Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations

United States 1827

Synopsis

The Mechanics Union of Trade Associations (MUTA) was the first city central labor union in United States history. Begun when a strike for a 10-hour day by journeyman carpenters united with a wider movement led by a socialist shoemaker, MUTA came to represent at least 19 trade unions with more than 2,000 members. MUTA supported a library, sponsored the nation's first labor-run newspaper, regulated strikes, paid relief wages for striking workers, established work standards and pay-scales for journeymen in many different professions, and took an interest in local and federal political elections to help ensure that legislators were sympathetic to labor. Though MUTA lasted only two years, its influence in the politicization and empowerment of laborers was far-reaching: within a decade of its formation, similar unions were formed in every major city on the eastern seaboard, newspapers by and for working men were published throughout the country, and the Workingmen's Party it helped to materialize was a force in key elections of the early Jacksonian era.

Timeline

• 1802: Beethoven publishes his "Sonata quasi una fantasia," later nicknamed the "Moonlight Sonata."
• 1805: Britain's Royal Navy, commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson, defeats the French at Trafalgar, thereby putting an end to Napoleon's hopes of dominating the seas.
• 1810: German art publisher Rudolph Ackerman invents the differential gear, which enables wheeled vehicles to make sharp turns.
• 1815: Congress of Vienna establishes the balance of power for post-Napoleonic Europe, and inaugurates a century of British dominance throughout most of the world.
• 1820: In the Missouri Compromise, Missouri is admitted to the Union as slave state, but slavery is prohibited in all portions of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30' N.
• 1821: Mexico declares independence from Spain.
• 1823: U.S. President James Monroe establishes the Monroe Doctrine, whereby the United States warns European nations not to interfere in the political affairs of the Western Hemisphere.
• 1825: New York Stock Exchange opens.
• 1826: French inventor Joseph-Nicéphore Niepce makes the first photographic image in history.
• 1828: Election of Andrew Jackson as president begins a new era in American history.
• 1830: French troops invade Algeria, and at home, a revolution forces the abdication of Charles V in favor of Louis Philippe, the "Citizen King."
• 1836: In Texas's war of independence with Mexico, the defenders of the Alamo, among them Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, are killed in a siege. Later that year, Texas wins the Battle of San Jacinto and secures its independence.

Event and Its Context

Background

Philadelphia was one of the leading centers of master craftsmen and journeymen in the English-speaking New World, with mechanics and their families estimated to comprise one-half of the population of the city by the time of the American Revolution. Organization and agitation among laborers became increasingly frequent during the years that Philadelphia was the capital of the new nation. In 1786, while master printer Benjamin Franklin still lived in the city, the journeymen printers became the first profession to strike successfully when 26 members of their fraternal order spearheaded a stand-out to demand a minimum salary of $6 per week. In 1791 journeymen carpenters were less successful when they walked off their jobs demanding a workday from 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P. (minus two hours for lunch) instead of the standard sun-up to sun-down schedule; the master builders were able to outlast their journeymen, but the warning of one master carpenter that "the contagion will soon be communicated to other artificers" proved quite accurate.

In 1794 the newly formed Federal Society of Cabinet and Chair Makers won a strike against their masters for higher minimum wages by receiving financial assistance not only from their fellow journeymen in other Philadelphia guilds but also from their fellow cabinet and chair makers in New York City. Emboldened by the success of their peers, the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers (FSJC) of Philadelphia, founded in 1794, orchestrated three strikes by 1800 to require masters to hire only members of their union. FSJC members became the beneficiaries of the first known sympathy strike in American history when Philadelphia's boot-makers union joined them in a stand-out.

The first major legal blow against an individual Philadelphia union was struck against the FSJC in the trial of Commonwealth v. Pullis. The alleged intimidation tactics the cordwainers union had used against scabs (a term actually coined in its modern labor context by English cordwainers) during an 1805 strike landed eight of the society's leaders in court on conspiracy charges in January 1806. Thirteen witnesses testified before a jury composed of three master craftsmen and nine merchants that they had been the victims of physical intimidation and abuse by the society for their refusal to join and for working as shoemakers during one of the society's stand-outs. The defendants were represented by a pair of distinguished and high-priced Philadelphia attorneys, Caesar Rodney (nephew of the Declaration of Independence signer of the same name) and Walter Franklin, who based much of their defense on the inequity of a system in which a master cordwainer could earn $15,000 per year while the journeymen who earned him his wealth made only $50 per month. The jury found the society members guilty as charged, but Judge John Innskep imposed the relatively light sentence of an $8 fine per defendant plus court costs, all of which were defrayed by the FSJC.

