LABOR ORGANIZATIONS, the band ing together of industrial workers for mutual protection against the oppressive action of employers, and for aggressive action in bringing about better work ing conditions, better wages and shorter hours, etc. Such organizations were first formed in Great Britain after the invention of steam-driven machinery brought about the factory system of pro duction in manufacturing, and were then forbidden by act of Parliament. Dur ing this period of prohibition the work ingmen organized secretly and often re sorted to terrorism in enforcing their demands. Eventually this act was re pealed and labor organization progressed at a normal rate.
The first labor organizations in the United States appeared in the early thir ties of last century, the various trade unions joining together into municipal and district federations. These bodies also participated in politics, and one, in New York City, sent its president to Congress in 1833. An attempt was then made to form a national labor party, generally known then as the Loco-Foco Party. In New England a broader form of organization \vas formed, in the late thirties and the early forties, known as the Farmers, Mechanics and Working men's Association, with central head quarters in Boston. Another organiza tion was the New England Working men's Protective Union, organized on a basis somewhat similar to a fraternal order, with local chapters in each com munity. This latter fraternity, however, emphasized co-operative buying more than trade union action, and when its commercial enterprises failed, shortly be fore the Civil 1ATar, it too went to pieces.
Shortly after the Civil War a nation wide labor organization was formed, known as the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor, also assuming the form of a fraternal order. This body acquired a strong membership all over the indus trial sections of the country during the eighties. Its leadership was extremely radical, and desired to bring about a socialistic order of society, not through politics, but through co-partnership and co-operative enterprises. It was this program which brought about the ulti mate destruction of the organization, as the co-partnership enterprises proved themselves inherently impractical and by their failures inspired the rank and file with a sense of discouragement. At a later date the leaders turned their atten tion to politics and, with the agricul tural elements of the Middle West, formed the Populist Party. The failure of this political organization brought about the final decline of the Knights of Labor.
Meanwhile, in the early nineties, a tendency toward trade unionism mani fested itself, and eventually resulted in the American Federation of Labor, which is the dominating form of labor or ganization in the United States at the present day.
Labor organizations, as a whole, may be divided into two distinct classes, or phases; trade unionism, and industrial unionism. Trade unionism, or crafts unionism, as it is sometimes called, is of British origin. Under this form the workers are organized in bodies accord ing to their trades, regardless of loca tion. Thus, on a single house the mem bers of twenty different labor organiza tions may be employed.
Industrial organization, which is of American origin, is a general body of all the workers, banded together regardless of what their trades may be. The early American labor organizations, and the later Knights of Labor, were of this pat tern. The present day representative of this form of organization is the In dustrial Workers of the World, whose slogan is "one big union." Between these two forms of organiza tion there has been subject for much controversy in the labor world. On one side it is contended that trade unions are narrowly selfish, in that each body seeks only benefits for itself, and is ex clusive in its ideals. This contention is supported by the fact that trade unions are inclined to keep down the member ship of their organizations by high initi ation fees and by forcing the employers to limit the number of apprentices in each shop or factory, the theory being that the fewer members there are in one trade organization the higher wages will be. It will be obvious from this that trade unionism is almost entirely limited to skilled workers, and, indeed, this is the basis for another charge brought against trade unionists; that they have no re gard for the welfare of the unskilled workers.
Industrial unionism, on the other hand, takes in skilled and unskilled alike. The Industrial Workers of the World, as a matter of fact, are largely composed of the unskilled, most of them being itiner ant workers, commonly called "hoboes." The present day tendency, since the European War, is strongly in the direc tion of industrial unionism. The Brit ish workers have frankly copied the methods of the American I. W. W., though only to a limited extent, in that all the workers of a certain industry are organized together, regardless of what their particular functions niay be. An outstanding illustration of this may be found in the British railway workers, the British miners and the transporta tion workers, who again have federated and formed what is known as the Triple Alliance, the most powerful body in Brit ish labor organization. An American example of this limited form of indus trial unionism may be found in the United Mine Workers of America, who comprise all the workers in the coal min ing industry in America. Another ex ample is in the Western Federation of Miners.