192 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
of these unions maintained separate offices for their German- and
English-speaking members. The city fathers permitted the City
Industrial Congress, representing more than forty labor organiza
tions, to hold its sessions in New York's City Hall. In Pittsburgh
and St. Louis, the iron molders were on strike, and the movement
for better working conditions involved most of the larger cities
in the whole northeastern quarter of the United States. Weitling's
Die Republik der Arbeiter pointed out that in New York City
alone twenty trades had organized in 1850 in the short space of
two months and had forced wage increases up to twenty-five per
cent. He proudly called attention to the fact that German workers
had set the example in many of these trades for their English-
speaking colleagues.
A number of the strikes of the early 1850's were temporarily
successful. Others resulted in months of bitter controversy, and
some ended in bloodshed. The New York tailors' strike of 1850
was one of the worst. Weitling claimed much of the credit for the
organization of the craftsmen in his old trade. Because of the
propaganda of Die Republik der Arbeiter, 2,000 German tailors
joined the organization in one day and voted to endorse the "com
plete social reform" advocated by its editor. The German tailors
met regularly in Hillebrandt's Hall on Hester Street. They sent
literature to tailors in other cities in the hope of creating "one,
unified, great labor army." Weitling was ready to propose a con
stitution containing his familiar ideas about administrative com
mittees, associations, and paper money. He actually suggested an
organization made up of three degrees and with a membership,
who were subject to strict military discipline, who wore uniforms
consisting of blue shirts, black belts, and oilcloth caps and carried
a red flag with a white and silver triangle at its tip.
The strike of the New York tailors began in the summer of
1850 with a walkout of the Irish. The German tailors were drawn
into the controversy almost immediately and walked out to sup
port their English-speaking fellow craftsmen. Weitling drafted a
barré
(Barré)
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