inspectors drawing salaries, while little or nothing is done.

I have said that trades-unions are right and useful, and perhaps,
necessary; but trades-unions are, in fact, in this country, an exotic
and imported institution, and a great many of their rules and modes of
procedure, having been developed in England to meet English
circumstances, are out of place here. The institution itself does not
flourish here as it would if it were in a thoroughly congenial
environment. It needs to be supported by special exertion and care. Two
things here work against it. First, the great mobility of our
population. A trades-union, to be strong, needs to be composed of men
who have grown up together, who have close personal acquaintance and
mutual confidence, who have been trained to the same code, and who
expect to live on together in the same circumstances and interests. In
this country, where workmen move about frequently and with facility,
the unions suffer in their harmony and stability. It was a significant
fact that the unions declined during the hard times. It was only when
the men were prosperous that they could afford to keep up the unions,
as a kind of social luxury. When the time came to use the union it
ceased to be. Secondly, the American workman really has such personal
independence, and such an independent and strong position in the labor
market, that he does not need the union. He is farther on the road
toward the point where personal liberty supplants the associative
principle than any other workman. Hence the association is likely to be
a clog to him, especially if he is a good laborer, rather than an
assistance. If it were not for the notion brought from England, that
trades-unions are, in some mysterious way, beneficial to the
workmen--which notion has now become an article of faith--it is very
doubtful whether American workmen would find that the unions were of
any use, unless they were converted into organizations for