Full text of "The I.W.W. : a study of American syndicalism"

THE I. W. W.

A Study of American Syndicalism

BY
PAUL FREDERICK BRISSENDEN

Sometime Atsistant in Economic* at the tjnwerrity of California and

University Feiiow at Columbia
Special Agent of the UniUd State* Department of Labor

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN THE

FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

520500

'9'9 -r- rr.

BY
PAUL FREDERICK BRISSENDEN

2L . *. V.

PREFACE

THIS is an historical and descriptive sketch of the
present drift from parliamentary to industrial socialism
as epitomized in the career of the Industrial Workers
of the World in the United States. The I.W.W. is now
thirteen years old. During the first half of its existence
the general public hardly knew that there was such an
organization. A few local communities, however, were
startled into an awareness of it quite early in its history.
The city of Spokane had an I.W.W. "free-speech fight"
on its hands in 1909. Fresno, California, McKees Rocks,
Pennsylvania, and Missoula, Montana, all had their little
bouts with the " Wobblies " long before the Lawrence
strike of 1912 made the I.W.W. nationally prominent.

Just now the Industrial Workers of the World, as
represented by more than one hundred of its members
and officials, is on trial for its life in Chicago. The in-
dictment charges the defendants with conspiring to
hinder and discourage enlistment and in general to ob-
struct the progress of the war with Germany. The
specific number of crimes alleged to have been intended
runs up to more than seventeen thousand. Since the
war-time activities of the I.W.W. most concern us now,
it is regretted that this book cannot be brought up to
the minute with a final chapter on the I.W.W. and the
war. But this is impossible. The trial is still in pro-
gress and almost no trustworthy evidence regarding the

g PREFACE

alleged anti-war activities is available outside of the
court records. 1

Though nowadays well aware of the existence of the
I.W.W., the public still knows little about the organiza-
tion and its members. Moreover, a great deal of what
it does know is false. For thirteen years the I.W.W.
has been rather consistently misrepresented not to say
vilified to the American people. The public has not
been told the truth about the things the I.W.W. has
done or the doctrines in which it believes. The papers
have printed so much fiction about this organization and
maintained such a nation-wide conspiracy of silence as
to its real philosophy especially as to the constructive
items of this philosophy that the popular conception of
this labor group is a weird unreality.

The current picture is of a motley horde of hoboes
and unskilled laborers who will not work and whose
philosophy is a philosophy simply of sabotage and the
violent overthrow of " capitalism," and whose actions
conform to that philosophy. This appears to be about

1 Since this went to press the trial has come to an end. On August
17 the case went to the jury which, after being out fifty-five minutes,
returned a verdict of "guilty, as charged in the indictment." On
August 30 Judge K. M. Landis imposed sentence. W. D. Hay wood
and fourteen others were sentenced to twenty years imprisonment and
$20,000 fine each. Thirty-three others were given six years and fined
$5,000 each on the first count; ten years and $5,000 each on the second
count; two years and $10,000 each on the third count; and ten years
and $10,000 each on the fourth count. Thirty- three others were given
five years and fines of $5,000 apiece on each of counts i and 2 and
Jio.ooo each on counts 3 and 4. Twelve more were sentenced to one
year and one day, with fines of $5,000 each on the first and second
counts and $10,000 each on the third and fourth counts. Two of the
defendants were giVen ten-day sentences. All sentences run concur-
rently. The fines imposed aggregate $2,570,000 and costs. It is an-
nounced that the case will be appealed. (U. S. District Court, Nor-
thern District of Illinois, Eastern Div., Criminal Clerk's Minute Book
22, pp. 61-62.)

PREFACE 9

what the more reactionary business interests would like
to have the people believe about the Industrial Workers
of the World. If, and to the extent that these reaction-
ary employing interests can induce the public not only
to believe this about the I.W.W. but also to believe that
the picture applies as well to all labor organizations,
they will to that extent ally the public with them and
against labor.

The negative or destructive items in the I.W.W. pro-
gram are deliberately misconstrued and then stretched
out and made to constitute the whole of I.W.W. -ism.
In reality they are only a minor part of the creed.
There are immense possibilities of a constructive sort in
the theoretic basis of the I.W.W., but the Press has done
its best to prevent the public from knowing it. And it
must be said that the I.W.W. agitators have themselves
helped to misrepresent their own organization by their
uncouth and violent language and their personal prede-
liction for the lurid and the dramatic. Even what the
Wobblies say about themselves must be taken with a
certain amount of salt. This matter of the currently-
received opinion of the I.W.W. has been dwelt on be-
cause the writer believes that it is not alone important
to know what an organization is like. It is also very
important to know what people think it is like.

The popular attitude toward the Wobblies among em-
ployers, public officials and the public generally corre-
sponds to the popular notion that they are arch-fiends
and the dregs of society. It is the hang-them-all-at-
sunrise attitude. A high official of the Federal Depart-
ment of Justice in one of our western states gave the
writer an instance. On a recent visit to a small town
in a distant part of the state he happened upon the
sheriff. That officer, in reply to a question, explained

PREFACE

that they were " having no trouble at all with the
Wobs." " When a Wobbly comes to town," he ex-
plained, " I just knock him over the head with a night
stick and throw him in the river. When he comes up
he beats it out of town." Incidentally it may be said
that in such a situation almost any poor man, if he be
without a job or visible means of support, is assumed to
be, ipso facto, an I.W.W. Being a Wobbly, the proper
thing for him is pickhandle treatment or if he is known
to be a strike agitator a " little neck-tie party."

Since we have been at war certain groups of employers,
particularly those in the mining and lumber industries,
have still further confused the issue and intensified the
popular hostility to the Industrial W T orkers of the World.
They have done this by re-enforcing their earlier camou-
flage with the charge of disloyalty and anti-patriotism.
Wrapping themselves in the flag, they have pointed from
its folds to "those disloyal and anarchistic Wobblies "
and in this way still further obscured the underlying
economic issues. Whatever the facts about patriotism
on either side, it appears to be true that the greater part
of the I.W.W.'s activities have been ordinary strike
activities directed toward the securing of more favorable
conditions of employment and some voice in the de-
termination of those conditions. These efforts have
been met by charges of disloyalty and by wholesale acts
of violence by the employers, that is to say they have
been met by the night-stick and neck-tie party policy
as witness the wholesale deportation of " alleged Wob-
blies" from Bisbee, Arizona, and the hanging of Frank
Little in Butte, Montana. As the President's Mediation
Commission reported, " the hold of the I.W.W. is
riveted, instead of weakened, by unimaginative opposi-
tion on the part of employers to the correction of real
grievances."

1 Report of the Commission, Sixth Annual Report of the Secretary of
Labor, p. 20.

PREFACE

By means of an insidious extension of the I.W.W.
bogey idea, either that organization itself or some other
labor body or both of them are made the " goat " in dis-
putes in which the I.W.W., as an organization, has no
part. If a lumber company, for example, gets into a
controversy with the shingle-weavers union of the
American Federation of Labor, it has only to raise a
barrage and shout through its controlled news columns
that "they are ' Wobblies ! ' " and public opinion is
against them. Nor does the misrepresentation stop
there. All who openly sympathize with the alleged
Wobblies are, forsooth, themselves Wobblies!

Naturally the liberals in this country have no sym-
pathy with this night-stick attitude toward I.W.W.'s nor
with the night-stick interpretation of I.W.W. -ism. The
writer is bound to say, however, that he considers the
liberal interpretation entirely inadequate. The liberal
attitude is expressed and judgment pronounced when it
has been said that the I.W.W. is a social sore caused by,
let us say, bad housing. It must be evident (unless we
are prepared to take the position that any organization
which purposes a rearrangement of the status quo the
Single Tax League, for example is < .social sore) that
the I.W.W. is much more than that. The improvement
of working conditions in the mines and lumber camps
would tend to eliminate the cruder and less fundamental
I.W.W. activities, but it would not kill I.W.W. -ism.

We can no more dispose of the Industrial Workers of
the World by saying that it is a social sore on the body
politic than we can dispose of the British Labor Party
or our National Security League by saying that they are
sores on the Anglo-Saxon body politic. We can only
completely and fairly handle the I.W.W. problem by
dealing with its more fundamental tenets on their merits

12 PREFACE

and acting courageously upon our conclusions. We
shall be obliged seriously to study the problem of the
organization of the unskilled; the question of the rela-
tive merits of craft unionism, mass unionism and indus-
trial unionism ; the question of the sufficiency of political
democracy and of the possible future modifications of it
and, not least, the question of democracy versus despot-
ism in our economic and industrial life. The Wobblies
insist that no genuine democracy is possible in industry
until those who do the work in a business (from hired
president to hired common laborer) control its manage-
ment. It so happens that the British Labor Party,
in its reconstruction report on Labor and the New
Social Order, insists upon practically the same thing.
The fact that the B.L.P. insists in a more refined and
intelligent manner than the I.W.W. may explain the
almost universal obliviousness of our liberals to this item
in I.W.W. -ism. The Industrial Workers of the World
have even developed a structure and mechanism (crude
and inadequate, naturally) for this control. The indus-
trial union, they say, is to be the administrative unit in
the future industrial democracy. All these will be dom-
inant issues when peace breaks out, and if the Wobblies
are no longer in existence the radical end of each issue
will be championed by their successors in the field.

