The face off between FOOTALU and the Knights of Labor was a struggle between skilled workers in the craft unions, and a larger number of unskilled or semiskilled workers in the KOL. Selig Perlman wrote in 1923 that this was "a clash between the principle of solidarity of labor and that of trade separatism." The craft workers were capable of demanding more from their employers due to their skills, and preferred to fight separately. John Herman Randall called this the motive of individual advantage overcoming the motive of social idealism.