On January 2, 1916 the local AFL union elected its leaders and prepared for the January 27 meeting where they would install the new officers and celebrate the birthday of Samuel Gompers, the national leader of the AFL.
This article gave as the reason for these meetings and meetings across the US the situation of the Danbury, Massachusetts hatters union which had lost a lawsuit regarding the attempted boycott of Loewe's hats as part of a strike. An award of $200,000 had been confirmed by the US Supreme Court for their interference with trade in 1907. Although this award was reduced somewhat through the efforts of Samuel Gompers, it effectively impoverished individual hatters who were already disabled or otherwise in straitened circumstances. This decision and later changes to labor law made organized boycotts illegal under labor law. Each year since the brother hatters would donate to a fund to help the Loewe hatters, and the decision stood as a clarion call to all labor members.
The president of the local union was W. Sherman Brown, a barber, and the VP was Mr. Bowman. The financial secretary and treasurer was John B Gummerman, the editor and publisher of the Bloomington Journal. Gummerman moved to Bloomington in 1912 to publish his newspaper. In December 1912 the Pantagraph reported that the Journal, gummerman's paper, had published a special issue that was "profusely illustrated" with many sketches of local buildings and German citizens. This would have been a complicated undertaking for a new paper and demonstrated great skill in producing illustrations for publication. The photo to the right is of John Gummerman.
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