The decade-long economic boom after the Philadelphia cordwainer's trial was a period of much manufacturing growth in and around the city and of relative peace on the labor front. The economy took a dramatic downturn beginning in 1817, caused largely by the repeal of the Embargo Act and the flood of cheap factory-made English goods into American harbors. In Philadelphia this was a time of massive layoffs and bankruptcies, with as many as one-fifth of Philadephia County's population of 100,000 unemployed by 1820. The sharp increase in poverty created desperation among the working class, and it was this rather than legislation that killed the unions. By the time prosperity returned in the early 1820s, most of the victories gained by unions over the past few decades had been lost by starving workers frantic for even subsistence wages on any terms.

William Heighton and the Founding of MUTA

Cheap manufactured goods were not the only English import to change the lives of American workingmen in the 1820s. The writings of the Ricardian socialists began to gain a serious foothold in American labor centers, albeit indirectly. Especially popular was John Gray's Lecture on Human Happiness, a treatise decrying the inequitable sharing of wealth between employers and employees and advocating the end of "that fountain head of evil" known as free market competition, a return to small self-governing communities, and a complete restructuring of a national government that heretofore sympathized with capital over labor. Ironically, Gray never gained an audience in England but his work became such a bestseller in Philadelphia that the 18-3/4 cent pamphlets of his essay sold out three printings in 1825 alone. Gray's Lecture and other lesser Ricardian-inspired writings became Holy Writ to a young English-born shoemaker named William Heighton who was living in Southwark, a Philadelphia suburb.

In 1827 the Mayor's Court, in the case of Commonwealth v. Moore, reversed the decision against the cordwainers union 21 years before by ruling that journeymen tailors who had gone on strike for higher wages were not guilty of conspiracy. Emboldened by this decision, and perhaps by the writings of Gray, the journeyman carpenters of Philadelphia, busier than ever in a city whose population grew by 20,000 that decade, renewed their generation-old demand for a 10-hour workday and higher wages. At the same time, a heavy Luddite sentiment began to sweep Philadelphia as journeymen were being replaced by lower-paid unskilled factory workers, and a serious plan was afoot to save even more money by using slave labor in the trades and factories (in spite of Philadelphia's pride in being the site of the first abolition society). A major labor crisis was developing in the city, and William Heighton quickly became its prophet.

The bright and outspoken Heighton had been growing in popularity with his fellow craftsmen and had begun giving informal lectures throughout the city, the print versions of which were widely circulated. Heighton's writing largely echoed (if not plagiarized) that of Gray, though he differed in one major aspect: whereas Gray called for a return to self-governing communities, Heighton believed in remaining in the cities and reforming them through economic pressure and block voting for candidates from the labor class. Heighton divided all citizens into producers and nonproducers, each with its own subdivisions, and attributed the bulk of poverty and unfair business practices to the fact that policymakers were almost invariably from one of the six subdivisions (theologians, jurists, military, commercial people, gentry, and legislators) of nonproducers and as such represented only the interests of their own class. In his surviving lectures, he made clear that he wanted nothing less than a peaceful but complete overthrow of the ruling capital class and an end to capitalist competition. To Heighton, Philadelphia was as good a place as any in which to begin his revolution for a socialist utopia.

In September 1827 Heighton's popularity was sufficient to convince 60 mechanics to pledge $1 apiece for his formation of the North Alley Mechanics Library Company, the funds used to purchase books and essays written for the labor classes. Two months later, Heighton delivered his most important lecture, later printed as An Address, Delivered Before the Mechanics and Working Classes Generally, of the City and County of Philadelphia, of the Universal Church, in Callowehill Street, on Wednesday Evening, November 21, 1827, by the "Unlettered Mechanic." ("Unlettered Mechanic" was, along with "Fellow-Labourer," one of the two pseudonyms Heighton used for most of his writings, and the Address was among the shorter titles for his publications.) At this eventful lecture, Heighton called upon all trade unions in Philadelphia to assemble a general convention, to send delegates of at least one in every 10 members to draw up a constitution for a new governing agency that would aid in furthering the cause of working classes and delivering them from "a life of barely subsistence," and to pool resources for a general fund that would assist striking workers and be used for the empowerment and enlightenment of all laborers through the development of their own publications and library.

