1883 - August 3

August 3, 1883 was the date chosen for the first annual Trades and Labor picnic. The locale chosen for the event the grounds was in the west end of the city, the Crystal Palace grounds.

An energetic committee had worked long and hard to finalize all the necessary arrangement to make the picnic a great attraction:

“The sports consist of a baseball match between the Primroses and the Baysides for the championship and $50; horse races, bicycle races, a lacrosse match and other games.

“A large attendance is hoped for, and if the weather turns out fine, it should be a great success.”¹

¹ “A Grand Affair : Hamilton Trades and Labor Demonstration on August 3, 1883.
          Hamilton Spectator.   July 31, 1883.

The demonstration committee had called for a “mass meeting” to be held at Larkin Hall on July 30, 1883.

As the well-attended meeting began, Fred. Jones, was chosen chairman and he started proceedings by noting that the object of the meeting was “to give an invitation to all laborers and unorganized branches of labor to join in the demonstration on Friday.”²

² “Labor Demonstration : Mass Meeting of Workmen at Larkin Hall.”

Hamilton Spectator.    July 31, 1883

The first speaker, Robert Coulter, said that the idea for a demonstration was set in motion by a certain group of organized laborers, but that it was hoped that all classes of labor would cooperate to make the day a success.

The Next speaker was Mr. F. Allen :

“He thought that the workmen had too many holidays sometimes, but just when they didn’t want them; for instance, there would be a cornerstone laying, or a Jumbo circus, and then the workingman must take a holiday so the capitalists could have a good time. Now the workingmen were going to take it in a more gentlemanly manner than the capitalist took theirs – they had first given due notice. He was glad that the committee had decided to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors on the grounds during the demonstration. The workingmen would show the citizens that they could have pleasure without having any liquor.”²

“Union is strength. This old adage was never more forcibly illustrated in Hamilton than yesterday afternoon, when the monster procession of the city’s artisans filed its way through the street. There has never before been an organized turnout en masse of the workingmen of Hamilton, and the present occasion will therefore long be recollected, marking as it does a memorable epoch in the history of trade unionism.”³

³ “Grand Labor Parade : Splendid Demonstration by Hamilton Workingmen.”

Hamilton Spectator.   August 4, 1883.

The date, August 3, 1883 had been chosen for the mass Hamilton Labor Demonstration because it was the birthday of Uriah Stephens, founder of the Knights of Labor.

A committee of the local chapter of the Knights of Labor had succeeded in uniting most, if not all, of the organized bodies of workingmen in the city with a large number of the city’s unorganized workers.

Over 2,000 people turned up for the start of the procession which had been scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. As so many people had come to take part in the procession, the parade marshals had some difficulty creating an organized line of march:

“The work of organizing a procession of 2,000 people and having it move in a particular order, and at a given moment is an achievement that has not yet been realize by any demonstration committee. Dealing with a score of bodies organized after different forms and having a varying system of official regulations, seeking to combine, in a harmonious whole, men who believe in organization, men who are indifferent to it and men who oppose it, was an undertaking that only a few of the most sanguine men would care to face.”⁴

⁴ “Labor’s Holiday : Grand Demonstration of the Hamilton Trades and Labor Societies.”

Palladium of Labor.   August 11, 1883.

The Palladium of Labor, the newspaper organ of the Knights of Labor, claimed that, despite the chaotic conditions at first, the procession started off only fifteen minutes after the time appointed.

The Hamilton Spectator had a different take on the matter:

“The start was announced for one o’clock, but it was about an hour later before order was evolved out of chaos, and the line of march taken up. To make matters all the worse, clouds gathered, and after lowering ominously for a while, began to discharge their moisture.

“There appeared to be some hitch in the arrangements and the marshals galloped to and fro in a state of great perplexity. People hardly knew the procession had started until it was fairly underway, the intention to follow out the program having to be abandoned.”³

An accurate count of the processionists was not made, but the procession took a full twenty-five minutes to pass a given point and when the head of the parade reached the entrance to the Crystal Palace grounds, the end of the parade was just starting out from the John and King street area at Gore park.

