above all, the habits and thoughts of men have to be changed before one faltering step can be taken toward ultimate goals.
Admitting that as shockers they do the hard, self-sacrificing work of necessary agitation and awakening, they bring no promise of constructive purpose. The heated energies of "direct action" should be held in real restraint by some great aim like that which coöperation offers. This "together-movement" is now permanently at home in several countries. It assumes many forms that offer immediate foothold for further growths. It is also a movement of future ideal promise, far more powerful to the imagination than all the mythical incantations of Mr. George Sorel.
If any man may be said to be the founder of Syndicalism, it is probably Fernand Pelloutier. He seems to have inspired profound respect in every man who knew him. He was first to show the real power of the united unions in getting things directly for themselves, rather than by appeal to shifty politicians, even of the socialist groups. His work was among the Labor Exchanges (Bourses du Travail),[1] some of which had, like their Italian brothers, tested coöperation. His faith and hope in the future of this "democratized industry" sustained him like a religion. Knowing well that his life was to be cut short by fatal disease, he worked with serene passion for the coming triumph of coöperation until the end. Now it is the supreme value of this ideal, that those who hold it are influenced in their choice of means and methods. If we
- ↑ His Histoire des bourses du travail, was published in Paris, in 1902.
