duced classes of workers to the lowest standards of living. Where competition was unchecked parasitic trades resulted in which the workers of the trades were dependent on workers in other trades to eke out their insufficient wages; children were forced into factories to produce, with the aid of a machine and for a pittance, what their fathers had produced for a competent wage. An over-full labor market in certain industries was kept up by stimulating emigration from the cheapest labor centers of the world. With this fresh supply of labor it has been possible to fill rush orders, and in many trades it has done away with stock work which was more conducive to steady seasons of work. Thus unemployment was increased and competition among the workers was intensified.

The trade union limitation of apprentices in many trades has regulated the periods of employment for union members and protected them from the extreme hardships of an unlimited supply of labor. The trade union restriction on speed has held a standard for union members in wages and hours. The fate of unorganized labor in the steel mills is a very present reminder to labor of what it may expect if it leaves the management of the labor market to free competition. The success of many of the unions of the American Federation of Labor is due to their adoption of measures regulating production. It would not have been possible for many of the others to have held

their organization in the field without resorting to the same protection.

While conditions in industry to-day are making it increasingly difficult for labor to protect itself through limitations on entrance to a trade, the strength of labor organizations in certain trades has made it possible for some of the unions to increase their wages and shorten their hours without directly limiting output. The Bricklayers are successful in holding their high wage rate and their short hour day while the employers are enjoying the freedom of introducing new and highly developed efficiency schemes for speeding up the worker and increasing the output, but it is a question among the men whether the present arrangement can hold indefinitely.

The experience of the Bricklayers is unusual. Most of the unions enforce restrictions as far as possible, and have found that with the weakening of the restrictions there followed a loss in organization power. Also, with few exceptions, the unions have learned that the introduction of machinery is inevitable. They recognize that they can make better use of their strength in concentrating efforts on turning some of the saving to their advantage, than in opposing its introduction. But it requires unusual strength to meet the introduction of labor-saving devices and the disorganization of the industry which follows.

A new machine was introduced into a branch of the sewing trades where ninety per cent. of the

workers are organized. Before it was put into operation, the union workers insisted that a rate of pay be agreed on between the employer and the operators. Neither the union nor the employer could decide in advance what an operator could turn out after skill had been gained in running the machine. But the employer fixed a rate which he decided would yield a satisfactory return, and the workers agreed that this price would not decrease the general wage rate. To the surprise of both, the operators on the machine in a short time earned from sixty to seventyfive per cent. more than the hand workers. The employer at the same time realized a greater profit on the output of the machine workers than on the output of the hand workers. In an unorganized trade, an employer would have appropriated the increase or applied it to a reduction in the price of the commodity, for competitive purposes, and would have paid the workers the market rate of wages. But in this organized trade the union (which included ninety per cent. of the workers in the trade) controlled the situation and the wage rate, by restricting the entrance of new workers to the trade. The success of the Typographical Union in saving some of the advantages of labor saving machinery for the worker is a too familiar story to need repetition. It indicates what labor union regulation can accomplish without limiting output if labor organization is sufficiently strong, but it was necessary with the printers as with

the union above mentioned that the number of workers who entered the trade should be restricted.

The labor unions which maintain a limited apprenticeship and impose restrictions on the entrance of workers to a trade, recognize an unlimited labor supply as an evil for the same reason that capital recognizes it as desirable. If an unlimited number of workers enter a trade, the seasons of work are shortened and the wages are cut by competing workers. Every one suffers and standards of life disappear; they eventually fall to the standard of cotton mill communities where whole families must work to secure the wages formerly paid to one worker.

However, the regulation of entrance to a trade, or the limitation of apprentices, is not a universal labor measure. The Industrial Workers of the World in particular, and some locals of the American Federation of Labor, declare that the trade unions which are restricting entrance to a trade are opposing in practice as well as in theory the object of organization-the unity of all labor. These unions admit the effect of an over-full labor market on this trade and on that, but they contend that it is the business of labor to disregard trade lines; that labor only deceives itself when it closes the door to a fellow worker and bids him work elsewhere; that the standard it secures for one group by these restrictions is bought at the sacrifice of larger groups; that the real significance of the labor movement is lost, and a limited aris

tocracy of labor is established rather than the solidarity which the labor movement demands. In place of all restrictions and limitations for purposes of exclusive trade bargaining, they appeal to the whole mass to recognize the interdependence of all industries, and to adopt inclusive methods of organization to meet the conditions of industrial life.

In direct opposition to all methods by labor to regulate output, there comes from capital the proposition to realize through labor a productive efficiency hitherto unknown. The promoters of the movement give to their proposition the name "scientific management."