I.W.W." (Macmillan, 1913). American labour conditions are very different from those of Europe. In the first place, the power of the trusts is enormous: the concentration of capital has in this respect proceeded more nearly on Marxian lines in America than anywhere else. In the second place, the great influx of foreign labour makes the whole problem quite different from any that arises in Europe. The older skilled workers, largely American born, have long been organized in the American Federation of Labour under Mr. Gompers. These represent an aristocracy of labour. They tend to work with the employers against the great mass of unskilled immigrants, and they cannot be regarded as forming part of anything that could be truly called, a labour movement. "There are," says Mr. Cole, "now in America two working-classes, with different standards of life, and both are at present almost impotent in face of the employers. Nor is it possible for these two classes to unite, or put forward common demands. … The American Federation of Labour and the Industrial Workers of the World represent two different principles of combination; but they also represent two different classes of Labour."[1] The I.W.W. stands for industrial unionism, whereas the American Federation of Labour stands for craft unionism. The I.W.W. were formed in 1905 by a union of organizations, chief among which was the Western Federation of Miners, which dated from 1892. They suffered a split by the loss of the followers of Deleon, who was the leader of the
- ↑ ib. p. 135.
