Labor unions were needless then, and general strikes out of the question.

But when the era of small concerns with small capital was succeeded by that of the great aggregations of capital, all this was changed.

The individual laborer, who had been relatively important to the small employer, was reduced to insignificance and powerlessness over against the great corporation, while at the same time the way upward to the grade of employer was closed to him.

Self-defense drove him to union with his fellows.
"The records of the period show that the outcry against the concentration of capital was furious.

Men believed that it threatened society with a form of tyranny more abhorrent than it had ever endured.
They believed that the great corporations were preparing for them the yoke of a baser servitude than had ever been imposed on the race, servitude not to men but to soulless machines incapable of any motive but insatiable greed.