state could not force him into a better understanding of the
relation between their own and the public interest. But in so far as any
tendency existed among employers to recognize the unions, but to insist
on efficiency and individual opportunity; and in so far as any tendency
existed among the unions to recognize the necessary relation between an
improving standard of living and the efficiency of labor--then the state
and municipal governments could interfere effectively on behalf of those
employers and those unions who stand for a constructive labor policy.
And in case the tendency towards an organization of labor in the
national interest became dominant, it might be possible to embody it in
a set of definite legal institutions. But any such set of legal
institutions would be impossible without an alteration in the Federal
and many state constitutions; and consequently they could not in any
event become a matter for precisely pressing consideration. In general,
however, the labor, even more than the corporation, problem will involve
grave and dubious questions of constitutional interpretation; and not
much advance can be made towards its solution until, in one way or
another, the hands of the legislative authority have been untied.

Before ending this very inadequate discussion of the line of advance
towards a constructive organization of labor, one more aspect thereof
must be briefly considered. Under the proposed plan the fate of the
non-union laborer, of the industrial dependent, would hang chiefly on
the extent to which the thorough-going organization of labor was
carried. In so far as he was the independent industrial individual which
the opponents of labor unions suppose him to be, he could have no
objection to joining the union, because his individual power of
efficient labor would have full opportunity of securing its reward. On
the other hand, in so far as he was unable to maintain a standard of
work commensurate with the prevailing rate of wages in any trade, he
would, of course, be excluded from its ranks. But it should be added
that in an enormous and complicated industrial body, such as that of the
United States, a man who could not maintain the standard of work in one
trade should be able to maintain it in another and less exacting trade.
The man who could not become an efficient carpenter might do for a
hod-carrier; and a man who found hod-carrying too hard on his shoulders
might be able to dig in the gr