6 STABILIZATION, 1888-1897 130 7 TRADE UNIONISM AND THE COURTS 146 PART II. THE LARGER CAREER OF UNIONISM 8 PARTIAL RECOGNITION AND NEW DIFFICULTIES, 1898-1914 163 (1) The Miners 167 (2) The Railway Men 180 (3) The Machinery and Metal Trades 186 (4) The Employers' Reaction 190 (5) Legislation, Courts, and Politics 198 9 RADICAL UNIONISM AND A "COUNTER-REFORMATION" 208 10 THE WAR-TIME BALANCE SHEET 226 11 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 245 PART III. CONCLUSIONS AND INFERENCES 12 AN ECONOMIC INTERPRETATION 265 13 THE IDEALISTIC FACTOR 279 14 WHY THERE IS NOT AN AMERICAN LABOR PARTY 285 15 THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT AND TRADE UNIONISM 295 BIBLIOGRAPHY 307 PART I THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONISM IN THE U.S. CHAPTER 1 LABOR MOVEMENTS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR (1) _Early Beginnings, to 1827_ The customary chronology records the first American labor strike in 1741. In that year the New York bakers went out on strike. A closer analysis discloses, however, that this outbreak was a protest of master bakers against a municipal regulation of the price of bread, not a wage earners' strike against employers. The earliest genuine labor strike in America occurred, as far as known, in 1786, when the Philadelphia printers "turned out" for a minimum wage of six dollars a week. The second strike on record was in 1791 by Philadelphia house carpenters for the ten-hour day. The Baltimore sailors were successful in advancing their wages through strikes in the years 1795, 1805, and 1807, but their endeavors were recurrent, not permanent. Even more ephemeral were several riotous sailors' strikes as well as a ship builders' strike in 1817 at Medford, Massachusetts. Doubtless many other such outbreaks occurred during the period to 1820, but left no record of their existence. A strike undoubtedly is a symptom of discontent. However, one can hardly speak of a beginning of trade unionism until such discontent has become expressed in an organization that keeps alive after a strike, or between strikes. Such permanent organizations existed prior to the twenties only in two trades, namely, shoemaking and printing.