he prosperity of the laboring man
with the inefficiency of labor. The employers are usually fighting not
for the purpose of developing good labor, but for the purpose of taking
advantage of poor, weak, and dependent laborers.

How far the central, state, and municipal governments could go in aiding
such a method of organization, is a question that can only be
indefinitely answered. The legislatures of many American states and
municipalities have already shown a disposition to aid the labor unions
in certain indirect ways. They seek by the passage of eight-hour and
prevailing rate-of-wages laws to give an official sanction to the claims
of the unions, and they do so without making any attempt to promote the
parallel public interest in an increasing efficiency of labor. But these
eight-hour and other similar laws are frequently being declared
unconstitutional by the state courts, and for the supposed benefit of
individual liberty. Without venturing on the disputed ground as to
whether such decisions are legitimate or illegitimate interpretations of
constitutional provisions, it need only be said in this, as in other
instances, that the courts are as much influenced in such decisions by a
political theory as they are by any fidelity to the fundamental law, and
that if they continue indefinitely in the same course, they are likely
to get into trouble. I shall, however, as usual, merely evade
constitutional obstacles, the full seriousness of which none but an
expert lawyer is competent to appraise. Both the state and the municipal
governments ought, just in so far as they have the power, to give
preference to union labor, but wherever possible they should also not
hesitate to discriminate between "good" and "bad" unions. Such a
discrimination would be beyond the courage of existing governments, but
a mild hope may be entertained that it would not be beyond the courage
of the regenerated governments. The adoption of some such attitude by
the municipal and state authorities might encourage employers to make
the fight along the same lines; and wherever an employer did make the
fight along those lines, he should, in his turn, receive all possible
support. In the long run the state could hardly impose by law such a
method of labor organization upon the industrial fabric. Unless the
employers themselves came to realize just what they could fight for with
some chance of success, and with the best general results if successful,
the