The most important item in the affirmative part of the
I.W.W. program is this demand that some of our de-
mocracy some of our representative government be
extended from political into economic life. They ask
that industry be democratized by giving the workers
all grades of workers at least a share in its manage-
ment. They ask to have the management of industrial
units transferred from the hands of those who think
chiefly in terms of income to those who think primarily

PREFACE ! 3

in terms of the productive process. The Wobblies
would have "capitalism" (the monarchic or oligarchic
control of industry) supplanted by economic democracy
just as political despotism has been supplanted by polit-
ical democracy in nearly all civilized states. When the
British Labor Party asks for representative government
in industry, those who do not ignore the request give it
serious attention. When the I.W.W. echoes the senti-
ment in the phrase : " Let the workers run the indus-
tries," the editors are thrown into a panic, the business
world views the I.W.W. menace with aggravated alarm
and the more reactionary employers hysterically clamor
to have "these criminal anarchists shot at sunrise."

Perhaps the very best way to run an industrial enter-
prise is on the currently accepted model of the Prussian
State. It is simply a moot point and the I.W.W. has
challenged the Prussian method. Whatever intrinsic
merit there may be in the affirmative program of the In-
dustrial Workers of the World, it must be admitted by
even its most enthusiastic members that were they to-
day given the power they ask, they would be no less
relentless Prussians than are the corporations we have
with us. Even though capitalism may be ripe for re-
placement, the I.W.W. are a long way from being fit to
replace it. The Wobblies are grotesquely unprepared
for responsibility. So far their own members do not
understand how relatively unimportant is their much-
talked-of sabotage method. They have challenged the
autocratic method, but they have done it very crudely
and with a weird misplacement of emphasis. They
whisper it in a footnote, as it were, to their strident
blackface statements about method. " If labor is not
allowed a voice in the management of the mines apply
sabotage/"

14 PREFACE

Unquestionably the I.W.W. ask too much when they
ask that the producers be given exclusive control of in-
dustry. As to certain phases of management the work-
ers (including, of course, all hand and brain workers
connected with the industry) should perhaps be given
entire control. The hours of labor and the sanitary con-
ditions in any productive enterprise are primarily, if not
exclusively, the concern of the producers. But the
amount of the product which ought to be turned out
and the price at which it ought to be sold are matters
in which the consumers have no little interest. Con-
sumers, therefore, should share in the management of the
industry so far as it relates to prices and the determina-
tion of the amount to be produced.

The following pages are devoted to a mere matter-of-
fact description of the Industrial Workers of the World
as an organization and to a record of the facts of its his-
tory. The purpose has been throughout to write from
the sources. The writer has tried to have the " Wob-
blies" themselves do the telling, through interviews,
soap-box speeches, convention proceedings and official
papers and pamphlets. The bulk of the record is based
upon documents and other materials collected and im-
pressions received since 1909 when the writer first be-
came interested in the I.W.W.

The writer has endeavored throughout to abstain
from philosophizing about the I.W.W. He is not un-
mindful of the fact that the interpretation of such a sig-
nificant movement as is embodied in the Industrial
Workers of the World is of very great importance. In-
deed the time has now come when it is urgently neces-
sary. The first intention in writing this book was to
incorporate in it an attempt at an analysis and interpre-
tation of I.W.W. -ism, as well as its orientation with

PREFACE l ,-

other economic isms. But the bony skeleton of historical
record has crowded out almost everything else and
perhaps filled more pages than its importance justifies.
In spite of all this the temptation to comment has been
strong and sometimes irresistible. Despite the effort
that has been made to be accurate and entirely fair the
writer realizes that the book probably contains errors
both of fact and judgment. He would greatly appreciate
having his attention called to these.

The writer is under great obligation to the secretaries
of scores of the local unions of the organization in vari-
ous parts of the country for their valued assistance in
the task of gathering the material for this study. He is
especially grateful to Mr. Vincent St. John, formerly
General Secretary-Treasurer of the I.W.W., for his gen-
erous response to repeated requests for documents and
information. Thanks are also due for like favors to Mr.
William D. Haywood, General Secretary-Treasurer of
the I.W.W. and to Mr. Herman Richter, General Secre-
tary-Treasurer of the Workers International Industrial
Union (formerly the Socialist Labor Party or Detroit
wing of the I.W.W.). Finally the writer wishes to ex-
press his grateful appreciation of the numerous and
helpful suggestions made during the later stages of the
work by Professor Henry R. Seager of Columbia Uni-
versity. He has also to thank Professor Seager and
Mrs. C. A. Stewart for their kindness in the tiresome
work of reading the proof, and Mrs. M. A. Gadsby, of
the staff of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics,
for her assistance in the preparation of the Bibliography.

P. F. B.

SAN FRANCISCO, JUNE 9, 1918.

PA OB

PREFACE 7

PART I

BEGINNINGS
CHAPTER I

FORERUNNERS OF THE " WOBBLIES"

Early revolutionary bodies 27

English prototypes 29

Early radical unions in the United States 29

The National Labor Union 30

The Knights of Labor 30

The Internationals 35

The Sovereigns of Industry 37

The United Brewery Workmen . . 38

The United Mine Workers of America 38

Haymarket 39

The American Railway Union 40

<The Western Federation of Miners 40

W. F. M. strikes 40

The Western Labor Union 43

The American Labor Union 44 ;

The Socialist Labor Party and the Socialist Trade and Labor

Alliance 46

The French Confederation G6n6ral du Travail 53

CHAPTER II
THE BIRTH OF THE I. W. W.

Pre-convention conferences 57

The rdle of the Western Federation of Miners 60

The January Conference 61

The Industrialist Manifesto . . 62

Attitude of the A. F. of L 65

The Industrial Union Convention and the launching of the I. W. W. 67

jg CONTENTS

PAGE

Character of industries and unions represented 68

Numerical predominance of the Western Federation and the

American Labor Union 71

Daniel DeLeon and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance. ... 75
Doctrinal elements represented in the convention: reformist, direct-

actionist and doctrinaire 76

The dominant personalities 79

CHAPTER III

THE I. W. W. versus THE A. F. OF L.

Attitude of the revolutionary industrialists toward the Federation. 83

Critique of craft unionism 84

' ' Union scabbery ' ' and the aristocracy of labor 85

Emphasis on the unskilled and unorganized 87

The "pure and simple" union and the " labor lieutenant" ... 88

Repudiation of the policy of " boring from within " 89

Convention resolutions 91

The preamble and the clause on political action 92

The attitude of DeLeon and the S. L. P. . - 93

The I. W. W. Constitution 96

Classification of industries 96

The structure of the organization 98

The local unions and other subordinate bodies 98

The General Executive Board and its powers 100

Other provisions 101

Influence of " DeLeonism " in the convention 103

The primary importance of the Western Federation of Miners . . 104

Samuel Gompers on the convention 106

Other comments . 107

What the constitutional convention accomplished 108

PART II
THE FIRST PHASE

[The " original " L W. W.]

CHAPTER IV
MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD

The situation at the close of the first convention 113

Progress during the first year 114

Activities among A. F. of L. locals 115

CONTENTS I9

PACK

Friction with Federation unions 116

Practical compromises with the craft-union idea 118

Internal dissension 120

Breakdown of the Metals and Machinery Department 122

Defection of the Western Federation of Miners 122

Early strikes and strike activities 123

Strike policies 124

The New Jersey Socialist Unity Conference 125

The discussion on socialism and the trade unions 127

The Unity Conference resolutions 128

The second I. W. W. convention 129

Growth in membership , . . 130

The Industrial Departments 131

CHAPTER V
THE coup OF THE " PROLETARIAN RABBLE "

The "reactionaries" vs. the " wage slave delegates " at the second

convention . . 136

The DeLeon-St. John attack on President Sherman 137

Pre-convention conference of the " DeLeonite rabble " 137

The indictment of Sherman 139

Playing freeze-out with the " wage slave delegates ". . . . . . 142

The per diem resolution and the defeat of the Shermanites .... 143

Abolition of the office of General President 143

The findings of the Master in Chancery 145

Contemporary comment on the quarrel 147

DeLeonism and the Socialist Labor Party at the second convention. 147

The Western Federation of Miners 149

I. W. W. finances 153

CHAPTER VI
THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION

An organization for farm laborers and city proletarians 155

The I. W. W. and the lumber workers 156

Provision for foreigners 158

Foreign language branches 160

The local union 160

Relation of locals to the General Administration 161

Centralization 161

District Industrial Councils 163

Industrial Departments 164

Further discussion of political action 168

20 CONTENTS

PAGE

The Moyer, Hay wood and Pettibone case 170

Defense activities of the I. W. W 171

Proposal for a general strike 174

Effect of the Moyer-Haywood case on the I. W. W 175

The third convention -178

The condition of the organization 181

Membership strength 182

The I. W. W. at the Stuttgart Congress 183

Political parties and the trade unions 185

The political clause of the Preamble again under discussion . . . . 188

CHAPTER VIII
"JoB CONTROL" AT GOLDFIELD

The A. F. of L. and the I. W. W. in Goldfield, Nevada 191

Character of the Goldfield local of the I. W. W 192

The town unionists and the mine unionists 192

Proposed consolidation of the two groups 193

Attitude of the Mine Owners' Association 193

Federal military intervention and investigation 195

Report of the Commission 196

What the I. W. W. accomplished at Goldfield 200

The I. W. W. and the Western Federation in Nevada politics . . 201

I. W. W. strike activities in other parts of the country 203

General organizing activities 207

CHAPTER IX
DOCTRINAIRE versus DIRECT-ACTIONIST

'Condition of the organization on the eve of the schism of 1908 . . 213

Effect of the financial panic of 1907 214

The widening breach between the I. W. W. and the Western Fed-
eration of Miners 216

