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Introduction

The story of organized labor in America is one of struggle. Labor unions were viewed by many, especially employers and capitalists, as unlawful organizations. The law was almost always favorable to employers over employees: even the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which was passed in order to curb corporate concentration, was used as a weapon—it furnished the rationale for injunctions against many types of union activity, from organizing to picketing to striking, as illegal restraints of trade. Federal troops were called in to stop strikes at times, and illegal and violent behavior by unions was punished while authorities looked the other way when employers engaged in similar behavior. Only the First Amendment guarantee of free association prevented the outlawing of unions altogether.

Not only law but social theory held that unions were socialistic, un-American organizations. In the latter part of the nineteenth...