The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-19
LABOR'S FIGHT FOR SHORTER
 WORK DAY BEGUN 50 YEARS AGO

This Sunday will mark an import ant milestone in the progress of or ganized labor in America, for it was just half a century ago, on Aug. 20, 1866, that the first attempt was made to organize an international fedora tion of the trade unions of the United States and Canada. At that memora- ble convention, held in Baltimore, the of the toilers launched the movement for an eight-hour work day-a movement which has since become international in its scope, and which has already achieved many vic tories, not only in America, but In Europe and Australia. The Baltimore convention anticipated by two years the launching of the National Trades Societies Congress of Great Britain, held in Manchester, and since then the organized labor movements of Great Britain and America have been very similar in ideals and purposes. In Great Britain, and to a much greater extent in Australia and New Zealand, the organized workers have taken prominent part in politics, while in the United States and Canada the movement has been in the main pure ly industrial. and has not directly taken part in politics. In fact, the first general labor federation was wrecked by it's political activities.
 Delegates from. 60 labor organiza- tions attended the congress held in Baltimore. half a century ago, when the National Labor Union was found- ed. Another convention was held in Chicago in 1867 The following year congresses were held in New York and Pittsburgh. Boston was the meet ing place in 1870, Philadelphia in 1871 and Columbus in 1872. At the con- gress held in the Ohio capital the Labor Reform party was put in the field with Judge David Davis, of H. linois,as it's candidate for the presi- dency, and Judge Joel Parker, of New Jersey, as vice presidential nominee. In the light of later events, this en- trance of the union into the national political arena was branded as fatal error of Judgment" Partially dis rupted by internal dissension, the financial panic of 1873 put an end to the first attempt to bring the labor. unions of America into single feder- ation.
 While the National Labor Union was making its futile attempt to fed crate the toilers, another movement sprang up which flourished for time. This was the organization known as the Knights of Labor. launched in Philadelphia in 1869. Like the fa- nous International Workingmen's founded in London five years before, the Knights of Labor ig- nored vocation and sought the unitica- ton in a single body of all trades. The garment workers of Philadelphia were the prime movers in this society. which was strictly secret. At one time there were nearlyNa million men affiliated with the Knights of Labor, but it gradually lost its importance.
 An Industrial congress held i'll Ro- chester in 1874. and the conventions held by the Sovereigns of Industry and the Industrial Brotherhood, both secret societies, in the same year, failed to bring about the realization of another ambitious project for the union of the workers. Other similar schemes also failed, until in 1881, at a convention held in Pittsburgh and attended by 107 delegates representing nearly a quarter of a million workers, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada was formed.
 This body, since known as the American Federation of Labor. suc- ceeded where its predecessors had failed, and now, after an existence of 35 years, is composed of 110 national
 of ho ifoI States and Canada. with an approxi- mate paid membership of about two millions.
 The long struggle for a. shorter work day, which has been one of the principal objects of labor unions since their inception, began in America no years ago, when the ship carpenters and caulkers of New York asked for a reduction in hours of labor from IA to 10. Their employers bitterly re- sisted this Courageous demand" which they insisted would ruin their business, since they could not hope to compete on this basis with similar in- dustries in other cities where the IA hour day was the rule. The employ CTS settled the difficulty by importing men from other places, and blacklist ing all persons belonging to the union
 which had made the demand for fewer hours of toil..
 The eight-hour day of labor is first heard of in American industrial his- tory in 1S42, and again the ship car- penters and caulkers were the mal- contents. This was at the Charleston navy yard, and the demand was par tially met. Until the labor congress of half a century ago, however, the eight-hour day was not given much