The line-up in the I. W. W. on political action 218

The personnel of the convention 220

Walsh's "Overalls Brigade" 221

The Socialist Labor Party Delegation and the unseating of Daniel

DeLeon 222

The issue between the DeLeonites and the Direct-actionists . . . 223

'** Straight industrialism " versus par liamentariamsm 225

CONTENTS 21

IACB

The preamble purged of politics 226

Rump convention of the DeLeonites at Paterson, New Jersey . . 228

A bifurcated I. W. W 229

The issue between the Detroit I. W. W. and the Chicago I. W. W. 231

The Wobblies' criticism of parliamentary government 232

The doctrinaire state socialism of the Detroiters 234

The issue illustrated in the contrast between Daniel DeLeon and

Vincent St. John 235

I. W. W. constitution non-political rather than anti-political . . . 236

Influence of DeLeon on the I. W. W 238

CHAPTER X
THE I. W. W. ON THE " CIVILIZED PLANE "

The development of the Detroit I. W. W 242

Strike activities and friction with the " Summery " or Direct-

actionist faction 245

The Anarcho-syndicalists versus the parliamentarians 251

The Detroit I. W. W. on sabotage 252

Eugene Debs' plea for a union of the two I. W. W.s 252

The Detroit I. W. W. becomes The Workers International In-
dustrial Union 254

PART III

THE ANARCHO-SYNDICALISTS
[The Direct Actionists]

CHAPTER XI
FREE SPEECH AND Sabotage

Condition of the Direct-actionist faction after the split with the

Doctrinaires 258

The Wobblies establish the "free-speech fight" as an institution. 260

The procedure in free- speech fights 260-

I. W. W. tactics 261

Community reactions 264

The conventions of 1910 and 191 1 265

Growth in membership 266

The I. W. W. press 269

Local unions organized and disbanded 270

The I. W. W. and the French syndicalists 271

International labor politics 273

22 CONTENTS

PACK

The Syndicalist League of North America 274

The I. W. W. and the MacNamara case 275

Franco-American sabotage 276

Demonstration against sabotage at the 1912 convention of the

Socialist party 278

Article II., section 6 278

CHAPTER XII
LAWRENCE AND THE CREST OF POWER

Strike activities in 1912 281

The Lawrence strike 282

The use of violence at Lawrence and the responsibility for it ... 284

Dynamite planting 286

The I. W. W. and the A. F. of L. at Lawrence 287

Results of the strike 288

I. W. W. patriotism and I. W. W. morals 291

The 1912 convention 293

The beginning of the conflict over decentralization 295

CHAPTER XIII
DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION

The policy of " boring from within " 297

Dual unionism 297

An I. W. W. defense of "boring from within " 298

Tom Mann joins in the attack on dual unionism 301

Rejoinders from Ettor and Haywood 301

The 1913 convention 303

Centralization versus decentralization 303

The proposals of the " decentralizes " 304

The relation of the locals to the general organization 305

The Pacific Coast District Organization 309

The East against the West in the decentralization debate 311

The western Wobbly and the eastern 312

Geographical differences in I. W. W. local unions 313

An anarchist's impressions of the 1913 convention 316

CHAPTER XIV

RECENT TENDENCIES

Continued hostility between the I. W. W. and the Western Fed-
eration of Miners 318

The labor war in Butte, Montana ... 319

CONTENTS

The United Mine Workers and the I. W. W 323

The 1914 convention 325

The I. W. W. and the unemployed 327

The resolution against war 329

Constitutional changes 329

Time agreements 330

Growth in membership 331

The slump in 1914-1915 333

Revival of activity 335

The Agricultural Workers Organization 335

The Everett free speech fight 337

The 1916 (tenth) convention 338

Present strength of the I. W. W 339

Character of the membership 339

The I. W. W. abroad 340

Anti-militarist campaign of the I. W. W. in Australasia 340

Australian "Unlawful Associations" Act <| . . 341

The Workers' Industrial Union of Australia 343

" Criminal Syndicalism " laws in the United States 344

The turnover of I. W. W. members and locals 347

Conclusion 348

APPENDICES

I. Chart of early radical labor organizations 349

II. The I. W. W. Preamble: Chicago and Detroit versions . . 349

III. The structure of the organization in 1917. (Chart) .... 351

IV. Membership statistics:

Table A. Membership of Chicago and Detroit branches.

(1905-1916) 352

Table B. Membership of the I. W. W. compared with the
aggregate number of organized workers in the U. S., by

industries 354

Table C. Membership of the I. W. W. and of certain other

selected organizations and industrial groups. (1897-1914) 356
Table D. Membership of (i) the I. W. W. and (2) all

American trade unions 357

V. Geographical distribution of I. W. W. locals in 1914. (Chi-
cago and Detroit) 358

VI. Reasons assigned for locals disbanding. (1910-1911) . . . 364

VII. Free-speech fights of the I. W. W. (1906-1916) 365

VIII. I. W. W. strikes. (1906-1917) 366

IX. Selections from the I. W. W. Song Book 378

X. Copies of State " Criminal Syndicalism" statutes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 3^5

INDEX 4 2 3

PART I
BEGINNINGS

CHAPTER I
FORERUNNERS OF THE I. W. W.

THE revolutionary doctrines of the I. W. W. are spoken
of today as constituting the " new unionism " or the " new
socialism ". It cannot be too strongly emphasized, how-
ever, that neither I.W. YV.-ism nor the closely related but
materially different French syndicalism are brand-new
codes which the irreconcilables, here and in France, have in-
vented out of hand within the last quarter of a century.
Industrial unionism, as a structural type simply, and even
revolutionary industrial unionism wherein the industrial
organization is animated and guided by the revolutionary
(socialist or anarchist) spirit hark back in their essential
principles to the dramatic revolutionary period in English
unionism of the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
In America the labor history of the seventies, and especially
the eighties, teems with evidences of the industrial form and
the radical temper in labor organizations. Some of these
prototypes are charted in Appendix I. The elements of
I.W. W.-ism were there ; but they were not often co-existent
in the same organization. Contemporary writers have not
failed to call attention to the striking similarity between the
doctrines of the English Chartists and those of our modern
I. W. W. The bitter attacks of the Industrial Workers
upon politics and politicians and their appeal to all kinds
and conditions of labor were also fundamental articles in
the creed of the Chartists who stressed the economic factor
almost as forcibly as do the I.W.W.'s today. 1

1 Cf. Brooks, American Syndicalism (New York, 1913), ch. vi and
Tridon, The New Unionism, 4th printing (New York, 1917), p. 67.

2 8 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS CF THE WORLD

In both America and England, especially during the
periods referred to, there was abundant evidence of those
tactics which we characterize today as syndicalistic. I. W.
W. strikes were not invented in 1905. The Socialist Trade
and Labor Alliance, the Knights of Labor, the International
Working People's Association, the " New Unionists " in
the days of Robert Owen all these and many another
group have sought to push their cause by methods now once
again made notorious by the French syndicalists and the
American Wobblies. The general strike mass action
the sympathetic strike the solidarity of all labor these
concepts seem to have their prototypes and very possibly
were put into action in still more ancient periods. Osborne
Ward reports some revolutionary labor activities in years
preceding the Christian era. He describes a strike of the
silver miners in Greece at Laurium, some thirty miles
south of Athens. " The inference is unequivocal," says
Ward, " that in 413 B. C. twenty thousand miners, mechan-
ics, teamsters, and laborers suddenly struck work ; and at a
moment of Athens' greatest peril, fought themselves loose
from their masters and their chains." He concludes that the
strike " must have been well concerted, violent and swift,"
and "must have been plotted by the men themselves." This
strike, apparently, was widely heralded, but seems to have
brought no more permanent results than has the average L
W. W. strike of today. The evidence for this very ancient
prototype of syndicalism is not entirely conclusive. It was
dug out of the old red sandstone and there are missing
links! It will be safer not to try to trace the lineage of
syndicalist organizations much less syndicalist activities
and ideas back more than one century.

1 Cf. C. Osborne Ward, A history of the ancient working people, front
the earliest known period to the adoption of Christianity by Constantine
(The Ancient Lowly), Washington, D. C, Press of the Craftsman,
1889, p. 140.

