ABSTRACT
The election of 1920 marked a serious setback to labor's efforts to secure legislation and to influence administration. There was no tendency in labor ranks to deny the victory of the anti-labor forces in that election; though there was a general agreement that labor's partial defeat in the final election was largely offset by the brilliant results obtained from the Federation's concentration on the primaries. In the campaign of 1920 the labor organizations, both the Federation of Labor and the railway brotherhoods, had continued the non-partisan plan adopted in 1906. The railway brotherhoods and also, to some extent, those unions of the Federation associated with the brotherhoods in its Railroad Department, adopted a simple plan, gauging the candidates mainly by their votes for or against the Cummins-Esch Railroad Act. The Federation also sought to compare the records of the two leading candidates, Harding and Cox, as a method of deciding which candidate labor should support.
