by 1877, so much so that two years later, Vanderbilt, more
prophetically than he realized, told the Hepburn Committee that "if
this thing keeps up the oil people will own the roads." But other
noted industrial changes were concurrently going on. With the up-
springing and growth of gigantic combinations or concentrations of
capital, and the gradual disappearance of the small factors in
railroad and other lines of business, workers were compelled by the
newer conditions to organize on large and compact national lines.

At first each craft was purely local and disassociated from other
trades unions. But comprehending the inadequacy and futility of
existing separately, and of acting independently of one another, the
unions had some years back begun to weld themselves into one powerful
body, covering much of the United States. Each craft union still
retained its organization and autonomy, but it now became part of a
national organization embracing every form of trades, and centrally
officered and led. It was in this way that the workers, step by step,
met the organization of capital; the two forces, each representing a
conflicting principle, were thus preparing for a series of great
industrial battles.

Capital had the wealth, resources and tools of the country; the
workers their labor power only. As it stood, it was an uneven
contest, with every advantage in favor of capital. The workers could
decline to work, but capital could starve them into subjection.
These, however, were but the apparent differences. The real and
immense difference between them was that capital was in absolute
control of the political governing power of the nation, and this
power, strange to say, it secured by the votes of the very working
class constantly fighting it in the industrial arena. Many years were