Page:Raymond Augustine McGowan - Bolshevism in Russia and America (1920).pdf/38

 38 hinged upon the chief economic policy of the labor unions. So far is it from being Bolshevik or even Socialistic, that it is based upon the recognition of Capitalism and the desire to bargain with the owners of capital over the conditions of work without being handicapped by governmental opposition. The political action of the coming year, as in the past, is directed towards securing fair dealing for united labor from Congress and the Presidency.

Though most of the unions of the A. F. L. are craft unions, a few of them are industrial, joining all the workers in an industry in one organization. The industrial union is the kind of union organized by the I. W. W., and under its present constitution the industrial union is its unit organization. The Communists also favor the industrial union, and the Socialists have expressed themselves as upholding that type of organization. But the industrial union is to be judged by its purpose. With the I. W. W. and the Communists, its purpose is to lead on to the dictatorship of the proletariat and common ownership; with the Socialists, its purpose is to help political victory at the polls and gain better wages, etc. But when the industrial union is used solely as an agency for collective bargaining, it is to be classed solely as a labor union without ulterior political or revolutionary significance.

One proposal of a part of the labor unions has been termed Bolshevism. This is the Plumb Plan of the railroad unions for public ownership of the railroads. The plan provides for the purchase and ownership of the railroads by the Government, and their operation by a central Board of Directors and subordinate dis-