Labor, like all other interests that aim to use
the power of government, has not been wholly altruistic, in its
motives, especially since in recent years it has found itself
matched against such powerful organizations of employers as the
Manufacturers' Association, the National Erectors' Association,
and the Metal Trades Association. In fact, in nearly every
important industry the employers have organized for defensive and
offensive purposes. These organizations match committee with
committee, lobby with lobby, add espionage to open warfare, and
issue effective literature in behalf of their open shop
propaganda.
The voluminous labor codes of such great manufacturing
communities as Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and
Illinois, reflect a new and enlarged conception of the modern
State. Labor has generally favored measures that extend the
inquisitional and regulative functions of the State, excepting
where this extension seemed to interfere with the autonomy of
labor itself. Workshops, mines, factories, and other places of
employment are now minutely inspected, and innumerable sanitary
and safety provisions are enforced. A workman's compensation law
removes from the employee's mind his anxiety for the fate of his
family if he should be disabled. The labor contract, long
extolled as the aegis of economic liberty, is no longer free from
state vigilance. The time and method of paying wages are ordered
by the State, and in certain industries the hours of labor are
fixed by law.
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