bor leader of unusual energy, set
a precedent for the vigorous and fearless career of its modern successor
by calling a strike in the printing office of Thurlow Weed, the powerful
politician, himself a member of the society, because he employed a
"rat," as a nonunion worker was called. It should be noted, however,
that the organizations of this early period were of a loose structure
and scarcely comparable to the labor unions of today.

Sidney Smith, the brilliant contributor to the "Edinburgh Review,"
propounded in 1820 certain questions which sum up the general
conditions of American industry and art after nearly a half century of
independence: "In the four quarters of the globe," he asked, "who reads
an American book? or goes to an American play? or looks at an American
picture or statue? What does the world yet owe to American physicians
or surgeons? What new substances have their chemists discovered? or
what old ones have they analyzed? What new constellations have been
discovered by the telescopes of Americans? What have they done in
mathematics? Who drinks out of American glasses? or eats from American
plates? or wears American coats or gowns? or sleeps in American
blankets?"

These questions, which were quite pertinent, though conceived in an
impertinent spirit, were being answered in America even while the witty
Englishman was framing them. The water power of New England was being
harnessed to cotton mills, woolen mills, and tanneries. Massachusetts
in 1820 reported one hundred and sixty-one factories. New York had
begun that marvelous growth which made the city, in the course of a few
decades, the financial capital of a hemisphere. So rapidly were people
flocking to New York, that houses had tenants long before they had
windows and doors, and streets were lined with buildings before they
had sewers, sidewalks, or pavements. New Jersey had well under way those
manufactories of glassware, porcelains, carpets, and textiles which
have since brought her great prosperity. Philadelphia was the country's
greatest weaving center, boasting four thousand craftsmen engaged in
that industry. Even on the frontier, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were
emerging from "settlements" into manufacturing towns of importance.
McMaster concludes his graphic summary of these years as follows: "In
1820 it was estimated that 200,000 persons and a capital of $75,000,000
were employed in manufacturing. In 1825 the capital used had been
expa