7. THE ROLE OF THE IMMIGRANT IN THE
LABOR MOVEMENT
I.
1. The American Labor Movement has been considerably influenced by the European labor movements.
2. What might be called an indigenous labor movement functioned in the early history of the Country.
3. But the late thirties mark the beginning of a new mass immigration from three sources in the following importance:
Ireland, Germany and England.
4. Nor were these immigrants received any more cordially than the more recent immigrants. Even the English, although descended from the same stock as the Americans, were unwelcome.
II.
1. But these sturdy immigrants were undaunted and immediately proceeded on their own initiative to adapt themselves to their new surroundings.
2. The English immigrant workers, having trades, knowing the language and customs, and having had experience in the labor movement at home, soon became an influential part of the American labor movement.
a. Because of their influence and the convictions, borne of bitter experience, of such young immigrant leaders as Adolph Strasser and Samuel Gompers, the English speaking branch of the American Labor Movement copied after the British model of trade unionism; now known as "pure and simple" unionism.
3. The Irish, eminating from the backward, agricultural commutities possessing neither trades nor previous contact with the labor movement, became the common laborers of the country.
a. Gradually their children advanced up the rungs of the industrial ladder becoming the skilled workers.
b. And because of their political predelictions they also became the leaders of the American labor movement.
c. Not having acquired a social philosophy in the country of theid origin they naturally accepted the news current in the labor movement.
4. The Germans also did not wait for assistance but set about to adapt themselves to the new conditions. Unlike the Irish a large number came from industrial centers and were trained workers. And like the English they had been part of a virile labor movement.
a. They differed from the English in that they sponsored radical and socialist unionism and independent working class political action.
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