tal to a strike.
The hearings which were conducted by the able and versatile chairman,
Frank P. Walsh, with a particular eye for publicity, centering as they
did around the Colorado outrages, served to popularize the trade union
cause from one end of the country to the other. The report of the
Commission or rather the minority report, which was signed by the
chairman and the three labor members, and was known as the "staff"
report, named _trade unionism_ as the paramount remedy--not compulsory
arbitration which was advocated by the employer members, nor labor
legislation and a permanent governmental industrial commission proposed
by the economist on the commission. The immediate practical effects of
the commission were _nil_, but its agitational value proved of great
importance to labor. For the first time in the history of the United
States the employing class seemed to be arrayed as a defendant before
the bar of public opinion. Also, it was for the first time that a
commission representing the government not only unhesitatingly
pronounced the trade union movement harmless to the country's best
interests but went to the length of raising it to the dignity of a
fundamental and indispensable institution.

The Commission on Industrial Relations on the whole reflected the
favorable attitude of the Administration which came to power in 1912.
The American Federation of Labor was given full sway over the Department
of Labor and a decisive influence in all other government departments
on matters relating to labor. Without a political party of its own, by
virtue only of its "bargaining power" over the old parties, the American
Federation of Labor seemed to have attained a position not far behind
that of British labor after more than a decade of independent political
action. Furthermore, fortunately for itself, labor in America had come
into a political patrimony at a time when the country was standing on
the threshold of a new era, during which government was destined to
become the arbiter of industry.

The War in Europe did not immediately improve industrial conditions in
America. The first to feel its effects were the industries directly
engaged in the making of munitions. The International Association of
Machinists, the organization of the now all-important munition workers,
actually had its membership somewhat decreased during 1915, but in the
following year made a 50 percent increase. The greater part of the new
membersh