is the comparatively skilled workers, like those of the
railways, who possess the only real possibility of leading in a general
strike movement (see Chapters V and VI).

FOOTNOTES:

[234] H. G. Wells, "This Misery of Boots," p. 34.

[235] Oscar Wilde, "The Soul of Man under Socialism", (brochure).

[236] Bernard Shaw's series in the _New Age_ (1908).

[237] Karl Kautsky, the _New York Call_, Nov. 14, 1909.

[238] Karl Kautsky, "Parlamentarismus und Demokratie," pp. 124, 125,
138.

[239] Emile Vandervelde, "Le Socialisme Agraire," p. 236.

CHAPTER IV

SOCIALISM AND THE LABOR UNIONS

One of the grounds on which it is proposed by some Socialists to give
manual labor a special and preferred place in the movement is that it is
supposed to be the only numerically important non-capitalist element
that is at all well organized or even organizable. Let us see, then, to
what degree labor is organized and what are the characteristics of this
organization.

First, the labor unions represent manual wage earners almost
exclusively--not by intention, but as a matter of fact. They include
only an infinitesimal proportion of small employers, self-employing
artisans, or salaried employees.

Second, the unions by no means include all the manual wage earners, and
only in a few industries do they include a majority. Those organized
are, as a rule, the more developed and prosperous, the skilled or
comparatively skilled workers.

Third, their method of action is primarily that of the strike and
boycott--economic and not political. They demand certain legislation and
in several cases have put political parties in the field; they exert a
political pressure in favor of government employees. But their chief
purpose, even when they do these things, is to develop an organization
that can strike and boycott effectively; and to secure only such
political and civil rights as are needed for this purpose.

The unions are primarily economic, and the Socialist Party is primarily
political--both, to have any national power, must embrace a considerable
proportion of the same industrial wage-earning class. It is evident that
conflict between the two organizations is unnecessary and we find,
indeed, that it arises only in exceptional cases. Many Socialists,
however, look upon the unions primarily as an economic means, more or
less important, of advancing political Socialism--while many unionists
regard the Socialist parties primaril