USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 1 > Part 28
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In 1880 the courts were the only recourse for the employee injured on his job. If he was injured through the carelessness of another employee, he could not recover any damages. Today the rights of the injured workman are safe- guarded through the Workmen's Compensation Law, administered by a state department without expense to the employee.
Again, in 1880 the courts were the only means of assistance for men and women employed in industrial establishments if they could not collect their pay. As the services of a lawyer would usually cost more than the amount involved, they were practically without protection in this respect.
The weekly payment of wages law now covers nearly all industrial employees. It is administered by the State Department of Labor and Indus- tries, which investigates the claims and prosecutes the cases without charge to the complainant. In 1930 more than $50,000 in wages due were paid to employees after complaint was entered with the Department of Labor. A considerable part of this amount went to Boston employees.
In 1880 boys and girls of ten worked in shops and factories ten hours a day and sixty hours a week. There were few restrictions at that time on their employment. There were no continuation schools and no provision for vocational training in the public schools.
LABOR LEGISLATION
Industrial legislation was in its infancy in 1880. It was only six years since the ten-hour law had been enacted. This was the first effective legisla- tion in the country regulating the hours of labor for women and minors. There were at that time no night work regulations for women, no requirements for seats in workrooms and no provision for lunch periods.
The period from 1880 to 1930 is one marked by labor and social welfare legislation throughout the country. In this movement Massachusetts took a prominent part and was a pioneer in much of the legislative work. A number of important measures were enacted in the early part of this period. Three measures of labor interest were passed by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1880. One required employers to post a notice of the hours of work in workrooms where women and minors were employed. Another made provision for pro- tection of employees in the matter of egress in case of fire. The third provided that licenses should not be given for theatrical exhibitions or public shows where children under fifteen belonging to the public schools took part, or where employment was contrary to morals or physical health.
In 1882 a measure was enacted requiring seats for women and children in manufacturing and mercantile establishments. In 1883 the employment of children under twelve was prohibited during the hours the public schools were in session. The ten-hour day and sixty-hour week was extended to mercantile and mechanical establishments that year. In 1884 prohibition was placed upon locking factory doors during working hours.
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Then followed in rapid succession in 1886 the weekly payment of wages law,* the creation of the State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration and the requirement for reporting industrial accidents. This measure, and the em- ployers' liability act of the succeeding year, 1887, represent the beginning of workmen's compensation in this state. The contract system of prison labor was abolished in the same year, and the first Monday in September, known as Labor Day, was made a legal holiday. Other legislation enacted that year prohibited children under fifteen from cleaning machinery in motion, provided a half-hour meal period for women and minors in factories and workshops, made requirement for sanitation and ventilation of factories, and assured that the working man should have time to vote.
Child labor legislation, enacted in 1888, prohibited the employment of children under thirteen when the public schools were in session unless they had attended school twenty weeks in the year preceding. Night work was pro- hibited for children under fourteen years of age, and authority granted to the Chief of Police to prohibit the employment of young children in unhealthy occupations. It was not until 1898 that fourteen was established as the mini- mum age for employment of children in industry. A separate inspection division was created in 1888 for the administration of the labor laws, which had formerly been enforced by the detective branch of the district police.
In 1890 came the night work law prohibiting the employment of women in factories before six in the morning and after ten at night. Massachusetts was the first state in the country to enact such legislation. Other legislation that year restricted the employment of ininors on elevators, and established a nine- hour day for employees of the Commonwealth.
The beginning of regulations dealing with tenement workshops came in 1891 and 1892, and had to do with the manufacture of wearing apparel. The hours for women and minors in manufacturing and mechanical establishments were in 1892 reduced to fifty-eight. In 1900 the law was extended to mercan- tile establishments.
