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Show Labor 'Organization in America Can Be Traced to Movement in 1803 Organizations among American laborers la-borers began In 1803, when tho bhlp carpenters and cnlkers of New York ind Boston organized. Tho tailors f New York formed n union the snmc rear, and 1803 .also witnessed tho first Industrial strllto In America, when tho New York sailors refused to work. Before that, however, thero bad been labor disturbances among the bakers of New York and the boot and shoe makers of Philadelphia. It was during dur-ing the sailors' strike of 1803, tho Massachusetts shipbuilders' strike of 1817, and tho Albany printers' Mrlko of 1820, that the terms "rat," nud "scab" wero first used. From local 'inloiiH, the organization of labor pro-ressed pro-ressed until In 1850 the first Inter-JHtlonnl Inter-JHtlonnl labor union, that of the prlut-irs. prlut-irs. vrus launched. Tho first "martyrs to trade union-Ism" union-Ism" were thrown Into Jnll nt Tol-puddle, Tol-puddle, Dorsetshire, Kog., 77 years ago. They were Jamci nnd Oeorgo Lovclaco, Thonins Stantkid, James Hryne. The first throe men were Wesleyun preachers, who worked as farm laborers on week days and preached tho gospel on Sundays. Their Imprisonment wns due to their attempt to form a union of pirm laborers la-borers to protest against n proposed reduction In wages from seven shillings shill-ings to six shillings less than $1.50 n week, Tho landlords were all-powerful In Dorsetshire, and the "conspirators" "con-spirators" were urrcstcd. stripped, shorn of their hair and rust Into Jail nnd eventually sentenced to soon years' Inprlsonment. The first demand of labor unions foi nn night-hour day was made at n convention held In IUiltluioro, August Au-gust 21, 1SS0. This congress also marked the first attempt to organize n national federation of tho varloiin trade uiiIouh, national and Interim-tlonnl, Interim-tlonnl, then existing In the United Stales and Canada. One hundred delegates del-egates wero present, representing about 00 organizations. Tho demand for the-eight-hour dny wns but an Incident In-cident In tho sessions of the congress, but at succeeding gatherings It lis-vumed lis-vumed great Importance nud became the leading plank of organized In-aor's In-aor's platform. Tho secad convention was held In Chicago r 1807. The National Na-tional Labor union after meetings in Boston, Philadelphia and Columbus, went out of existence In 1874, but nt nn International congress held at Rochester In that year the movement was revived under other nnmes. Several Sev-eral organizations divided the nllegl-ance nllegl-ance of organized labor, but In 1881 the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada was launched, and out of this has grown the powerful American Amer-ican Federation of Labor. |