Origins of the Union Label

Origins of the Union Label

David Bernstein over at Volokh Conspiracy discusses nineteenth and early twentieth anti-Chinese legislation, and its connection to labor unions and the Lochner decision. Bernstein's William & Mary Law Review article mentions that at the start of the Gold Rush, the severe shortage of laundries meant that clothes were being shipped from California to China to be washed, and then shipped back again.

Bernstein also points out that origins of the "union label"--that little symbol that appears on most movies and printed materials, to show that this was produced by labor union members--was racist. The first "union label" was on cigars, and said "White Labor, White Labor." Along with the logo of the union of white cigar makers was the message:

Buy no cigars
except from the box marked
with the trade union label
thus you help maintain the
white as against the Coolie
standard of life and work

This was no great surprise to me. My book For the Defense of Themselves and the State (Praeger Press, 1994) goes into some detail about the role that labor unions played in stirring up anti-Chinese feeling during the railroad strikes of 1877, and in promoting a riot that led to the burning out of San Francisco's Chinatown. My reading of California newspapers in the period 1910-25 shows that Democrats were major players in promoting racist laws and attitudes. To the extent that anyone was fighting racism, it was then conservative Republican newspapers like the Los Angeles Times.