ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to speak of the American as he appears in the economic world – of the American in his actual economic life and strife – rather than merely of his inanimate manufactures. The life and endeavour of the Americans are not described if their passionate interest in such economic difficulties is not taken into account; not as problems which objectively influence the developing nation, but as problems which agitate the spirit of the American. As the negro question is the most important problem of internal politics, so the labour question is the most important in American economic life. More important than the economic prosperity of the American working-man, though not wholly independent of it, is the social self-respect which he enjoys. Every box of cigars, every brick, hat, or piano made in factories which employ union labour, bears the copyrighted device which assures the purchasing public that the wares were made under approved social and political conditions.
