The dismal failure of the strike against the tenement house system in cigar making brought home to both Strasser and Gompers the weakness of the plan of organization of their union as well as that of American trade unions in general.  They consequently resolved to rebuild their union upon the pattern of the British unions, although they firmly intended that it should remain a militant organization.  The change involved, first, complete authority over the local unions in the hands of the international officers; second, an increase in the membership dues for the purpose of building up a large fund; and, third, the adoption of a far-reaching benefit system in order to assure stability to the organization.  This was accomplished at the convention held in August, 1879.  This convention simultaneously adopted the British idea of the “equalization of funds,” which gave the international officers the power to order a well-to-do local union to transfer a portion of its funds to another local union in financial straits.  With the various modifications of the feature of “equalization of funds,” the system of government in the Cigar Makers’ International Union was later used as a model by the other national and international trade unions.

As Strasser and men of his ilk grew more and more absorbed in the practical problems of the everyday struggle of the wage-earners for better conditions of employment, the socialistic portion of their original philosophy kept receding further and further into the background until they arrived at pure trade unionism.  But their trade unionism differed vastly from the “native” American trade unionism of their time, which still hankered for the haven of producers’ cooperation.  The philosophy which these new leaders developed might be termed a philosophy of pure wage-consciousness.  It signified a labor movement reduced to an opportunistic basis, accepting the existence of capitalism and having for its object the enlarging of the bargaining power of the wage earner in the sale of his labor.  Its opportunism was instrumental—­its idealism was home and family and individual betterment.  It also implied an attitude of aloofness from all those movements which aspire to replace the wage system by cooperation, whether voluntary or subsidized by government, whether greenbackism, socialism, or anarchism.

Perhaps the most concise definition of this philosophy is to be found in Strasser’s testimony before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor in 1883: 

     “Q. You are seeking to improve home matters first?

     “A. Yes, sir, I look first to the trade I represent; I look first
     to cigars, to the interests of men who employ me to represent their
     interest.

     “Chairman:  I was only asking you in regard to your ultimate ends.

     “Witness:  We have no ultimate ends.  We are going on from day to
     day.  We are fighting only for immediate objects—­objects that can
     be realized in a few years.