ted as an official sanction of the new doctrine of one
union in a "basic" trade.

Notwithstanding these official lapses from the principle of craft
autonomy, the socialist industrialists[81] are still compelled to abide
by the letter and the spirit of craft autonomy. The effect of such a
policy on the coming American industrialism may be as follows: The
future development of the "department" may enable the strong "basic"
unions to undertake concerted action against employers, while each
retains its own autonomy. Such indeed is the notable "concerted
movement" of the railway brotherhoods, which since 1907 has begun to set
a type for craft industrialism. It is also probable that the majority of
the craft unions will sufficiently depart from a rigid craft standard
for membership to include helpers and unskilled workers working
alongside the craftsmen.

The clearest outcome of this silent "counter-reformation" in reply to
the socialist industrialists is the Railway Employes' Department as it
developed during and after the war-time period.[82] It is composed of
all the railway men's organizations except the brotherhoods of
engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen, telegraphers, and several
minor organizations, which on the whole cooperate with the Department.
It also has a place for the unskilled laborers organized in the United
Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and Railroad Shop Laborers.
The Railway Employes' Department therefore demonstrates that under craft
unionism the unskilled need not be left out in the cold. It also meets
the charge that craft unionism renders it easy for the employers to
defeat the unions one by one, since this Department has consolidated the
constituent crafts into one bargaining and striking union[83]
practically as well as could be done by an industrial union. Finally,
the Railway Employes' Department has an advantage over an industrial
union in that many of its constituent unions, like the machinists',
blacksmiths', boiler-makers', sheet metal workers', and electrical
workers', have large memberships outside the railway industry, which
might by their dues and assessments come to the aid of the railway
workers on strike. To be sure, the solidarity of the unions in the
Department might be weakened through jurisdictional disputes, which is
something to be considered. However, when unions have gone so far as to
confederate for joint collective bargaining, that danger will probably
never