s. In Baltimore the tailors were the first
to organize, and they conducted in 1795 one of the first strikes in
America. Ten years later they struck again, and succeeded in raising
their pay from seven shillings sixpence the job to eight shillings
ninepence and "extras." At the same time the pay of unskilled labor
was rising rapidly, for workers were scarce owing to the call of the
merchant marine in those years of the rising splendor of the American
sailing ship, and the lure of western lands. The wages of common
laborers rose to a dollar and more a day.

There occurred in 1805 an important strike of the Philadelphia
cordwainers. Theirs was one of the oldest labor organizations in
the country, and it had conducted several successful strikes. This
particular occasion, however, is significant, because the strikers were
tried for conspiracy in the mayor's court, with the result that they
were found guilty and fined eight dollars each, with costs. As the court
permitted both sides to tell their story in detail, a full report of the
proceedings survives to give us, as it were, a photograph of the
labor conditions of that time. The trial kindled a great deal of local
animosity. A newspaper called the Aurora contained inflammatory accounts
of the proceedings, and a pamphlet giving the records of the court was
widely circulated. This pamphlet bore the significant legend, "It is
better that the law be known and certain, than that it be right," and
was dedicated to the Governor and General Assembly "with the hope
of attracting their particular attention, at the next meeting of the
legislature."

Another early instance of a strike occurred in New York City in 1809,
when the cordwainers struck for higher wages and were hauled before the
mayor's court on the charge of conspiracy. The trial was postponed by
Mayor DeWitt Clinton until after the pending municipal elections to
avoid the risk of offending either side. When at length the strikers
were brought to trial, the court-house was crowded with spectators,
showing how keen was the public interest in the case. The jury's verdict
of "guilty," and the imposition of a fine of one dollar each and costs
upon the defendants served but as a stimulus to the friends of the
strikers to gather in a great mass meeting and protest against the
verdict and the law that made it possible.

In 1821 the New York Typographical Society, which had been organized
four years earlier by Peter Force, a la