Tapuscrit

1947 · réf. 56552 — Madison WI: Univ. of Wisconsin School of Commerce Bureau of Business Research & Service 1947. Thick 4to. 4 viii 1 201 leaves including several large folding hand-coloured manuscript tables charts diagrams old scotch tape at folds as originally prepared. Green cloth gilt lettering stamped on front cover minor edgewear rubbing VG exemplar. An intriguing unpublished typescript manuscript of the American labor movement focusing on the forces that effected the labor movement’s growth and analyzing those forces or factors. The author felt that not enough efforts had been made historically prior to World War II on applying the science of statistical analysis to labor unions their membership and the potential impacts on the economic life of the United States. In addition he employs statistical analysis of the union membership by many different unions trades and occupations in order to measure the strength of the labor movement reducing dependence on the analysis of strike frequency threats of strikes elections or other factors which can be indeterminate. Although he does draw upon the work of Barnett “Growth of Labor Organization in the United States 1897-1914” and Wolman “The Growth of American Trade Unions 1880-1923” Current believed their numbers were flawed in the 19th Century and includes a substantial statistical analysis of how he corrects those numbers as well as those from other historical sources. Of additional interest are the two critical letters bound into the volume with the first from famed Wisconsin labor historian Selig Perlman 1888-1959 which notes that Current “is entitled to credit for ingenuity industry and optimism. The valuable part of the manuscript is the statistical one. . . and full credit for debunking some of the loose estimates of membership at the peaks of 1836 and 1872.” Perlman himself has received recently significant criticism regarding his racist views and limited understanding of the evolution of the labor movement which did not try to include race status ethnicity or other sociological factors. Perlman’s letter The second from W.D. Knight notes that Current’s study may impede on work underway for publication by Professor Moberly. Current 1923-2013 received his BA from the University of Wisconsin later worked for Kennedy Economic Development in Oregon and aided the Oregon Shakespeare Festival wrote on the conditions of migrant workers in the Willamette Valley in the 1950s and authored several works on philately and stamp cancels. Univ. of Wisconsin, School of Commerce, Bureau of Business Research & Service, hardcover