The Labor Problem.
In studying the labor problem, our investigations must begin as far back as the middle of the last century when the first trade unions were organized in the United States. Since then they have grown steadily till to-day they number their members in the millions. In the beginning, these unions were limited to one locality and to men who were working in the same trade; gradually, however, they broadened their scope till they became national in their limits and universal in the class of workmen who were eligible to membership. In presenting the movement, it will be well for the teacher to select some thoroughly typical trade union, such as the Brotherhood of Railway Engineers, some thoroughly typical amalgamated union, such as the American Federation of Labor, for purposes of illustration. To get the class to investigate the history of these unions as far as possible, and to confine the discussion to their activities will be the teacher’s duty, else the study will result in hopeless confusion.
The principal weapons of the unions have been the strike and the boycott. The history of the use of both of these should be followed briefly. Then should come the consideration of the counterblast which the corporations and the consumer have recently called to their aid: the judicial injunction (study the history of the Debs case and the more recent Bucks Stove Case), and the application of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 to the labor unions as associations in restraint of trade (study the Danbury Hatters’ Case, in which the decision of the Court was issued only a few months ago).