ffective in the
betterment of their condition; whereas, from the earliest historical
times, in Rome, in Greece, in Egypt, in Assyria, labor unions with their
accepted methods of "striking" and rioting had been discredited by an
almost unbroken record of failure. One of the oldest manuscripts then in
existence, preserved in a museum at Turin, but now lost, related how the
workmen employed in the necropolis at Thebes, dissatisfied with their
allowance of corn and oil, had refused to work, broken out of their
quarters and, after much rioting, been subdued by the arrows of the
military. And such, despite the sympathies and assistance of brutal mobs
of the populace, was sometimes the end of the American "strike."
Originally organized for self-protection, and for a time partly
successful, these leagues became great tyrannies, so reasonless in their
demands and so unscrupulous in their methods of enforcing them that the
laws were unable to deal with them, and frequently the military forces of
the several States were ordered out for the protection of life and
property; but in most cases the soldiers fraternized with the leagues, ran
away, or were easily defeated. The cruel and mindless mobs had always the
hypocritical sympathy and encouragement of the newspapers and the
politicians, for both feared their power and courted their favor. The
judges, dependent for their offices not only on "the labor vote," but, to
obtain it, on the approval of the press and the politicians, boldly set
aside the laws against conspiracy and strained to the utmost tension those
relating to riot, arson and murder. To such a pass did all this come that
in the year 1931 an inn-keeper's denial of a half-holiday to an under-cook
resulted in the peremptory closing of half the factories in the country,
the stoppage of all railroad travel and movement of freight by land and
water and a general paralysis of the industries of the land. Many
thousands of families, including those of the "strikers" and their
friends, suffered from famine; armed conflicts occurred in every State;
hundreds were slain and incalculable amounts of property wrecked and
destroyed.

Failure, however, was inherent in the method, for success depended upon
unanimity, and the greater the membership of the unions and the more
serious their menace to the industries of the country, the higher was the
premium for defection; and at last strike-breaking became a regular
employment, organized, off