the
consequence is that its victory, so far as it is victorious, is that of
an industrial faction. The large employer and the state are disqualified
from insisting on their essential and justifiable interests in respect
to the organization of labor, because they have rejected a demand
essential to the interest of the laborer. They have remained
consistently on the defensive; and a merely defensive policy in warfare
is a losing policy. Every battle the unions win is a clear gain. Every
fight which they lose means merely a temporary suspension of their
aggressive tactics. They lose nothing by it but a part of their
equipment and prestige, which can be restored by a short period of
inaction and accumulation. A few generations more of this sort of
warfare will leave the unions in substantial possession of the whole
area of conflict; and their victory may well turn their heads so
completely that its effects will be intolerable and disastrous.

The alternative policy would consist in a combination of conciliation
and aggressive warfare. The spokesman of a constructive national policy
in respect to the organization of labor would address the unions in some
such words as these: "Yes! You are perfectly right in demanding
recognition, and in demanding that none but union labor be employed in
industrial work. That demand will be granted, but only on definite
terms. You should not expect an employer to recognize a union which
establishes conditions and rules of labor inimical to a desirable
measure of individual economic distinction and independence. Your
recognition, that is, must depend upon conformity to another set of
conditions, imposed in the interest of efficiency and individual
economic independence. In this respect you will be treated precisely as
large corporations are treated. The state will recognize the kind of
union which in contributing to the interest of its members contributes
also to the general economic interest. On the other hand, it will not
only refuse to recognize a union whose rules and methods are inimical to
the public economic interest, but it will aggressively and relentlessly
fight such unions. Employment will be denied to laborers who belong to
unions of that character. In trades where such unions are dominant,
counter-unions will be organized, and the members of these
counter-unions alone will have any chance of obtaining work. In this way
the organization of labor like the organization of capital may