[101] The struggle for control, as carried on by trade unions, centers
on such matters as methods of wage determination, the employer's right
of discharge, hiring and lay-off, division of work, methods of enforcing
shop discipline, introduction of machinery and division of labor,
transfers of employes, promotions, the union or non-union shop, and
similar subjects.

[102] The first trade societies were organized by shoemakers. (See
above, 4-7.)

[103] See Chapter on "American Shoemakers," in _Labor and
Administration_, by John R. Commons (Macmillan, 1913).

[104] See Don D. Lescohier, _The Order of the Knights of St. Crispin_.

[105] See above, 114-116.

CHAPTER 13

THE IDEALISTIC FACTOR

The puzzling fact about the American labor movement is, after all, its
limited objective. As we saw before, the social order which the typical
American trade unionist considers ideal is one in which organized labor
and organized capital possess equal bargaining power. The American trade
unionist wants, first, an equal voice with the employer in fixing wages
and, second, a big enough control over the productive processes to
protect job, health, and organization. Yet he does not appear to wish to
saddle himself and fellow wage earners with the trouble of running
industry without the employer.

But materialistic though this philosophy appears, it is nevertheless the
product of a long development to which the spiritual contributed no less
than the material. In fact the American labor movement arrived at an
opportunist trade unionism only after an endeavor spread over more than
seventy years to realize a more idealistic program.

American labor started with the "ideology" of the Declaration of
Independence in 1776. Intended as a justification of a political
revolution, the Declaration was worded by the authors as an expression
of faith in a social revolution. To controvert the claims of George III,
Thomas Jefferson quoted Rousseau. To him Rousseau was in all probability
little more than an abstract "beau ideal," but Rousseau's abstractions
were no mere abstractions to the pioneer American farmer. To the latter
the doctrine that all men are born free and equal seemed to have grown
directly out of experience. So it appeared, two or three generations
later, to the young workmen when they for the first time achieved
political consciousness. And, if reality ceased to square with the
principles of the Declaration, it became,