ciently to differentiate Syndicalism and preserve the roots that still inhere in the mother trunk from which it springs.
No intelligent step in this study seems to me possible unless the larger movement is first considered. A powerful contingent of our trade unions is now desperately defending itself before the public. Never were so many well-to-do folk more relentless in their animosity toward trade unions than at the present moment. Never was labor[1] so outspoken in its bitterness against the imperfections of the wage system. There is nowhere a sign that this hostility is lessening. The organized and articulate part of labor never showed more moody distrust of all those agencies meant for peace between capital and labor.
More and more our most momentous strikes are at bottom for "recognition." The points of conflict are thrown out nearer the capitalistic citadel of management. The present working of the wage system is challenged. Certain portions of this system as arbitrarily managed are obviously breaking up before our eyes.
Syndicalism is the outer, more daring and reckless labor section in this attack.
- ↑ To save tedious qualifications the word "labor" will be freely used in this volume for the "wage earner."
