76
TRADE UNIONISM
In order to prove the truth of the assump
tion beyond reasonable doubt, it must be shown that
these functional types exist concurrently as conflicting
or rival social interpretations and remedial programs,
held and advocated by different groups of wageworkers ;
it must be shown that, once established, these rival view
points persist and exhibit no tendency as such to revert
to a single or common viewpoint ; but it is not necessary
that they should be shown to attain any specific degree
of scope or generality beyond what is necessary to com
mand group adherence and effectively to guide group
action, that they should be necessarily associated with
any particular organic forms or structural types, that
each should find practical expression exclusively in a dif
ferent organization, or, finally, that the program of any
particular organization or group of organizations should
at any moment conform exactly to any one of them. In
the matter of structure it is necessary to show merely the
existence of distinct and alternative forms of organiza
tion.
Such being the problem, what is the process of proof
required ? Evidently we have here a matter which must
be dealt with historically. We must first determine which
of these distinct union variants have had more than an
ephemeral existence. So far as structural forms are con
cerned, this should be sufficient. In regard to those
functional variants that have persisted, it must be proved
that they have had their genesis in different combinations
of relatively permanent factors both environmental and
temperamental.
To be exhaustive, the proof doubtless should be both
positive and negative. Negatively it should be estab-