look for democracy was dark. There was enough to compel admiration in the bigness of the work of these "captains of industry"or "malefactors of great wealth," as one conspicuous reformer described them--and in the smoothness of the political operations which they helped to manage. But there was small hope for the ordinary mortal who possessed neither wealth nor power.

CHAPTER LII

ORGANIZED LABOR

The transition from small scale to large scale industry in the United States happened to be going on while the process of occupying the western lands was being completed. In Europe the rise of industrialism had created an acute labor problem before the middle of the nineteenth century. In the United States the rise of that problem was deferred by the conditions in the West. As long as the free land remained, dissatisfied laborers always had available a way of escape from unfavorable conditions. Even though a factory employee never went west, the opportunity was there, and the very knowledge of it tended to keep him contented. By 1890 this economic safety valve had been practically closed, at the very time when the unscrupulous operations of the great corporations made a means of escape more necessary than ever. So it happened that the industrial centers of the country began to take on the appearance of industrial centers in Europe, and the state of mind of the European worker-generally one of chronic discontent-began to appear occasionally in this country.

THE LABOR PROBLEM

The integration of small industrial units into the great trusts tended to separate the laborer from his employer, and as opportunities for an exchange of views disappeared, ill-will, friction, and often violence resulted. With the industrial leaders setting the example, it is not surprising that laborers should have united, in sheer selfdefense. As individuals the employees of a great corporation were helpless; so too were numerous groups of skilled artisans, who depended for employment upon the business men.

In dealing with the problem of labor, investigators always find, among other things, one constant source of uneasiness: insecurity of employment. The laborer's fortune is not in his own hands, and he knows it. No matter how competent and how faithful he may be, there is always hanging over his head the possibility of the loss of his job. His employer's intentions may be of the best; his wages may be

satisfactory; his hours may be reasonable; but if he knows anything about the past, he knows that in time of panic his employer may be forced into bankruptcy, and then his place is gone. Except in abnormal circumstances, like those prevailing in 1923, the average laborer rarely gets enough pay to protect himself against loss of employment. The laborer must have a job, with regular wages. Under the circumstances the ever-present fear of the loss of one, or of a reduction in the other, keeps him on edge. This same factor would go far toward explaining the arbitrary action of organized labor once it gets the whip hand. It uses its strength just as thoughtlessly and just as ruthlessly as some employers do when they get a chance. The possession of power, especially of unfamiliar and unaccustomed power, rarely turns human beings into philanthropists.

Labor unions were nothing new in the United States during this period before 1890. Reference was made in a preceding chapter to their appearance during the thirties. But those early organizations were local. No attempt was made to fuse them into a nation-wide organization, or to bring about an alliance of unions in different sections. After the Civil War, with the trend toward consolidation going on in all directions, efforts were made to create a nation-wide workingmen's society.

THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR

The first comprehensive organization of this sort was "The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor," founded in November 1869, by a Philadelphia tailor named Stephens. His plan was to draw together into a single group all branches of "honorable toil." The privilege of membership was denied to those who were so unfortunate as to be outside that category of "honorable." "No one who either sells or makes a living, or any part of it, by the sale of intoxicating drinks, either as manufacturer, dealer, or agent, or through any member of his family, can be admitted." Neither could any "lawyer, banker, professional gambler, or stock broker."

The Knights of Labor was a secret society at first, with the usual trappings of the ordinary fraternal order: oaths, ritual, and an air of great mystery. All this certainly made an appeal to prospective members, and the members themselves liked it. The man who has never "joined" something, no matter what, has missed one of life's great experiences. But the public was suspicious of a secret

THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR 601

labor organization, and its fears led to vigorous criticism. Partly as a result of this feeling, in 1871 the order abolished its secrecy.

For a number of years the order grew, sometimes rapidly. In 1869 it consisted of eleven tailors, including its first Grand Master, Stephens. By 1883 it numbered fifty-two thousand, by 1886 one hundred seven thousand, and about a million in 1892. The climax in the history of the Knights came in 1886, the year of widespread industrial warfare. There were over five hundred labor disputes that year, with an alarming epidemic of strikes. Some of these were conducted by the Knights; some were undertaken against their express orders. The public is always glad of a scapegoat, so it held the Knights responsible for the whole list of disturbances.

One of the most serious of these contests was the great western railroad strike, with its record of violence extending over two months. The Knights sanctioned and took charge of the strike, thereby making themselves responsible for it. The public blamed the order for the violence, while the strikers themselves blamed it for the loss of the strike. In the same year the street-car men in New York struck, against the advice of the Knights, but the public made no attempt to discriminate. All this hurt the order. While this was going on, the Chicago freight handlers, and the McCormick Harvester employees went on strike. This culminated in the great Haymarket riot in Chicago, with its record of violence, bomb-throwing, and death. It seems clear that the mob had been unduly excited by the inflammatory speeches of some foreign anarchists. When, after indictment and trial, seven of these aliens were found guilty of murder, some of the Knights asked that they be treated with clemency. Terence V. Powderley, Stephens's successor as Grand Master, had influence enough to prevent a resolution of sympathy for the anarchists from being adopted by the Grand Lodge, whereupon the radicals seceded from the organization. This tended still further to. weaken the Knights.

THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

Before the Knights of Labor had reached the apex of its power another labor organization, based upon an entirely different principle, had appeared. This was the American Federation of Labor, launched in 1881, by Samuel Gompers, an English Jew, and a naturalized American citizen. With a total of about seventy thousand members

in 1889, it passed the two hundred thousand mark in 1900. By 1922 it had a membership of 3,195,651, including representatives of all elements of organized labor, except the railroad brotherhoods, and some electrical workers.

The Knights of Labor had taken in as members laborers of almost every sort, without reference to particular trades. No attempt was made to differentiate one group of members from another. Once in the organization, the various trades lost their identity. The American Federation on the other hand was founded upon the local trade unions, and upon their state and national organizations, if they had any. In that way each trade or type of labor had its own organization, while all these were tied up in the great central organization. Thus one of the branches of the American Federation is the United Mine Workers. This organization has its local, district, and general unions, all of which have their respective officers, and all are affiliated with the American Federation. Then, too, each state-where there are any members--has its state branch of the Federation, and the large cities have their central labor unions. With this organization, consisting of various units, the interests of each individual member may be duly protected.

The Railroad Brotherhoods, known sometimes as the Big Four, have never joined the American Federation. For years these were made up of highly skilled, conservative men. The conductors were the first to organize, in 1868, and they were followed by the engineers, firemen, and trainmen. The railroad shop crafts, on the other hand, machinists, boiler-makers, and others, joined the American Federation.

Even at the present time organized labor includes only a small proportion of wage earners, and before 1890 the proportion was far smaller. The farm laborers have never organized, nor have the unskilled industrial laborers, perhaps the very ones who are most in need of it.

The aim of the American Federation of Labor was and is to secure for the employee what he wants, and generally to avoid trouble, by means of collective bargaining. That method of settling disputes is generally unobtrusive, so the public rarely finds out how often it is used. But where collective bargaining fails, then the strike is used. The public can observe a strike; not infrequently it feels the effects of the contest. Consequently in the minds of the public there is