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Brothers and Sisters and those interested in organized labor; Greetings!
Recently, this Labor Council recovered the early years of its existence by ordering copies made of the 1902 through 1921 minute books of this labor body from the holdings of the Special Collections Department of the UWL's Murphy Library.
This will serve a duel purpose.
1. It will restore a missing era of our early minute records.
2. It will serve as fertile ground for gathering more information on the history of organized labor for our history book, "La Crosse Labors".
Sadly, my requests for information on the dozens of unions that either exist today or existed in the past, has meet with stony silence. This is unfortunate and led in no some part to the necessity of ordering our minute books copied at no small expense to gain some of the missing data.
Facts and figures have already been found relating to the early unionized Wisconsin Pearl Button factory. Glove Makers at the Star Knitting Factory, many interesting details from the Organizer's Report related to early contracts and organizing drives and much information on the purchasing of Yeoman's Hall which would become the Labor Temple in 1920 and would remain in use until 1981, when it was sold to the La Crosse Telephone Company, due to its physical condition and expensive overhead.
As my predecessor, Joseph Verchota wrote on the cover sheet of the June 1913 minute book, "I do not elevate no person above my self. Or do I lower my fellowman beneath my standard." Neither do I, so my complaint above a lack of response or interest in La Crosse Labors, is tainted with my personal preference for action on the project.
It's not too late to send in information however, as you remember the tired old saying, "Hope Springs Eternal!"
On behalf of the officers and delegates of the Central Labor Council.
Terry L. Hicks
President, Western Wisconsin AFL-CIO
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