esolute will which put many British, German
and Scandinavian immigrants on terms of equality with native Americans.
But they are quick withal, versatile; and as a rule, easily molded; they
take readily to the use of machinery; and they have no tradition that
could prevent them from doing their best in using semi-automatic
machines, which are simple of handling, while doing complex work. Thus
America has obtained a plentiful supply of people who are able and
willing to do the routine work of a factory for relatively low wages,
and whose aptitudes supplement those of the stronger races that
constitute the great bulk of the white population."[5] They have sought
chiefly such improvement in their position as might come from increased
wages. They have remained in the regions of the will and of thought
subject to those who controlled industry; for they themselves have been
in a strange environment, and so have not been able to display, to any
considerable extent, the qualities requisite to industrial leadership.

The difference of viewpoint and even of economic interest between the
groups of skilled craftsmen in industry and the unskilled grades is
being gradually reduced. Industrial developments have tended to
emphasize the measure of common interest between all grades of wage
earners. The steady trend to standardization in production and to
simplification of the machine processes has lessened somewhat the
difference between the character of the work of the upper and lower
grades of labor. Modern industrial developments have led to an increased
emphasis upon "general ability" and a lessened emphasis upon "special
ability." To quote Marshall again, "Manual skill that is so specialized
that it is quite incapable of being transferred from one occupation to
another is becoming steadily a less and less important factor in
production. Putting aside for the present the faculties of artistic
perception and artistic creation, we may say that what makes one
occupation higher than another, what makes the workers of one town or
country more efficient than those of another, is chiefly a superiority
in general sagacity and energy which are not specialized to any one
occupation."[6] As labor organization tends to become recognized as a
regular part of the framework of industry, as the duties put upon trade
union leadership are broadened in order that industry may give the wage
earners collective representation, it is to be expected that str