CO-OPERATION IN THE UNION. 211 



system, save as it is modified by other influences, there can 

 not be the shadow of a doubt, and this tendency^ is aggra- 

 vated by the introduction of machinery, and the great tide 

 of immigration that for many years has been pouring into 

 the country. These three forces, the natural increase of 

 population, machinery and immigration, render the con- 

 tinuance of the competitive wage system a constant menace 

 to society and a fruitful source of peril. There can be no 

 lasting peace, no stability of social institutions so long as 

 the land, the mines, the woods, the machinery, the whole 

 of the means whereby wealtn is produced, are in the 

 hands of a few people and the great majority of mankind 

 are forced to compete for starvation of wages. 



"The same pressure, however, that drove capital to 

 organize its forces and institute joint stock companies for 

 mutual protection and benefit is also compelling wage 

 earners to form labor unions and kindred associations. 

 These organizations, necessary as they are to the welfare of 

 workingmen, are yet apt to occasion trouble and conflict 

 Union men, perceiving that industrial salvation lies in 

 organization, often refuse to work with non-unionists, and 

 employers, unable to discern the changed conditions of 

 industrial life, refuse to be dictated to by their men. Thus 

 a spirit of antagonism is engendered between employer 

 and employed. As labor organizations increase in strength 

 and power, and the good of one becomes the good of all, 

 a reduction of wages in one direction, or the importation 

 and employment of foreign labor, may occasion a strike 

 of such magnitude as to seriously effect the industries of 

 the entire country. The industrial question is a compli- 

 cated one, and needs to be carefully studied. The growth 

 of society must be recognized, and the changes now 

 impending seem to be intimately connected with the 

 growth. 



"We are in a transitional period in every sense of the 



