ABSTRACT
American labor regards its struggle for better conditions as being of the highest social and democratic significance. "The greatest force in American life capable of restraining predatory capital and to that extent capable of maintaining the democratic institutions of the country is the trade-union movement". The social struggle is there described as directed against reaction and autocracy in industry, the enemies not only of labor, but of democracy and progress. American labor recognizes also a conflict of interests broader than that between employers and employed, that is the conflict between wealth possessors and wealth producers. "As producers, labor is interested in a fair distribution of the legitimate profits accruing from a business to which they contribute their energy and mental acumen—in fact, their lives—as against the capital invested by others". Labor is well aware that the freeing of industry from the exclusive or preponderant domination of the profit motive can be accomplished only by degrees.
