ground; and that they therefore compel the workmen to see them from another point of view and seek to dispose of them by an appeal to other principles than thfwe afforded by the common-law standpoint. That is to say, in other words, these exigencies which compel the trade-unionists to take thought of their case in other terms than those afforded by existing legal inatitutions are the means whereby the discipline of the machine industry is enforced and made effective for recasting the habits of thought of the workmen. The harsh discipline of these exigencies of livelihood drives home the new
CIVILIZATION AND THE MACHINE PEOCE88 336
point of view and holds the workmen consiatently to it. But that is not all that the mechanical standardization of industry does in the case; it also furnishes the new terms in which the revised scheme of economic life takes form. The revision' of the scheme aimed at by trade-union action runs, I not in terms of natural liberty, individual property rights, iodividual discretion, hut in terms of standardi^zed livelihood and mechanical necessity ; it is formulated, not in terms of business expediency, but in terms of industrial, technological standard unite \ and standard relations.
The above presentation of the case of tradeunionism is of course somewhat schematic, as such a meagre, incidental discussion necessarily must he. It takes account only of those features of tradeunionism which characteristically mark it off from that business scheme of things with which it comes in conflict. There are, of course, many survivals, pecuniary and others, in the current body of tradeunion demands, and much of the trade-union argument is carried on in business terms. The crudities and iniquities of the trade-union campaign are sufficiently many and notorious to require no rehearsal here. These crudities and iniquities commonly bulk large in the eyes of critics wlio pass an opinion on trade-unionism from the natural-rights point of view ; and, indeed, they may deserve all the disparaging attention that is given them. Trade-