EDITED BY RICHARD T. ELY
Assistant Professor of Economics in the University of Wisconsin;Co-author of the History of Labour in the United States
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1922
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. October, 1922.
The present History of Trade Unionism in the United States is in parta summary of work in labor history by Professor John R. Commons andcollaborators at the University of Wisconsin from 1904 to 1918, and inpart an attempt by the author to carry the work further. Part I of thepresent book is based on the History of Labour in the United States byCommons and Associates (Introduction: John R. Commons; Colonial andFederal Beginnings, to 1827: David J. Saposs; Citizenship, 1827-1833:Helen L. Summer; Trade Unionism, 1833-1839: Edward B. Mittelman;Humanitarianism, 1840-1860: Henry E. Hoagland; Nationalization,1860-1877: John B. Andrews; and Upheaval and Reorganization, 1876-1896:by the present author), published by the Macmillan Company in 1918 intwo volumes.
Part II, "The Larger Career of Unionism," brings the story from 1897down to date; and Part III, "Conclusions and Inferences," is an attemptto bring together several of the general ideas suggested by the History.Chapter 12, entitled "An Economic Interpretation," follows the line ofanalysis laid down by Professor Commons in his study of the Americanshoemakers, 1648-1895.[1]
The author wishes to express his strong gratitude to Professors RichardT. Ely and John R. Commons for their kind aid at every stage of thiswork. He also wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. Edwin E.Witte, Director of the Wisconsin State Legislative Reference Library,upon whose extensive and still unpublished researches he based hissummary of the history of the injunction; and to Professor Frederick L.Paxson, who subjected the manuscript to criticism from the point of viewof General American History.
S.P.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] See his Labor and Administration, Chapter XIV (Macmillan, 1913).