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Perlman, Selig

"A History of Trade Unionism in the United States"


[71] See above, 47-49.
[72] Loewe _v._ Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274 (1908).
[73] Adair _v._ U.S., 208 U.S. 161 (1908).
[74] 36 Wash. Law Rep. 436 (1909). Gompers was finally sentenced to
imprisonment for thirty days and the other two defendants were fined
$500 each. These penalties were later lifted by the Supreme Court on a
technicality, 233 U.S. 604 (1914).


CHAPTER 9
RADICAL UNIONISM AND A "COUNTER-REFORMATION"

For ten years after 1904, when it reached its high point, the American
Federation of Labor was obliged to stay on the defensive--on the
defensive against the "open-shop" employers and against the courts. Even
the periodic excursions into politics were in substance defensive moves.
This turn of events naturally tended to detract from the prestige of the
type of unionism for which Gompers was spokesman; and by contrast raised
the stock of the radical opposition.
The opposition developed both in and outside the Federation. Inside it
was the socialist "industrialist" who advocated a political labor party
on a socialist platform, such as the Federation had rejected when it
defeated the "program" of 1893,[75] together with a plan of organization
by industry instead of by craft.


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