4. POLITICAL ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE PRESENT SYSTEM
1.
1. No vital social movement which functions in a society governed by political institutions can escape politics.
2. Hence, from its very inception, Labor in the United States was keenly interested in politics.
3. The first Labor Movement in the country, in 1827, although organized for trade union and economic action, was suddenly thrown into the throes of politics.
II.
1. Thereafter the Labor Movement fluctuated periodically between political and economic action.
2. During prosperity and high prices, workers would organize into unions in order to protect their standard of living and otherwise to better their working conditions.
3. With the return of depression and unemployment, workers invariably abandoned their unions for political action.
4. This tendency was chronic up to the '90s, and was the result of unstable economic conditions of the country.
III.
1. The political demands of the workers during the early history of the Labor Movement consisted of:
a. Legislative demands furthering their interests as workers;
b. Laws that would enable them to become property owners and small producers.
2. The philosophy underlying these political movements was a middle class one, based upon harmony of Capital and Labor, and upon the introduction of a society of small manufacturers, merchants, and farmers.
3. As a result of these political manifestations, we have the present public school system, mechanic's lien laws, homestead law, laws prohibiting imprisonment for debt.
IV.
1. In the early '60s and late '70s, the German immigrant workers brought Socialism to this country, with its class consciousness.
2. They organized their own unions and political clubs, based on the Socialist philosophy.
3. At the same time they also set out to convert the American workers. But the latter persistently adhered to middle class philosophies.
4. For each element had its own political party, and efforts at reconciliation proved futile.
V.
1. In the meantime, because of the failures of political action and its encroachments upon the unions, an element developed that was opposed to political action.
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