ABSTRACT
The most extreme view on the side of labor was that which held that private property altogether was an institution that was oppressive to human beings, so oppressive that it should be abolished altogether. These radicals—a group that included anarchists, Socialists, syndicalists and Communists—came with an assortment of different theories about how this end should be brought about, but most Americans did not bother themselves with the fine distinctions among them. Rather, they were often lumped together in a poorly defined and poorly understood but threatening mass called "reds." When the great economist Adam Smith described the workings of market economies in 1776, he conceived them to comprise individuals in competition with other individuals. Aiding businessmen in their efforts to keep wages low was a longstanding belief held by some Americans that labor unions were intrinsically "un-American." The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) made an even more attractive target for anti-radicals than the Socialists.
