The Boss Saloon System

By Stephen Powell All material copyright reserved Ó 1996

Have you ever gone into a local bar and asked if you could "run a tab?" Probably not, or at least recently. That’s because this once common almost universal practice has gone the way of the corner soda fountain.

What’s a tab? It’s simply this, you get your drinks now, and pay for them later. These days, many Americans do that without asking, by using credit cards. In the old days to get credit, you needed to have good character, and pay your debts on time, or word got out that you were a bad risk.

In the 20th century, the stereotype of "Joe Six-pack" came to represent the typical blue-collar factory worker. Joe would come in and order a shot with a beer "chaser," and then instruct the bartender to put it on his "tab." The tab was allowed to build up until it was payday for the worker. At which time he was expected to make good on his debt to the bar. Some saloons had a special window in the back of the bar room for their customers to cash their checks. Every week you would see a line form inside the back of the bar, filled with men waiting for their money. In exchange for cashing the check, the bar would require their tab be paid off (plus a percentage for handling the transaction). In addition, they were expected to buy a few rounds of drinks at the bar before leaving.

Looking further back, this seemingly benign system had good intentions in its inception, but by the mid 1800’s it had evolved into a system of worker exploitation. Some had come to know it as the "saloon system" which had been spawned from the coal mining industry.

By the 1890’s in Buffalo, the "system" had been developed to a high art by the most notorious master of puppets, "Finky" Conners. Finky had 5,000 men under his employ, and he was known for dealing with his laborers by using brute force. More than once he brought in Pinkerton guards to break up strikes or any other unrest which often resulted in violence.

Finky’s waterfront work force was made up mostly of Irish immigrant laborers who worked for him unloading ships and barges. In addition to controlling much of the activity around the docks, Conners also had a number of saloons down along the foot of Main Street. These bars gave Conners another way to control his workers. By owning the bars near the dock, Conners could in effect pay his workers partially in liquor. Specifically he had his paymasters hand out checks at his saloons (of course minus whatever tabs were owed). It often worked out that the worker would run up such a tab from the week before that he would actually owe more (or at least most) of his weeks pay to the bar.

Locally, trouble over the saloon system and their involvement with big business came to a boil in 1884. The Buffalo Express of May 3rd, charged some of the inhabitants of the Canal Street section of Buffalo with incitement to riot, and of advocating the murder of Mayor Scoville. The Express charged that the instigators were certain saloon keepers who directed the resident laborers for political as well as business reasons. On May 22nd, an ordinance was passed which required 115 saloons in the Canal Street vicinity to close at seven o'clock in the evening.

Another protestation was that some of the pay was in "chips" which could be cashed only in the saloon owned by the boss. Pay was about $1.40 for ten hours. The saloon system was charged chiefly against "Finky" Conners. The men desired pay by the hour at the rate of twenty-five cents.

In 1899 unions further drove home how oppressive the "boss saloon" system was to the workers.

All was well until 1899 in the first week of May the dock men threatened a strike that would tie up all the lake business. The threatened strike centered about the grain shovelers, or scoopers, who had not been able to meet their demands. The scoopers demanded the end of the "boss system.".". This system required the workers to receive part of their pay in "chips," or tokens, which could be redeemed only in the saloon of the boss. Moreover, the scoopers demanded more pay and the end of the contract system as conducted by James Kennedy and W.J. Conners.

At one point, the situation was so touchy that James Kennedy, a multiple saloon owner and local politician, had to fire his own brother, Thomas, to protect his own image after it was made public that Thomas was engaged in the saloon system.

Most laborers of the 1800’s drank very heavily compared to today’s standards. Typically the workday started with a trip to the bar for at least 3 shots of liquor (with beer chasers) in the morning before they started work. At lunch time, groups of young boys would gather in front of the factory gates, and wait for the men to appear. In their hands the boys held small buckets called "growlers." The workers would then give a few coins to "their" boy who would "rush the growler" to a nearby bar(to get it filled up with beer). Once filled, the boys would "rush" back to the waiting worker carrying the pail of beer, trying not to spill any in the process. If the workers didn’t want a growler for lunch, they could go to the bar and "drink" their lunch.

At the end of the day when work let out, all the factory employees went straight to the corner bar again for at least 3 more shots and beer chasers. From there they usually did not get home until well into the evening, drunk. This process was often repeated six days a week.

The Erie Canal also fed the saloon system during the 1800’s. Predators would line the docks pretending to be official guides (or they would use some other ruse). They were waiting for fresh immigrants, ignorant to the dangers of trusting these "friendly" strangers. They did not know that these strangers were at the docks for one reason, to strip these newcomers of all their money and possessions before they got 100 yards. These seemingly well intentioned Samaritans were paid to direct the immigrants to "a good hotel to stay in." Once they checked in, the immigrant was overcharged for just about everything, causing him to fall into debt. What made this situation worse was that if the immigrants were unable to get out of the hotels by the time the lakes froze they were stuck there for the rest of the season. Tennants often wound up owing more in rent than they could pay, and were obliged to work off their debt. As you can imagine no amount of labor was ever quite enough, and these situations would often remain insolvent for a long time, even years.

The saloon system was so lucrative that even the brewers got into the game. They bought up local taverns in order to gain control of who’s beer was sold in them. The Gerhard Lang Brewery of Buffalo owned the most local taverns (80 of them), another Brewery, that of William Simon, owned 19.

Ulrich's Tavern Virginia at Ellicott Street in 1927 Courtesy Ullrich’s Tavern

One local drinking establishments said to have been involved in the saloon system was Ulrich’s Tavern at Virginia and Ellicott Streets. Founded in 1868, it is still in operation today, making it arguably the oldest continually operating bar in Buffalo. In the days before the turn of the twentieth-century, Mike Ulrich’s place served as a hotel, bar, and restaurant. Ulrich’s has played host to everyone form immigrant workers "fresh off the boat" to U.S. President Grover (Big Steve) Cleveland. As you enter the bar you will still see the main staircase that leads from the back of the bar to the upstairs, which once led to the boarding rooms for factory workers. Downstairs is an impressive collection of Buffalo memorabilia that includes the original back bar that once stood in the Iroquois Hotel. In the old days at Ulrich’s, a worker could get breakfast, lunch, dinner, a place to sleep, and of course drink in exchange for part of his pay. For years many of Ziegele’s Brewery (located just next door) employees and those from the Weyand Brewery (down the block) rented rooms there.

Ulrich’s makes a good example of what the bars of yesterday were like. As soon as you step in the door you notice a feeling of intimacy that has been preserved from the days when Mike Ulrich himself tended bar there in the mid 1800’s.

By the mid Twentieth-Century the so called saloon system had been reformed and transformed into an almost helpful institution. The "bar-tab" had become something that was intended to help a guy get buy when he was low on cash, not exploit him.

With the 1940’s and 50’s came the heyday of industrialization in the Northeast. Corner bars and taverns worked in relative harmony with the neighborhood factories, keeping the workers fed and full of beer. The mean old saloon system was by then just a memory.

Unfortunately, as the factories left the area so did many of the bars. One by one the little bars closed down due to their dwindling customer base. Today there is just a fraction of the 2,500 bars that once existed within the city limits are left. Sure some still allow their customers to run tabs but it’s nothing like the "old days."

The old saloon system may be gone but one thing that still remains the same, the corner bar is still a friendly place for people to go eat drink and socialize.

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