actuated by opposite motives, and separate interests. This society is a society of journeymen printers; and as the interests of the journeymen are separate and in some respects opposite to those of the employers, we deem it improper that they should have any voice or influence in our deliberations.'"
- 55. Is that not clearly a recognition of the class struggle?
- It is a clear statement, in all probability due to the influence of some member or small group. But all the organizations accepted the doctrine that "the interests of the capitalists and wage earners are mutual and harmonious".
- 56. How do we know that this is true?
- Here are some expressions that go far to prove it: Typographical Society (1802), "We cherish the hope, that the time is not far distant, when the employer and employed will vie with each other, the one, in allowing a competent salary, the other, in deserving it."
- Philadelphia Journeymen, pressmen (1816) in presenting a scale of prices to the employing printers: "The pressmen are induced, from a duty which they owe themselves to call your serious attentions to what they here represent........They therefore anticipate that you will, with the liberality becoming your profession, give your decided approbation to the annexed scale of prices. Your opposition we ought not to expect."
- It was generally held by the early unionists that employers and employed held interests in common. Says the Commons' history, "There was, indeed, as yet no 'labor philosophy' . . . . . The skilled mechanic might expect to become a master, and it did not occur to him to use his organization to abolish the wage system."
- 57. Was there any connection between the unions in the different towns?
- Sometimes the unions corresponded with one another upon their purposes, informing each other about their demands and exchanging fraternal greetings. Sometimes, they rendered financial assistance to one another, as in the case of the Philadelphia printers who sent $83.50 to New York to aid in relieving "distressed" members. They also used to send out lists of scabs to their organized fellow craftsmen in other cities. At times they notified other unions of their wage demands.
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