LABOR ORGANIZATIONS 157
modified by the old and outgrown folkways as to the relation between employers and employees. It is also affected by survivals in the form of rabid and irrational national patriotism, racial antagonisms and con- cepts as to the desirability of different forms of work and service. The European war conclusively proves that in times of national stress the old catch- words and phrases are more powerful and compelling than the newer ones of social solidarity and loyalty to the working class. But at other times when the life of the nation is not menaced, the phenomenon of union loyalty bulks large among the members of organized labor.
Both the specific structural and the specific functional forms of labor organizations are very diverse. No two tj^es of workers have been subjected to exactly the same economic pressure, the relations between workers and their employers vary greatly in different lines of business^ the possibility of displacement by other workers or by machines likewise varies from trade to trade and from occupation to occupation, and price levels and standards of living are subject to rapid modifica- tions. This complex situation is further complicated by the institu- tional lag exhibited by organizations of labor. And the influence, con- servative or radical, of the capable and aggressive leader, must not be neglected. Samuel Gompers, for example, is a factor which can not safely be overlooked in any careful consideration of the evolution of the American Federation of Labor. The autocratic and imperious leader has played an important r61e in labor organizations as well as in the affairs of nations. The appeal to the passions and emotions figure in union matters as well as in party politics.
As a consequence, labor organizations present to the student and to the man-in-the-street a bewildering diversity of structure and of func- tions. Some of the apparent variations are not real. These are due to the idiosyncracies and preconceived notions of would-be interpreters of unionism. But inevitably the variations are many, because these register the results of the play of a multitude of pushing and pulling forces. Yet, the fundamental desires and motives are comparatively simple.
The growth of trade-unionism and. of what is called the trade-union spirit is a concomitant of industry organized after the manner of a machine proeess.i
The term "machine process ^^ does not, however, necessarily mean the actual use of machines, but it may be applied to all large-scale methods involving wide market areas. As different workers come in touch very differently with the machine process, variant ideals may be expected to appear. This differentiation becomes clear when a com- parison for example, of the cigarmakers with the locomotive engineers, or of the machinists with the building trades workers, or of the molders with the migratory workers, or of the miners with the barbers, is undertaken.
iVeblen, "Theory of Business Enterprise," p. 327.
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