Notwithstanding these official lapses from the principle of craft autonomy, the socialist industrialists[81] are still compelled to abide by the letter and the spirit of craft autonomy.  The effect of such a policy on the coming American industrialism may be as follows:  The future development of the “department” may enable the strong “basic” unions to undertake concerted action against employers, while each retains its own autonomy.  Such indeed is the notable “concerted movement” of the railway brotherhoods, which since 1907 has begun to set a type for craft industrialism.  It is also probable that the majority of the craft unions will sufficiently depart from a rigid craft standard for membership to include helpers and unskilled workers working alongside the craftsmen.

The clearest outcome of this silent “counter-reformation” in reply to the socialist industrialists is the Railway Employes’ Department as it developed during and after the war-time period.[82] It is composed of all the railway men’s organizations except the brotherhoods of engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen, telegraphers, and several minor organizations, which on the whole cooperate with the Department.  It also has a place for the unskilled laborers organized in the United Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and Railroad Shop Laborers.  The Railway Employes’ Department therefore demonstrates that under craft unionism the unskilled need not be left out in the cold.  It also meets the charge that craft unionism renders it easy for the employers to defeat the unions one by one, since this Department has consolidated the constituent crafts into one bargaining and striking union[83] practically as well as could be done by an industrial union.  Finally, the Railway Employes’ Department has an advantage over an industrial union in that many of its constituent unions, like the machinists’, blacksmiths’, boiler-makers’, sheet metal workers’, and electrical workers’, have large memberships outside the railway industry, which might by their dues and assessments come to the aid of the railway workers on strike.  To be sure, the solidarity of the unions in the Department might be weakened through jurisdictional disputes, which is something to be considered.  However, when unions have gone so far as to confederate for joint collective bargaining, that danger will probably never be allowed to become too serious.

FOOTNOTES: 

[75] See above, 139-141.

[76] See above, 76-79.

[77] See above, 139-141.

[78] Eugene V. Debs, after serving his sentence in prison for disobeying a court injunction during the Pullman strike of 1894, became a convert to socialism.  It is said that his conversion was due to Victor Berger of Milwaukee.  Berger had succeeded in building up a strong socialist party in that city and in the State of Wisconsin upon the basis of a thorough understanding with the trade unions and was materially helped by the predominance of the German-speaking element in the population.  In 1910 the Milwaukee socialists elected a municipal ticket, the first large city to vote the socialists into office.