It is not surprising,
therefore, to find that labor is eager to take part in politics
or that labor parties were early organized. They were, however,
doomed to failure, for no workingman's party can succeed, except
in isolated localities, without the cooperation of other social
and political forces. Standing alone as a political entity, labor
has met only rebuff and defeat at the hands of the American
voter.
The earlier attempts at direct political action were local. In
Philadelphia a workingman's party was organized in 1828 as a
result of the disappointment of the Mechanics' Union at its
failure to achieve its ambitions by strikes. At a public meeting
it was resolved to support only such candidates for the
legislature and city council as would pledge themselves to the
interests of "the working classes." The city was organized, and a
delegate convention was called which nominated a ticket of thirty
candidates for city and county offices. But nineteen of these
nominees were also on the Jackson ticket, and ten on the Adams
ticket; and both of these parties used the legend "Working Man's
Ticket," professing to favor a shorter working day. The isolated
labor candidates received only from 229 to 539 votes, while the
Jackson party vote ranged from 3800 to 7000 and the Adams party
vote from 2500 to 3800. So that labor's first excursion into
politics revealed the eagerness of the older parties to win the
labor vote, and the futility of relying on a separate
organization, except for propaganda purposes.
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