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 orranization
 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 defenseless
 victims of the unhampered forces of supply and
demand. Their deplorable condition arose from the diffculty
 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 collective
 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