PRE-WAR PRINCIPLES AND METHODS y 
did not have a constraining effect prior to the war. What 
seemed of relatively more importance to industrial workers 
was organization and the use of their combined economic 
influence or strength to offset the devastating effects of the 
interplay of supply and demand. 
The only effective program from a labor standpoint 
manifestly seemed to those in the movement to be in or- 
ranization and in the use of concerted economic power so 
far as this could be developed. As a consequence, the 
more skilled wage-earners turned their energies toward 
organization and the exercise of economic strength as the 
most effective means of securing higher wages. Craft 
unionism rapidly developed among the building workers, 
in the metal trades, in clothing manufacturing, among 
engine and train crews and shop employees on the steam 
railroads, and among conductors and motormen on electric 
traction lines. Industrial unionism also gained strength in 
the coal-mining industry and to a certain extent in the 
manufacture of clothing. 
Unskilled or common laborers, as a rule, were the de- 
fenseless victims of the unhampered forces of supply and 
demand. Their deplorable condition arose from the dif- 
fculty of organization and the conseauent impossibility of 
concerted resistance. 
As the organization of other classes of wage-earners 
developed, it was followed by a similar procedure on the 
part of employers. Collective action was met with col- 
lective action. Wage determinations virtually became the 
result of a test of actual or potential economic strength. 
MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION UNAFFECTED BY 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 
When collective bargaining and the strike or lockout 
failed, altho recourse was frequently had to mediation and