452 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
from these the outside peoples made up their minds what they had a right to expect from Christians. These outside people doubt- less often misunderstood, not only the spiritual significance as expounded by the councils, but even the stunted beliefs which filled the cloudy minds of the worshipers. The Moslems who drove them from Spain believe, to this day, that the Christians cannibalistically ate little children at their baptismal ceremonies and became drunk with wine at the holy altar. These false ideas had much to do with the zeal and animosity with which the Mohammedans drove them beyond the Pyrenees. The Moslems retained the field, conquerors who had totally misunderstood the principles and faith of those whom they had conquered. They supposed that they had driven forth monsters, and they swept and garnished the country, and established a national life upon narrower precepts than those which had prevailed before.
It is easy to misjudge from the outside act. The man who reads the newspapers, and has no other acquaintance with labor organizations than the record of their outside and often unofficial acts, is almost sure to be confused in regard to their ultimate objects. It is also difficult for the victorious side to see fairly. There is no doubt that the employer, the man who represents vested interests, often routs and defeats labor organi- zations, drives them from the field with an honest misunderstand- ing of what they are trying to do, and of the principles which they represent. He is flushed with triumph and imagines a victory which he has never achieved.
We may consider half a dozen measures which trades unions have urged, and concerning which the community has often been stirred by indignation, and find that, when the public undertakes to enforce identical, or similar, measures, they are regarded with great complacency. The disapproval may be merely the result of the fact that the trades unions alone are doing that which belongs to the entire public.
The following six measures may be thus considered : first, the harsh treatment of a non-union laborer during a strike ; second, the dictatorship of the walking delegate ; third, the use of the boycott ; fourth, the insistence upon shorter hours of
