ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the list of virtues attributed to the private association and asks what the public values are that ought reasonably to be expected from it. The private association stands with several other forms of organization, notably, federalism and the small geographical community, in a position of favor under this doctrine. Like the organizations of labor, the organizations of business have provided leadership, regulation, and discipline where otherwise disorder might have prevailed. Most of the incidents, however, have been related to the long-term failure of organized labor to achieve recognition for its unions. The failure of socialism and of working-class movements of a radical character in America undoubtedly has a number of causes. But the character of the American labor movement, with its devotion to the autonomy of relatively narrowly based national unions and its adherence to the doctrine of "voluntarism," has been one of the more important parts of the explanation.
