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Labor Party (BRITISH LABOR PARTY BRITISH)

BRITISH 385 LABOR PARTY, BRITISH Industrial organization, which is of American origin, is a general body of all the workers, banded together regardless of what their trades may be. The early American labor organizations, and the later Knights of Labor, were of this pattern. The present day representative of this form of organization is the Industrial Workers of the World, whose slogan is "one big union. " Between these two forms of organization there has been subject for much controversy in the labor world. On one side it is contended that trade unions are narrowly selfish, in that each body seeks only benefits for itself, and is exclusive in its ideals. This contention is supported by the fact that trade unions are inclined to keep down the membership of their organizations by high initiation fees and by forcing the employers to limit the number of apprentices in each shop or factory, the theory being that the fewer members there are in one trade organization the higher wages will be. It will be obvious from this that trade unionism is almost entirely limited to skilled workers, and, indeed, this is the basis for another charge brought against trade unionists; that they have no regard for the welfare of the unskilled workers.

Industrial unionism, on the other hand, takes in skilled and unskilled alike. The Industrial Workers of the World, as a matter of fact, are largely composed of the unskilled, most of them being itinerant workers, commonly called "hoboes." The present day tendency, since the European War, is strongly in the direction of industrial unionism. The British workers have frankly copied the methods of the American I. W. W., though only to a limited extent, in that all the workers of a certain industry are organized together, regardless of what their particular functions may be. An outstanding illustration of this may be found in the British railway workers, the British miners and the transportation workers, who again have federated and formed what is known as the Triple Alliance, the most powerful body in British labor organization. An American example of this limited form of industrial unionism may be found in the United Mine Workers of America, who comprise all the workers in the coal mining industry in America. Another example is in the Western Federation of Miners.