The American Federation of Labor, largely a national alliance of workers by crafts, is heir to the old-fashioned apprentice and guild systems. Many a U. S. Labor theorist for many a year has advanced the idea that the workingman's cause would be more effective if workers organized by industries, regardless of their craft affiliations. Thus, instead of loom mechanics belonging to the National Machinists Union, along with machinists in the furniture, paper, bottling and publishing industries, they would belong to a textile workers union. Because of the failure of the oldtime...
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