In practice,
therefore, the trade union movements in nearly all nations[111] have
served as brakes upon the respective national socialist movements; and,
from the standpoint of society interested in its own preservation
against catastrophic change, have played and are playing a role of
society's policemen and watch-dogs over the more revolutionary groups in
the wage-earning class. These are largely the unorganized and
ill-favored groups rendered reckless because, having little to lose from
a revolution, whatever the outcome might be, they fear none.
In America, too, there is a revolutionary class which, unlike the
striking textile workers in 1911-1913, owes its origin neither to chance
nor to neglect by trade union leaders. This is the movement of native
American or Americanized workers in the outlying districts of the West
or South--the typical I.W.W., the migratory workers, the industrial
rebels, and the actors in many labor riots and lumber-field strikes.
This type of worker has truly broken with America's spiritual past. He
has become a revolutionist either because his personal character and
habits unfit him for success under the exacting capitalistic system; or
because, starting out with the ambitions and rosy expectations of the
early pioneer, he found his hopes thwarted by a capitalistic preemptor
of the bounty of nature, who dooms to a wage-earner's position all who
came too late.
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