while seeking other help. From this they deduced that if the entire crew quit the boss would be up against it for a time at least, and that if the men hung around the shop and used their persuasive powers upon the men who came to take their places, he might have considerable difficulty in getting started, and in the meantime he would lose trade and probably his entire business. Thus was evolved an economic weapon of the highest importance, perhaps the greatest proletarian discovery of all ages—the strike. The strike is the principal weapon of consequence that the workers have at their command in the every-day struggle with which to resist the attacks of the employers and improve their working conditions. That they have not taken full advantage of this very effective weapon we shall see during the course of this discussion.
Craft Unions Fall Behind
So long as industry remained in its primitive state the craft union was able to cope with the employers who were weak and without organization. Gradually, however, they accumulated more and more wealth, combined their capital and their factories into larger industrial units, thus laying the foundation for the great trusts that now dominate industry. They followed this up by the formation of employers' associations in the different industries, which were really industrial unions of capitalists for the purpose of controlling output and prices, and for fighting the unions. It was then we first heard of the "open shop" and the campaign for the "freedom" of Labor.
Within a short time the whole face of industry was changed. The primitive shop had been absorbed into the industrial factory, eliminating the individual owners. Gigantic industrial corporations with billions of dollars at their command became the masters of industry, dictating the price of commodities, the wages of Labor and the policy of our State and National Governments. While the captains of industry were creating these great industrial combinations what were the leaders of Labor doing? Not a thing except to draw down their fat salaries, and they never failed in that.
The startling revolutionary change in the organization of industry made it absolutely essential that a similar change be made in the structure of our labor unions. Movement is life. The person or the institution that does not move dies. The American labor movement has not changed to keep pace with industrial evolution and therefore is doomed unless it awakens from its torpor very soon. It was formed
