For generations it has been believed by the working classes that the only institution which stood in the way of freedom was political in character. Th e freedom of political democracy is a magnifi cent accomplishment, but it is now realized that the slavery of industry is harsher than the slavery of the unfranchised serf. Hence the impulse of industrial freedom. Th e struggle to shake off the imposition of external wills because the instruments of production are owned by the possessors of such wills is the most remarkable phenomenon of the age" (Hodges 1920, ix- x).

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1667