years, 1886–7–8, this was tried at terrible cost on two railroads and among the longshoremen. It was a most sobering experience which later put the rising "Federation" on its guard.
It is from this time on that confusion and disorder play havoc with the Knights of Labor, until it gives place to its great rival now in the field, the American Federation of Labor.[1]
Because the Knights of Labor became a wreck, it does not follow as a fatality that the I. W. W. will likewise fail. Labor has learned much since then, and what is now "the great industry" has so changed as to require corresponding changes in labor policies. "As capital becomes international, as its organization becomes more compact, we too," says a Syndicalist, "must adapt ourselves to the new economic order." As a general statement, this is harmless, but it does not help us. To "internationalize the common interests of labor over against capital," is to multiply by ten every specific obstacle which wrecked the Knights of Labor. The same conflict of interests which, to their sorrow, sprang up like dragon's teeth, will increase with every widening of racial and national areas where our American Syndicalism proposes to carry the conflict.
- ↑ The I. W. W. show much determination to avoid the political disasters which befell the Knights of Labor.
