Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/452

 438 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

TRADES UNIONS.

Trades unions, of which there are 126 local organizations in Chicago, can scarcely be considered as a direct substitute for the social function of the saloon. Only four of these or rather in four of their halls, several meeting in each hall are there club-rooms. In the largest of these there are two rooms, one seating 200, and the other 150. Both are full during the winter months. Here the men sit about playing checkers and similar games, reading daily papers, and smoking. Throughout the summer, at all hours of the day, from twenty-five to one hun- dred men may be seen standing outside or in the saloons below. Beneath this hall and on either side there is a saloon. Most of the men, who are standing about looking for work, get their meals here, paying 5 cents for a lunch and a glass of beer.

In a number of saloons the unions meet, or used to meet. The hotels will not open up rooms, and do not want the man with the soiled clothes and the calloused hands in their rooms. They are forced to meet in the saloons, or in rooms above, which are offered at low rates. Mr. Thomas J. Morgan, speaking of the early days of the Socialistic Labor Party, said that for years they met in the back room of a saloon, the churches and school- houses being closed against them, and that he felt a sensation akin to shame coming over him as night after night he passed the bar without paying his 5 cents for a drink. These organi- zations, which are of the people, are greatly misunderstood by authorities in church and state. Their aims and actions are in the main essentially right. And it is to the best interests of the community that they be not placed in so great temptation. That they should be recognized and aided by the church to the extent of placing rooms at their disposal ought not to be impossible. That the schoolhouses should be open for this, and whatever other neighborhood and citizens' meetings the people might desire, is beginning to be recognized. A request in 1877 by the Socialistic Labor Party was flatly refused for political reasons. Yet the drift of opinion seems to be in favor of utiliz- ing this bit of public property for reasonable purposes. In mass-meeting, when the subject is mentioned, it is found to