the public against it. At every
turn he was able to vanquish the socialists in the Federation, although
he could not prevent it from endorsing public ownership of the railways
at the convention of 1920.

=The Extreme Radicals.=--Some of the socialists, defeated in their
efforts to capture organized labor and seeing that the gains in
elections were very meager, broke away from both trade unionism and
politics. One faction, the Industrial Workers of the World, founded in
1905, declared themselves opposed to all capitalists, the wages system,
and craft unions. They asserted that the "working class and the
employing class have nothing in common" and that trade unions only
pitted one set of workers against another set. They repudiated all
government ownership and the government itself, boldly proclaiming their
intention to unite all employees into one big union and seize the
railways, mines, and mills of the country. This doctrine, so
revolutionary in tone, called down upon the extremists the condemnation
of the American Federation of Labor as well as of the general public. At
its convention in 1919, the Federation went on record as "opposed to
Bolshevism, I.W.W.-ism, and the irresponsible leadership that encourages
such a policy." It announced its "firm adherence to American ideals."

=The Federation and Political Issues.=--The hostility of the Federation
to the socialists did not mean, however, that it was indifferent to
political issues or political parties. On the contrary, from time to
time, at its annual conventions, it endorsed political and social
reforms, such as the initiative, referendum, and recall, the abolition
of child labor, the exclusion of Oriental labor, old-age pensions, and
government ownership. Moreover it adopted the policy of "rewarding
friends and punishing enemies" by advising members to vote for or
against candidates according to their stand on the demands of organized
labor.

[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._

SAMUEL GOMPERS AND OTHER LABOR LEADERS]

This policy was pursued with especial zeal in connection with disputes
over the use of injunctions in labor controversies. An injunction is a
bill or writ issued by a judge ordering some person or corporation to do
or to refrain from doing something. For example, a judge may order a
trade union to refrain from interfering with non-union men or to
continue at work handling goods made by non-union labor; and he may fine
o