But the old parties had on numerous occasions, as we saw, an even more
effective weapon. No sooner did a labor party gain a foothold, than the
old party politician, the "friend of labor," did appear and start a
rival attraction by a more or less verbal adherence to one or more
planks of the rising party. Had he been, as in Europe, a branded
spokesman of a particular economic class or interest, it would not have
been difficult to ward him off. But here in America, he said that he too
was a workingman and was heart and soul for the workingman. Moreover,
the workingman was just as much attached to an old party label as any
average American. In a way he considered it an assertion of his social
equality with any other group of Americans that he could afford to take
the same "disinterested" and tradition-bound view of political struggles
as the rest. This is why labor parties generally encountered such
disheartening receptions at the hands of workingmen; also why it was
difficult to "deliver the labor vote" to any party. This, on the whole,
describes the condition of affairs today as it does the situations in
the past.
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