A number of important measures were enacted in 1906. One of these provided for the creation of the Commission on Industrial Education. Boston men and women served on this commission and made an important contribu- tion to its work. Its recommendations formed the basis for vocational training in the public schools. Provision was made during the same year for the estab- lishment and maintenance of free employment offices under the direction of the State Bureau of Statistics of Labor. An office was opened in Boston the follow- ing year. The eight-hour law for public employees was also enacted that year.
In 1907 legislation was enacted requiring factories and machine shops to make provision for the care of injured employees. Regulations regarding the sanitation and lighting of industrial establishments were also enacted in 1907. Savings bank life insurance dates from the same year. The following year hours of labor for women and children in manufacturing and mechanical estab- lishments were reduced to fifty-six a week.
A. forerunner of the workmen's compensation law is seen in the Act of 1908 authorizing the State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration to approve
* A law enacted in 1879 applied only to city laborers.
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plans submitted by employers for the compensation of injured workers. In 1910 a commission was created to draft a workmen's compensation law for the protection of injured workmen and their dependents. The following year the workmen's compensation law was enacted.
Other important labor legislation in 1910 included the creation of the Factory Inspection Commission, which was appointed to investigate the method of factory inspection then in force under the district police and the Board of Health; the act requiring that advertisements for employees during strikes or lockouts must state that labor trouble exists; and two measures regarding child labor. One made requirement that in order to secure working papers a child must be examined as to physical fitness; the other authorized the exclusion of ininors under eighteen from occupations determined by the State Board of Health to be injurious.
The State Board of Labor and Industries was authorized in 1912 and established the following year. This represented the first provision for admin- istration of factory inspection and industrial health work under a single agency. The Massachusetts minimum wage law was also enacted in 1912, to take effect in 1913. This was for the purpose of protecting women and minors from inadequate wages.
One of the measures enacted in 1913 provided for the establishment and maintenance by the School Cominittee of a free employment office for minors in the City of Boston. This was the Boston Placement Bureau, now the Department of Vocational Guidance of the Boston school system. A per- missive continuation school act was passed the same year. Boston was the first city to take advantage of the measure and establish continuation schools. It was not until 1919 that the compulsory system of state-wide continuation schools was adopted. Other measures passed in 1913 included the mothers' aid law and the model child labor law.
A Sunday sports law, which extended recreational opportunities for work- ing men and their families, was passed in 1919. Other measures enacted tliis year were the 48-hour law for women and minors and the act authorizing the creation of the Commission on the Necessaries of Life. This was intended to protect consumers from excessive prices in the matter of rent, fuel, clothing, light and similar necessaries that enter into the budget of the working man and woman.
The vocational rehabilitation act, providing for vocational training and rehabilitation of war veterans and industrially injured civilians, was passed in 1921. The scope of the forty-eight-hour law was extended that year, and several important child labor measures were enacted. A number of important amendments to the workmen's compensation law, liberalizing the law and extending its application, were enacted in 1927.
An act permitting wages to prisoners was passed in 1928. Other measures enacted that year include the Public Bequest Fund, to be used in aiding aged men and women, and authorization for labor unions to take out group life insurance policies for their members. The Children's Code Commission was established in 1929. The following year the Old Age Assistance Act was passed, providing that dignified and suitable assistance shall be given, prefer-
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ably in their own homes, to needy citizens, men and women seventy years of age and over. The State Department of Labor was requested that year to make a study of unemployment.
The acts mentioned are only a selection from the many measures dealing with labor and related subjects that were enacted in Massachusetts during the period from 1880 to 1930. It is an impressive list of accomplishments - one that has placed Massachusetts among the leading states in the country in labor legislation. Labor leaders and individuals interested in social welfare were largely responsible for these achievements. Boston men and women and Boston organizations took a prominent part in securing these laws. The working people of Boston have benefited by the laws enacted to improve the conditions of labor throughout the state. The fact that the period in question was one marked by the development of labor organization doubtless had a significant bearing on the result.
