society, as a hireling for life; and these societies are united, not as
men seeking a way to exchange dependence for independence, but as
hirelings, determined to remain such, and only demanding better
conditions of their masters. If it were possible to infuse with this
spirit all or the greater part of the non-capitalist class in the United
States, this would, I believe, be one of the gravest calamities which
could befall us as a nation; for it would degrade the mass of our
voters, and make free government here very difficult, if it did not
entirely change the form of our government, and expose us to lasting
disorders and attacks upon property.

We see already that in whatever part of our country the Trades-Union
leaders have succeeded in imposing themselves upon mining or
manufacturing operatives, the results are the corruption of our
politics, a lowering of the standard of intelligence and independence
among the laborers, and an unreasoning and unreasonable discontent,
which, in its extreme development, despises right, and seeks only
changes degrading to its own class, at the cost of injury and loss to
the general public.

The Trades-Unions and International Clubs have become a formidable power
in the United States and Great Britain, but so far it is a power almost
entirely for evil. They have been able to disorganize labor, and to
alarm capital. They have succeeded, in a comparatively few cases, in
temporarily increasing the wages and in diminishing the hours of labor
in certain branches of industry--a benefit so limited, both as to
duration and amount, that it cannot justly be said to have inured to the
general advantage of the non-capitalist class. On the other hand, they
have debased the character and lowered the moral tone of their
membership by the narrow and cold-blooded selfishness of their spirit