The immediate practical effects of
the commission were _nil_, but its agitational value proved of great
importance to labor. For the first time in the history of the United
States the employing class seemed to be arrayed as a defendant before
the bar of public opinion. Also, it was for the first time that a
commission representing the government not only unhesitatingly
pronounced the trade union movement harmless to the country's best
interests but went to the length of raising it to the dignity of a
fundamental and indispensable institution.
The Commission on Industrial Relations on the whole reflected the
favorable attitude of the Administration which came to power in 1912.
The American Federation of Labor was given full sway over the Department
of Labor and a decisive influence in all other government departments
on matters relating to labor. Without a political party of its own, by
virtue only of its "bargaining power" over the old parties, the American
Federation of Labor seemed to have attained a position not far behind
that of British labor after more than a decade of independent political
action.
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