ORGANIZATION OF WORKERS
The early 80's were important years in the labor movement in Boston as throughout the country. The Knights of Labor, which was the principal organi- zation of workers in 1880, reached the height of its power in 1886. The Ameri- can Federation of Labor was organized in 1881. The Boston Central Labor Union antedates the national body by three years. This central was organized in 1878 as the Workingmen's Central Union. Its purpose, as stated in the Declaration of Principles and Objects, adopted July 14, 1878, was:
"To encourage all legislation for the benefit of working men; aid in the enforcement of present laws in the interest of labor which are evaded or carried out in a loose or improper manner; watch all proposed legislation in the councils of the city or state; and use its best efforts for the promotion of the general good."
There were a number of separate trade unions in Boston at that time, including various branches of the building trades, cigar makers, boot and slioe workers, printers, tailors, hatters, iron molders and harness niakers. The plan for the Federation came from the Boston Typographical Union No. 13:
"At a meeting held in April, 1878, Mr. John Vincent, of the Boston Herald, offered a motion for the organization of the Central Union of Trades in Boston and Vicinity." *
This motion was seconded by Mr. George Perry of the Boston Globe, and carried unanimously.
A circular signed by Messrs. Vincent and Perry, which was distributed among thie members of the various trade unions, explained the purpose of the organization and invited their co-operation. One of the aims outlined in the announcement was:
"To form an organization capable by the weight of its numbers of speaking with authority on all matters of mutual interest to the various
* From "Origin of the Boston Central Labor I'nion," Bulletin issued by the Boston Central Labor Union, 1930.
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trades; as, for instance, contract labor in prisons brought into competi- tion with honest labor; to unite the various trades for all purposes affecting the interest of the working classes in general; to legis- late not in the interests of any particular trade or union, but equally for the welfare of all."
The Declaration of Principles and Objects of the Workingmen's Central Union and a constitution were adopted at a meeting of delegates fromn trade unions of Boston and vicinity held at the Sherman House on July 14, 1878. The constitution gave broad powers to the central body, providing that it "shall have for its object the promotion of trade unionism and the furtherance of any movement which in its opinion is beneficial to the working classes."
John Vincent of the Boston IIerald office, representing the Typographical Union, was elected first president. Among those who have served as presi- dents during the half-century that followed were Charles P. Harrington of the Granite Cutters' Union; Frank H. McCarthy of the Cigarmakers' Union, now New England organizer for the American Federation of Labor; John F. O'Sullivan of the Typographical Union; Harry Lloyd of the Carpenters' Union; Frank Pickett of the Newswriters' Union; Fred Kneeland of the Painters' Union; Arthur M. Huddell of the Hoisting and Portable Engineers, later international president for the Union; James T. Moriarty of the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers, now president of the Massachusetts Federation of Labor; Edward F. McGrady, Web Pressmen's Union, now legislative agent for the American Federation of Labor; Henry Abrahams of the Cigarmakers' Union; Ernest A. Johnson of the Asbestos Workers' Union, now president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council and Boston agent for the Boston Building Trades Council, and J. Arthur Moriarty, the president in 1930.
From its modest beginning fifty years ago with a small group of trade unions representing a few thousand workers, the Boston Central Labor Union has grown to a large and influential organization. Its membership is now drawn from 150 local unions, representing about 80,000 workers in Boston and vicinity .* It was originally affiliated with the Knights of Labor. It now holds a charter from the American Federation of Labor and is affiliated with the Massachusetts Federation of Labor. It is described as one of the oldest central labor unions in the country.
Membership in trade unions in Boston in 1930, according to reports received by the Department of Labor and Industries, is approximately 72,600, of which number 68,000 are men and 4,600 are women. The largest organiza- tion is that of the building trades. The next is transportation. Other promi- nent unions are those of the garment workers, printing and allied trades, teamsters, telephone operators and musicians.
Boston has served as the nursery for various state and regional labor bodies. The Massachusetts State Federation of Labor was organized in Boston in 1887. A number of Boston men have served as officers of the Federation. The Boston Allied Printing Trades Council was started in 1893. The New England Typographical Union was founded in Boston in 1909.
