In, the rnitedl States, as in England, labor or ganizations first appeared in considerable num bers about 1830. The earliest manifestations of the new movement were political. In 1829 a workingman's ticket was played in nomination in New York, and one delegate to the State Assem bly was elected. This political movement spread into Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. and con tributed to the formation of the Loeo Foe° Party (q.v.), which played an important part in the political movement of that period. Political or ganization hastened organization for trade pur poses. and about 1833 we hear of numerous municipal federations of trade unions, one of which, the General Trades. Union of the City of New York, succeeded in having its president elected to Congress. In 1832 the New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics. and Work ingmen urn, organized at Boston. a typical labor organization of the period. which seems to have devoted itself to debate and educational work.
The three most important labor organizations which appeared before the Civil War were all m-ganized in 184.1: the New England] Working Association in the New England Protective Union in September. and the Indus trial Congress of the United States in October. The first two were closely identified. the Protee tire Union being largely devoted to cooperation. All three exhibited the familiar characteristics of the early labor organization. Unskilled la borers, women, farmers, and even other em ployers were admitted. The most diverse re forms were championed: abolition of slavery, wo men's rights, land nationahzation, the withhold ing of supplies from the American army in _Mexico. The socialistic character of the move ment is shown by the fact that George Ripley and Charles A. Dana were prominent among the founders of the New England Workingmen's Association, while the initial meeting of the association was addressed by Robert Owen and Albert Brisbane, 'the father of American So cialism.' All three of these associations became mori bund in the early fifties, and from that time until the end of the Civil War the most striking phe nomenon is the multiplication of trade unions of the narrower kind. But during this period, also, there were not lacking men, even among the prominent trade-union leaders, who charac terized the trade union as exclusive, and warmly advocated the formation of broader organiza tions which would elevate the masses by other means than the strike and the regulation of apprenticeship. In 1866 their efforts resulted in the formation of the National Labor Union, which, starting with a large membership and good prospects, wasted its strength on the attempt to found a Labor Reform Party, and died in IS70 'of the disease known as politics.' A slight connection may be traced between the National Labor Union and the International 'Workingmen's Association, which was founded in London in 186-1. and moved its headquarters to New York in 1872, soon after which it dis appeared. The international, however, came
under the domination of Karl Marx, and was rather a socialistic party than a labor organ ization.
The work laid down by the National Labor Union fell into the hands of a remarkable labor organization. the `Noble Order of the Knights of Labor.' (See KNIGHTS OF LABOR.) Although it began as a local union of garment workers, and in the course of its existence chartered many na tional unions, it contemplated from the very beginning something essentially hostile to the exclusive trade union. Following out this policy, no effort is made to restrict the membership to wage-earners. a universal practice among trade unions, but in general persons over sixteen years of age are eligible to membership. In their district assemblies, and even in the local assem blies, the members of different trades are amal gamated without respect to occupational limits. Finally, the government of the Knights is far more centralized than any federation of trade unions: the general executive board, to take a single ilhuttration, may suspend any local or district officer, expel any member, revoke any charter. and by a unanimous vote may settle any strike. In other words, the Knights of Labor is a centralized national union of mixed trades, and not a federation.
The latest phase in the development of labor organizations is represented by the American Labor Union, possibly the most important labor organization of the present. See LABOR UNION, AMERICAN.
Historically considered, the labor organization is distinguished from the trade union by an absence of exclusiveness, by the effort to secure the benefits of organization for the unskilled workers, by a more emphatic note of altruism, by a decided preference for cooperation, for legis lative and political action over strikes and boy cotts, and, it must be admitted, by a general tendency to take short cuts to universal reform. On the whole, the labor organization has been far less productive- of tangible results than the trade union. But its work has not been in vain. The trade union of to-day is far less exclusive. far less monopolistic than it was before the appearance of the Knights of Labor and the new unions of England. Most impor tant of all, the trade union now realizes the truth of that fundamental thesis of the Knights of Labor—that machinery is fast obliterating the line between the skilled and unskilled trades— and devotes a large share of its strength and funds to the organization of the lower classes of labor. This is the primary object of the Ameri can Federation of Labor. See LABOR, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF.
For an account of a momentous struggle, which bears much resemblance to the contrast between the labor organization and the trade union, see Problems of 0ryani ulion under Tn.?DE UNIONS, where a general bibliography is also given. See, also, Socialist Parties under SOCIALISM.