pay from seven shillings sixpence the job to eight shillings
ninepence and "extras." At the same time the pay of unskilled
labor was rising rapidly, for workers were scarce owing to the
call of the merchant marine in those years of the rising splendor
of the American sailing ship, and the lure of western lands. The
wages of common laborers rose to a dollar and more a day.

There occurred in 1805 an important strike of the Philadelphia
cordwainers. Theirs was one of the oldest labor organizations in
the country, and it had conducted several successful strikes.
This particular occasion, however, is significant, because the
strikers were tried for conspiracy in the mayor's court, with the
result that they were found guilty and fined eight dollars each,
with costs. As the court permitted both sides to tell their story
in detail, a full report of the proceedings survives to give us,
as it were, a photograph of the labor conditions of that time.
The trial kindled a great deal of local animosity. A newspaper
called the Aurora contained inflammatory accounts of the
proceedings, and a pamphlet giving the records of the court was
widely circulated. This pamphlet bore the significant legend, "It
is better that the law be known and certain, than that it be
right," and was dedicated to the Governor and General Assembly
"with the hope of attracting their particular attention, at the
next meeting of the legislature."

Another early instance of a strike occurred in New York City in
1809, when the cordwainers struck for higher wages and were
hauled before the mayor's court on the charge of conspiracy. The
trial was postponed by Mayor DeWitt Clinton until after the
pending municipal elections to avoid the risk of offending either