Heighton's meeting transpired in December 1827 at the Widow Tyler's Tavern. Representatives from at least 10 of Philadelphia's trade unions attended and drafted a constitution with 23 articles and 16 bylaws for the first citywide labor union in American history. It was ratified the following month by at least 18 trade unions.

Powers and Responsibilities of MUTA

MUTA's constitution carried a preamble drafted by Heighton sometime in or before January 1828. Modeled loosely after the Declaration of Independence, with large measures of John Gray sprinkled liberally throughout, the preamble was equal parts manifesto and rant against the tyrannies of employers. Describing MUTA as an association "for the purpose of affording to each other mutual protection from oppression," it quickly gave way to an alternately eloquent and "unlettered" economic theory in which all wealth derived from "the bones, marrow, and muscles of the industrious classes" who "have a natural and unalienable right to reap the fruits of their own industry" and who, if paid more fairly, would create a major economic up-swing. The preamble cried throughout about the evils of the "depreciation of the intrinsic value of human labour." It also asserted that the purpose of MUTA was not in any way to "injure or take the smallest unjust advantage" of employers, though it ultimately stated as an objective the toppling of "the capitalist, throned as he is, in the midst of his ill gotten abundance."

The articles and bylaws were of a more pragmatic nature. The first articles were concerned with financing the new association, calling for $50 loans by each of the participating trade unions and monthly dues of 10 cents apiece from each of the estimated 2,000 people represented by the unions in MUTA. The goal was to guarantee an income to the organization of at least $125 per month to be applied to the association's various purposes.

Probably of most interest to the workingmen represented were MUTA's policies and powers in the event of a general strike. The articles regulated that any constituent union wishing to strike would notify the president of the Mechanics' Association at least one week before the beginning of the stand-out. A special session of the delegates from all the unions would be called to hear the case for a stand-out, and if at least a two-thirds majority of those present agreed that the workers had just cause to strike, then the strikers would receive MUTA's endorsement and, more important, the strikers would receive monetary benefits.

In the event of an approved strike, the amount of money received by workmen depended upon several factors. Men who were required to leave the community during a strike were to receive travel expenses of from $3 to $6. Married men received $2 per week, plus additional sums to be provided by their own union for each of their dependents. Originally, married men had been forbidden to leave town during a strike, but this was quickly edited from the constitution.

The constitution also called for the North Alley Mechanics Library Company (whose collection by January 1828 was estimated at "about 100 volumes") to come under the auspices of MUTA. Ten mechanics were selected from the MUTA ranks to serve as its board of directors, whose primary responsibilities were to schedule debates and lectures in the room rented for the library and to oversee the establishment of a newspaper by and for workingmen.

Mechanics Free Press

Periodicals prior to the Jacksonian era were largely of necessity an elitist endeavor. Sold only in bookstores and through subscription, the average cost for a magazine or newspaper was $10 per year, an amount equal to a week's wages for most workers. Most publications were focused on trade, politics, and society, subjects that were, at least in Heighton's opinion, not representative of the interests of the working classes. Philadelphia had been home to at least two newspapers geared toward the working class, the Journeymen's Mechanic Advocate and The Mechanic's Gazette, but the publications had been forprofit interests owned by capitalists and neither fared well. The latter failed after only two months. Heighton sought to correct the situation and he used MUTA and the library that he had formed as the springboard for a new publication, Mechanics Free Press, a nonprofit publication to be produced with the cooperation of the printers union and written by and for laborers.

The first issue of Mechanics Free Press appeared in January 1828. Using as a logo the image of an eagle clutching arrows in one talon and flowers and fruit in the other, it carried the masthead, "A Journal of Practical and Useful Knowledge." Priced at $2 per year payable quarterly, the weekly paper consisted of four pages filled with editorials, most of them written by Heighton, on such issues as class struggle, education reform, socialism, and the need for a worker's political party. An odd hodgepodge of lighter fare included poetry, classifieds, and recipes. The paper was at least a limited success, boasting a circulation of 2,000 in an open letter to potential advertisers on 24 July 1830.

