Liberals, Conservatives, and Labor

Abstract

Industrialism and the rise of labor in the United States produced a conservative ideology which sought to defend the existing politico-economic system along generally laissez- faire lines. And the constitutional legitimization of this ide ology confined rather rigidly political attempts to adjust labor policy to industrialism. The liberal attack upon this ideologi cal and constitutional edifice was accepted politically with the legislation of the New Deal era. The result was the final re pudiation of laissez-faire constitutionalism and the commitment of labor policy completely to the political processes. It is this framework within which have been fought recent liberal-con servative conflicts on such issues as union security, labor and politics, and the issue of labor and inflation. This liberal-con servative conflict, however, has often concealed the essential conservatism of American labor and its basic commitment to the existing economic and political system. And the advent of technological change may more significantly affect the labor movement than the policy issues which at present constitute the cleavage between liberals and conservatives.