Page:George Henry Soule - Recent Developments in Trade Unionism (1921).pdf/19

 by the pioneer. There was no hereditary barrier between classes, and so it was easier for the workman to accumulate property and become an employer than in the older countries across the Atlantic. This fundamental factor delayed and restricted the development of a working-class consciousness for years, and still operates to a limited degree in our traditions.

Another influence affecting our labor movement has been the fact that a large proportion of our manual workers have always been immigrants unfamiliar with the language and customs of the country. It was naturally more difficult for such a vast mixture of races speaking different languages to unite in the Trade Union movement, and racial and national prejudices have cut across the natural unity of the working class. We had in this country, for instance, the same divergence between the craft unions of the highly skilled and the unorganized majority of unskilled that existed in England thirty years ago, hut here this divergence was intensified by the prejudice of the native-born against the "foreigner."

Therefore, although capitalism has grown here even to vaster proportions than in England, and although a large proportion of our population are now permanently wage-workers, our trade-union movement is far behind that in England. This may he attributed in part, of course, to the conservative policies of leaders of the American Federation of