a party that plays for higher stakes, brings to the unions the support
of other elements, and remains in opposition until it can secure
undivided control over government, _e.g._ the Socialist Party. Whether
the unions operate through all parties or a Labor Party or a Socialist
Party, is of secondary importance also to Socialists; what is of
consequence is the character of the unions, and the effect of their
political policy on the unions themselves. In all three cases the
principles of the unions may be at bottom the same, and in any of the
three cases they may be ready to use the Socialist Party for the sole
purpose of securing a modest improvement of their wages--even
obstructing other Party activities--as some of the German union leaders
have done. They may also use a Labor Party for the same purpose--as in
Great Britain. Or they may develop a political program without really
favoring any political party or having any distinctive political aim--as
in the United States.

The labor unions, even the most conservative, have always and everywhere
had some kind of a political program. They have naturally favored the
right to organize, to strike and boycott, free speech and a free press.
They have demanded universal suffrage, democratic constitutions, and
other measures to increase the political power of their members. They
have favored all economic reform policies of which working people got a
share, even if a disproportionately small one, and all forms of taxation
that lightened their burdens.[242] And, finally, they have usually
centered their attacks on the most powerful of their enemies, whether
Emperor, Church, army, landlords, or large capitalists.

In economic and political reform, the American unions, like those of
other countries, support all progressive measures, including the whole
"State Socialist" program. As to political machinery, they favor, of
course, every proposal that can remove constitutional checks and give
the majority control over the government, such as the easy amendment of
constitutions and the right to recall judges and all other officials by
majority vote. Like the Socialists, they welcome the "State Socialist"
labor program, government insurance for workingmen against old age,
sickness, accidents, and unemployment, a legal eight-hour day, a legal
minimum wage, industrial education, the prohibition of child labor, etc.

The unions and the parties they use also join in the effort of the small