the order.[1] The Order of American Mechanics admitted only native-born persons.
One of the most unique and most powerful of the ephemeral organizations was the Sovereigns of Industry, established in 1874. It was a secret order which admitted both men and women. According to the preamble of the organization's constitution, it was "an association of the industrial working classes without regard to race, color, nationality or occupation; not founded for the purpose of waging any war of aggression upon any other class, or fostering any antagonism of labor against capital, nor of arraying the poor against the rich, but for mutual assistance in self-improvement and self-protection." The sovereigns repudiated the subsistence theory of wages, and proposed to increase real wages by reducing expenses through cooperation. The ultimate purpose seemed to be the elimination of the wage system. They proposed to "make war on the middleman as the exclusive remedy for the ills of the workers." The sovereigns did not propose to displace any existing labor organization. In the spring of 1875, it was estimated that over 50,000 Pennsylvanians belonged to the order.[2]
The International Labor Union was organized in 1877 with George E. McNeill as president.
In this hour of the dark distress of labor, we call upon all laborers of whatever nationality, creed or color, skilled or unskilled, trade unionist and those now out of union, to join hands with us and each other to the end that poverty and all its attendant evils shall be abolished forever.
The chief objects of the union are indicative of the important demands of the labor reformers in 1877: reduction of the hours of labor; higher wages; factory, mine and shop inspection; abolition of the contract convict labor and truck system; employers to be held responsible for accidents to employees on account of the neglect of employers; prohibition of child labor; establishment of labor bureaus. Although branches are reported to have existed in seventeen states, the membership was small. The union attained its greatest strength in 1878.[3]
As early as 1866, organized labor began timidly and intermittently to enter the political field. Editor Cameron of The Workingman's Advocate, perhaps the leading labor paper of the period and the official organ of the National Labor Union, was nominated as a candidate for a seat in the lower house of the Illinois legislature, by the workingmen of Chicago. The editor of the National Workman, the official organ of the federated trades of New York City, wrote (January 5, 1867):