* From article on Central Labor Union Movement in Boston, by Harry Dunderdale.
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Three prominent events in the history of trade unionism in Boston were the organization of the street car men in 1912, the organization of the telephone operators in the same year, and the organization of policemen in 1919. Boston was the first large city in which the police organized. The first permanent union of telephone operators in the country was that organized in Boston in 1912. The charter for the union was granted by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in April of that year.
Men prominent in the labor movement in Boston in addition to those mentioned in connection with the Boston Central Labor Union include George E. McNeill, deputy chief of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor; Frank K. Foster and Henry Sterling of the Boston Typographical Union; Michael Murphy of the Stablemen's Union and Sylvester J. McBride of the Typographical Union, both active in the movement for workers' education; G. Harry Dunderdale, former clerk of the Boston Central Labor Union and superintendent of the Boston State Free Employment Office; and Robert Fechner, president of the International Machinists' Union.
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
Comparatively few women were in trade unions in Boston fifty years ago. Only two of the international unions admitted women to membership at that time. These were the Typographical Union and the Cigarmakers' Inter- national Union. The Knights of Labor formally admitted women to member- ship in 1881 .* The privilege of membership had been extended somewhat earlier than this, according to the history of the trade unions among women in Boston.t
The women had their own unions, however. There were the Daughters of St. Crispin, representing the women shoe workers. The Massachusetts Working Women's League was one of the earliest state unions of women workers. It was apparently formed prior to 1880 .* Around 1870 an attempt was made to start a women's typographical union in Boston.t It would seem that the effort was unsuccessful, for only one meeting is recorded. Nothing more was done for a number of years. Then, in 1886, twelve women were admitted to membership in the Boston Typographical Union No. 13. The Hatters' Union of Boston was also formed in 1886, and joined the Knights of Labor that year. This organization among the hatters is described as the oldest women's union in Boston.t
Interest in trade unionisni among working women and in labor legislation was stimulated by the Union for Industrial Progress, established by Mrs. Mary Morton Kehew, Miss Hannah P. Kimball, and other socially-minded women of Boston. In 1892 they arranged to have Mary Kenny of the Bindery Union of Chicago come to Boston to help in organizing work among women. Later Gertrude Barnum of Chicago canie as an organizer. The Women Bookbinders' Union and the Laundry Union were started in 1896. Other unions followed. The Women Tobacco Strippers were organized in 1899. Several branches of the garment trades were organized in 1901 and 1902.
* Alice Henry, "The Trade Union Woman," Appleton's, New York, 1915.
+ "Ilistory of Trade Unionism among Women in Boston," 1907. Boston Women's Trade Union League.
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In 1903 the American Federation of Labor held its annual convention in Boston. An important by-product of that convention was the organization in Boston the following year of the Women's Trade Union League. Boston men and women took a leading part in this movement. Mrs. Mary Morton Kehew was chosen the first president of the League, and Miss Mary F. Haskell of the Printers' Union, secretary.
The object of the League, as stated in the plan for organization, was to "assist in the organization of women wage workers into trade unions, and to help them secure conditions necessary for healthful and efficient work, and to obtain just return for such work."
Membership in the League was open to trade unionists, men as well as women, and to persons sympathetically interested in the aims of organized labor. These nonunion members were known as the "allies." The interest of men in the work is shown by the fact that Professor Charles Winslow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was chosen the first treasurer. During the early years of the League its presidents were drawn from the ranks of the "allies." Mrs. Kehew, Professor Emily Baleh, and Mrs. Sue Ainslee Clark were among the early officers. Later, girls from the trades were chosen: Rose Sullivan and Julia O'Connor 1 of the Telephone Operators' Union, Anna Weinstock 2 of the Necktie Workers, Maud Foley of the Garment Workers, and Mary Thompson, the present president, from the Textile Workers.
