Summary Information
Federated Trades Council of Milwaukee Records
1900-1950
- Federated Trades Council of Milwaukee
Milwaukee Mss DR; PH 408
2.4 c.f. (6 archives boxes) and 5 photographs
UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Correspondence, reports, and agreements, 1903-1940. Letters are written mainly by general secretaries Frank J. Weber and Herman Seide and include information on labor legislation, the National Recovery Administration's activities in Milwaukee, old age pensions, collective bargaining, and inter-union disputes. Also present is material on the laundry workers' strike of 1934, a minute book, 1900-1903, minutes of the executive board, 1915-1939, financial and other records, and photographs.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil000dr ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
The Federated Trades Council was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 20, 1887, for the purpose of organizing the craft unions in the city. The agitation to organize was a direct result of the schism between the Knights of Labor and the rising craft unions. Led by its founder, Frank J. Weber, the Federated Trades Council played a prominent part in the labor history of Milwaukee. Its influence has been somewhat superseded by the more important Wisconsin State Federation of Labor, also founded by Weber in 1893, the state agent of the American Federation of Labor. However, throughout the years, both organizations worked closely together; it was not infrequent that the top officer of one organization also held the top office in the other.
Biographical Sketch of Frank J. Weber (based upon the obituary of Frank J. Weber in Wisconsin Necrology, Vol. 48, p. 187, and Wisconsin Labor, Milwaukee, 1950, the official publication of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor:
Frank J. Weber was born August 7, 1849 in the outskirts of Milwaukee. His grandfather was a German who emigrated from upper Austria and became one of Milwaukee's leading butter and cheese makers. Weber, a carpenter by trade, went to sea in 1869. He sailed the old windjammers of Lake Michigan and circumnavigated the globe three times before he left “a sailor's life.”
In 1886 he was initiated into a seaman's union at the seaman's boarding house back of the Live Oaks Saloon on Broadway, then called Main Street. He retired from the sea in 1902.
He organized the Federated Trades Council on February 20, 1887, and was its secretary until he retired in 1934. He founded the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor in June, 1893, and was its president until he retired from that task in 1917.
Weber was quite prominent in organizing unions. He organized the lumber handlers into what eventually became the American Federation of Labor Longshoremen's unions. He organized seamen's unions for the old Knights of Labor, and he unionized the brewery workers in Milwaukee in 1891. He was called to West Virginia in 1897 to help form the United Mine Workers. During World War I, he was a member of the Wisconsin War Labor Board.
His intimate friends included Samuel Gompers and novelist Jack London.
He was a pioneer member of the Socialist Party, served eight years in the Legislature, and was the party's candidate for higher offices. He was a leading figure in the fight for the Workmen's Compensation Act, for old age pensions, and other social legislation.
His wife, Augusta, died March 6, 1942. He had two sons, Charles, New York City, and Orlando, Kisco, New York, multimillionaire and retired president of Allied Chemical & Dye Co. Weber died in 1943 at the age of 93.
Scope and Content Note
Below are content notes written about only a portion of the collection. Additional materials were received after the following was written and are listed in the box list which follows the narrative.
A large portion of the correspondence is that of General Secretary Frank J. Weber to affiliated member unions between 1923 and 1933, and in it he discusses trade unionism, old age pensions, collective bargaining, conscription, war, socialism and capitalism, inter-union disputes, and demands for legislation in the interests of labor. A group of Weber's writings at the end of the collection deal with the same subjects.
The small amount of incoming correspondence is mainly from member unions and deals with dues, agreements, and other union business. There is some material on the Milwaukee Laundry Strike of 1934-35. In the absence of a representative to organize the laundry workers of Milwaukee, the President of the International Laundry Workers authorized Herman Seide, General Secretary of the Federation, 1931-1943, to organize the workers and set up the machinery for collective bargaining.
The collection contains some personal letters of Frank J. Weber. Some are to his grandchildren; more interesting are a group of letters concerning Weber's investment with William Coleman, General Secretary of the Socialist Party of Milwaukee, and others, in a gold mine in Ophir, Colorado, 1929-1931.
It is interesting to note that Weber corresponded with Ernest Bevin, British Labor leader and later Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the Labor Government, 1932, Jan. 8 and Sept. 1. There is also one of Weber's letters to Louis Budenz, former Communist and reformer, 1930, Nov. 5.
The photographs document the Butterfly Consolidated Mine near Ophir, Colorado, circa 1929. Included are images of mine buildings and a waterfall. Frank J. Weber of the Federated Trades Council and William Coleman of the Socialist Party in Wisconsin had an interest in the mine.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by the Federated Trades Council of Milwaukee, June 1950, 1951, 1952, 1957; and by Jacob Friedrick, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 14, 1956.
Contents List
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Milwaukee Mss DR
Box
1
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Correspondence, reports, agreements, and
allied materials, 1903-1940
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Box
1
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Material on the Milwaukee Laundry Strike of 1934-1935
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Box
6
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Minutes of meetings, 1900-1903 (1 volume)
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Minutes of Executive Board
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Box
6
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, 1915-1923 (1 volume)
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Box
2
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1923 Jan.-1938 April
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Box
3
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1938 May-1939
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Financial records
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Box
5
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Per-capita tax records, 1909-1913 (1 volume)
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Box
3
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Per-capita tax and monthly posting books, 1909-1944 (4 volumes)
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Council receipts and expenditures
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Box
4
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, 1909-1935 (3 volumes)
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Box
5
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, 1935-1950 (4 volumes)
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Box
3
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Scrapbook of newspaper clippings, circa 1910-1912 (1 volume)
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Box
4
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Papers, 1935 Oct.-1937 March, of the Council relating to the strike of the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild against the
Wisconsin News in 1936.
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Box
3
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Writings of F. J. Weber
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Box
3
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Radio addresses, 1940-1942
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Box
3
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Survey of group medicine, 1938
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PH 408
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Photographs, circa 1929
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