40 TRADE UNIONISM AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION. 



prominence, witli other matters of importance, a vast 

 number of labour problems, due to fluctuations of the 

 currency, to rapid changes from prosj)erity to adversity, and 

 also to the sudden and marvellous accumulation of wealth in 

 the hands of successful business men and lucky adventurers. 

 *' Kever before," he writes, " were there such sharp contrasts 



in the country between riches and poverty Two 



other especially weighty circumstances must not fail to be 

 mentioned. First, the concentration of the labouring classes 

 in large establishments in great industrial centres had 

 continued without interruption ; second, during the war, 

 native labour had in many quarters been replaced by foreign 

 labour, and race antagonism added intensity to the natural 

 struggle between em}>loyer and employed." 



To these causes we may trace the organisation of labour 

 in America. 



" Most trades," writes Mr. Washington Gladden, in his 

 article on " Social Problems in the United States " {Subjects 

 of the Bay, Aug., 1890), "are now organised; there are also 

 trades assemblies in which some degree of co-operation 

 between the trades is secured, and one National Society, the 

 Knights of Labour, has been formed, whose ambition it is to 

 gather into its ranks all classes of labourers, organised and 

 unorganised. But," he continues, " if any compact union of 

 the labouring classes is to be secured, it is likely to take the 

 form of a federation of Trades' Unions, rather than that of 

 one comprehensive labour organisation into whose local 

 unions labourers of all classes shall be promiscuously 

 gathered." 



I need not follow the growth of the labour movements in 

 America much further. Suffice it to say, that for the six 

 years ending 1866, strikes and lock-outs occurred, and battles 

 were fought in the interests of labour involving a cost to the 

 employees amounting in round numbers to twelve millions 

 sterling. 



" One result of the labour war of 1886," says the writer 

 last quoted, "was the introduction into a considerable 

 number of establishments of the principle of participation in 

 profits. . . . Since that date the movement has been 

 steadily gaining ground ; the success of some of the experi- 

 ments has been notable, and there is a fair prospect that the 

 system of participation will gain a firm footing in our 

 industrial Society. That it is logically the next stage in the 

 evolution of labour seems obvious." 



On the Continent, the workers have to win their right to 

 combine for the protection of their mutual interest. They 

 are as yet only experiencing the throes of the political birth- 

 pang that will ultimately give them the liberty they ara 

 aiming at. 



