Both of these attempts at industrial
organization are condemned by the Sherman Anti-Trust Law and by certain
similar state legislation as conspiracies against the freedom of trade
and industry.
The labor unions, consequently, like the big corporations, need legal
recognition; and this legal recognition means in their case, also,
substantial discrimination by the state in their favor. Of course, the
unionist leaders appeal to public opinion with the usual American cant.
According to their manifestoes they demand nothing but "fair play"; but
the demand for fair play is as usual merely the hypocritical exterior of
a demand for substantial favoritism. Just as there can be no effective
competition between the huge corporation controlling machinery of
production which cannot be duplicated and the small manufacturer in the
same line, so there can be no effective competition between the
individual laborer and the really efficient labor union. To recognize
the labor union, and to incorporate it into the American legal system,
is equivalent to the desertion by the state of the non-union laborer.
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