FORERUNNERS OF THE /. W. W. 2 g

There is no doubt that the idea of economic emancipation
through economic as opposed to political channels, and to
be achieved by all classes of workers as workers, i. e., as
human cogs in the industrial, rather than the political, state
had been very definitely formulated before the end of the
last century. 1 Indeed, the conception runs back well toward
the beginning of the nineteenth century. The " one big
union " of which we now hear so much was surely in exist-
ence in England in the early thirties. Robert Owen at that
time outlined his great plan for a " General Union of the
Productive Classes." Sidney and Beatrice Webb report the
establishment, in 1834, of a " Grand National Consolidated

Trades Union " :

Under the system proposed by Owen [they say] the instru-
ments of production were to become the property, not of the
whole community, but of the particular set of workers who
used them. The trade unions were to be transformed into ,
"national companies" to carry on all the manufactures.,'
The agricultural union was to take possession of the land, the \
miners' union of the mines, the textile unions of the factories.
Each trade was to be carried on by its particular trade union,
centralized in one " Grand Lodge." 2

The leaders of the New Unionists " aimed not at super- J
seding existing social structures but at capturing them in /
the interests of the wage earners." 3

American prototypes of I.W.W.-ism appear much later

1 " Stellen wir also vor allem fest, das die syndikalistische Bewegung
... in ihren Tendenzen und ihrer Taktik als eine Volksbewegung, eine
Bewegung in den Arbeiterkreisen selbst, entstanden ist, deren geschicht-
lichen Ursprung man ... bis in den Anfang der neunziger Jahre, ja
selbst in die Zeit der alten Internationale zuriick verlegen muss." (Oh.
Cornelissen, " Ueber den internationalen Syndikalismus " Archiv fur
Sosial Wissenschaft und Sozial-Politik, vol. xxx (1910), p. I5 r -

2 Webb, History of Trade Unionism (London, 1902), new ed., pp. 144-5-

3 Ibid., p. 404. In ch. iii, the Webbs give an interesting description
of this " revolutionary period " in English unionism.

30 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

than in England. As early as 1834, however, workingmen
in the United States were discussing the attitude of the
union toward politics. There was some discussion at that
time by members of the National Trades Union of a pro-
posal to have resolutions drawn up to express the views of
the convention on the social, civil, and political condition of
the laboring classes, and after considerable argument the
word " political " was omitted. 1

In 1864 an unsuccessful attempt was made to organize in
this country a national federation of trade unions. Two
years later, in Baltimore, a National Labor Congress
launched a conservative political organization, called the
National Labor Union a short-lived predecessor of the
Knights of Labor. Ely says that it lived only about three
years and died of the " disease known as politics." 2 It is
probable that a general apathy and financial weakness were
contributing causes.

The most important of these forerunners of the " Wob-
blies " was the Noble and Holy Orderpf the n Knights of
Labor which was organized in 1869 and for the following
decades carried on a remarkably successful propaganda.. It
had a rppmbprsfop of 1 more man a million in the late
eighties^ Soon after that the Knights suffered a UecTme*
that was even more rapid than their meteoric expansion in

1 Commons (eel.), Documentary History of American Industrial So-
ciety (Cleveland, O., A. H. Clark Co., 1910-11), vol vi, pp. 211-16.
Reprinted from The Man (New York), September 6, 1834.

2 Ely, Labor Movement in America (New York, 1890), p. 69.
Tridon (The New Unionism, p. 92), claims that by 1868 it had a mem-
bership of 640,000. It was apparently represented at the Basle con-
vention of the International in 1869. Cf. also Hillquit, Morris, History
of Socialism in the United States (5th ed., New York, 1910), p. 193.

3 One of the Knights stated to the U. S. Industrial Commission
(Report, vol. vii [1900], p. 420), that in 1888 the Knights of Labor had
1,200,000 members. In 1886 the organization contained nearly 9,000
local unions.

FORERUNNERS OF THE I. W. W. ^

the early eighties and ultimately broke down and degener-
ated into the shadow of an organization that it has been
for more than twenty years past. Carroll D. Wright
thought that the Knights of Labor reached its highest mem-
bership point in 1887 when it had probably about a million
enrolled. In 1898 there were about 100,000 in the organ-
ization. Colonel Wright believed that this great falling-off
in membership was due to the socialistic tendencies of the
organization, especially to the attempt to place all wage
workers on the same level. 1

The characteristic motto of the Knights of Labor was :
j^iurv to one is the concern of allfl' the same slogan
wnich is today prominent among the watchwords of the I.
W. W. It proposed, first, to bring within the folds of organ-
ization every department of productive industry, making
knowledge a stahdpoinf Tor action and "industrial, moral
worth, not wealth, the true standard of individual and
national greatness " ; second, " to secure to the toilers a
proper share of the wealth that they create . . ."; third,
the substitution of arbitration for strikes; and, fourth, the
reduction of hours of labor to eight per day. 2 The Knights
advocated government ownership of telephones, telegraphs,
and railroads; emphasized the principle of cooperation; ad-
mitted women and negroes, and believed in having working-
class politics in the union and the union in working-class
politics. " The fundamental principle on which the organ-
ization jKa&Hased was cooperation^ said ' Grand iVLaster
Workman Powderly, ". . . . the barriers of trade were to

WiMMiMvMMMM ^"**W*W*|W**** < * I ** N ( H **^*MIVM*^HiMi

be cast jiside ; the man who toiled, no matter at what, was
to receive and enjoy the just fruits of his labor. . . ." 3

1 Testimony before U. S. Industrial 'Commission, Washington, D. C,
Dec. 15, 1898. Report of the Industrial Commission, vol. vii, p. 94.

2 Constitution, Knights of Labor, pp. 3-6.

3 T- V. Powfterl^ Tfcrtv Yeprs of Labor (Columbus. O., 1889), p. 151.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

It was originally a secret orp-jarn'^Hnn \t that feature
was later abandoned. The following restriction on mem-
bership appears in the constitution of the Local Assem-
blies: ". . . no lawyer, banker, professional gambler, or
stock broker can be admitted." Prior to 1881 physicians
were also excluded. It is composed of Local Assemblies
(local unions) controlled by District Assemblies, a General
Assembly and a Grand Master Workman. These parts
were closely related to each other in a centralized system.
Centralization of administrative authority was considered
highly important indeed, it was thought indispensable in
order successfully to unite every branch of skilled and un-
skilled labor a task the Knights considered of prime im-
portance. They differed, however, from our more radical
I.W.W.'s of today in placing no little confidence in political
methods, maintaining as they did for many years a legisla-
tive lobbying committee at Washington. In addition they
bejieyed. with the I. W. W., in the sympathetic strike, the
boycott and" the" necessity of' 'solidarity among' alT file-ranks

''V^'fsWI^ < ^^^*Tf**^^*^****fTTBBa^fcaiaBPBM>>IB>BBtJJ-4-.^ r /-r- J -^^-4^' ^^T^' i " "* ' ' " ~~~~~~~T-tTT~~'~mm^^^

ofjabor. The following excerpt from the Final Report of
the United States Industrial Commission (1900) explains
the administrative policy of the organization :

The fundamental idea of the Knights of Labor is the unity
of all workers. ... It regards this unity of interest as necessi-
tating unity of policy and control; it conceives that unity of
control can be effected only by concentrating all responsibility
... in the hands of the men who may be chosen to stand at
the head of affairs. The control of the organization rests
wholly in the general assembly, and . . . the orders of the
executive officers, elected by the general assembly, are required
to be obeyed by all members. The several trades are separately
organized within the order. . . . The Knights desired to in-
clude all productive workers, whether or not they received
their compensation in the form of wages. 1

'Vol. xix (1002), p. 798.

FORERUNNERS OF THE L W. W.

The emphasis placed by the Knights upon the union of
skilled and unskilled is significant in relation to the later I
efforts of the L W. W. to effect such a union. " I saw,"J
said Grand Master Workman Terence V. Powderly, " that
labor-saving machinery was bringing the machinist down to
the level of a day laborer, and soon they would be on a
level. My aim was to dignify the laborer." * Mr. Pow-
derly is reported in the same interview as saying that his
greatest difficulty in getting machinists and blacksmiths to
join the Knights of Labor lay in the contempt with which
they looked upon other workers.

There was a much closer connection in the Knights of
Labor between the central organization and the local bodies
than is today the case with the American Federation of
Labor, which, as its name implies, is a comparatively loose
federation of autonomous " intemg^iojiaLjjjajiaia^ This
~mgh degree oi centralization of power in the hands of the
General Assembly and the national officers was a factor in
the disintegration of the order. More important still was
the fact of internal dissension, especially the bitter animos-
ity arising out of the Knights' participation in politics.
". . . . There came the question whether the organization
should go into politics as a body or not. That question
was probably discussed in every Local Assembly in America
. . . [and] those political questions coming up drove men
out of the organization. . . ." 2

The Knights were a curious mixture of conservative and
radical elements. The organization was socialistic, but
rather state socialistic than anything else. Despite their
arbitration clause they aicTnot believe in me identity of in-
terest of employer and employee. As trade unionists they

1 New York Sun, March 29, 1886, p. I, col. 5. (Interview.)
* J. G. Schonfarber, testimony before U. S. Industrial Commission,
Washington, D. ., Dec. 5, 1899, Report, vol. vii (1901), p. 423.

