ン

"THIS

PREFACE

HIS that they call 'Organizing of Labour' is, if well understood, the Problem of the whole Future, for all who will in future govern men." It is well over three-quarters of a century since Carlyle set down these words in "Past and Present," but the intervening years have deepened rather than dulled their truth. Those years, indeed, cover the main story of the "organizing of labor" to the present day; and the "blind irrational giant" of Carlyle's time has become, if not wholly "a seeing rational giant, with a soul in the body of him," at least a coherent and powerful and momentous influence in nearly every phase of public affairs-an influence which, more than any other, is slowly but inevitably reshaping modern civilization.

Whatever our individual attitude toward the Labor Movement may be, whether we regard it as a salvation or a menace, it is imperative that we should at least understand it. And yet one might say with truth that no other large force or factor of these times is less commonly understood-or, worse still, is more commonly misunderstood. At the bottom of much, perhaps most, of the heated argument and conflict of views in regard to "labor" there is an amazing lack both of common knowledge regarding elementary facts and theories and of common agreement regarding elementary definitions. Here, as in other fields, men quarrel not so much over actualities as over mere words-words to which they have attached a variety of arbitrary and opposing ideas, for the most part utterly unrelated to facts. They are like persons attempting to communicate with one another in a language of which each has invented his own. alphabet.

There are many and various reasons for this deplorable condition, but by no means the least is the fact that there has hitherto been available no popular comprehensive handbook to the Labor Movement as a whole-one which describes and explains that movement in all its parts; which outlines the theories that animate it, the

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policies that guide it, the purposes that it has in view; and which defines the principal terms associated with it. The existing encyclopædias and dictionaries are notoriously deficient in their treatment of labor affairs, and most of the innumerable books on one or another phase of the general subject take for granted in their readers precisely that broad background of elementary information of which the average person stands most in need.

The present volume aims to fill this most conspicuous gap among current reference books, and to provide a convenient and concise vade mecum to the subject which will be permanently valuable to the individual employer and trade unionist as well as to the general reader, and which will prove of daily service not only in public libraries and newspaper offices but among the necessary reference equipment of industrial organizations of every sort-employers' associations, chambers of commerce, civic federations, trade union "centrals," etc. The attempt to compress so vast and protean and kaleidoscopic a subject within the covers of a single moderatelysized volume will seem to many a rash undertaking. But the insistent need for such a work will, it is hoped, be considered a sufficient justification for the present attempt.

While some of the material contained in this volume has of necessity been gleaned from the current newspaper and periodical press, the compiler has for the most part depended upon the standard literature of the subject, and upon official governmental reports and similar documents. In the American field, liberal use has been made of the exhaustive report on "Labor Organizations, Labor Disputes and Arbitration," prepared by Messrs. Charles E. Edgerton and E. Dana Durand for the Federal Industrial Commission, and published in Volume XVII of the Report of that body. A number of the entries on trade unionism and the legal aspects of labor affairs in the United States are in large part either quoted or paraphrased from that work. The "Monthly Labor Review," published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor, has also been a very valuable source of information. In view of the comparative frequency with which the "Staff Report" of the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations is quoted in these pages, it may be well to recall that in this Report, according to the chairman of the Commission, "no statement or conclusion of fact adverse to the attitude or interest of any person or group of persons is submitted, except as declared or assented to by the person or by the individuals comprising the group affected."

While limitations of space make it impossible to give a complete list of the many other publications consulted and utilized by the compiler, mention must at least be made of the following, which have proved particularly useful:

Adams, Thomas Sewall, and Sumner, Helen L. "Labor Problems." New York: The Macmillan Company.

Beard, Mary. "A Short History of the American Labor Movement." New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.

Carlton, Frank Tracy. "The History and Problems of Organized Labor." Boston: D. C. Heath & Co.

Carlton, Frank Tracy. "Organized Labor in American History." New York: D. Appleton & Co.

Clay, Henry. "Economics: An Introduction for the General Reader." New York: The Macmillan Company.

Cole, G. D. H. "An Introduction to Trade Unionism." London: Labour Research Department.

Cole, G. D. H. "Labour in the Commonwealth: A Book for the Younger Generation." New York: B. W. Huebsch, Inc.

Cole, G. D. H. "The Payment of Wages." London: Labour Research Department.

Cole, G. D. H. "The World of Labour: A Discussion of the Present and Future of Trade Unionism." Fourth edition. London: G. Bell & Sons. Commons, John R. (editor). "Trade Unionism and Labor Problems." Boston: Ginn & Company.

Commons, John R., and Andrews, John B. "The Principles of Labor Legislation." Fourth edition, revised. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Dutt, R. Palme (editor). "The Labour International Handbook." London: Labour Publishing Co.

Glocker, Theodore W. "The Government of American Trade Unions." Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.

Groat, George Gorham. "An Introduction to the Study of Organized Labor in America." New York: The Macmillan Company.

Hillquit, Morris. "Socialism in Theory and Practice." New York: The Macmillan Company.

Hollander, Jacob H., and Barnett, George E. (editors). "Studies in American Trade Unionism." New York: Henry Holt & Co.

Hoxie, Robert Franklin.

York: D. Appleton & Co.

Janes, George Milton.

"Trade Unionism in the United States." New

"The Control of Strikes in American Trade

Unions." Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.

Lloyd, C. M. "Trade Unionism." London: A. & C. Black.

O'Brien, George. "Labour Organization." London: Methuen & Co., Ltd. Parker, Carleton H. "The Casual Laborer, and Other Essays." New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.

Rubinow, I. M. "Social Insurance." New York: Henry Holt & Co. Russell, Bertrand. "Proposed Roads to Freedom." New York: Henry Holt & Co.

Sanders, Wm. Stephen. "Trade Unionism in Germany." London: Labour Research Department.

Spedden, Ernest R. "The Trade Union Label." Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.

Tead, Ordway, and Metcalf, Henry C. "Personnel Administration: Its Principles and Practice." New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. "Industrial Democracy." London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co.

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. "The History of Trade Unionism." Revised edition, extended to 1920. London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co.

Weyforth, William O. "The Organizability of Labor." Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.

To the authors and publishers of the above-mentioned books, many of whom have allowed a generous use of copyrighted extracts, the compiler is under a heavy debt of gratitude. Thanks are also due on similar grounds to "The New Republic," "The Freeman," and Professor Ernst Freund. For individual assistance generously given by many persons during the preparation of this book, the compiler can offer only a collective word of acknowledgment-save in one important instance. Without the devoted and unremitting collaboration of his wife, whose contribution to this task is scarcely less than his own, the book would never have been carried through to completion.