Now with some exceptions every human being is a "protectionist,"
provided he does possess anything at all which protects him and which is
therefore worth being protected by him in turn. The trade unionist, too,
is just such a protectionist. When his trade union has had the time and
opportunity to win for him decent wages and living conditions, a
reasonable security of the job, and at least a partial voice in shop
management, he will, on the relatively high and progressive level of
material welfare which capitalism has called into being, be chary to
raze the existing economic system to the ground on the chance of
building up a better one in its place. A reshuffling of the cards, which
a revolution means, might conceivably yield him a better card, but then
again it might make the entire stack worthless by destroying the stakes
for which the game is played. But the revolution might not even succeed
in the first round; then the ensuing reaction would probably destroy the
trade union and with it would go the chance of a recovery of the
original ground, modest though that may have been.
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