Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/186

 164 is a State in which the chief industries are, perhaps, more diversified than in any State of the Union, and the character and extent of the City of New York mark it as a great centre of the American labour movement. The New York Labour Bureau is a powerful and energetic institution liberally subsidised, and with a strong, ably-managed staff. It possesses power to hold sittings and take evidence in any part of the State, and both employers and workmen can be compelled to make returns or give evidence before it when called upon to do so. It is impossible, therefore, to go to a better source for information on this subject than to the reports of the New York Bureau.

To give a comprehensive view of the whole question, however, and to ascertain whether the system of boycotting is extending or otherwise as an element in trade disputes, it will be desirable to refer to a few of the earlier reports of the Bureau. It will thus be seen to what extant it has grown or declined, and what are the special forms it has assumed.

The boycott may be broadly defined as a means of moral offence used by individuals against each other, or by sections of a community against other sections or individuals differing from them on some matter of action or opinion. It is not physical in its modes of operation, but its object is to intimidate the minds of its victims by the fear of pecuniary or social loss. It was supposed at first, that, even in its extremost form, it violated no law, and there are undoubtedly methods of practising it without any breach of existing law being committed. All depends upon how it is used. How it was and is applied in Ireland for the purpose of socio-political warfare, especially in the case of the gentleman to whom it owes its distinctive title, is so well known that any explanation as to the Irish method is unnecessary. Nor need the political boycott as occasionally practised on this side of St. George's Channel be referred to. How the industrial boycott has been applied may be seen later on. It is sufficient to say now that we have had here nothing like the industrial boycotts of New York either for number or extent. It is therefore to the records of that State that we must look for the strongest examples of the system.

The industrial boycott almost invariably, but not always or necessarily, is a phase of the strike or lock-out, but it sometimes exists apart from either. It is generally used against an employer who refuses to concede the demands of his workpeople or of a trade union, but it is sometimes applied by one organization of workmen against another. It may accompany, or