Among the secretaries of the League3 were Gertrude Barnum, Josephine Casey, Edith Abbot, Mary Caroline Crawford, Mabel Gillespie and Pearl Katz. Miss Gillespie served as secretary from 1906 until her death in 1923. She was largely responsible for the development and success of the League work. The ranks of the "allies" of the League included women like Miss Anne Withington, Hannah P. Kimball, Professor Vida Scudder, Professor Ellen Hayes, Helena S. Dudley, Mrs. Susan W. FitzGerald, Mrs. William Z. Ripley and Mrs. Arthur G. Rotch.
The League worked actively for better legislative protection for women and children in industry. It was largely through the efforts of the legislative agent of the League, Mrs. Lois B. Rantoul, that the forty-eight hour law was enacted in 1919 and extended in scope in 1921.
Other nonunion organizations co-operated with the League and the trades unions in the movement for labor and social welfare legislation. In 1904 the Joint Committee on Industrial Conditions of Women and Children was forined by the Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs and the Women's Educational and Industrial Union of Boston. The purpose of this Joint Committee was "to better the condition of women and children who work in shops and factories; to safeguard their present rights and to strive for better legislation in their behalf." 4
1 Also president of the International Telephone Operators' Union.
2 Now one of the Federal Commissioners of Conciliation in the United States Department of Labor.
3 Boston women active in the labor movement, besides the officers of the Trade Union League, were Sarah Conboy of the Carpet Workers' Union, later a national organizer for the United Textile Workers; Mary Meehan of the Bookbinders' Union, and Mary Murphy of the Musicians' Union, a vice-president of the State Federation of Labor.
Edwin Gay, in preface to "Studies in Economic Relations of Women," by Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1910.
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As a basis for this work, investigations regarding the employment of women were started by the committee under the direction of Miss Mabel Parton. The following year, 1905, the Research Department of the Women's Educa- tional and Industrial Union was organized to conduct these studies. This work was at first under the direction of Miss Parton, later under Dr. Susan B. Kingsbury of Simmons College. This work of the Research Department, whiel included studies dealing with the administration of labor laws as well as conditions of employment, was an important factor in connection with the labor and social welfare legislation enaeted in Massachusetts during the deeade following 1910.
Under the presidency of Mrs. Kehew, who was a former president of the National Women's Trade Union League, the Women's Educational and Industrial Union took an active part in legislative work and in work for improv- ing conditions for working women and children. The Union was also aetive in supporting such movements as those for industrial training and vocational education in the public schools.
WORKERS' EDUCATION
One of the objects of organized labor in Boston and of men and women interested in the welfare of labor was to secure better educational opportunities for workers and their children. Leaders in the Boston labor movement, like Henry Abrahams, were active in the movement for vocational education. Mr. Abrahams and Mrs. Kehew served as members of the Massachusetts Com- mission on Industrial Edueation in 1906-07.
Besides the Trade Sehools and industrial courses which form part of the Boston public school system, many opportunities for workers' education are offered through the university extension series, and the evening, late afternoon and Saturday courses given by private organizations: The Young Men's Christian Union, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Lowell Insti- tute for Industrial Foremen, Boston College, Boston University School of Business Administration. The Outline of Educational Opportunities in Greater Boston for Working Men and Women, issued by the Prospect Union Eduea- tional Exchange, lists several hundred courses open in 1930. Many of these are free or are given at a nominal charge.
For a number of years the Boston Central Labor Union has joined with the Massachusetts Federation of Labor in petitioning the Legislature for the establishment of a state university .* Although the effort has not as yet been suceessful, many opportunities for higher education have been opened in Boston to working inen and women.
The most ambitious undertaking in the way of workers' edueation in the city was the establishment in 1919 of the Boston Trade Union College. Edu- eators and labor men and women united to make the college a reality. The plan for the college was developed by a group of educators connected with Harvard University. Professor Harold Laski at that time was a. lecturer at the University. He was associated with the workers' education movement in
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