1 62 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



have organized. That this is the true situation is evident from the 

 remarks of Mr. Parry. "There is no safe dependence to be placed in 

 the action of the legislators whose political life is dependent in some 

 degree on the labor vote. Even the constitution of the country does not 

 appear to be a sufficient bulwark for our liberties, and while the majority 

 of the judiciary is in the main standing firm, yet our judges are being 

 subjected to such attacks that even they may yield." 1 



It is not at all unlikely that the organization of capital for the purpose 

 of fighting the labor unions will be productive of considerable good. 

 When all employers are perfectly organized, the odds against the work- 

 men will be so great that it will be futile for the men to attempt to carry 

 on a fight. It will be a losing game from the start. This will tend to 

 check the hasty calling of strikes. It is very likely that it will make the 

 unions more ready to submit their disputes to a board of arbitration. In 

 this way the organization of employers is to be looked upon as a good 

 omen. Germany keeps out of war with France and Russia by keeping 

 a large reserve of fighting power. So it may be that the employers by 

 organizing into a fighting power will not need to use this power against 

 the workmen. The knowledge that the sympathetic strike will be fol- 

 lowed by the sympathetic lockout will be apt to make the bravest of the 

 walking delegates more thoughtful before he calls a strike. However, 

 the good we hope may come from this organization of employers is not 

 unmixed. It is tempered by the fear of a combination between employers 

 and laborers which is fraught with danger to the public, illustrations of 

 which appear below. 



HOSTILE FEELINGS BETWEEN CAPITAL AND LABOR 



Perhaps a word should be said on the effect that these combinations 

 are likely to have on the hostile class feeling between laborers and capital- 

 ists. It is true that there is a good deal of this feeling now in the country. 

 It is almost certain that anything that tends to separate the working 

 class into a group on one side and the employers into another and oppos- 

 ing group is very certain to intensify any class feeling that may exist. 

 Whenever a man joins a labor union and thereby proclaims that he is a 



■ Quoted in Wilshire's Magazine, September, 1903. 



