more than to join in with the
general movement against monopolists and large capitalists in a conflict
that can never be won or lost, since the leaders in the movement are
themselves indirectly and at the bottom a part of the capitalist class.

The President of the American Federation views this partly reactionary
and partly "State Socialist" program as being directed against
"capitalism." "The votes of courageous and honest citizens in all
civilized lands," says Mr. Gompers, "are cutting away the capitalistic
powers' privilege to lay tribute on the producers. Capitalism, as a
surviving form of feudalism,--the power to deprive the laborer of his
product,--gives signs of expiring."[244] Democratic reform and
improvement in economic conditions are apparently taken by Mr. Gompers
as a sign that capitalism is expiring and that society is progressing
satisfactorily to the wage earners. Although the constitution of the
Federation says that the world-wide "struggle between the capitalist and
the laborer" is a struggle between "oppressors and oppressed," Mr.
Gompers gives the outside world to understand that the unions have no
inevitable struggle before them, but are as interested in industrial
peace as are the employers. He has expressed his interpretation of the
purpose of the Federation in the single word "more." He sees progress
and asks a share for the unionists as each forward step is taken. He
does not ask that labor's share be increased in proportion to the
progress made--to say nothing of asking that this share should be made
disproportionately large in order gradually to make the distribution of
income more equal. A capitalism inspired by a more enlightened
selfishness might, without any ultimate loss, grant all the Federation's
present demands, political as well as economic. Therefore, Mr. Gompers,
quite logically, does not see any necessity for an aggressive attitude.

"Labor unions," says Mr. John Mitchell, who takes a similar view, "are
_for_ workmen, but _against_ no one. They are not hostile to employers,
not inimical to the interests of the general public. They are for a
class, because that class exists and has class interests, but the unions
did not create and do not perpetuate the class or its interests and do
not seek to evoke a class conflict."[245] Here it is recognized that the
working class exists as a class and has interests of its own. But, if,
as Mr. Mitchell adds, the unions do not wish to perpetuate