It will then become possible to account for the
long stretch of industrial class struggle in America prior to the
factory system, while industry continued on the basis of the handicraft
method of production. Also we shall be able to render to ourselves a
clearer account of the changes, with time, in the intensity of the
struggle, which, were we to follow the Marxian theory, would appear
hopelessly irregular.
We shall take for an illustration the shoe industry.[102] The ease with
which shoes can be transported long distances, due to the relatively
high money value contained in small bulk, rendered the shoe industry
more sensitive to changes in marketing than other industries. Indeed we
may say that the shoe industry epitomized the general economic evolution
of the country.[103]
We observe no industrial class struggle during Colonial times when the
market remained purely local and the work was custom-order work. The
journeyman found his standard of life protected along with the master's
own through the latter's ability to strike a favorable bargain with the
consumer. This was done by laying stress upon the quality of the work.
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