The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-09-06
LABOR IN OLD TIMES.
Workers That Fed the People of
Ancient Rome.
MANY TRADES ORGANIZED.

Nearly All the Freedmen Of the Work.
ing Glasses Were Members Of Unions.
Bread Bakers Among the First to
Organize.
The method Of making and baking
bread in ancient times seems to have
differed very little from our modern
methods. But the grinding of grain.
which nowadays has been relegated to
the machine process. was done in past
ages by beating it into -four or meal
with a pestle. This was the work of
the bread bakers union. members of
which were engaged In supplying the
people of Rome. rich and poor. with
the three kinds OF bread consumed in
those days. 1t is held that the bread
bakers were among the first Of the
ancient Lowry to organize. their union
dating back. according to the author
tiles. 700 years before the Christian era.
Nor in the important business Of feed
ing the many mouths Of antique Rome
can the butchers be left out Of &C
count. The pasture lands were taken
on shares from the government by cat
tie breeders. For the use Of the land
they paid stipulated sum to the Ro-
man taxsatherers. who were also thor
oughly organized. But. strange to say.
in the inscriptions found thus far no
mention Is made Of any other butchers
union than that Of the suari. or pork
butchers, who prepared the meat for
the poorer classes Of this great capital
of antiquity. Granier in his great con-
tribution to sociology. ''Histoire des
Glasses Ouvrieres'' History Of the La
boring CiassesI. clears this mystery
away by suggesting that the pork
butchers conducted the whole Of the
butcher business. but sufficient evil
dence on this point is lacking. On the
other hand. renowned archaeologists.
like Gruter, Donati and Orelli. have
proved conclusively that there We're IN
ions of men who foddered the stock
and OF haymakers and mowers who
prepared the fodder 1t is believed that
these unions worked in conjunction
with the butchers.
The labors Of Orelli have brought to
light the fact that union Of fishermen
had many members at Rome, Ostia and
/ ASaOs on luG SCdA a. Tie luOuluS VI
the rivers. Their business must have
been extensive since fish was a deli
cacy greatly relished by the Romans
and is mentioned frequently by the
Latin authors in their accounts Of the
lavish banquets Of the time. Besides
these ancient organized fishermen, there
were unions whose function it was to
pack the fish in barrels. casks and
packages.
Likewise engaged in helping to VIC
tual the population Of the Rome Of old
were the fruit purveyors' unions, which
We're Of various sorts. Ward speaks Of
a curious inscription found at Rome
telling that man OF the name Of
Julius Epophra, a former cabinetmak-
er. had given up his trade to become an
apple vender and that by the assist
ance OF his wife, Helen. he made a liv-
ing by keeping an apple stand near the
Roman circus.
10 pass on rapidly. numerous other
unions, much the same kind as those
already mentioned. were in evidence at
this remote era. But different from
any of the others was the union Of
huntsmen. who are supposed now to
have furnished the tables Of the mobiles
with the products Of the chase and
with food denied to the lowly. 1t has
been concluded from Inscriptions on
stone slabs that some Of these hunters
unions We're formed by slaves who es-
capped into the wildernesses Of Italy and
supported themselves by the fortunes
Of the chase, and that still others were
formed by gladiators who, weary Of
risking their lives in the arenas and
the amphitheaters in deadly combat
against one another and the wild
beasts. sought the more friendly will
dernesses.
Other inscriptions state that there
was union among certain Of the
gladiators for the purpose of under
taking remote journeys. officially sane
toned, to capture the great wild beasts,
wolves, bears, tigers and leopards-
that in the time of the emperors so
often spilled human blood on the sands
OF the arena. 1t must be kept in mind
that all these unionists were freedmen,
whose chartered organizations existed
according to the law.-I. X. Friedman
in Chicago News.