THE FARMER AND THE LABOR QUESTION. 385 



by mutual forbearance, and mediation or repression by the 

 consolidated social force. 



Between the farmers and the laboring classes there is a 

 certain bond of union in the fact that both conceive them- 

 selves to be suffering from the oppression of consolidated 

 wealth. The most discontented farmers and tlie most discon- 

 tented laborers are at times quite inclined to unite for political 

 action. This tendency is promoted by the fact that betw^een 

 tiie farmers and the workingmen there is a buffer class of 

 tradesmen, which im])artially receives the kicks which the two 

 chesses would bestow upon each other if they dealt directly. 

 At the same time farmers belong logically with capitalists and 

 employers (or exploiters), and as attached to the private owner- 

 ship of land, mi*st oppose one of the fundamental dogmas of 

 a large body of wa>rkingmen. 



Before considering the relations of the farmers to the labor 

 question it is necessary, if we can, to define the labor question. 

 This is not easy to do, because workingmen do not agree in 

 their demands. We are compelled to deal only with the 

 demands of organized labor, because those only are formu- 

 lated. Organized labor, however, is a minority of labor, and 

 the quarrels between labor factions, like other civil wars, are 

 more bitter than the contests with outsiders. As I write I 

 have before me a copy of a weekly paper which is the organ 

 of one branch of workingmen which denounces the national 

 leader of another branch in terms of positive ferocity. I 

 imagine that both the writer and tlie person attacked are 

 honest men carried away by one-sided views of the ills of 

 society. 



Trade unionism seeks to incorporate in "unions" of the 

 different trades all workers therein, and to prevent the employ- 

 ment in that trade of any person not a member of the union. 

 At the same time it seeks to limit the number of workmen in 

 the trade, by fixing the number of apprentices in each shop 

 at a fixed ratio to the total number of employees. At times 

 and places where the unions are strong enough these rules 

 are strictly enforced. Without the consent of the union an 

 employer may not put his own son to work in the shop. The 

 25 