34 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

: were innovators and steered far from the narrow trade type
I of union imported from England. They said in words
that they wanted to destroy the wages system. " To point
out a way to utterly destroy this system would be a pleasure
to me," said Grand Master Workman Powderly. 1 As to
the Knights of Labor policy in regard to violence, Perlman
says that ". . . although the leaders of the Knights
preached against violence and what we now call sabotage,
both were nevertheless extensively practiced, as, for in-
stance, in the Southwest Railway strike of 1886." He goes
on to draw a parallel between the Knights and the " Wob-
blies," declaring that the latter preach violence without
practicing it, while the Knights practiced it without preach-
ing. He adds that the Knights of Labor adopted coopera-
tion as their official philosophy and the I. W. W. adopted
syndicalism and declares that neither practiced their doc-
trines very much. 2 The disrupted condition of the Knights
of Labor in 1902, three years before the organization of
the I. W. W., may be understood from the following press
dispatch :

The rival factions of the Knights of Labor will each hold a
congress at Albany this week beginning Tuesday. Each con-
gress claims to represent the Knights of Labor in this State.
. . . The Hayes faction has at present the books, property and
paraphernalia of the Knights of Labor which were awarded to
it by the courts some time ago. 3

'Simultaneously with the rise of the Knights of Labor in

*"*""""Mp*P"" ---li *'

Quoted by McNeill (ed.), The Labor Movement: The Problem of
To-day (New York, 1887), p. 410.

2 Perlman, S., "Plan of an Investigation of the I. W. W." (MS.
report to U. S. Commission on Industrial Relations), p. i.

8 " Labor Knights Dispute," The New York Times, Jan. 12, 1902, p. 24.
For an excellent short historical sketch of the Knights of Labor, see
Report of the Industrial Commission (1901), vol. xvii, pp. 3-24.

FORERUNNERS OF THE I. W. W. 35

America came the Internfltirmal Workinimup'ft Association.
fHe famous " International " which, springing up in Europe
in the late sixties, soon spread to botfi sides yj[ fo^ At.l^iy.
It was first established in-ihgJLInited Stages in i8yi. This
first American section of the International made a slogan of
the declaration that the emancipation of the working classes
must be achieved by the working classes themselves. 1 The
organization appears to have been short-lived ; for tenjEgaES
later ; Jn.JL88;t <lll| ajioffie,r frody -calling itself the International
Workingmen's Association was organized at Pittsburgh
This organization, says Tridon, was " made up mostly of
laborers and farmers who rejected all parliamentary action
and advocated education and propaganda as the best means
to bring about a social revolution." 2 In 1887, when they
had about 6,000 members, they attempted to am^lgamat
with the Socialist Labor partv T oui tflg' flegouations failed
anQ tney disbanded. 3

Meantime the anarchists had been busy in this country.
In 1 88 1, the year which marks the birth of the American
Federation of Labor (then called the Federation of Organ-
ized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and
Canada), the differences between them and those who ad-
vocated political action finally assumed definite form in the
organization by the anarchist advocates of physical force of
the Revolutionary Socialist party. In 1883 there was held
a joint convention of the " revolutionary socialists " and
the anarchists which resulted in the birth of the Interna,-
tional Working People's Association. 4 At this convention

1 Commons, Documentary History of American Industrial Society,
vol. ix, p. 358.

2 Tridon, op. cit., pp. 93-94.

3 Ibid.

* Cf. Ebert, Justus, American Industrial Evolution (New York: New
York Labor News Co., 1907), p. 64.

36 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

were gathered representatives of anarchist and revolutionary
socialist groups from twenty-six cities. These delegates
drafted the famous Pittsburgh proclamation which de-
manded " the destruction of the existing government by all
means, i. e., by energetic, implacable, revolutionary and in-
ternational action " and the establishment of an industrial
system based upon " the free exchange of equivalent prod-
ucts between the producing organizations themselves and
without the intervention of middlemen and profit-making." 1
In the course of two years the membership of the Inter-
national grew to about 7,000. Then in 1888 came the Hay-
market tragedy and the International soon passed out of
existence. The anarchists were in control of this organiza-
tion and great stress was laid upon revolutionary tactics and
direct action, with a corresponding depreciation of polit-
ical action. John Most, the anarchist, had come to this
country in 1882 and the organization of the International
Working People's Association was largely due to his agita-
tion here.

There is no doubt that all the main ideas of modern revo-
lutionary unionism as exhibited by the I. W. W. may be
found in the old International Workingmen's Association. 2
The I. W. W. organ, The Industrial Worker, asserts that
*' we must trace the origin of the ideas of modern revolu-
tionary unionism to the International." 3 Comparing the
French cousin of our modern I. W. W. with the older
Association, James Guillaume asks, "et qu'est-ce que la con-
federation generate du Travail sinon la continuation de
1'internationale ?" * Many items in the program originally

1 Tridon, op. cit., p. 93.

~ Cf. Compte-rendu officiel du sixieme congres general de I'association
Internationale des travailleurs ... Geneva, 1873 (Locle, 1874).

3 June 18, 1910, p. 2.

* L' Internationale: documents et souvenirs 1864-78 (Paris, Comely,
1905-10), vol. iv, p. vii.

FORERUNNERS OF THE I. W. W. 37

drafted by the famous anarchist, Michael Bakunin, for the
International in 1868 are very similar to the twentieth cen-
tury slogans of the I. W. W.

It began by declaring itself atheist, " L 'alliance se de-
clare athee," and went on to assert that its chief work was
to be the abolition of religion and the substitution of science
for faith. It advocated the political, social and economic
equality of the classes, to achieve which end all governments
were to be abolished. It opposed not only all centralized
organization, but also all forms of political action, and be-
lieved that groups of producers, instead of the community,
should have control of the processes of industry. 1

" Ennemie de tout despotisme, ne reconnaisant d'autre
forme politique que la forme republicaine, et rejetant abso-
lument toute alliance reactionnaire, elle repousse aussi toute
action politique qui n'aurait pas pour but immediat et direct
le triomphe de la cause des travailleurs centre le capital." 2

A secret organization, known as the Sovereigns of In-
dustry, was launched at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1874.
It admitted both men and women. Its Preamble stated that
it was " an association of the industrial working classes
without regard to race, color, nationality or occupation;
not founded for the purpose of waging any war of aggres-
sion upon any other class or fostering any antagonism of
labor against capital . . . but for mutual assistance in self-
improvement and self -protection." 3 Its ultimate purpose,
however, appeared to be the elimination of the wages
system.

In the same year was formed a socialist organization

1 James Guillaume, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 132-133.

2 Loc. cit., pp. 132-133.

3 F. T. Carlton, "Ephemeral labor movements," Popular Science
Monthly, vol. Ixxxv, p. 494 (November, 1914).

38 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

called " The Association of United Workers of America." 1
This body, together with several other organizations of
socialists, merged to form the Workingmen's Party in
1876. The following year the name was changed to the
Socialist Labor Party. The year 1874 also marks the birth
01 the~Tndustrial Brotherhood, an organization somewhat
similar to the Knights of Labor but which did not survive
the seventies. 2

A decade later (1884) the National Union of the United
Brewery Workmen of the United States was organized.
Next to the United Mine Workers this is today the strong-
est industrially organized union in America. This union
has almost from the beginning admitted to its membership
not only brewers but also drivers (of brewery wagons),
maltsters, engineers and firemen employed in breweries, etc.
all workmen, in fact, who are employed in and around
the breweries. Untfl 1836 the Brewers were a part of the
Knights of Labor. Since then they have been almost con-

i ifii^ii Mi " TrnnUMau^. ^-_^^^_--. mi ' f ~,

unuously affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.
'iTleyiiave, llMVWe'r, always 'insisted 'upon UUMMU Ullloil-

have more than

once been at loggerheads with the Federation on this score.
The Brewery Workmen's Union, although conservative in
every other way, is cited by I.W.W.'s, no less than the Mine
Workers, as a model of the correct thing in labor-union
structure. In 1890 the United Mine Workers' Union of
America was formed^ The organization is Today fBe'Targ-

ynjon m this country, if not in the world. It is unques-

tionably the strongest industrial union in the world. Since

1905 the revolutionary industrial I.W.W.'s have looked
V

1 Vide reprint of its General Rules, published in 1874, Commons, Docu-
mentary History of American Industrial Society, vol. ix, pp. 376-8.

2 Report of the Industrial Commission, vol. xvii, p. 3, and Powderly,
T. V., Thirty Years of Labor (Columbus, Ohio, 1889), p. 126.

FORERUNNERS OF THE I. W. W. 39

with admiration upon the structural form of the Mine
Workers' Union and with impatient scorn upon their con-
servative tactics.

In England also there came at this time a high tide of
sentiment for the " new unionism."

