The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-09-03
LABOR IN OLD TIMES,
Workers That Fed the People Of
Ancient Rome.
MANY TRADES ORGANIZED.

Nearly All the Freedmen of the Work
inc Glasses Were Members Of Unions
Bread Bakers Among the First t'
Organize.
The method of making and baking
bread in ancient times seems to nave
differed very little from our modern
methods But the grinding of grain
which nowadays has been re'egated TO
the machine process, was done IN past
ages by beating it into flour or meal
with a pestle. This was the WORK oil
the bread bakers union, members oI
which were engaged in supplying tue
pcoplc of Rome. rich and poor WIN
The three kinds of bread consumed III
those DAYS. 1t is held that The bread
bakers we're among the first OF the
ancient iowly TO organize. thelf ubioH
dating back. according to the auihor-
tiles. 700 years before the CHRISTIAN era
Nor in the important business or reed
inc the many mouths Of antique Rome
can the butchers be left out OF ac'
count. The pasture lands were taken
on shares from the government by cat
tie breeders. For the use Of the land
they paid 4 stipulated sum to the Ro-
man taygatherers, who were also thor
ouchly 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
fine poorer classes of this great capital
of antiquity. Granier in his great con-
trfbution to sociology, "HistOire des
Classes Ouvrieres" Qlistorv of tue La
boring Classes. 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 psychologists,
like Gruter, Donati and Orelli, have
proved conclusively that there were I'M
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 a union Of fishermen
had many members at Rome, Ostia and
Pisae, on the sea, and at the mouths of
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
were of various sorts. Ward speaks of
4 curious inscription found at Rome
telling that man of the name of
Julius Epophra. a former cabinetmak-
ar, had given up his trade to become an
apple vender and that by the assist
lnce of his wife, Helen, he made a liv-
ng by keeping an apple stand near the
Roman circus.
10 pass on rapidly, numerous other
lniOns, much the same kind as those
llready mentioned. were in evidence at
his remote era. But different from
my Of the others was the union Of
who are supposed now to
nave 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 were formed by slaves who es-
,aped into the wildernesseS of Italy and
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 emperoEs sc
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.
Finances of the Carpenters.