Cigar Maker's Association of the Pacific Coast Quotes
The cigars herein contained are made by WHITE MEN.
Ironically, this was the first “Union Label”. The union wages were being undercut by Chinese workers, but the union refused to allow non-whites into the Union. Had they organized the Chinese workers, history might have been very different. But racism was a destructive force then as it had been and would be later.
Cigar Maker's Association of the Pacific Coast, Union Label Placed on the lid’s of cigar boxes, Late 1800s
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This was a very unusual and enlightened position for a labor leader to take at the time when most labor organizations were as racist as the rest of white society. He did not make much significant progress in racially integrating organized labor but he did not suffer for the position he took either.
Bilbo was one of the worst racists who ever served in the Congress.
At the time, the NYC subway was operated by a private companies. Quill worked for the largest, the Interboro Rapid Transit Company. Quill organized the workers and forced major changes in the system.
Jarrett was testifying against Chinese immigrant laborers. The fact that they had a much lower standard of living meant that they would work for very small wages and would drive down the wages of existing white laborers. President Arthur withdrew Jarett’s nomination when he discovered that Jarett had been very critical of his administration.
At the time, the mine owners and operators claimed that they had NO obligations to their workers—not even to ensure a safe mine. There was no OSHA and workers died and were maimed on the job much more frequently than they do today. Many mine owners now accept that they have obligations to the workers, and the rest are required to have responsible and safe working conditions by law and OSHA regulations.
Niles, a Southern editor was none the less anti-slavery. Other than the gross immorality of slavery, he saw that the economics of the institution actually inhibited the economic development of the South very early. Efficiency of machinery and organization of work and labor saving inventions were not as badly needed in a slave economy where human labor was so inexpensive. While in the North and most of Europe, there was skilled, but expensive, labor of freemen. This motivated all to improve processes and technology and increase productivity. There was much less motivation in the South and the slaves who actually understood the work had no way to experiment and were not allowed to read or write so the South was almost economically and technologically stagnant in comparison to the free labor states.
The “strike” was that of the Cloak Workers in New York. The workers were generally Russian Jewish Immigrants who were paid the lowest wages then of any ethnic group. See {625087}
He had squads of thugs that he would “rent” out to other gangsters for their enforcement activities and to unions to protect themselves from goons and intimidate non union workers. However, he would not let his men work as goons and strike busters or for companies—despite huge pay offers—to keep their workers in line, a common practice at the time.
Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. This usually progressive organization advocated the 8 hour work day and control of child labor but when it came to competitors for their members jobs, they became a leading racist and anti-Chinese immigration voice in America. The irony of this quotation was that most of the labor constituency that the Knights represented had been immigrants or were the children of immigrants who earlier had frightened American workers and whose ethnicity had been opposed—Irish and Italians.
