change in attitude? Had the seeds scattered by the economists at
last fallen on fertile ground, or were other factors of environment
and labor leadership more responsible? What significance may be
attached to mere declarations in favor of union-management co-
operation? To what extent were the new ideas embodied in
practice? Out of the postwar change such questions arise; their
answers will be sought in the chapters following. This and the
following chapter will deal with the early ideas of the Federation
on wages, productivity, and scientific management.

The early wage philosophy of the Federation ² might be aptly
summarized by the Biblical injunction: "Ask and it shall be given."
In fact, until the second decade of the twentieth century, the Fed-
eration counseled its member unions to concern themselves only
with the distribution of the product of industry. That increased
output might also be a source of higher wages was either over-
looked or denied. To understand this emphasis upon a program
of bargaining militancy, it is necessary to consider the wage theories
of organized labor and their relation to union strategy.

Until 1900 the "eight-hour theory" of wages furnished the in-
tellectual driving force behind the AFL. The idea was first clearly
expounded by Ira Steward in his pamphlet, The Eight-Hour Move-
ment: A Reduction of Hours Is an Increase of Wages, published by
the Boston Labor Reform Association in 1865. Stated very simply
the underlying chain of reasoning was as follows: Reduced hours
would occasion increased leisure. Increased leisure would arouse
new desires in the hearts of the working people, who would thereby
be impelled to demand higher wages with which to satisfy their new
wants. So universal would be the demand for better pay that the
employers could not resist, for "resistance would amount to the
folly of a 'strike' by Employers themselves against the strongest

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