The Stamford American Archive

The Stamford American was a labor weekly published in Stamford, Connecticut. It appeared once a week and sold for 2 cents an issue; an annual subscription was available for one dollar. The only extant issue is dated October 11, 1906, and is marked as volume 1, no. 36. The Stamford American published a variety of local news stories, including "City Notices," trolley schedules, human interest features, as well as fiction. It included, as well, pieces especially of interest to trade union members. A column titled "With the Workers," for example, carried local union notices. Another column called "Far and Near" reported on the fight of boatmen for a lighted buoy in the harbor. A good bit of advertising space was devoted to education about various union label campaigns.

In the only surviving issue, the editorial page was given over to the head of the national American Federation of Labor (AFL), Samuel Gompers, who urged the labor movement to forget the idea of creating a labor party and to reject the appeal from populist parties. Gompers instead urged workers to support sympathetic candidates from the two major political parties, stand by the politicians who delivered, and "administer a stinging rebuke" to those who were indifferent to the rights of labor. Adjacent to the editorial was a call by the Stamford American to support the AFL-sponsored Bridgeport Union Independence League, whose mission was to elect politicians of any party supporting the interests of the working class. The League endorsed a number of measures friendly to labor including the initiative and the referendum, home rule for cities, public ownership of all utilities, an Employer Liability Act, the restriction of immigration, the 8-hour work day, an end to the employment of children younger than 15 years, and salaries for state legislators great enough that workers could afford to run for office.