The
tendency does not express itself in formal rules. On the
contrary, it appears chiefly in the silent, or at least informal
pressure of working class opinion." Some unions have rules,
others a distinct understanding, on the subject of a normal day's
work, and some discourage piecework. But it is difficult to
determine how far this policy has been carried in application.
Carroll D. Wright, in a special report as United States
Commissioner of Labor in 1904, said that "unions in some cases
fix a limit to the amount of work a workman may perform a day.
Usually it is a secret understanding, but sometimes, when the
union is strong, no concealment is made." His report mentioned
several trades, including the building trades, in which this
curtailment is prevalent.
The course of this industrial warfare between the unions and the
employers has been replete with sordid details of selfishness,
corruption, hatred, suspicion, and malice. In every community the
strike or the boycott has been an ominous visitant, leaving in
its trail a social bitterness which even time finds it difficult
to efface. In the great cities and the factory towns, the
constant repetition of labor struggles has created centers of
perennial discontent which are sources of never-ending reprisals.
In spite of individual injustice, however, one can discern in the
larger movements a current setting towards a collective justice
and a communal ideal which society in self-defense is imposing
upon the combatants.
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