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A Documentary History of American Industrial Society
A Documentary History of American Industrial Society Author:Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, John Rogers Commons Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: INTRODUCTION The ten-hour strikes of the thirties ended with the panic of 1837. The National Trades' Union at its convention of 1836 had determined to direct ... more »its political energies, not toward legislation by Congress but toward action by the Executive. The wisdom of this policy was seen in the executive order of Martin Van Buren, March 31, 1840. But the Federal government could deal only with its own employees. It could not legislate for private employers. This was the part of the states. In Massachusetts the ten-hour strikes had not been as successful as in other states. In that state, too, the factory system had taken the lead of other states. The first petitions to the legislature originated with "citizens of Fall River" in 1842, showing that "in many manufacturing establishments more hours of labor are required than can be made consistent with the bodily health and the proper intellectual and moral improvement and well being of adults."3 This was followed in 1843 by a petition of female operatives of Fall River praying for ten hours.4 Nothing was done at either session. In 1844, the Mechanics' Association of Fall River took a different line of attack and addressed a circular to the mechanics of New England, calling for a Convention. This circular received widespread publicity and led to the organization of the New England Working Men'sAssociation, later changed to the Labor Reform League of New England. An "Address" was adopted by the first Convention and issued to "their fellow mechanics and laborers throughout the United States," drafted under the Fourieristic influences of the Convention, and devoted to a criticism of "the present system of labor." B Brisbane, in the Phalanx, said, "We were highly gratified with the evident tendency of feeling among the members of the...« less