The parade was watched by large numbers of citizens all along the route:

“A dense crowd thronged the streets, numbers perched on verandahs and other available projections over looking the street, and every window along the line of march seemed to have a full complement of heads.”⁴

The Independent Band, numbering thirty-five players, led by Prof. Cotter, headed the parade and played a number of inspiring airs throughout the route of the parade. Brethren of the Knights of Labor locally, and from the nearby communities outside of the city, were given places of honor near the head of the procession, following the Independent Band. The largest out-of-city contingent was the 84 members of the Pioneer Assembly of the Brantford Knights of Labor. Following the Brantford visitors was what described in the Spectator as “a band of musicians in feathers and paint, all Tuscarora Indians, calling themselves the Grand River Band.”³

A notable float in the parade was that of the Longshoreman’s association – a ship on wheels, bunting flying and on her decks, shovels and tubs typical of the longshoreman’s work.

Large contingents from the Amalgamated Carpenters’ and Joiners’ association and the Cigarmakers’ union marched with the banners of the organizations. The firemen, under Chief Aitchison’s direction, also turned out in large numbers, accompanied by several pieces of fire-fighting apparatus. The members of the Typographical Union, No. 129, of Hamilton, marched, 75 in number, each carrying a Japanese parachute or carousel.

Unions and craft associations of all kinds were represented in the procession. Even some of the women laborers of the city took part:

“As if to prove that trades’ unionism is not confined to the sterner sex, some 68 young ladies took part in the demonstration; the committee, with true gallantry, placing hacks at their disposal. They are chiefly shoe operatives.”³

After the lady representatives of Hamilton’s work force came a few wagons decorated for the occasion:

“Gurney & Ware, the well-known firm of scale-makers, turned out, with their workmen, a decorated wagon with a handsome pair of platform scales and other of their wares. The Brickmakers had a wagon indicative of their trade, drawn by a four-in-hand.

“Hamilton, the hub of Canadian industries, is the only place in Canada that supports a workingman’s paper, and the PALLADIUM OF LABOR was the only journal in the city with sufficient interest in the printers’ art and the cause of labor to place a wagon in the procession. The wagon bore devices indicative of the press as the defense of labor and the medium of intellectual elevation of the masses, and distributed from the press a printed sheet with the motto of the journal, ‘The elevation of Labor is the advancement of the State.’ ”⁴

The procession ended up on the Crystal Palace grounds where it broke up, everyone proceeding to take in the events planned at that location.

Over 12,000 people entered the grounds for the afternoon and evening activities, which included a baseball match won by the Baysides over the Primroses:

“The batting throughout was pretty heavy, the fielding good, and the general style of play sharp and decisive. The boys felt happy over their victory and turned handsprings, threw up their hats and hurrahed in elegant shape.”

 There was a tug-of-war which pitted a team led by Fire Chief Aitchison against a team led by carter Tom Brick. The chief’s team won the first tug, but Tom Brick and his cohorts won the next two tugs, taking the $5 prize.

The lacrosse match was unfortunately hindered by the large crowd of spectators who swarmed all over the playing field:

“After a desperate effort to clear a space, which proved unavailing, the redskins plunged into the crowd with ball and sticks and a sort of stampede of the people from one position to the other was kept up while the game lasted. Innocent onlookers were unexpectedly knocked off their pins  or found their legs tangled in a lacrosse stick. The ball now and then struck a hard felt hat with a resounding thus, but for all this, the ground was not cleared and how the game was going, nobody could tell.”⁴

Throughout the afternoon and evening, scores of young people danced on an open platform to the music of the Meakins’ string band.

In the evening, another procession was formed around Gore Park for the march west to the Crystal Palace grounds:

“Every man in the procession carried a Chinese lantern on the end of a stick. The effect was beautiful. Loud expressions of admiration were heard on all sides as the procession wound its glittering way along. The crowd that lined the sidewalks and pressed around the procession was immense. A vast mob followed the band.”³

By 8:30 p.m., the procession had completed its trek. On an improvised platform, preparations for the evening’s meeting had begun:

“The platform was all lit up by Chinese lanterns, as was the interior of the building, in which was a great gathering of people of both sexes and all sizes, promenading or indulging in the pleasures of the mazy.”³

The finale of the day was a meeting which began with the singing of various labor songs by invited soloists, including Mr. Smithers Swanton, singing ‘The Hard Workingman’ and Mr. R. Coleman singing ‘The Nobleman and the Laborer.’

The meeting, indeed that day’s activities ended with a two-hour speech on labor by Mr. David Healey.