em, they began to resent the unsanitary
and burdensome conditions under which they were compelled to live and to
work. So actual grievances were added to fear of what might happen,
and in their common cause experience soon taught them unity of action.
Parliament was petitioned, agitations were organized, sick-benefits were
inaugurated, and when these methods failed, machinery was destroyed,
factories were burned, and the strike became a common weapon of
self-defense.

Though a few labor organizations can be traced as far back as 1700,
their growth during the eighteenth century was slow and irregular. There
was no unity in their methods, and they were known by many names,
such as associations, unions, union societies, trade clubs, and trade
societies. These societies had no legal status and their meetings
were usually held in secret. And the Webbs in their "History of Trade
Unionism" allude to the traditions of "the midnight meeting of patriots
in the corner of the field, the buried box of records, the secret oath,
the long terms of imprisonment of the leading officials." Some of
these tales were unquestionably apocryphal, others were exaggerated
by feverish repetition. But they indicate the aversion with which the
authorities looked upon these combinations.

There were two legal doctrines long invoked by the English courts
against combined action--doctrines that became a heritage of the United
States and have had a profound effect upon the labor movements in
America. The first of these was the doctrine of conspiracy, a doctrine
so ancient that its sources are obscure. It was the natural product of
a government and of a time that looked askance at all combined action,
fearing sedition, intrigue, and revolution. As far back as 1305 there
was enacted a statute defining conspiracy and outlining the offense. It
did not aim at any definite social class but embraced all persons
who combined for a "malicious enterprise." Such an enterprise was the
breaking of a law. So when Parliament passed acts regulating wages,
conditions of employment, or prices of commodities, those who combined
secretly or openly to circumvent the act, to raise wages or lower them,
or to raise prices and curtail markets, at once fell under the ban of
conspiracy. The law operated alike on conspiring employers and conniving
employees.

The new class of employers during the early years of the machine age
eagerly embraced the doctrine of conspiracy. They r