[63] Concerted movements began in 1907 as joint demands upon all railways in a single section of the country, like the East or the West, by a single group of employes; after 1912 two or more brotherhoods initiated common concerted movements, first in one section only, and at last covering all the railways of the country.

[64] See below, 230-233.

[65] Long before this, about the middle of the nineties, the first system federations were initiated by the brotherhoods and were confined to them only; they took up adjustment of grievances and related matters.

[66] The International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, the Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders, the Pattern Makers’ League, the International Union of Stove Mounters, the International Union of Metal Polishers, Platers, Brass and Silver Workers, the International Federation of Draftsmen’s Unions, and the International Brotherhood of Foundry Employes.

[67] Professor Barnett attributes the failure of these agreements chiefly to faulty agreement machinery.  The working rules, he points out, are rules made by the national union and therefore can be changed by the national union only.  At the same time the agreements were national only in so far as they provided for national conciliation machinery; the fixing of wages was left to local bodies.  Consequently, the national employers’ associations lacked the power to offer the unions an indispensable quid pro quo in higher wages for a compromise on working rules. ("National and District Systems of Collective Bargaining in the United States,” in Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1912, pp. 425 ff.)

[68] The following account is taken from Chapter X of the Steel Workers by John A. Fitch, published by the Russell Sage Foundation.

[69] See above, 133-135.

[70] The opposition of the Steel Corporation to unionism was an important factor in the disruption of the agreement systems in the structural iron-erecting industry in 1905 and in the carrying industry on the Great Lakes in 1908; in each of these industries the Corporation holds a place of considerable control.

[71] See above, 47-49.

[72] Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274 (1908).

[73] Adair v. U.S., 208 U.S. 161 (1908).

[74] 36 Wash.  Law Rep. 436 (1909).  Gompers was finally sentenced to imprisonment for thirty days and the other two defendants were fined $500 each.  These penalties were later lifted by the Supreme Court on a technicality, 233 U.S. 604 (1914).

CHAPTER 9

RADICAL UNIONISM AND A “COUNTER-REFORMATION”

For ten years after 1904, when it reached its high point, the American Federation of Labor was obliged to stay on the defensive—­on the defensive against the “open-shop” employers and against the courts.  Even the periodic excursions into politics were in substance defensive moves.  This turn of events naturally tended to detract from the prestige of the type of unionism for which Gompers was spokesman; and by contrast raised the stock of the radical opposition.