The World investigator is describing under the title Bol
shevism a form of agitation which has been in process for many
years, and which has polled votes in nearly every community
in the United States: phenomena as familiar as the Democratic
and Republican parties are. In Bridgeport the party commit
ted to collective ownership of profit taking property has polled
on occasion as many as 3.000 votes.
Aside from this error of nomenclature, the investigation
seems to have produced accurate results. It is true that the
socialists have waged campaigns against Gompers, for the con
trol of the American Federation, and similar campaigns everywhere-for
the control of local unions and local labor organiza
tions. In Bridgeport, as elsewhere, some unions are under
socialist leadership, and some are not.
The American Federation is an organization of trade
groups, each of which is antonomous in most respects. One
trade may strike, and another trade on the same job, need not
strike. The Federation was built upon the wreck of the Knights
of Labor, which was an organization of the industrial type, that
is to say, in the event of a dispute with one craft all connected
with the trade might strike.
The organization of labor was too young in America for
this type of activity. The Knights of Labor disintegrated as a
result of numerous factors, one of which was costly procedure
which a multitude of workers were involved to settle fre-
ently a minor dispute.
