In accordance with these facts and opinions there has developed, at least in one respect, a pretty definite conviction on the part of the public regarding the closed shop, namely:  the closed shop should go only with the open union.  A union under the closed shop policy is exercising a quasi-public function, that of controlling the industrial action of private citizens against their will.  The union therefore, in this view, must cease to be a purely private, voluntary organization, and become in some respects subject to public regulations as to its internal rules and administration.  This view, however, is very unacceptable to the leaders of organized labor in America, and there the question now stands.

Sec. 17. #Future role of organization#.  In the light of the principles of wages it appears that organization most easily gains results, and the most stable results, when wages are below or near the competitive rate.  An earnest effort on the part of the workers is necessary for them to get the share that true competition would accord them, but the attempt to force wages beyond that point must be the occasion of increasing friction.  With so modest an ideal however, as the true competitive wage, organized laborers and their leaders cannot be expected always to be content.

Aside from its effects upon the wage-bargain, unionism finds its greatest justification is in its unspectacular fraternal, mutual-benefit, and educational functions.  The chief forces favorable in the long run to wages that can be affected by organization are domestic peace, order, and security to wealth; honesty and good faith between man and master, in law-maker and in judge; efficiency and intelligence of the workers; and far-sighted social legislation.  Some of these contribute to greater productiveness, others to a fairer distribution.  In all these ways organized laborers have made valuable contributions, unfortunately neutralized in many cases by a narrow class outlook.  Organized labor is here to stay for a long time to come, and as the elite of the wage-earning class it should, and probably will, be an increasing force for political betterment and for social welfare in the republic.

[Footnote 1:  See ch. 19, secs. 1-3.]

[Footnote 2:  See Vol.  I, p. 459.]

[Footnote 3:  See Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1916, article by L. Wolman.]

[Footnote 4:  See below, sec. 14, on the closed shop.]

[Footnote 5:  See Vol I, pp. 223-224, and above, ch. 6, sec. 12 and ch. 10, sec. 7.]

[Footnote 6:  The “unfair list” is usually given as a form distinct from either the simple or compound forms.  The “fair list” published either by labor journals or by a consumer’s league is not declared to be a boycott.]

[Footnote 7:  In a book by an English trade-unionist, Trant, reprinted and circulated by the American Federation of Labor as representing its theory and claims, all the advances that have been made in wages are said to be due to the trade-unions.]