iety that some other tribunal than a
court of equity or even a court of law would be more suitable for the
settling of labor disputes is indicative of the change ultimately to be
wrought in practice.

The unions are also violently opposed to the use of military power by
the State during strikes. Not only can the militia be called out to
enforce the mandates of the State but whenever Federal interference is
justified the United States troops may be sent to the scene of turmoil.
After the period of great labor troubles culminating in the Pullman
strike, many States reorganized their militia into national guards. The
armories built for the accommodation of the guard were called by the
unions "plutocracy's bastiles," and the mounted State constabulary
organized in 1906 by Pennsylvania were at once dubbed "American
Cossacks." Several States following the example of Pennsylvania have
encountered the bitterest hostility on the part of the labor unions.
Already opposition to the militia has proceeded so far that some unions
have forbidden their members to perform militia service when called to
do strike duty, and the military readjustments involved in the Great War
have profoundly affected the relation of the State to organized labor.
Following the signing of the armistice, a movement for the organization
of an American Labor party patterned after the British Labour party
gained rapid momentum, especially in New York and Chicago. A platform of
fourteen points was formulated at a general conference of the leaders,
and provisional organizations were perfected in a number of cities.
What power this latest attempt to enlist labor in partisan politics
will assume is problematical. It is obviously inspired by European
experiences and promulgated by socialistic propaganda. It has not
succeeded in invading the American Federation of Labor, which did not
formally endorse the movement at its Annual Convention in 1919. Gompers,
in an intimate and moving speech, told a group of labor leaders gathered
in New York on December 9, 1918, that "the organization of a political
party would simply mean the dividing of the activities and allegiance of
the men and women of labor between two bodies, such as would often come
in conflict." Under present conditions, it would appear that no Labor
party could succeed in the United States without the cooperation of the
American Federation of Labor.

The relation between the American Federation of Labor and