The movement can most clearly be discerned in the cities.
Philadelphia claims precedence as the home of the first Trades'
Union. The master cordwainers had organized a society in 1792,
and their journeymen had followed suit two years later. The
experiences and vicissitudes of these shoemakers furnished a
useful lesson to other tradesmen, many of whom were organized
into unions. But they were isolated organizations, each one
fighting its own battles. In 1897 the Mechanics' Union of Trade
Associations was formed. Of its significance John R. Commons
says:
England is considered the home of trade-unionism, but the
distinction belongs to Philadelphia.... The first trades' union
in England was that of Manchester, organized in 1829, although
there seems to have been an attempt to organize one in 1824. But
the first one in America was the "Mechanics' Union of Trade
Associations," organized in Philadelphia in 1827, two years
earlier. The name came from Manchester, but the thing from
Philadelphia. Neither union lasted long. The Manchester union
lived two years, and the Philadelphia union one year. But the
Manchester union died and the Philadelphia union metamorphosed
into politics. Here again Philadelphia was the pioneer, for it
called into being the first labor party. Not only this, but
through the Mechanics' Union Philadelphia started probably the
first wage-earners' paper ever published--the 'Mechanics Free
Press'--antedating, in January, 1828, the first similar journal
in England by two years.
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