Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/503

Rh panic forced many unions to disband. It was a period marked by an extraordinary amount of unemployment, unrest and suffering, by reductions of wages, and by strikes and lockouts. In the later years of the period, many secret organizations of workingmen appeared. In the spring of 1874, a writer in a labor paper asserted, doubtless with some exaggeration, that "to-day there is not a Trade or Labor Union in existence but gives the greatest publicity to its aims and objects." It was intimated that opposition on the part of employers would cause secret unions to spring up. One year later, the National Labor Tribune contained an editorial entitled, "The Spread of Secret Orders"—meaning labor organizations. Pinkerton, the detective, writing in 1878, asserted that there were scores of secret labor organizations. Labor difficulties culminated with the railway strikes of 1877. These were precipitated by cuts in wages. The year 1879 ushered in a more prosperous period.

The two quotations following represent fairly well the attitude of the discontented wage earners in 1876, the centennial year.

The chairman of an "Immense Mass Meeting of Workingmen" held at Cooper Institute, June 17, 1876, under the auspices of the Independent Labor Party, declared:

The agitation and unrest among the workers led to repressive measures on the part of various city officials.

In New York City, the city officials revoked a permit to hold a meeting of laboring people in Tompkins Square, and drove out the people who came to attend the meeting. This was frequently referred to as "The Tompkins Square Outrage."