ABSTRACT
The aristocratic element of the working class, the best paid, those who approximate most closely to the bourgeoisie, pursue tactics of their own. Working-class history abounds in examples showing how certain fractions or categories of the proletariat have, under the influence of interests peculiar to their sub-class, detached themselves from the great army of labor and made common cause with the bourgeoisie. The difference between skilled and unskilled workers is primarily and predominantly economic, and displays itself in a difference of working conditions. The policy of social reform, which finds its most definite expression in labor legislation, does not entail the same advantages for all sections of the working class. The skilled and better paid workers hold aloof from the unskilled and worse paid workers. The former are always organized, while the latter remain "free" laborers; and the fierce economic and social struggles which occur between the two groups constitute one of the most interesting phenomena of modern social history.
