ABSTRACT
The labor movement whatever form it assumed was essentially a reaction to the social and economic evils that attended the rise and development of Capitalism. Its strength lay in its opposition to exploitation, alienation, insecurity and poverty; its weakness in its inability to offer to most people an attractive alternative to the prevailing order before industrialization reached a level of productive efficiency capable of securing for everyone a decent living standard. Indeed without the metaphysical sanctions of God’s laws, and without the economic sanctions of the capitalist system, what else remains to elicit obedience but consensus or force? Under the circumstances the former would require egalitarian democracy and the latter totalitarian despotism. Where the laws of God are replaced by the laws of men, and the rewards or punishments in the life to come lose their hold upon mankind, there the rewards and retribution ‘upon this bank and shoal of time’ must take their place.
