I could watch the machinery work.

I saw the wheels of the social machine go around, and I learned that the dignity of manual labour wasn't what I had been told it was by the teachers, preachers, and politicians.

The men without trades were helpless cattle.

If one learned a trade, he was compelled to belong to a union in order to work at his trade.

And his union was compelled to bully and slug the employers' unions in order to hold up wages or hold down hours.