But already in the sixties, it became clear that the
workingman could not expect to attain self-employment as an individual,
but if at all, it had to be sought on the basis of producers'
cooperation. In the eighties, it became doubly clear that industry had
gone beyond the one-man-shop stage; self-employment had to stand or fall
with the cooperative or self-governing workshop. The protagonist of this
most interesting and most idealistic striving of American labor was the
"Noble Order of the Knights of Labor," which reached its height in the
middle of the eighties.
The period of the greatest enthusiasm for cooperation was between 1884
and 1887; and by 1888 the cooperative movement had passed the full cycle
of life and succumbed. The failure of cooperation proved a turning point
in the evolution of the American labor program. Whatever the special
causes of failure, the idealistic unionism, for which the ideas of the
Declaration of Independence served as a fountain head, suffered in the
eyes of labor, a degree of discredit so overwhelming that to regain its
old position was no longer possible.
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