legal
precedents. The famous Danbury Hatters' Case, in which the Sherman
Anti-Trust law was invoked against the hatters' union, was fought in the
courts by this Association.

The employers' fight on the political front was in charge of the
National Association of Manufacturers. This association was originally
organized in 1895 for the pursuit of purely trade interests, but about
1903, under the influence of the Dayton, Ohio, group of employers,
turned to combating trade unions. It closely cooperated with other
employers' associations in the industrial and legal field, but its chief
efforts lay in the political or legislative field, where it has
succeeded through clever lobbying and manipulations in nullifying
labor's political influence, especially in Congress. The National
Association of Manufacturers saw to it that Congress and State
Legislatures might not weaken the effect of court orders, injunctions
and decisions on boycotts, closed shop, and related matters.

The "open-shop movement" in its several aspects, industrial, legal, and
political, continued strong from 1903 to 1909. Nevertheless, despite
most persistent effort and despite the opportunity offered by the
business depression which followed the financial panic of 1907, the
results were not remarkable. True, it was a factor in checking the rapid
rate of expansion of unionism, but it scarcely compelled a retrogression
from ground already conquered. It is enough to point out that the unions
managed to prevent wage reductions in the organized trades
notwithstanding the unemployment and distress of 1907-1908. On the whole
trade unionism held its own against employers in strictly competitive
industry. Different, however, was the outcome in industries in which the
number of employers had been reduced by monopolistic or
semi-monopolistic mergers.

The steel industry is the outstanding instance.[68] The disastrous
Homestead strike of 1892[69] had eliminated unionism from the steel
plants of Pittsburgh. However, the Carnegie Steel Company was only a
highly efficient and powerful corporation, not yet a "trust." The panic
of 1893 dealt another blow to the Amalgamated Association of Iron &
Steel Workers. The steel mills of Alleghany County, outside Pittsburgh,
were all put upon a non-union basis before 1900. In Pittsburgh, the iron
mills, too, became non-union between 1890 and 1900. There remained to
the organization only the iron mills west of Pittsburgh, the large