In Convention at Augusta, Maine June 15, 16, 17, 18
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Golden Anniversary PROGRAM c u b AUGUSTA, MAINE JUNE 15, 16, 17, 18 1954 STOREHOUSE in the Darby Block in Augusta, it called together 61 delegates, with the building trades predominating. It saw the election of Henry M. Donnelly, a Biddeford iron moulder, as the first president. The election was hotly contested by James A. Brennan of Augusta and Henry A. Becker of Bangor. Donnelly made no great speech of History of acceptance, stating simply that he was proud to be elect ed to any union office, and reminding the delegates that street cars and trains would shortly be leaving for their home towns. The convention chose Arthur L. Brown of Augusta as the first Treasurer. Those first delegates placed the Maine State Federa The tion firmly on the course it was to follow thereafter. It set the stage for legislative action, for employer-worker understanding, for just compensation, for humane hours of work, and for the suppression of a host of social evils commonplace at the turn of the century. They set out Federation to fight oppressive child labor, exploitation of women, the sweatshop, slum living, and the lack of any interest in industrial safety and health. The delegates of 1904 pledged themselves to end child This is the story of the Maine State Federation of labor and to get the “youngones” out of the factories Labor. and into the schools, remembering that it was organized It will first be read in the House of Representatives in labor that was largely responsible for America’s free Augusta, the city of its nativity in June of fifty years ago. public school system. With an eye to the headlines of This record will lack some names, dates, and now- the convention’s opening day, when dynamite exploded at important actions, for Maine men of labor have been the scene of the copper strike in Cripple Creek, Colo., doers rather than record keepers. It is the story of a they condemned the use of violence in strikes. They segment of humanity dedicated, as revered Charles O. pledged their unswerving support of Union Label goods, Beals, one of its early leaders, said, to the proposition commiserated the people of Massachusetts on their poor that “ . labor demands a fair share of what it produces, substitute for a governor, and wired their thanks to a shorter work day, better living conditions, and a better Samuel Gompers for his encouragement in the formation understanding with those to whom it sells its only com of a Maine state branch of the AFL. modity, its labor.” The story begins against a backdrop of strife, and THE FIRST DECADE death. Employers have dropped their tolerant attitude The first ten years of the Maine Federation was one toward “those unions” and bitterness and violence are of great action, with perhaps the greatest strides the or abroad. Fresh in the memories of the moustachioed and ganization has taken in securing favorable law enactment slick-haired delegates is the Homestead “massacre” where in any comparable period. It also established a pattern, many died in a pitched battle between strike-breaking revealed by the record, in which the great majority of Pinkerton detectives and Carnegie Steel workers. actions taken have been for the general good rather than The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor, founded in for the exclusive interests of organized labor. The long 1869, is dying and the 18-year old American Federation term battles for more humane child labor laws, for of Labor is just beginning to feel its strength. The Russo- women’s right to vote and for equal pay for equal work, Japanese War is being fought and across the land the and for repeal of the prohibition law were joined in this cry, “Remember the Maine,” is still freshly remembered. period. Wireless telegraphy is the miracle of the day. The Three men served as President from 1904 through gramophone is the TV of the times. If you had stepped 1913. In addition to Henry M. Donnelly, they were up from the welsbach gas burner class to the miraculous Eugene Brann of Bar Harbor, 1905-1906, and revered new carbon filament lamp, you had unlimited visitors Charles O. Beals, later to become Maine’s third Com who wanted to pull the cord to see if the light would missioner of Labor and Industry, who led the state really come on. branch from 1907 to 1914. Some 650 comparative “millionaires” owned horseless The year 1911 brought the first election of another carriages in Maine, and the vehicles need not be regis Federation immortal, P. H. “Pat” Fitzgerald of Augusta, tered. The cry, "Why don’t you get a horse?” was good who was to serve as Treasurer for 24 unbroken years. for a laugh anytime. The capitol in which the 1904 convention was to be held was not to be completed for It needs a Solomon to judge which of the aims and another six years. accomplishments of the first decade were the most hu Labor laws in effect in 1904 were countable upon the manitarian and forward-looking. The red-letter year of fingers. For all practical purposes, considering exemp 1909 is looked upon as the first “great” year. After tions, none existed. Children 12 years old could and did prolonged and, more often than not, discouraging fights, work, many of them 60 and more hours a week. Children the Federation won these victories in the 74th Legisla under 15 were not supposed to be employed during the ture: A 58-hour law for women and children, an em public school season unless their absence was excused. ployer’s liability act, amendment to the wage trustee As for hours of work, females under 18 and males under law permitting a workman to keep $10 of his garnished 16 were supposed to be limited to 10 hours a day or 60 pay, and creation of a state board of arbitration and con hours a week, unless the child “voluntarily” contracted for ciliation. longer hours, with the consent of either of his parents. Many will hold that the greatest accomplishment was There was a 17-year old Bureau of Industrial and the change in the child labor law. Fighting from the Labor Statistics whose duty it was to “collect and systema beginning, the Federation brought the minimum age from tize” figures and present them in annual reports, and to 12 to 14 in 1907, and to 16 in 1909. inquire into the immediate causes of strikes and lockouts. And yet this was the period when much of organized One law provided for an Inspector of Factories who labor was meeting underground, members of unions was supposed to investigate the employment and hours gathering surreptitiously in the hours between midnight of women and children. Another placed some restric and dawn in cellars and out in the country. It was the tions on the manufacture of goods at the State Prison, day of the infamous “black list” when a man who was and required such goods to be labeled as convict-made. reputed to be a union sympathizer found the door to any Somehow, this labeling was occasionally overlooked. For job barred. It was also the time of the organization of civil processes, a statutory day was “10 hours of actual the radical and militant I.W.W., the International Work labor.” Labor Day offered a saving grace. It was a state ers of the World, many of whose officers eventually were holiday. given long prison sentences. None of these laws was satisfactory to the founding This was the period when Roscoe A. Eddy of Bar fathers of the Federation, except the last. They set about Harbor made Federation history as the “Legislative Com their improvement. mittee,” serving first as one of a group of three from The first convention of 1904 was a rousing one. Held 1904 to 1907 and then as the lone legislative agent until 1914, with an appointment as the state’s second Commis workers appeared to be the hardest hit and yet, in that sioner of Labor and Industry in 1913. year, more than 2,000 cotton operatives became affiliated It should be noted that the Maine Department of in Maine. Labor and Industry came into being in 1911 and that The beginning decade also saw the Federation battling Governor Frederick W. Plaisted appointed as its first for direct election of U.S. Senators, for a direct primary commissioner another Federation notable of the early law, for an initiative and referendum law which was to days, John F. Connelly of Bangor. Connelly was the play so important a part in later legislation. Never Federation’s first recording and corresponding secretary, giving up, they brought the 60-hour weekly statute down from 1904 to 1908, then becoming Secretary, in which to 58 hours and, in 1913, came within a whisper of making office he served until his appointment as Commissioner. it 54. The demand for a workmen’s compensation law The national wave of prosperity in 1907 was quickly blossomed into full-scale battle in 1911. A year later followed by the financial depression of 1908. Textile the fight for old age pensions began. 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