complex organization of industry there was a corresponding development of social interdependence, while the separation between employer and employee became more marked. At the * present time conditions in many of our large industries are such that employees are shut off from any personal contact with their employers. Recently at the Chicago Commons an employer and an employee who had sustained that relationship for seventeen years met for the first time. This is an extreme example but it serves to bring out the fact, which public opinion is only just beginning to recognize, that a revolution has been wrought in our industrial relations during the past century.

No industrial relation can long survive the reasons for its being. The individual contract squared with industrial and social conditions under individual production. With the development of large industries there followed a corresponding tendency toward collective bargaining.

The close connection between the stages of organization reached in any industry and the corresponding changes in the relation between employer and employee, emphasizes the fact that the development of collective bargaining is conditioned by the forms of industrial organization. While a general statement of the evolution of collective bargaining in our separate industries must always be modified by a consideration of particular conditions, yet a comparative analysis indicates that the general features of our industrial development are recapitulated in our separate industries to a remarkable degree.

Individual Workshops and Customary Regulation. As long as the individual workshop remained the unit in industry, the relation between the master and the journeyman was personal, and individual bargaining enabled the two parties to the labor contract to meet upon the basis of mutual dependence and mutual advantage. Both sides were restrained by customary regulations and, in case of dispute, alternative opportunities gave the workman a position of independence not differing greatly in degree from that of his employer. The interests of master and journeyman were not widely separated and such labor organizations as did exist were mainly for social and benevolent purposes.

Growth of the Factory System and the Development of Labor Organizations. With the extension of the factory system local competition became more intense. Employers were forced to organize their plants on a larger scale in order to secure the economies incident to improved methods of production. Larger groups of workmen were employed in the same shop and it became increasingly difficult for a journeyman without property to grow into the possession of an independent business. The change from individual to organized production separated the workman from the means of production and made him of less consequence in industry. The individual journeyman was no longer as indispensable as the individual master. The industry in which he had formerly taken personal interest and for which he felt personal responsibility no longer afforded the permanency of employment which he had enjoyed under the old customary regulations. The close contact between master and workman gradually disappeared and conflicting interests became more apparent. While the journeyman felt the force of the competition to which the master was subjected in a constant tendency toward lower wages, he was also threatened by the growing competition among workingmen for employment. The difficulties of the time acted as a constant incentive to the organization of journeymen's societies in which common grievances were discussed and common rules of action formulated. These societies first developed the characteristics of modern trade unions in those industries in which factory methods were first established.

Extension of the Competitive Field and Weak Organizations. The increasing size of the business unit due to the introduction of improved machinery was further accelerated by the development of transportation and communication. The competitive

field, no longer limited by local conditions, extended rapidly over larger territorial areas. The expansion of business beyond local confines made necessary increased equipment and more efficient organization in industry. The question of economies in production confronted every employer able to survive the exacting demands of a fiercer business rivalry. The cost of labor being so large an element in production offered an in

viting field to employers for the reduction of expenses. The opposition of labor unions presented few obstacles to this policy because the limitations of local organization made collective opposition on their part impracticable. The organization of industries on a larger scale constantly associated workingmen in larger groups for purposes of production. Employers intent on conserving the advantages incident to their position no longer depended upon the local field for their supply of workmen but filled their factories from districts which offered the cheapest labor. The pressure of competition affected the interests of workmen in the same occupations in similar ways and emphasized the interdependence of laborers competing with each other for employment. The effect of these various economic agencies gradually became apparent in the extension of labor organizations beyond local fields. Recognizing how inadequate their organizations were to make their influence felt in industries which had transcended local limitations, the leaders of the labor movement began to advocate closer coöperation between local unions in the same trades. The unconscious influence of industrial forces gradually brought local organizations into closer affiliation with similar groups and the national form of labor organization was evolved.

Development of Large Industries and Conflicting Interests. With stronger organizations on both sides, employers and employees confronted each other with one-sided demands. Each side desired to dictate terms without any reference to the claims of the other. Employers insisted on settling the terms of employment with each individual workman, while labór organizations insisted on enforcing "union rules." A period of storm and stress usually followed this stage. When one side was exhausted it submitted to the terms offered by the other and a truce would be established; but no real basis for industrial peace was secured. Employers and employees were hardly conscious of the change which had transformed individual production into organized industry; and so they could not understand that industrial relations were changing from an individual to a collective basis; but hard-earned experience taught both sides that strikes and lockouts were disastrous ways of

settling difficulties and both were ready for overtures of peace. At this stage informal conferences usually took place between representatives of the two parties to the labor contract. Mutual concessions were made and a new basis for agreement found. Gradually these informal conferences developed into regular systematic joint conference systems and local collective bargaining was established.

Large Scale Production and the Recognition of Unions. With the development of large scale production and a corresponding development of labor organizations the local systems have in many cases been extended to cover competitive areas which are national in scope. The "recognition" of labor organizations in conferences, where the respective interests of employer and employee are approached in a business-like way and where each side is able to back up its claims with industrial arguments bids fair to decrease the number of conflicts in which one side or the other is obliged to yield to industrial force.

In the complex process of industrial growth there is a constant shifting of reciprocal rights and obligations in the employment relationship. The gradual adjustment to the more constant features of industry fixes a basis upon which the future conditions of employment are determined according to the strength and influence of the two parties to the agreement. The relations established from time to time tend to become customary and so fix a standard of reciprocal obligation. Eventually the rights recognized in industry are more firmly established through legal enactment and thus become part of a system by which future adjustments are conditioned.

The evolution of the law follows, though slowly, the evolution of industry. On a constantly changing basis of new rights and new obligations collective bargaining in the United States is developing with the growth of organized production. Therein lies a partial guarantee of a more equitable distribution.

APPENDIX 1

BOOT AND SHOE WORKERS' UNION

.......

UNION STAMP CONTRACT

AGREEMENT entered into this first day of April, 1900, by and between shoe manufacturers, hereinafter known as the Employer, and the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, with headquarters at 620 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, Mass., hereinafter known as the Union, witnesseth:

First. The Union agrees to furnish its Union Stamp to the Employer free of charge, to make no additional price for the use of the Stamp, to make no discrimination between the Employer and other firms, persons, or corporations who may enter into an agreement with the Union for the use of the Union Stamp, and to make all reasonable effort to advertise the Union Stamp, and to create a demand for the Union Stamped products of the Employer in common with other employers using the Union Stamp.

Second. In consideration of the foregoing valuable privileges, the Employer agrees to hire as shoe workers, only members of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union in good standing, and further agrees not to retain any shoe worker in his employment after receiving notice from the Union that such shoe worker is objectionable to the Union, either on account of being in arrears for dues, or disobedience of Union Rules or Laws, or from any other cause.

Third. The Employer agrees that he will not cause or allow the Union Stamp to be placed on any goods not made in the factory for which the use of the Union Stamp was granted.

Fourth. It is mutually agreed that the Union will not cause or sanction any strike, and that the Employer will not lock out his employes while this agreement is in force. All questions of wages or conditions of labor which cannot be mutually agreed upon shall be submitted to the Mass. State Board of Arbitration, whose decision shall be final and binding upon the Employer, the Union, and the employes.

Fifth. The Union agrees to assist the Employer in procuring competent shoe workers to fill the places of any employes who refuse to abide by Section Four of this agreement, or who may withdraw or be expelled from the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union.

Sixth. The Employer agrees that the Union collectors working in