"Mr.Charles Bowerman, Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee of the British Trade Union Congress, at that moment emerged from the door.He asked why we had not entered.I told him the situation, and he persuaded the young lady to permit us to pass in.We entered the hall and presented our credentials.Mr.James Sexton, officer and representative of the Docker's Union of Liverpool, arose and called the attention of the Conference to this situation, and declared that the American Federation of Labor delegates refused to sign any such document.He said it was not an Inter-Allied Socialist Conference, but an Inter-Allied Socialist and Labor Conference.
"Mr.Arthur Henderson, of the Labor Party, made an explanation something to this effect, if my memory serves me: 'It is really regrettable that such an error should have been made.It was due to the fact that the old card of credentials which has been used in former conferences was sent to the printer, no one paying any attention to it, thinking it was all right.'
"I want to call your attention to the significance of that explanation, that is, that the trade union movement of Great Britain was represented at these former conferences, but at this conference the importance of Labor was regarded as so insignificant that everybody took it for granted that it was perfectly all right to have the credential card read 'Inter-Allied Socialist Conference' and with the omission of this more important term, 'Labor.'"** "American Federationist," January, 1919, pp.40-41.
As one looks back upon the history of the workingman, one finds something impressive, even majestic, in the rise of the fourth estate from a humble place to one of power in this democratic nation.In this rise of fortune the laborer's union has unquestionably been a moving force, perhaps even the leading cause.At least this homogeneous mass of workingmen, guided by self-developed leadership, has aroused society to safeguard more carefully the individual needs of all its parts.Labor has awakened the state to a sense of responsibility for its great sins of neglect and has made it conscious of its social duties.
Labor, like other elements of society, has often been selfish, narrow, vindictive; but it has also shown itself earnest and constructive.The conservative trades union, at the hour of this writing, stands as a bulwark between that amorphous, inefficient, irresponsible Socialism which has made Russia a lurid warning and Prussia a word of scorn, and that rational social ideal which is founded upon the conviction that society is ultimately an organic spiritual unity, the blending of a thousand diverse interests whose justly combined labors and harmonized talents create civilization and develop culture.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
While there is a vast amount of writing on the labor problem, there are very few works on the history of labor organizations in the United States.The main reliance for the earlier period, in the foregoing pages, has been the "Documentary History of American Industrial Society", edited by John R.Commons, 10 vols.
(1910).The "History of Labour in the United States," 2 vols.
(1918), which he published with associates, is the most convenient and complete compilation that has yet appeared and contains a large mass of historical material on the labor question.
The following works are devoted to discussions of various phases of the history of American labor and industry:
T.S.Adams and Helen L.Sumner, "Labor Problems" (1905).
Contains several refreshing chapters on labor organizations.
F.T.Carlton, "The History and Problem of Organized Labor"(1911).A succinct discussion of union problems.
R.T.Ely, "The Labor Movement in America" (1886).Though one of the earliest American works on the subject, it remains indispensable.
G.G.Groat, "An Introduction to the Study of Organized Labor in America" (1916).A useful and up-to-date compendium.R.F.Hosie, "Trade Unionism in the United States" (1917).A suggestive study of the philosophy of unionism.
J.R.Commons (Ed.), "Trade Unionism and Labor Problems" (1905).
J.H.Hollander and G.E.Barnett (Eds.), "Studies in American Trade Unionism" (1905).These two volumes are collections of contemporary studies of many phases of organized labor by numerous scholars.They are not historical.
The "Report of the Industrial Commission," vol.XVII (1901)provides the most complete analysis of trade union policies and also contains valuable historical summaries of many unions.
G.E.McNeill (Ed.), "The Labor Movement: the Problem of Today"(1899.).This collection contains historical sketches of the organizations of the greater labor groups and of the development of the more important issues espoused by them.For many years it was the most comprehensive historical work on American unionism, and it remains a necessary source of information to the student of trades union history.
J.G.Brissenden, "The Launching of the Industrial Workers of the World" (1913).An account of the origin of the I.W.W.
J.G.Brooks, "American Syndicalism: the I.W.W." (1913).
John Mitchell, "Organized Labor" (1903).A suggestive exposition of the principles of Unionism by a distinguished labor leader.It contains only a limited amount of historical matter.
T.V.Powderly, "Thirty Years of Labor" (1889.) A history of the Knights of Labor from a personal viewpoint.
E.L.Bogart, "The Economic History of the United States" (rev.
ed., 1918).A concise and clear account of our economic development.
R.T.Ely, "Evolution of Industrial Society" (1903).
Carroll D.Wright, "The Industrial Evolution of the United States" (1895).
G.S.Callender, "Selections from the Economic History of the United States" (1909).A collection of readings.The brief introductory essays to each chapter give a succinct account of American industrial development to 1860.
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