492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



destroyed solely because it went into politics, but chiefly because the 

 industrial development of the country was not sufficient to weld the 

 workingmen of the nation into a strong and permanent federation. 

 They could see no excellent reasons for paying dues to such an organi- 

 zation — except during a time of stress. The National Labor Union and 

 its successor, the National Industrial Congress, died of financial weak- 

 ness and the apathy of their members. 



In 1876, another attempt was made to form a national federation. 

 A call was issued by an "executive committee" from Pittsburgh, 

 January 5, 1876, "To all Labor Orders, Unions and Associations of 

 the United States." Delegates were asked to be " prepared to take such 

 steps as will place our now scattered forces under one organized move- 

 ment, for immediate action, to get and to hold, and use the balance of 

 power. . . . The issue is a labor issue, an issue of the right of men to 

 1876. The social democrats tried in vain to commit it to the policy of 

 organizing a distinct labor party. A substitute plan was adopted which 

 is quite similar to the more recent plan fathered by President Gompers 

 of the American Federation of Labor. 



Resolved: That independent political action is extremely hazardous and 

 detrimental to the labor interests; that the workingmen of the country should 

 organize into trades unions and labor leagues to educate the people first, 



and endeavor to elect men in both parties favorable to the interests of 

 the wage earners. 



The editor of a labor paper complained in 1877: 



All our national organizations for the unification of labor, are dead. Labor 

 is divided in a thousand unions and factions.ia 



He declared that employers and employers' associations were bitterly 

 fighting labor and that the next necessary step in the struggle against 

 combinations of capital was a " National Federation of Trades' Unions." 

 During the last years of the seventies, such national unions as the 

 Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers of the United 

 States, the International Typographical Union, and the Cigar Makers' 

 International Union were agitating the matter of a national federation. 

 In 1881, the President of the Typographical Union wrote in his annual 

 report : 



The subject is of such importance that we can afford to suffer in patience 

 numerous failures if as an ultimate result the mechanics of the United States 

 and Canada can be brought into a closer and common organization for the 

 common good. 



There is much evidence indicating that the far-sighted labor leaders 

 of the seventies saw the need of a permanent national federation of 

 trade unions. On November 15, 1881, at Pittsburgh, was formed the 

 Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States 



is National Labor Tribune, April 7, 1877. 



