The Armies of Labor By Samuel P. Orth A Chronicle of the Organized Wage-Earners Volume 40 of the Chronicles of America Series ? Allen Johnson, Editor Assistant Editors Gerhard R. Lomer Charles W. Jefferys Textbook Edition New Haven: Yale University Press Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co. London: Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press Copyright, 1919 by Yale University Press Printed in the United States of America Contents The Armies of Labor Chapter Chapter Title Page I. The Background 1 II. Formative Years 19 III. Transition Years 40 IV. Amalgamation 65 V. Federation 87 VI. The Trade Union 112 VII. The Railway Brotherhoods 133 VIII. Issues and Warfare 168 IX. The New Terrorism: The I. W. W. 188 X. Labor and Politics 220 Bibliographical Note 261 Index 265 THE ARMIES OF LABOR ? CHAPTER I THE BACKGROUND Three momentous things symbolize the era that begins its cycle with the memorable year of 1776: the Declaration of Independence, the steam engine, and Adam Smith's book, The Wealth of Nations. The Declaration gave birth to a new nation, whose millions of acres of free land were to shift the economic equilibrium of the world; the engine multiplied man's productivity a thousandfold and uprooted in a generation the customs of centuries; the book gave to statesmen a new view of economic affairs and profoundly influenced the course of international trade relations.