Labor, but we must not forget that the supremacy of these leaders has been in large measure due to the basic economic and social conditions.
1. Position of Labor Before the War
Several years before the Great War the American Labor Movement was in approximately the same situation that the British Labor Movement occupied thirty years ago, although in some respects it was even weaker. Most of its unions were organized on the craft basis, although there were exceptional industrial unions like the United Mine Workers and the Brewery Workers. The strongest unions were in the building trades and the printing trades. The coal-miners' organization was growing rapidly, but it was our only stronghold in basic industry. The four big railroad brotherhoods were still fighting for recognition—they consisted of the more skilled men such as the engineers, conductors, firemen and trainmen—and the other railroad employees had only a vestige of organization. The longshoremen were not yet strongly organized, although the teamsters had attained some strength. The foundations of the needle-trades unions had been laid in New York, but their greatest growth did not come until later. Most of the great basic industries were scarcely touched by the unions—that is, the industries such as metal mining, iron and steel, oil, textiles. Even the machinists' union was fighting for its life.
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