laborers and con, tributed largely to the first greenback move ment, which aimed to take this control out of the hands of the middleman. The proposition for legal tender currency convertible into bonds and bonds convertible into legal tender, as backed by several labor unions, was stoutly resisted then, even when limited in quantity and based on 3 per cent bonds, and has since been condemned by historians and economists.
Consolidation and concentration moved op apace. Between 1870 and 1905 the factory, me chanical and neighborhood industries a little more than doubled in number, but the number of workmen trebled, the value of the products quadrupled and the capital was multiplied by six. The number of establishments making agricultural implements declined (1870-4900) 66 per cent, but the capital per establishment rose from $16,780 to $220,571 and the products from $25,0130 to $141,549. The close of the 19th century and the opening of the 20th wit nessed the appearance of the giant corporations. This in itself destroyed the personal nexus be tween the employer and employee. More than that, there was a union of industries through interlocking stockholders and directors. The result was that capital, instead of passing into the hands of laborers and farmers, itself be came the master or the ally of big business. A very small part of the demand of labor in the sixties was granted at the request of busi ness in 1913 in the Federal reserve banks; of the farmers to the farmers in the rural credit bill of 1916.
The answer of labor to concentration and to the rising •prices of the war period was organ ization. By September 1864 the local unions had over 200,000 members, and then nationalization began with the organization of the International Industrial Assembly of North America. The preamble to the constitution of this union gives causes of unions and expresses the feelings of that age. It may also be said to give the basic motives of unionism from that day to • this, though their expression has been modified. Capital is denounced as and seek ing to the working masses?) It ((has assumed to itself the right to own and control labor for the accomplishment of its own greedy and selfish ends, regardless of the laws of nature, and of nature's God?) Experience has demonstrated that cif the dignity of labor is to be preserved, it must be done by our united action?" Therefore, cbelieving the truth of the following maxims, that they who would be free must strike the first blow,' in union there is strength) and that self-preservation is the first law of nature,' and calling upon God to witness the rectitude of our intentions, we do ordain and establish the following consti tution?' The objects of the order were the social and moral elevation of the workers, the correction of abuses so as to secure to them their rights and privileges. This was to be secured through promoting organization and the adjustment of difficulties between employers and employees. Other orders soon grew more specific in their demands and brought into the foreground such questions as the recognition of the union, the closed shop, limitations on apprenticeship, im migration and the importation of labor under contract, prison labor, hours, wages, the boy cott, the blacklist, picketing, sanitation and safety. All of these questions have been prom inent since the Civil War, some of them all the time, others at particular periods.