ABSTRACT
Before the European war governmentalism or state socialism had an enormous following— outside of the organized labor movement. Indeed, opposition to state socialism or state capitalism is decidedly stronger in labor than in capitalist circles. The first impulse of labor democracy in America, as in other countries, was to attempt to control capitalism through government ownership and operation of railroads, mines, public utilities, and industrial monopolies. The platform upon which Robert La Follette was a candidate for President in 1924 declared for government ownership of railroads "with definite safeguards against bureaucratic control" as "the only final solution of the transportation problem". In first pronouncement on this subject after the war American labor demanded the continuation at least for a two-year trial period of the war-time government ownership and operation of railroads. Government control or supervision, as distinguished from government operation, is that form of governmental intervention upon which American labor is most united, it does not necessarily involve government wage-fixing.
