ditions of
American political institutions and political life. However, it is
precisely in political activity where the intellectual is most at home.
The clear-cut logic and symmetry of political platforms based on general
theories, the broad vistas which it may be made to encompass, and lastly
the opportunity for eloquent self-expression offered by parliamentary
debates, all taken together exert a powerful attraction for the
intellectualized mind. Contrast with this the prosaic humdrum work of a
trade union leader, the incessant wrangling over "small" details and
"petty" grievances, and the case becomes exceedingly clear. The mind of
the typical intellectual is too generalized to be lured by any such
alternative. He is out of patience with mere amelioration, even though
it may mean much in terms of human happiness to the worker and his
family.

When in 1906, in consequence of the heaping up of legal disabilities
upon the trade unions, American labor leaders turned to politics to seek
a restraining hand upon the courts,[109] the intellectuals foresaw a
political labor party in the not distant future. They predicted that one
step would inevitably lead to another, that from a policy of bartering
with the old parties for anti-injunction planks in their platforms,
labor would turn to a political party of its own. The intellectual
critic continues to view the political action of the American
Federation of Labor as the first steps of an invalid learning to walk;
and hopes that before long he will learn to walk with a firmer step,
without feeling tempted to lean upon the only too willing shoulders of
old-party politicians. On the contrary, the Federation leaders, as we
know, regard their political work as a necessary evil, due to an
unfortunate turn of affairs, which forces them from time to time to step
out of their own trade union province in order that their natural enemy,
the employing class, might get no aid and comfort from an outside ally.

Of late a _rapprochement_ between the intellectual and trade unionist
has begun to take place. However, it is not founded on the relationship
of leader and led, but only on a business relationship, or that of giver
and receiver of paid technical advice. The role of the trained economist
in handling statistics and preparing "cases" for trade unionists before
boards of arbitration is coming to be more and more appreciated. The
railway men's organizations were first to put the intellec