The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1913-10-14
EIGHT GOVERNORS OF ALABAMA
- 1874-1901
Ne 1.-THE Farmers Movement, Part |
Thomas Seay, Governor
1874-Io01

But the manufacture of sugar practleal-
~ ceased with the delivery of the product
on board the ocean carrier.
Infinitely more extensive and eompli-
Gated organization OF labor followed the
production of cotton in the southern
states The bulk of the cotton WAS pro-
duced by the organized slave labor of the
plantation.
| The cotton plantation was substantially
a municipality. 1t was organized govern
ment There was labor engaged in the
cultivation and harvesting of cotton, labor
engaged in the breeding and raising of
live stock; labor engaged In the manu-
facture of wagons, plows and other farm
implements: labor engaged in the domes-
tic service of the master residing on and
directing the whole of the plantation.
Out from this thoroughly organized
source of production the cotton trade
sought the world. Prior to the advent of
the cotton trade, there We're no great mills
of manufacturers. Individual spinners
and individual weavers by distaff and
hand loom supplied the linen and wooden
and silk textiles to the world.
The cotton gin of the plantation was fol-
lowed by the water driven and the steam
driven machinery that was collected I'M
der great roofs and there introduced the
wage class as we yet have it in the
manufacture of a textile that has not only
but has displaced in large measure the
linen and wool and silk textiles in the
uses of the markets.
When the product of the organized
African slave labor of the southern cit
, ton plantations had appeared to COM
mand the uses of western Europe and
the United States trade unions ap-
peared In England. The union was first
recognized as the privilege of the wage
worker and the worker eligible 20
membership must be of the skilled
laborer class. None other could join.
An important If not the controlling fea-
ture of the union WAS to keep the fam
lilies of the members out of the aims
house in case of misfortune overtaking
the wage driving heads.
The order was known in England and
Ireland.
Parliament denounced the union"
even with the simple and direct purpose
in view. Severe penalties We're placed
against certain of the acts by Its rules.
| Nevertheless, the union increased in
numbers and the self taxation imposed
by 1T amounted to surprisingly large
sums annually.
Two generations later this hostile at
titude of the parliament was formally
repealed and the suffrage reform in
troduced by Gladstone took its place
The initial labor movement in the
United States seems to have begun in
the city of New York in 1906, the Sec
ond term of President Jefferson. Pre-
ceding the disturbance the few small
newspapers then published had dis
cussed with anxiety the problem of the
day, How to prevent the rich swal-
lowing the poor" The newspaper dis
cussion was limited exclusively to the
states of the north.
In 1906 the tailors of New York city
formed themselves into a trade union"
In 1925 violent complaint was heard
| in the principal cities of the north
against the concentration of wealth in
few families. yet none was worth
probably exceeding half a million dol
lars.
In 1892 the common laborers on the
| Chesapeake and Ohio canal engaged in
a strike for a 10-hour day. They were
lunceremoniously lodged behind prison
bars. In 1899 the wor<men of carpet
| factory in Connecticut went on strike.
They were arraigned in court The jury
discharged them, in defiance of the In :
| structions of the presiding Judge In
| 1886 the tailors of New York city again
came to the front with distur bance.
They "eonspired'' to raise their wages
and reduce their hours of work. They
attempted to prevail on nom members
of the union to quit work. The strikers
were called into court and fined from
800 to $3.50 EACH
Later case of unusual celebrity
came up in the Massachusetts courts.
Seven journeymen shoe workers con-
spired together to prevent a "scab" en-
tering employment In their shop. They
were hailed into court and convicted of
conspiracy. They took an appeal and the
court above reversed the Judgment be-
low.
JOHN WITHERSPoON DUBoSE.