Inequity is an inevitable component of any organized society.
The democratic process provides a peaceful means for oppressed groups or individuals to voice complaints and seek redress. Down through the years, efforts to eliminate or reduce inequity have met with mixed success. The first two decades of the twentieth century witnessed an unprecedented level of industrial conflict in the United States. Employers' efforts to introduce scientific management into the work-place were bitterly contested by skilled workers and their unions. Unskilled workers, swamped by wave upon wave of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, struggled for security.