143] HISTORY II 



men in this strike learned the necessity of organization. 

 The puddlers resumed work at $4.50 per ton, greatly de- 

 pressed and discontented, many scattering to new fields of 

 employment throughout the West. 



The next decade was a period of frequent bickerings be- 

 tween the men and the employers, due to mutual distrust 

 and lack of cooperation. When prices fell, manufacturers 

 sought to secure a reduction in wages, and also " to alter the 

 rules forced upon them in the times of high prices when 

 they were powerless to resist." Such was the condition of 

 the iron trade when the crisis of 1857 occurred. The iron 

 industry of Pennsylvania was notably slow in reviving, and 

 the production in 1858 was estimated at only one half of 

 the previous year, the majority of mills being idle from 

 October, 1857, until the following spring. 



The panic and the reductions in wages resulting therefrom 

 brought the union into existence.^ Pittsburgh was the cen- 

 ter of the heavy iron trade of the country, and the tre- 

 mendous growth of the industry in this section had brought 

 together a large body of skilled workmen, chiefly from the 

 iron working centers of England, Scotland and Wales. The 

 desire for unity of action crystallized into secret meetings 

 of the workmen in the iron mills. The outcome was the 

 formation on April 12, 1858, of a local union, known as 

 Iron City Forge of the Sons of Vulcan. Only a select few 

 were admitted to the secret circle. Mathew Haddock, 

 James Davis, Patrick Graham, Hugh Hagan, and Joseph 

 Mellard were among the number who attended the first 

 meetings. Little was done for two years for fear of the 

 inevitable " black list." The Civil War and a favorable 

 tariff in 1861 caused a revival in the iron trade, and a re- 

 newal of interest in the Sons of Vulcan. Miles Humphreys 



$6.00 to $4.50; refiners, $1.00 to 80 cents; scrappers, $3.75 to $2.50; 

 heaters, $1.37 to $1.00 (The Labor Movement, ed. by George E. 

 McNeill, chap. xi). 



" In 1858 Eastern mills were paying $3.00 per ton for boiling; and 

 for puddling, as low as $2.JO. There is one instance in which $1.90 

 was paid for puddling at Danville, Pa. The pay was generally in 

 store orders (McNeill, chap. xi). 



