The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-05-04

New 1Ofk tIf AJ-A uflIOH CSiS-
brating its Tooth anniversary is one
that has survived war and peace,
prosperity and depression. Such "a
union is Local 6 of the Internation-
al Typographical Uni on-AFL,
known to the entire labor move
ment as Big Six.
The 10000 members of Big Six
will celebrate the Tooth anniversary
May 5 through 13 with a series of
gala affairs that would have been
hard to predict 100 years ago. For
Big Six was founded in 1850, the
year cigar maker Samuel Gompers
himself, founder of the entire AM
erican Federation of Labor, was
born in London's grimy East End.
In sense, history herself will be
the hostess through the Today
celebration eliminating in a grand
ball the night of May 13 at Man
haitian Center, scene of many a
stirring labor event.
The infant organization was dub
bed the New York Printers Union
at meeting January 19, 1850, at
StonealPs "public hotel', 81 Full
ton street. There were 36 members,
stirred to organization less by their
own immediate grievances than by
a printers strike $50 miles away
in Boston. A representative of the
Boston workers had called upon the
New Workers, urging them to join
the battle for higher wages.
The Gotham journeymen, who
had been trying for three quarters
of a century to establish an effec-
tive organization, met several times
to decide how they could help. Be
fore long, the answer became OBJ
vious: the first thing they could do
for their Boston brothers was or
ganize themselves into tight-knit
group. The meeting at StonealPs
followed-and so did something
else difficult to understand in 1850
but perfectly comprehensive and
fortnight hundred years ago
before all the complexities of an
Industrial civilization became COM
monplace. The New York Typos
elected a publisher as their pres
ident!
OF course this was no ordinary
publisher. This was Horace Gree
ley, chief executive of what was
then the New York Tribune and one
of the foremost advocates in his
time of labor's right to organize
and assert itself.
The union acquired its present
name, Big Six, in 1852 after the
third conclave of the National Con-
vention of Journeymen Printers of
the United States assembled in|
Cincinnati, Ohio, to form the Ma
tional Typographical Union, later
to become the international Typo
graphical Union. Fourteen local
organizations were present and
when the problem of numbering
them arose delegates agreed to
draw lots. The New York delegate
drew No. 6, and New York has
been Big Six ever since.
From its founding, Big Six has
been in the front ranks Of history.
It's historians point out that within
two weeks after the War Between
the States began, l3 members of
the union were in the Union army. /
A year later there were SO, and by
the end of the tragic conflict 170l
Big Sixers had served. This was
more than third Of the member
ship of 507.
In the 1905 the union espoused
the cause of the Cuban revolution
lists long before the war with inn
perial Spain broke out. "The citiz-
ems of Cuba" the union said in
1897, "are engaged in a struggle |
similar to that by which our fore
fathers gained our liberties shook
off the monarchical yoke and estab-
lished the greatest Republic on
earth-the United States of Am-
erica"
In World War | and III, the sons
of Big Six acquitted themselves |
well. In the first conflict, S85 join |
ed the colors, i'm the second, S95
were in service. And during both |