Mechanics Free Press received praise in other publications throughout the Northeast, including abolitionist newspapers (which was surprising, considering that the Mechanics Free Press never once attacked or even addressed slavery or the plight of free black laborers) and, ironically, in the elitist publication The Deist. More important, it was widely imitated, with the New York Workingman's Advocate appearing only a year after its initial issue.

Dissolution of MUTA

Most of the records and details of MUTA's meetings and administration have long disappeared from the historical record, so the reasons given for the union's disbanding in November 1829 are largely conjecture. Some of the theories, each probably at least to some degree correct, are monetary difficulties, political arguments among MUTA members, and Heighton's disillusionment with the labor movement.

Meager as were the allotments given to striking workers, MUTA approved at least four strikes including those by carpenters, bricklayers, painters, and glaziers. From what is known of the union's finances, these may have been sufficient to empty the organization's modest coffers. Although the Mechanics Free Press generated at least $4,000 per year at its height, the majority of the proceeds were used to cover the cost of publication.

The MUTA constitution stated clearly that "party politics shall be entirely out of the question" in the governing causes of the association, but MUTA immediately became linked to the rise of the Workingmen's Party, in which many of its members were involved and whose most enthusiastic trumpeter was the Mechanics Free Press. By 1829 the organization was extremely involved in politics and began to host regular political meetings to discuss nominations for various city and state offices. Dissent ran high among the association's ranks and at least two political meetings degenerated into brawls, one of which was ended only after 20 mechanics attempted to throw MUTA chairman and hatter's union representative Michael Labarthe from a second-story window.

Meanwhile Heighton, whose zeal and energy had provided the vital spark for MUTA, became increasingly extreme in his views. He envisioned adding unions of unskilled workers to MUTA, a vision not shared by his journeymen peers. His embrace of radical socialism became stronger until he began to alienate many of his more moderate colleagues. The details are unknown, but he was no longer an active participant in MUTA by the November 1829 meeting, which chairman Labarthe announced would be the last.

MUTA was disbanded that month, and its funds were divided among its member unions. Heighton, angry and disillusioned with MUTA and the failure of the Workingmen's Party, left Philadelphia sometime in 1830, never again to be a force in labor or American socialist activities.

Legacy of MUTA

In spite of its short life, MUTA was not without success. In addition to representing at least 19 labor unions at its height, the organization inspired the creation of at least six new unions. By 1830 similar city central labor unions had followed MUTA's lead in New York City and Boston and would continue to grow and become more successful during the next decade. Mechanics Free Press, which survived until 1835, was also widely copied and influenced the next generation of labor writers.

Key Players

Gray, John (1799-1850): An unsuccessful merchant and Ricardian socialist in his native England, Gray authored the 1825 essay "Lecture on Human Happiness," which became a bestseller in America. He called for a return to small communities and an end to free-market enterprise, and he stressed that if employees were paid more, then it would be a major boon for the economy.

Heighton, William (1800-1873): Born in Oundle, Northhamptonshire, England, Heighton immigrated to the United States as a child and became a shoemaker as a young man. Though he was a voracious reader and writer of socialist literature, it is not believed that Heighton ever read the works of Ricardo or that he had a more than perfunctory education. After being the incarnation of the Philadelphia labor movement in the late 1820s, Heighton faded into obscurity, eventually becoming a farmer in New Jersey. He reemerged only briefly in 1865 to publish essays favoring radical reconstruction.

See also: Workingmen's Party.

Bibliography

Books

Foner, Philip S. William Heighton: Pioneer Labor Leader of Jacksonian Philadelphia. New York: International Publishers, 1991.

Periodicals

Arky, Louis H. "The Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations and the Formation of the Philadelphia Workingmen's Movement." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 76 (April 1952): 142-176.

Pessen, Edward. "The Workingmen's Movement of the Jacksonian Era." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 43 (December 1956): 428-443.

Saxton, Alexander. "Problems of Class and Race in the Origins of the Mass Circulation Press." American Quarterly 36 (summer 1984): 211-234.

Other

Morris, Richard B. "The Emergence of American Labor."U.S. Department of Labor. 2002 [cited 9 September 2002]. <http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/chapter1.htm>.

Pessen, Edward. "Builders of the Young Republic." U.S.Department of Labor. 2002 [cited 9 September 2002]. <http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/chapter2.htm>.

—Jonathan Darby