The day has gone by for the efforts of isolated trades [wrote
H. M. Hyndman] . Nothing is to be gained for the workers as
a class without the complete organization of labourers of all
grades, skilled and unskilled. . . . We appeal ... to the
skilled artisans of all trades ... to make common cause with
their unskilled brethren and with us Social Democrats so that
the workers may themselves take hold of the means of produc-
tion and organize a cooperative commonwealth. . . - 1

What is even more significant in view of the present day I.
W. W. demand for industrial control is the fact that there
was constantly cropping up in the eighties the Owenite de-
mand that the workers must be allowed to " own their own
factories and decide by vote who their managers and fore-
men shall be." 2

In 1888 came the famous Haymarket riots in Chicago.
The effect of this tragedy was unquestionably to give the
labor and socialist movements a serious setback.

The labor movement [says Robert Hunter] lay stunned after
its brief flirtation with anarchy. The union men drew away
from the anarchist agitators, and, taking their information
from the capitalist press only, concluded that socialism and
anarchism were the same thing, and would, if tolerated, lead
the movement to ruin and disaster. Without a doubt, the
bomb in Chicago put back the labor movement for years. It
. . . did more to induce the rank and file of trade unionists to

1 " The decay of trade unions," Justice, June, 1887, quoted by Webb,
History of Trade Unionism, p. 396.

2 Webb, op. cit., pp. 39*5-397-

40 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

reject all association with revolutionary ideas than perhaps all
other things put together. 1

Justus Ebert, who is now a member of the I. W. W., de-
clares that the Haymarket affair " involved the new Social-
ist Labor party in a fierce discussion of the right course to
pursue in the emancipation of labor." 2 Robert Hunter
thinks that these riots really gave the French unionists the
idea of the General Strike and thus helped to give form,
first, to modern French syndicalism, and second, both by
relay back to this side of the Atlantic and directly by its
influence in this country, to American syndicalism in the
form of the Industrial Workers of the World. 3

Five years after Haymarket in June. iSffi an_ incjuj-
jrial union of railway emnlovees ^* nrorant^ \\\ ffrirgf
by Eugeney!Del)s.' A year later, at the time of the Pull-
\f man strike^rL had a membership of 1^0,000. The'' failure

of that strike, which by the way was an early example of I.
W~"W. tactics, broke down the union and it passed out of

893felso marks the beginning
^gmersTw

ranked as .

chief predecessor of the I. W. W. The coal miners had
flSrmecTtheir national organization three years earlier.
Both the coal and metalliferous miners' unions were built
from the start upon the industrial type, that is, including in
their membership in both cases " all persons employed in.
and around the mines." The Western Federation of Miners
was organized in Butte, Montana, in iJSoji/and almost im-
mediately affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.
T> sqfflptflfi frnfn the Federation, however, in igo/ and,

1 " The General Strike " ; iii, In America and France, Oakland (Calif.)*
World, Dec. 28, 1912.

2 Justus Ebert, American Industrial Evolution, p. 63.
8 Op. cit., Oakland World, Dec. 28, 1912.

FORERUNNERS OF THE I. W. W. 4I

after a period of independent existence broken by alliances
vvitli the Western Labor Union in 1808 and with the I. W.

During the twelve years of the Western Federation's ex-
istence before the birth of the I. W. W., it figured in the
most strenuous and dramatic series of strike disturbances in
the history of the American labor movement. Swift on
each others' heels came the terrors of Coeur d'Alene in
1893, Cripple Creek in 1894, Leadyille injEJffif-,7, fipTt T H
flip Coeur (TAlene again m 1800. Telluride in | IQOI.
Spr'ngi in T^Q, af? '^pplf Creek again in

The Federation was in its first decade particularly as
militantly radical as the coal miners' union was conserva-
tive. The strikes in which it has engaged have been usually
marked by much disorder and violence. 1 During the Idaho
Springs strike in 1903 an indignation meeting of the citi-
zens was called for July 2gth by the Citizens' Protective
League an association of mine owners and business men.
At this meeting one of the local merchants said : " Moyer
and Haywood are the arch anarchists of this country, along
with Herr Most. I see that Moyer is coming to Idaho
Springs tomorrow. I want to say that if the people allow
him to land his feet in Clear Creek County they are dirty
arrant cowards." Very shortly the meeting passed a reso-
lution to deport the strikers, adjourned to the jail, demanded
the prisoners, ordered out 14 of the 23 there incarcerated
and deported them. 2

There is no doubt that the terrible strike troubles during
the nineties and the early years of this century had their
effect in working union men up to the radically pioneering
pitch. These struggles were surely the birth signs of the

1 Vide, Federal Report on " .Labor disturbances in Colorado : 1880-
1904," (58th Cong., 3d Sess., no. 122, 1905), pp. 107, 149.

2 Ibid., pp. 152-155-

4 2 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

coming militant industrialism of the Industrial Workers of
the World. Wm. D. Haywood, now General Secretary-
Treasurer of the I. W. W., and Vincent St. John, for sev-
eral years in the same position, were both active and lead-
ing members of the W. F. M. during its earlier years. The
Federation was less scornful of politics than is the I. W. W.
The Western Miners were forced by the obvious conniv-
vance between the state and city governments and the mine
operators, by the use of the militia for the suppression of
strikes and by the abuse of the injunction to consider the
possibilities of political action along socialistic lines. At their
convention in 19x32 they resolved " to adopt the principle of
socialism without equivocation." x This resolution was re-
affirmed in 1903 and 1904. " We recommend the Socialist
party," reads their statement in 1904, " to the toiling masses
of humanity as the only source through which they can
secure . . . complete emancipation from the present system
of wage slavery . . ." 2 " Let all strike industrially here
and now, if necessary," runs another resolution (signed, by
the way, by William D. Haywood), "and then strike in
unity at the ballot-box for the true solution of the labor
problem by putting men of our class into public office. . . ."

The Federation was not actually content, however, with
political activity. It has been made quite evident that the
economic weapon of the strike was not neglected. In addi-
tion to this the fundamental and at that time rarely dis-
cussed problem of employees' control in industry was seri-
ously discussed. At the tenth convention, Wm. D. Hay-
wood proposed that the Federation invest some of its money
in mines, to be operated by its members for the benefit of

1 Federal Report on " Labor Disturbances in Colorado," p. 42.

*lbid.

3 Proceedings Tenth W. F. M. Convention, Denver, 1902, p. 161.

FORERUNNERS OF THE I. W. W. 43

the unions. 1 At the following meeting President Moyer
proposed that the Federation secure control of and operate
mines and levy assessments for the purpose. 2 The plan had
to be given up at that time because the Federation just then
faced unusual difficulties because of the strike confronting
it. Nevertheless, this idea of industrial workers' control
had its effect in impressing the miners with the notion that
in their union " they had an agency that could carry on and
control production for their own benefit."

Some conception of the unusually radical temper of the
Western Federation may be had from the Preamble to its
constitution. It declares that

there is a class struggle in society and that this struggle is
caused by economic conditions; . . . the producer ... is ex-
ploited of the wealth which he produces, being allowed to re-
tain barely sufficient for his elementary necessities; . . . that
the class struggle will continue until the producer is recognized
as the sole master of his product ; . . . that the working class,
and it alone, can and must achieve its own emancipation ; . . .
[and] finally, that an industrial union and the concerted polit-
ical action of all wage workers is the only method of attaining
this end.

For these reasons, the Preamble concludes, " the wage

slaves employed in and around the mines, mills and smelters

have associated in the Western Federation of Miners." 3 ...

The Western Federation of Miners was the effective

^^ ^ ^^ ^^pMBBHIBWmi '"'."''.'

agency in the formation at^Salt Lake City in 1 898 of the y
Western Labor Union. It was in this same vear that the

1 Proceedings Tenth W. F. M. Convention, pp. 163-165. Vincent St.
John was also interested as a proponent of this plan.

2 Proceedings Eleventh W. F. M. Convention (1903), pp. 33-34.

3 Constitution and By-Laws of the Western Federation of Miners

p. 3.

44 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

the Socialist party

free years later) was organized in Chicago., The Western

Union in HJ<>_> moved its headquarters from Butte,
Montana, to Chicago, and changed its name to the Amer-
can Labor Union, which in turn, and inclusive of the W.
M., merged in 1905 with certain other radical unions to
orm the Industrial Workers of the World. 1 The Amer-
ican Labor Union was in 1905 apparently on the verge of
disruption practically dead. 2 The Federation of Miners
was always the Western (or American) Labor Union's
largest and strongest component. It repudiated the Amer-
ical Federation of Labor. The bulk of its membership was
unskilled labor and it soon had enrolled, in addition to the
mine laborers, large numbers of the cooks, waiters, team-
sters, and lumbermen of the western states. It was appar-
ently the first labor organization seriously to attempt the
organization of the lumber workers. 3 The Western Labor
Union proposed to bring into an industrial organization
western wage-workers of all crafts and no crafts ; it aimed
to include all kinds and degrees of labor, but until 1901 its
activities were mostly confined to the mining camps of the
West.* Indeed, Katz says that " the American Labor
Union was practically only another name for the Western
Federation of Miners : [being] called into existence to give
the miners' union a national character." 5

The American Labor Union was very decidedly an indus-

1 Cf. appendix i.

2 Proceedings Sixteenth Convention W\. F. M., p. 17 (Report of
President C. H. Moyer).

3 Cf. Haywood, " The timber worker and the timber wolves," Inter-
national Socialist Review, vol. xiii, p. no (August, 1912).

