However the foregoing questions ought to be answered, there can be no doubt as to the nature of the answers, proposed by the unionists themselves.  The unionist leaders frequently offer verbal homage to the great American principle of equal rights, but what they really demand is the abandonment of that principle.  What they want is an economic and political order which will discriminate in favor of union labor and against non-union labor; and they want it on the ground that the unions have proved to be the most effective agency on behalf of economic and social amelioration of the wage-earner.  The unions, that is, are helping most effectively to accomplish the task, traditionally attributed to the American democratic political system—­the task of raising the general standard of living; and the unionists claim that they deserve on this ground recognition by the state and active encouragement.  Obviously, however, such encouragement could not go very far without violating both the Federal and many state constitutions—­the result being that there is a profound antagonism between our existing political system and what the unionists consider to be a perfectly fair demand.  Like all good Americans, while verbally asking for nothing but equal rights, they interpret the phrase so that equal rights become equivalent to special rights.

Of all the hard blows which the course of American political and economic development has dealt the traditional system of political ideas and institutions, perhaps the hardest is this demand for discrimination on behalf of union labor.  It means that the more intelligent and progressive American workingmen are coming to believe that the American political and economic organization does not sufficiently secure the material improvement of the wage-earner.  This conviction may be to a large extent erroneous.  Certain it is that the wages of unorganized farm laborers have been increasing as rapidly during the past thirty years as have the wages of the organized mechanics.  But whether erroneous or not, it is widespread and deep-rooted; and whatever danger it possesses is derived from the fact that it affords to a substantially revolutionary purpose a large and increasing popular following.  The other instances of organization for special purposes which have been remarked, have superficially, at least, been making for conservatism.  The millionaire and the professional politician want above all things to be let alone, and to be allowed to enjoy the benefit of their conquests.  But the labor organizations cannot exercise the power necessary in their opinion to their interests without certain radical changes in the political and economic order; and inasmuch as their power is likely to increase rather than diminish, the American people are confronted with the prospect of persistent, unscrupulous, and increasing agitation on behalf of an economic and political reorganization in favor of one class of citizens.