the demand on May 1 of the same year, to be followed by the miners at a
later date.

The choice of the carpenters was indeed fortunate. Beginning with 1886,
that union had a rapid growth and was now the largest union affiliated
with the Federation. For several years it had been accumulating funds
for the eight-hour day, and, when the movement was inaugurated in May
1890, it achieved a large measure of success. The union officers claimed
to have won the eight-hour day in 137 cities and a nine-hour day in most
other places.

However, the selection of the miners to follow on May 1, 1891, was a
grave mistake. Less than one-tenth of the coal miners of the country
were then organized. For years the miners' union had been losing ground,
with the constant decline of coal prices. Some months before May 1,
1891, the United Mine Workers had become involved in a disastrous strike
in the Connelsville coke region, and the plan for an eight-hour strike
was abandoned. In this manner the eight-hour movement inaugurated by the
convention of the Federation in 1888 came to an end. Apart from the
strike of the carpenters in 1890, it had not led to any general movement
to gain the eight-hour work day. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of
workingmen had won reduced hours of labor, especially in the building
trades. By 1891 the eight-hour day had been secured for all building
trades in Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, Indianapolis, and San Francisco.
In New York and Brooklyn the carpenters, stone-cutters, painters, and
plasterers worked eight hours, while the bricklayers, masons, and
plumbers worked nine. In St. Paul the bricklayers alone worked nine
hours, the remaining trades eight.

In 1892 the labor movement faced for the first time a really modern