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Show Labor's First Striving for'PIacemtheSun' Was Mainly Political Early manifestations of the labor feeling In the Unltod Stntes wero political. po-litical. In 1820 n worklngmcn's ticket was placed In nnjnlnntlon In New-York. New-York. This political movement sprend Into Pennsylvania nnd Massachusetts nnd contributed to tho formntlon of the Loco Foco pnrty which played nn Important part In the politics of thnt period. Political organization hastened organization for trade purposes itnd In 1833 the Ocnernl Trades union of the city of New York elected Its presl-dent presl-dent to congress. In 1832 tho New ICnglnnd Association of Farmers, Me-chnnlcs Me-chnnlcs nnd Worklngmen wns organized organ-ized In Hoston. The threo most Important Im-portant labot organizations which appeared ap-peared before tho Civil war were organized or-ganized In 1845: Tho New nnglnnd Worklngmcn's nssoclntlon, tho New Knglnnd Protective union nnd the Industrial In-dustrial Congress of tho United States. All three orgnnlzntlons waned In the enrly 'COs, nud from thnt time until tho end of the Civil war many trades unions of the nnrrower kind wero formed. During this period many trado union lenders cluirnetor-Jzed cluirnetor-Jzed the trade union ns exclusive nnd warmly udvocnted tho formation of broader organizations which would elevate tho masses by other menus than the strike and tho regulation of apprenticeship. In 1800 their efforts resulted In the formation of tho National Na-tional Labor union, which attempted to found a Labor iteform parly and died In 1870 "of tho dlseaso known as politics." Tho work laid down hy the Natlonnl Labor union fell Into the hnnds of tho Knights of Labor, formed In December, Decem-ber, 18C0, by lenders of a dissolved local union of garment cutters In Philadelphia. Until 18S2 tho name nnd purpose of the order wero kept secret. In 18S0 It beenmo Involved In the Missouri Pacific strike. Its membership mem-bership then numbered 700,000. There-nf'.er, There-nf'.er, split by Internnl dissensions, and weakened by strikes, Its membership member-ship nnd Influence declined. In 1014 It hnd less than 100,000 members. The American Federation of Lnbor originated orig-inated In an attempt to found n general gen-eral organization of American w.nk-Ingmen w.nk-Ingmen distinct from the Knights of Lnbor on n trado union tinsis, A preliminary pre-liminary convention was called by the Knights of Industry nnd the Amalgamated Amalga-mated Labor union tho latter composed com-posed lurgoly of seceders from the Knights of Labor and met In Terre Haute, Ind., August 2, 1881. Tho first ofllclnl convention met nt Pittsburgh, Pa., In November, 1S81. Tho American Ameri-can Federation of Lubor has prnc-tlcally prnc-tlcally taken the plnce of its former rlvnl. the Knight of Labor, the organization organi-zation which was iiM-powerful ?omo tvvviily-Uvn ji'trs a'o. asggWsMsM"' ' . |