4 Proceedings Sixteenth Convention, W. F. M., p. 17.

5 Rudolph Katz, "With DeLeon since '89," Weekly People, September
4, 1915, p. 4.

FORERUNNERS OF THE I. W. W. 45

trial union more, however, by anticipation than realiza-
tion. It resembled our modern I. W. W. in some important
particulars. " It believes," says one of the members, " that
all employees working for one company, engaged in any
one industry, should be managed through . . . one authori-
tative head ; that all men employed by one employer, in any
one industry [should] be answerable to the employer
through one and the same organization . . ." 1 The ap-
proval of its general Executive Board is required before
any member local can call a strike. 2 An interchangeable or
universal transfer system is provided, as it was later by the
I. W. W. 3 The American Labor Union was an industrial
organization of more decided political character and sym-
pathies than is the I. W. W. It was, however, decidedly
socialistic in its ultimate aim. It seemed to mark the climax
of development of industrial unionism of that (political-
socialist) type. It will be evident in the following pages^
that in 1905 began a sharp swing under the I. W. W. ban/
ner from Socialist industrial unionising to/anarcho-syndicalist

-y** "^.....i i ,.-i.,y- l i.- l .--ima>i>-.>~--~^ * \

industrial unionism. |

A good many of the leaders of the American Labor
Union were members of the Socialist party. " Believing
that the time has come," runs the A. L. U. Preamble, " for
undivided, independent, working-class political action, we
hereby declare in favor of international Socialism and adopt
the platform of the Socialist Party of America as the polit-
ical platform and program of the American Labor Union." 4
Although it endorsed socialism, the A. L. U., unlike the
Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, admitted workingmen
of any political views whatsoever, but resembled the latter

1 " Industrial Union Epigrams," Voice of Labor, March, 1905.

2 Preamble, Constitution and Laws of the A. L. U., p. 20.

3 Ibid., art. ix, sec. 1 1 and sec. 12.

4 Preamble, Constitution and Laws, pp. 4-5.

46 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

organization in its opposition to the American Federation
of Labor and its desire to build up a revolutionary labor
movement.

The economic organization of the proletariat [declares the
official organ of the A. L. U.] is the heart and soul of the
socialist movement, of which the political party is simply the
public expression at the ballot box. The purpose of industrial
unionism is to organize the working class in approximately the
same departments of production as those which will obtain in
the cooperative commonwealth, so that, if the workers should
lose their franchise, they would still possess an economic organ-
ization intelligently trained to take over and collectively admin-
ister the tools of industry and the sources of wealth for them-
selves. 1

The roots of I.W.W.-ism reached out most vigorously
and numerously in the western part of the United States,
and the greater part of its strength today is derived from
its western membership. The way was prepared for it most
largely by western organizations the Western Federation
of Miners being the forerunner par excellence of modern
I.W.W.-ism. Two organizations in the East, that is, hav-
ing their chief strength in the East, played a highly im-
portant role during the decade preceding the launching of
the I. W. W. These organizations were the Socialist Labor
party and its trad^-unin^ "l

a uUr- at)0r Alliance. Adequately to fill in this sketch of
origins, it is necessary to refer briefly to these two organ-
izations, especially to the S. T. & L. A., the Socialist Labor
party's bright ideal of all that a labor union ought to be.

The Socialist Labor party was organized in 1877. It was
a merger of the National Labor Union, the North Amer-
ican Federation of the International Workingmen's Asso-

1 American Labor Union Journal, Dec, 1904. Quoted by Ebert,
American Industrial Evolution, p. 82.

FORERUNNERS OF THE I. W. W.

ciation and the Social Democratic Workmen's Party. It
was first known as the Workmen's Party of the United
States. The German srci'aJM Jxaderunion element

^^^^M^^^

inated_in__it7 'The Socialist Labor party has always been

emphatically Marxian and its leaders have been so decidedly

i - f j

doctrinaire in their interpretation of Marxian socialism and
in their application of it to the practical work of socialist
campaigning and propaganda that they have been not un-
justly called impossibilists. Since the organization of the
Socialist party in 1901 these two political parties of the
socialist faith have been in open and bitter opposition to
';ich other. The Socialist party adopted an opportunist
policy, endorsed and often leagued itself with the conser-
vative trade unions, refrained from any attempt to form or
cooperate in the formation of socialist unions, and con-
tented itself with the endeavor to make the existing unions
socialistic by converting their individual members to social-
ism a policy which came to be known as " boring from
within." The Socialist Labor party, on the other hand,
embraced a doctrinaire, " impossibilist " policy, violently
attacked the trade unions, made its slogan " no compro-
mise and no political trading," and insisted that new
unions, industrial in structure and socialist in purpose and
principle should be created in opposition to the craft unions,
whose structure and spirit it despaired of changing by
" boring from within." The Socialist party has waxed
strong and powerful. Its rival has languished and is today
too small a group to be called a party.

The Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance was organized

^mf^***mf*u^*~m**mm*mm**^**^*>**r~' l ..... " i --

in 1895, the same year which witnessed the birth of the

OMMM^^fAMMMMMMlW^^* AAMflBBHBlMANg^llHMI^MMMIpMWVW'p*' 111 **^

organized syndicalist movement in France in the form of
the Confederation Generale du Travail. On December 6th
of that year a delegation from District Assembly 49 of the

1 Ebert, American Industrial Evolution, p. 61.

48 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Knights of Labor met in conjunction with the Central Labor
Federation of New York City and launched the Socialist
Trade and Labor Alliance. The idea of this organization
seems to have originated with Daniel DeLeon, whom his
enemies called " the Pope of the S. L. P." and who was
undoubtedly the leading student of Marxian socialism in
this country. He was convinced that, as one of his follow-
ers expressed it, " without the organization of the workers
into a class-conscious revolutionary body on the industrial
field, socialism would remain but an aspiration." * " The
S. T. & L. A.," declares N. I. Stone, " was the most unique
example of a socialist trade-union, anti-pure-and-simple or-
ganization in the annals of labor history . . ." " It came
down upon us," he said, " full fledged from top to bottom
as the masterpiece of our ' Master Workman ' [DeLeon]
and took us by surprise; but take it did . . ." 2

In 1896 at the first convention of the Socialist Labor
party after the organization of the S. T. & L. A. the party
formally endorsed the latter organization. Mr. Hugo Vogt
addressed the convention in behalf of the S. T. & L. A.
" The whole of this labor movement," he said, " must be-
come saturated with socialism, must be placed under social-
ist control, if we mean to bring together the whole working
class into that army of emancipation which we need to
accomplish our purpose." 3 He went on to explain that " in
order to make it impossible for any masked swindlers to
obtain influence in the Alliance, and to swing it back to the
conservative side, we have provided that every officer . . .
shall take a pledge that he will not be affiliated with any

1 Katz, "With DeLeon since '89," Weekly People, April 24, 1915, p. 3.

2 Stone, N. L, Attitude of the Sorialists to the Trade Unions
(pamphlet, New York, 1900, Volkszeitung Library, vol. ii, Apr., 1900),
p. 6.

8 Quoted by Robt. Hunter, " The trade unions and the Socialist
Party," Miners' Magazine, March 7, 1912, p. n.

FORERUNNERS OF THE /. W. W. 49

capitalist party and will not support any political action
except that of the Socialist Labor party. 1

The Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance was patterned
very closely after the Knights of Labor. Wm. E. Traut-
mann called it "a. duodecimo edition of the K. of L." 2 " It
had the same district alliances with the same intellectuals
as leaders : the same local craft organizations and the same
mixed locals [as well as] the same centralized autocracy at
headquarters . . ." He concludes that " the most fatal
weakness of all was the political union of the S. T. & L. A. .
with the S. L. P." 3 The Alliance was, after all, a revolu-
tionary socialist trade union rather than an industrial union.
It differed from the American Labor Union and other
forerunners mentioned above in this lack of industrial
structure as well as in the emphasis it laid on the need of
rallying to the support of the Socialist Labor party, with
which organization it stood in the most intimate relations
and to which most of its members belonged. It was actually
sceptical about the efficacy of purely economic action. In
common with the I. W. W. later on, and in spite of the fact
that its own locals were virtually trade or craft locals, it
nourished an almost bitter hatred of the craft unions. " We
simply have to go at them," said one of its members, " and
smash them from top to bottom . . ." * Its animus was
directed, however, at their conservatism and not so much at
their craft structure.

