f labor.
They will pay them only such wages as they choose; and the bulk of
evidence seems to show that, notwithstanding the vast profits which the
monopolies are reaping, they have been far from showing any general
disposition to share their profits with their employes. It seems almost
unquestionable that we have here the real reason for the extraordinary
increase of labor monopolies within the past quarter century. This
period has witnessed a rapid growth of consolidation and combination in
all our industries, lessening thus the number of employers of labor. The
wage-worker found himself confronted with the fact that he was soon to
lose entirely the benefit of competition for the purchase of his work,
and felt that his only salvation from practical slavery was to prevent
the competition between himself and his comrades from forcing his wages
down to the starvation point. He met the monopoly that threatened to
lower his wages by forming another monopoly that could meet the first on
equal terms.

We have given little space in this chapter to the consideration of the
limit of the power of labor monopolies; but it is obvious that this is
very clearly defined. In the first place, while there are certain
attempts at combination among unskilled laborers, and those not working
at trades, these attempts cannot, as a general rule, be at all
successful. Any man out of employment may be a competitor for the work
which they do, and it seems practically impossible that any organization
can combine, under effective discipline, even a majority of the
workingmen of the country not skilled in a trade. The only ways in which
attempts to kill competition in unskilled labor can be successful, then,
are by the use of force or the boycott, or similar means, and these can
never come into vogue as permanent agents in the world's industry. The
labor monopolies which exist, and which promise, if let alone, to enjoy
continued success, are principally combinations of the workers in
skilled trades, and certain of those employed in manufacturing, mining,
trade, and transportation.

IX.

MONOPOLIES AND COMPETITION IN OTHER INDUSTRIES.

As we take a look back over the long list of monopolies which we have
investigated in the preceding chapters, the natural thought is that we
have considered now the greater part of the industries of the country.
Certainly these occupations of manufacturing and trade and
transportation, are generally consi