THE ESSENCE OF UNIONISM 
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lished that where no concurrent and conflicting functional 
variants exist the environment of the workers entering 
into combination is essentially uniform and that the work 
ers themselves, racially, temperamentally, and tradition 
ally, are essentially homogeneous. Positively it should 
be proved that existing and historically concurrent con 
flicting variants owe their origin and persistence to vitally 
diverse combinations of environmental and subjective 
factors operating in connection with the groups con 
cerned. 
Perfectly complete and satisfactory proof of our fun 
damental hypothesis respecting the general character of 
unionism and union types in the United States would 
then demand the most searching study of our union his 
tory with special reference to the economic, political, 
traditional, and temperamental factors involved. It is 
not possible to secure complete proof in this wise, owing 
to the paucity of well-authenticated historical material. 
We shall, however, attempt to assemble enough evidence 
of this character for the practical testing of our thesis 
and for significant generalizations in regard to the gen 
eral character of union development in the United States.