the non-labelled goods. In this action the union had the assistance and cooperation of other trade unions, and its policy was alleged to have been very successful.
A paper-hanger stated that his society tried the boycott during their strike. They issued circulars announcing their refusal to hang paper for persons who bought boycotted goods. They also boycotted Doelger's beer, because the brewery was not a union shop.
A plumber said that his union had never boycotted on its own account, but admitted that it 'boycotts everything that comes along when the trade and labour unions tell us about it.'
A union of musicians boycotted a theatre because non-union men were employed in the orchestra, and even after the proprietor gave way continued the stoppage until the costs of the boycott were paid by him. According to the evidence the chief boycotts had been aimed at bakers, brewers, cigar-makers, starch-makers, flour millers, and newspapers. Most of these were claimed by the union as successes.
At this time the boycott had become an established institution in labour quarrels, and had its press organ in the New York Boycotter. As then understood the industrial boycott was, perhaps, best defined in a labour organ known as John Swinton's Paper: 'To boycott a concern simply means to refrain from having anything to do with it. You boycott a dry goods firm by refusing to deal with it; you boycott a newspaper by ceasing to buy it; you boycott a cigar-maker by avoiding his cigars. Organized boycotting of a concern is carried out when the trade unions unite in refusing to purchase any of its wares, or have any dealings with it, and thus attempt to break down the business of the concern which is antagonistic to them.' Mr. John Swinton himself asserts that the system is based on the principle of 'an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' The employers may say to their men who strike, 'We will black-list you;' the men reply 'We will boycott you.'
During 1884 and 1885 there were recorded in the United States a total, exclusive of Chinese boycotts, of 196 boycotts, of which 59 were claimed as successes by the men: 23 were admittedly lost, and 114 were still on. The boycotts of 1885 for the whole of the United States were stated in 'Bradstreets' to be 700 per cent. in increase over the previous year. Of these 196 boycotts, no less than 130, or over 66 per cent., were divided among only six lines of trade thus: newspapers, 45; hat manufacturers and dealers, 22; cigar trade, 26; carpet trade, 13;
