Speaking of remainder tables, I recently picked up a 4 volume set called "History of
Labor in the United States."
A number of scholars seemed took part in writing sections of it.
Volume 1 1918, 1946. "The 'first recorded [American] labour strike,' says Mrs. Van
Rensselaer (History of the
City of New York, II, 219), occurred in 1677, when 'the licensed cartmen . . .
combined to refuse full
compliance when ordered to remove the dirt from the streets for three pence a load.' A
later strike, that of the
New York bakers in 1741, is usually referred to, on the authority of the United States
Commissioner of Labor, as
the first American strike. (citation)" p. 25
Volume 2. title pages ripped out
Volume 3. 1935
Volume 4. 1935
Macmillan published them. Lots of good stuff in them. The volumes seem like a valuable
reference. Does
anyone know if any scholar has begun to update it?
Quotation from volume 4: "The American Federation of Labor as a 'government' is
constructed like the
Confederation of the United States prior to the adoption of the Federal Constitution.
The rights granted to the
Federation by the international trade unions bestow no authority over strikes, but
make it the most exalted
tribune in the American labor world--a power, and an effective one--in nothing so much
as in the molding of labor
opinion. However, the denial to the Federation officers of the power to issue commands
to the affiliated
organizations has in practice made for strength. The officers and leaders of the
Federation, knowing that they
could not command, set themselves to developing a unified labor will and purpose by
cultivating the art of
persuasion. Where a bare order would breed resentment and backbiting, an appeal which
is re-enforced by a
carefully nurtured universal labor sentiment, might bring about common consent. This
sort of government has
not made hte American Federation of Labor the most harmonious family of international
trade unions--the many
jurisdictional disputes (citation) amply attest to that--but it has imposed upon a
labor group as devoid of class
consciousness as is the American, perhaps the maximum obtainable willingness to stay
corralled and on
important occasions to pull in harness."
Maybe from our vantage point things look different. Maybe we'd say that the attiudes
of American workers were
in a dialectical relationship with the structure of the labor unions that represented
many of them. Or something
else.
Andrew Hagen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
