Immigrants, Labor and Capital in a Transnational Context: Belgian Glass Workers in America, 1880–1925

KEN FONES-WOLF

IN THE FALL AND WINTER of 1914–15, the citizens in the small West Virginia town of Salem turned out in large numbers for a series of activities aimed at raising funds for Belgian relief. Benefit performances by the Salem concert band, a tag day, a parade, a subscription list and the staging of three French-language plays raised over $3000 for assistance. Of particular interest to the people of Salem were the families of local window-glass workers trapped in Belgium by the sudden outbreak of the war. Not for another fifteen months would Clara Quinaut, her mother and her children finally return to Salem and Clara's husband Edgar, successfully reuniting the last of the separated local families. What made the response of the people of Salem so extraordinary, however, was that Quinaut and many of the Belgian families were Socialists who contested local elections in Salem and several other neighboring communities. Salem itself, a town of only 3000, had three cooperative window-glass factories, a cooperative store, and a Socialist newspaper