Evolution of American Labor

• Date: 01 March 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/000271625127400102
• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Author: Royal E. Montgomery
• Subject Matter: Articles

Evolution of American Labor
By ROYAL E. MONTGOMERY
TO say that the American commu- the numerous alliances of wage-earner
nity conditions and the trends in
movements with &dquo;plain people&dquo; political
American industrial and cultural evolu-
crusades; and the conviction of the
tion affecting the material position of
unionism that was dominant after the
labor, its aspirations and its policies as
&dquo;great upheaval&dquo; of the 1880’s that a
an organized group, and its legal and
successful American labor movement
social position within the common-
must be one of limited objectives, with.
wealth, have been numerous and di-
structural arrangements designed to ad-
verse in character is, of course, merely
vance the here-and-now interests of par-
to say what is familiar to all readers
ticular groups, rather than a movement
of this volume. Nonetheless, brief re-
aiming to effectuate the uplift of all the
minder of some of these background
producing masses.
conditions and trends is not out of place
To these same community conditions
in this framework of reference for the
and trends are attributable, in part,
chapters that follow.
other characteristics of American indus-
trial relations and of labor’s self-help
SOME BACKGROUND CONDITIONS
efforts. The rapid mechanization of in-
AND TRENDS
dustry in a dynamic economy of rapidly
The dynamic character of American
widening market areas had its impact
industry, the substantial increase over
upon both the labor policies followed by
long periods in the wealth and income
large corporations and organized labor’s
of the American people, the nineteenth-
problems of structural change and re-
century abundance of opportunity-
adjustment. The long laggardness of
relative to that of other countries-for
social legislation and the rather late
working pioneers to accumulate modest
government implementation of labor’s
parcels of individual wealth, the com-
decades-old legal right to organize and
parative fluidity of economic classes in
bargain collectively through representa-
the past, and the minority position for
tives of its own choosing find partial ex-
a long while of hired labor in the popu-
planation in community conditions such
lation as a whole constitute a group of
as those that have been enumerated;
factors whose impact has been profound.
and the long-time minority position of
From them there ensued (without any
the industrial wage-earning class,’ the
attempt being made here to trace with
1 In 1940, proprietors, managers, and officials
particularity specific cause-and-effect re-
constituted 17.8 per cent of all gainfully oc-
lations) the entrenchment in the mores
cupied persons; clerks and kindred workers,
of the people and in judicially made
17.2 per cent; skilled workers and foremen,
11.7
law of the notions of
per cent; semiskilled workers, 21.0
sanctity of
per
prop-
cent; and unskilled workers (including farm),
erty rights and protection of the more
25.9 per cent (J. F. Dewhurst and Associates,
individualistic aspects of capitalism;
America’s Needs and Resources, p. 549).
the relatively superior economic status
Looking back seventy years from 1940, one
of
finds
labor; the long tendency of the
an increase in the industrial workers and
wage
others usually thought of when the term "the
earners to identify themselves in inter-
proletariat" is used, but increase in the num-
est with the propertied middle classes;
ber of proprietors and officials. The lower
1

---

2
increase in the number of proprietors
more than double what they had been
and self-employed as well as in the
toward the end of the first quarter of
number of industrial wage earners, and
the nineteenth century. Between 1900
the heterogeneous character of the
and the depression of the 1930’s the up-
American working force2 2 all played
ward trend continued (although occur-
part in the making of the American in-
ring chiefly in the 1920’s), and real av-
dustrial relations pattern.
erage annual earnings per employed per-
son in 1930 were probably between 35
PROGRESS IN EARNINGS AND HOURS
and 40 per cent above the 1900 level.
At the midpoint of the twentieth cen-
About one-third of this gain was tempo-
tury, the wage earning class of this com-
rarily wiped out by unemployment and
munity can look back upon a history
underemployment during 1930-35; but
of appreciable, even though somewhat
despite that fact, the gain in both real
uneven from decade to decade, mate-
hourly and average annual earnings
rial progress. Real earnings (average
during the 1930-50 period has perhaps
hourly) in 1900 were, on the average,
been greater than that of the preceding
three decades of this century.3 In spite
salaried group increased most of all. A break-
of
down of census data made by A. H. Hansen
years like the early 1930’s, when fear
and T. M. Sogge ("Industrial Classes in the
of actual starvation stalked throughout
United States in 1930," Journal of American
the land and the federal government was
Statistical Association, Vol. 28, pp. 199-203),
forced to engage in widespread relief ac-
with a classification somewhat different from
that of the 1940 census data just quoted,
tivities, the extent of poverty and &dquo;in-
showed that industrial
sufficient
wage earners, servants,
earnings&dquo; (as defined in con-
and lower salaried persons increased from
ventional &dquo;subsistence plus&dquo; or &dquo;com-
36.9 per cent of all gainfully occupied in 1870
fort&dquo; budgets) has become substantially
to 56.6 per cent in 1930. During this same pe-
less
riod the relative
during the last half-century.
importance of independent
The
farmers and farm laborers of course
statistical
decreased,
story of labor’s prog-
owing to the decline in relative importance of
ress in the matter of hours of work, a
agriculture as a source of livelihood, but pro-
concern of organized labor historically
prietors and officials increased in relative im-
second only to that of wages, has been
portance by 89 per cent (i.e., from 4.6 per
told
cent to 8.7
many times and in many
per cent of all gainfully occupied).
places.
2 The significances of immigration and the
Here it...