In its " Declaration of Principles " the Alliance asserted
that

the methods and spirit of labor organization are absolutely

1 Hunter, loc. cit.

2 Voice of Labor, May, 1905.

3 Ibid.

4 Delegate Hickey, Proceedings Tenth S. L. P. Convention, p. 220.

50 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

impotent to resist the aggressions of concentrated capital . . . ,*
that the economic power of the capitalist class . . . rests upon
institutions, essentially political, which . . . cannot be radically
changed . . . except through the direct action of the working
people themselves, economically and politically united as a class.

This Declaration concludes with the following statement of
the chief object of the Alliance:

The summary ending of that barbarous [class] struggle at
the earliest possible time by the abolition of classes, the restora-
tion of the land and of all the means of production, transpor-
tation and distribution to the people as a collective body, and
the substitution of the cooperative commonwealth for the pres-
ent state of planless production, industrial war and social dis-
order; a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the
free exercise and full benefit of his faculties, multiplied by all
the modern factors of civilization. 1

In the body of its constitution the objects of the Alliance
are set forth more explicitly. They are declared to be to
bring about the adoption of its principles

by bodies of organized labor which are still governed ... by
the tenets or traditions of the " Old Unionism Pure and
Simple " ; to organize into local and district alliances all the
wage workers, skilled or unskilled; ... to further the polit-
ical movement of the working class and its development on the
lines of international socialism as represented on this conti-
nent by the Socialist Labor party. 2

The Socialist Labor party naturally greeted the Alliance
with enthusiasm. After officially endorsing the Alliance,
the 1896 convention passed a resolution of welcome.

1 Constitution of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance of the
United States and Canada (1902), pp. 3-4. (Italics mine.)

P- 5-

FORERUNNERS OF THE /. W.W. ci

We hail with unqualified joy [it declared] the formation of the
Socialist Trades and Labor Alliance as a great stride toward
throwing off the yoke of wage slavery. . . . We call upon the
socialists of the land to carry the revolutionary spirit of the
S. T. and L. A. into all the organizations of the workers and
thus consolidate . . . the proletariat of America in an irre-
sistible class conscious army, equipped both with the shield of
the economic organization and the sword of the Socialist Labor
party ballot. 1

During this S. T. and L. A. period Daniel DeLeon looked
upon revolutionary unionism as being necessarily pro-
political rather than pro-industrial and non-political. He
then felt that the political movement must dominate the
unions as they are in Germany dominated by the Social
Democracy. He later became convinced that revolutionary
unionism must dominate the political movement, and that
the revolutionary union had a decisive mission in the So-
cialist movement.

The S. T. and L. A. [says Fraina] was largely a weapon to
fight conservative A. F. of L. politics. The friends of the A.
F. of L. roared in protest and . . . split the Socialist move-
ment to save the A. F. of L. . . . DeLeon's revolutionary
unionism was largely a means to prevent the socialist political
movement [from] being controlled by the Aristocracy of Labor
and the Middle Class two social groups which . . . have cer-
tain interests in common and against the revolutionary prole-
tariat. 2

The composition and membership of the S. T. and L. A.
in July, 1898, were as follows :

1 Proceedings, Ninth S. L. P. Convention, 1896, p. 30.

2 Louis Fraina, " DeLeon," The New Review, July, 1914, vol. ii, p. 393.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

German Waiters 260

Ale and Porter Union 200

United Engineers 60

Marquette Workers 70

Carl Sahm Club 80

Piano Makers 520

Bohemian Butchers 15

Bartenders 9

Furriers 250

Silver Workers 4

Empire City Lodge 35

New York Cooks 55

German Coopersmiths 80

Macaroni Workers 65

Progressive Cigarette Makers 97

Bohemian Typographia 32

Swedish Machinists 98

Progressive Typographia 15

Pressmen and Feeders 18

Independent Bakers No. 33 60

Independent Bakers No. 25 45

Liberty Waiters 65

3,258 *

Far from being superior to the old [craft] organization (s),
[says Stone] it is very much inferior. . . . With an insignifi-
cant membership, without controlling as much as a large fac-
tory, not to speak of a trade, at war not only with the bosses,
. . . but with every trade union which does not come under its
mighty wing it was unable to undertake any step of impor-
tance, in order to improve the condition of its members. The
only strike of significance which it had, that at Slatersville
[Rhode Island] was a failure after it had cost the Party about
$1,500. . . . 2

The Alliance was scarcely more than a phantom organ-
ization on the eve of the launching of the I. W. W. in

1 Stone, op. cit., p. 13. "At the most liberal estimate, the total strength
of the Alliance did not exceed 15,000 at that time (1898)." Ibid., p. 14.

2 Ibid., p. IS-

FORERUNNERS OF THE I. W. W. 53

1905. The same may be said of all the western unions
which in that year merged in the I. W. W., except the
Western Federation of Miners. The S. L. P. arid the S. T.
and L. A. " talk of capturing the convention to be held on
June 27 [the ist I. W. W. convention] . . . That conven-
tion should be not a revival, but the funeral, of the S. T.
and L. A." 1 This expressed fairly well the attitude of the
Socialist party men. " Born in hatred, suckled in dissen-
sion," as one socialist writer sees it, " the sole partisan trade
union that ever arose to deny the principles and policies of
international socialism came to destruction by its own
venom, not, however, until it had implanted the poison of
its spirit into the Industrial Workers of the World." 2

The main ideas of I.W.W.-ism certainly of the I.W.W.-
ism of the first few years after 1905 were of American
origin, not French, as is commonly supposed. These senti-
ments were brewing in France, it is true, in the early nine-
ties, 3 but they were brewing also in this country and the
American brew was essentially different from the French.
It was only after 1908 that the syndicalisme revolutionnaire
of France had any direct influence on the revolutionary in-
dustrial unionist movement here. Even then it was largely
a matter of borrowing such phrases as sabotage, la grfate
perlee, etc. The tactics back of the words sabotage and
" direct action " had been practiced by American working
men years before those words ever came into use among our
radical unionists. " The Western Labor Union," says
Walling, " was applying these principles in the Rocky

1 Letter of Wm. E. Trautmann, Voice of Labor, May, 1905.

2 Robt. Hunter, " The Trade Unions and the Socialist party," Miners'
Magazine, March 7, 1912, p. II.

3 Vide, Cornelissen, " Ueber den internationalen Syndikalismus,"
Archiv fur Sozial Wissenschaft und Sosial-Politik, xxx, (1910), p. 150.
Cf. also Industrial Worker, June 18, 1910, p. 2.

5 4 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Mountains, under the leadership of Haywood and others,
several years before the French Confederation of Labor
was formed . . ." 1 Some premonition of the power of a
labor union including all or even a large proportion of
the unskilled was given by the Western Federation of Min-
ers, the American Labor Union, the American Railway
Union, and other American organizations already re-
ferred to.

During the first five years of this century the idea of
militant industrial unionism underwent rapid development.
Unionists were coming to have a much broader view of the
social role of the labor union. The actual trend of events
opened the way for reorganization on new lines. VThe or-
/Tganizations which were to make up the I. W. W. were
I almost without exception in unprosperous straits, some of
I them being on the verge of disruption. All of them were
Sitter in their opposition to the American Federation of
Labor with which organization, indeed, few of them were
affiliated. The United Metal Workers had been affiliated
but withdrew in December, 1904. There was probably
little left but a remnant when they joined the I. W. W. the
following year. The same is true of the United Brother-
hood of Railway Employees. Even the American Labor
Union except its " mining division," the W. F. M. was
skirting the edge of dissolution. 2 The Socialist Labor party
and its " puny child," the Socialist Trade and Labor Alli-
ance, were in a bad way. Among the United Mine Work-
ers there was dissension in many localities. There was dis-
satisfaction with the leaders and especially with the upshot
of the strike settlement of 1902. Moreover, the miners as

1 " Industrialism or revolutionary unionism," The New Review, Jan.
n, 1913, vol. i, p. 47.

2 Proceedings, Sixteenth W. F. M. Convention (Report of President
Moyer), pp. 17-18.

FORERUNNERS OF THE L W. W. 55

well as the United Brewery Workmen were embittered by
constant criticism of their industrial form of organization.
The latter were threatened with the prospect of a revoca-
tion of their charter by the Federation. There were thus a
number of " national " organizations and many locals in
other bodies which were anxious to create some central labor
organization to strengthen the forces of industrial union-
ism. The Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, though on
the decline, still included a considerable body of workers
who were impatient of the conservatism of the A. F. of L.
and desired somehow to build up a strong revolutionary
(this meaning for them a Marxian socialist) organization.
The Western Federation of Miners stronger than all the
others put together was not excelled by any of them in its
revolutionary zeal. It had the power as well as the enthu-
siasm. Moreover, it represented revolutionary industrial
unionism more completely than did the smaller unions in
the West and the Alliance in the East. The Alliance, in
fact, was a revolutionary union without the industrial char-
acter and without much real appreciation of the meaning
and importance of the idea of industrial as opposed to craft
organization. The miners, however, had a big, powerful
union of an emphatically industrial character and their ex-
perience had made them very militant. 1

Much of this hard experience consisted in a gradual pro-
cess of disillusionment about the virtue and goodness of the
state so far as its relations with labor were concerned. The
long series of violent and protracted strikes between the
Western Federation and the mine operators and the role

1 Cf. