Page:William Z. Foster, James P. Cannon and Earl Browder - Trade Unions in America.djvu/25

 there have been great "outlaw" strikes.

The economic consequences of the period, in their effect upon the working class, may be illustrated in the following brief items:

In short, ten per cent less workers have been employed, but the intensity of their exploitation has been increased so that they produce approximately the same as the number formerly employed. At the same time the total amount of wages paid has decreased sharply.

The explanation of this unexampled collapse of the labor movement, its complete failure to protect the gains of past years altho conditions were exceptionally favorable for struggle, lies in the systematic betrayal of the labor organizations by the officials.

This betrayal is not an accidental thing, a matter of the personal corruption of individuals, but arises out of the very life and material conditions of the working class and their organizations, which developed this officialdom into a special class. During the period of expansion of American capitalism, this officialdom found that it could obtain concessions of a minor nature from the employers by entering into close collaboration with them. These concessions to the workers, in the way of slightly higher wages out of the abundant riches flowing from the tremendous natural resources of America under the highly developed industry, were sufficient to keep the labor officials in power; while they were made the basis