Modern Economic Problems eBook

Frank Fetter
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 554 pages of information about Modern Economic Problems.

Modern Economic Problems eBook

Frank Fetter
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 554 pages of information about Modern Economic Problems.

The cooeperative principle has been embodied much more successfully and on a larger scale in America in the form of producers’ selling organizations or of consumers’ cooeperative stores.  As, however, both of these forms of organization have been developed in America more largely by farmers than by wageworkers, the discussion of them may better be undertaken in connection with problems of rural organization rather than with those of labor.

[Footnote 1:  See Vol. 1, pp. 227, 318, 322; also above, ch. 2, sec. 14.]

[Footnote 2:  See e.g., Vol. 1, p. 329, on selection of managed and of managers.]

[Footnote 3:  See below, ch. 20, sec. 6.]

CHAPTER 20

ORGANIZED LABOR

Sec. 1.  Changing relations between employers and wage-workers.  Sec. 2.  Need of common action among wage-workers.  Sec. 3.  Functions of labor organizations.  Sec. 4.  Types of labor organizations.  Sec. 5.  Statistics of labor organizations.  Sec. 6.  Collective bargaining.  Sec. 7.  Limitation of competition among workers.  Sec. 8.  Strikes in labor disputes.  Sec. 9.  Frequency and causes of strikes.  Sec. 10.  Picketing and the boycott.  Sec. 11.  Effects of organization upon general wages.  Sec. 12.  Competitive aspect of organization and particular wages.  Sec. 13.  Monopolistic aspect of organization and particular wages.  Sec. 14.  Open vs. closed shop.  Sec.15.  Political and economic considerations.  Sec.16.  The public’s view of unions.  Sec. 17.  Future role of organization.

Sec. 1. #Changing relations between employers and wage-workers.# The “organization of labor,” or the “labor movement,” so striking a feature of the world to-day, is of comparatively recent origin.  It did not begin and advance pari passu with the beginning and early growth of the wage-system as above briefly described.[1] In anything like its modern form the labor movement dates from the early years of the eighteenth century.  Much of the largest part of its history in all countries, excepting England, is after 1860.  Why was organization among the workers so long delayed after wage-payment became common, and why when it once appeared did it spread so rapidly in some directions, and why is it still limited in the main to certain fields of industry?  These three questions are but one question in three forms and to answer one fully would be to answer all.

The modern trade union appeared in England shortly before the industrial revolution,[2] and has extended as fast and as far as the same stage of industrial development has been attained in other countries.  The effort of wage workers to organize themselves appears everywhere to result from the separation of the economic and personal interests of employers and workmen.  As the control of industry became more concentrated in larger units with the advent of power machinery, the feeling of economic unity among the different ranks

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Modern Economic Problems from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.