Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-01-14
coIumbio's l40th Anniversary

One hundred and forty years ago,
10 brave printers in the City Of Wash
ington organized the, Columbia Typo
graphical Society, which organization
50 years later was to join the Inter-
national Typographical Union (AFL)
as Local 101.
say brave, because it took unusual
courage to sign your name as charter
member to such then-radical organi-
cation: when depression. panic and
struggle against the clutches of ruling
wealth and scarcity Of jobs threatened
their very livelihood
1t was the period when debtors who
owed $40 to the wrong man accounted
for four -fifthS of the penal inhabitants:
when printers lived to the ripe old age
of SO: when leaders of our Government
wanted to send our products abroad to
be manufactured rather than infect
their social world with additional work.
men: period wherein we saw this
handful of printers leading our first
fight year later to hike our salaries
to $40 per week.
The prevailing thought in those days
was that the working man should slave
and pay the cost of Government, while
the upper class enjoyed the fruits OF
their labor. So 1t is not difficult to con-
ceive just how this ruling class felt
about the effrontery of these 10 printers
who were to blaze a trail unequaled in
labor ranks.
Remember too we were just winding
up second war with England !. !.
Napoleon was ravaging Europe i.
philosophers were openly advocating
aristocratic ruling as the solution to
our problems. Locally things were get
ting rough and panic was soon to grip
the new Nation and destroy businesses
throughout the land as money interests
clashed with the Government.
All things considered, this hostile at
titude plus the panicky times, were
highly infertile soil to terminate the
seed that these pioneers advocated.
But 1t so happened that Gen. Andrew
Jackson was destined to defeat the
British in New Orleans a few months
after their organization, catapulting
him to national fame. which popularity
was later to send him to the White
House as their greatest ally. His con-
tinued blasts against aristocratic in
justices heaped upon the Nation, finally
gave these young printers a needed
shot in the arm.
Alarmed over these triumphs for the
common man, Jefferson. Hamilton,
Webster, Clay and other leaders feared
the country was lost beyond redemp-
ton and openly tried to find a leader
for q revolution; but remembering
Jackson's fighting record, no one dared
come forward. In one of the heated
discussions OF that day we hear Jeffer-
son saying that the common man was
as productive to society 'as sore Is to
the human body"
Now let's skip over the treacherous
years that followed and see what these
10 Washington printers and their sue
cesSors actually accomplished:
Today, we find the Washington menu
bership grown to $500 members, with
printing leading the industrial parade
in the Nations Capital; we find its
branches spreading over the entire
world, developed into a model Of per-
lection and operating as perfect
example of democracy. Nowhere else
can we find anything comparable as an
employment agency, wherein all q
member has to do is hang his slip In
any local and be eligible for work with
out even having to ask for . job.