Top of page

Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Connecticut Labor Press (New Haven, Conn.) 191?-1921

View All Front Pages

About The Connecticut Labor Press (New Haven, Conn.) 191?-1921

The masthead of the Connecticut Labor Press of 1920 declared the 3-cent weekly “Organized labor’s only newspaper in New Haven” and “A newspaper for the people.” While certainly a manifestation of the political and social power of the New Haven Trades Council, the paper covered not only local, but also state, national, and international labor news.

The Labor Press editors identified strongly with the relatively moderate craft union and “non-partisan” political perspectives of the president of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers, as well as the related positions of the Connecticut Federation of Labor (CFL). Numerous editorials identified anti-union employers and Bolsheviks as the twin enemies of trade unionism. Other opinion pieces expressed consternation at the attempts of state legislators and manufacturers to associate the Labor Press with “the radical element” and reminded labor’s detractors that the CFL had eradicated the influence of the factory militants who had gone on strike during the war in Bridgeport. Still other editorials chastised the activists of the Hartford Central Labor Union, a group that insisted on running candidates under the umbrella of the American Labor Party.

On January 21, 1921, the publication of the Labor Press was taken over directly by I. M. Ornburn, long a leader of the New Haven Trades Council, now also president of Ornburn Press. The Labor Press was renamed the Labor News. The announcement of the transfer of ownership hinted at troubling developments that “forced the new publishers (All Organized Labor Men) to get away from the ‘has been,’” reaffirm the newspaper’s essentially “official” relationship with the CFL and the local Trades Council, and put out a “bigger and better” paper. The new publisher’s statement said that the Labor News would be “an exponent of justice to all, a square deal to employer and employee alike, with a desire to serve the best principles of trade unionism and at the same time create a better understanding and co-operation between capital and labor.”

Nonetheless, the content of the Connecticut Labor News reflected the deep divide between moderate trade unionists and the Connecticut legislators, manufacturers, and Chambers of Commerce who advocated the “American Plan” for ridding the state of the closed shop, the 40-hour week, and certain conditions of work. Each issue of both the Press and the News described ongoing employer efforts to increase productivity and lower costs in various branches of construction and industry, including textile and brass, as well as union efforts to organize a defense of the status quo. Political struggles over the post-war re-privatization of the railways, high prices and “profiteering,” a state “anti-strike bill,” the open shop, the use of the court injunction against collective labor action, attempts to install “city manager”-type municipal governments, and the Child Labor Amendment of 1924 were the kind of topics treated in-depth weekly. Connecticut visits by prominent American Federation of Labor leaders sent to rally the troops, and sermons by clerics opposed to the open shop, were given much attention. Syndicated fiction, feature columns, cartoons, sports, and a women’s page offered some respite from all this deeply serious news.

On March 14, 1925, the Ornburn Press announced that the Connecticut Labor News would suspend publication and reopen later in the year under new management, but no successor publication is known to exist.

Provided By: Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Connecticut Labor Press (New Haven, Conn.) 191?-1921

Dates of Publication

  • 191?-1921

Created / Published

  • New Haven, Conn. : Conn. Labor Press Co., -1921.

Headings

  • -  Labor movement--Connecticut--New Haven--Newspapers
  • -  New Haven (Conn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Labor movement
  • -  Connecticut--New Haven
  • -  United States--Connecticut--New Haven--New Haven

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  -v. 7, no. 21 (Jan. 14, 1921).
  • -  Also issued on microfilm from Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 3, no. 22 (Feb. 16, 1918).
  • -  Connecticut labor news 2642-7303 (DLC)sn 92051283 (OCoLC)26023690

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn92051282

OCLC Number

  • 26023677

ISSN Number

  • 2642-7281

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Connecticut Labor Press New Haven, Conn. 191?. (New Haven, CT), 191?. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn92051282/.

APA citation style:

(191?) The Connecticut Labor Press New Haven, Conn. 191?. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn92051282/.

MLA citation style:

The Connecticut Labor Press New Haven, Conn. 191?. (New Haven, CT) 191?. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn92051282/.