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Croly, Herbert David, 1869-1930

"The Promise of American Life"

In the long run the state could hardly impose by law such a
method of labor organization upon the industrial fabric. Unless the
employers themselves came to realize just what they could fight for with
some chance of success, and with the best general results if successful,
the state could not force him into a better understanding of the
relation between their own and the public interest. But in so far as any
tendency existed among employers to recognize the unions, but to insist
on efficiency and individual opportunity; and in so far as any tendency
existed among the unions to recognize the necessary relation between an
improving standard of living and the efficiency of labor--then the state
and municipal governments could interfere effectively on behalf of those
employers and those unions who stand for a constructive labor policy.
And in case the tendency towards an organization of labor in the
national interest became dominant, it might be possible to embody it in
a set of definite legal institutions.


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