CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE LABOR MOVEMENT. 



BY RALPH BEAUMONT, LECTURER KNIGHTS OF LABOR, AND EDITOR National 

 Citizens' Alliance. 



THE labor movement is not by any means a new movement. It is 

 as old as history itself. Osborne Ward, the translator of the Labor 

 Bureau at Washington, in his book entitled "The Ancient Lowly," 

 traces it back to the days of Abraham ; and James Bronterre O'Brien, 

 in his work entitled " Human Slavery : the Way it Came into the World 

 and the Way that it Should be Made to go Out," traces it back to the 

 days of the patriarchs. 



It is not my intention to refer to any of the many phases of the move- 

 ment that may have taken place in those ancient times, but simply to 

 make a brief record of its different phenomena, as I have observed 

 them for the past twenty odd years in this country. The labor organi- 

 zations that existed in this country prior to the war of the Rebellion 

 were mostly of a local nature. This country, prior to that time, was 

 what might be termed an agricultural country, and that, too, different 

 from any other country on the face of the globe. In nine out of ten 

 cases, the farm laborer was the owner of his own farm, and, in many 

 instances in New England, they divided their labors between the farm, 

 mill, or workshop, and, as a result, were independent of their employers. 

 Besides that, the manufacturing establishments were of a small charac- 

 ter, as far as capital was concerned. 



But with the war came the demands for increased productions on the 

 part of manufacturing establishments, which resulted in the concentra- 

 tion of capital into large bodies. It is but a little over forty years ago 

 when the New England cotton or woollen mill was the property of one 

 or more individuals ; from that it became the property of two or 

 more ; and from that to the corporation, consisting of several individ- 

 uals, clothed by law with special powers. And from the corporation 

 owning one or more mills, it became the corporation owning several 

 mills, until to-day, in one city in New England Fall River may be 

 found twenty-five or more mills, employing anywhere from three hun- 

 dred to fifteen hundred operatives in each separate establishment, rep- 

 resenting a combined capital of more than $30,000,000. The whole 



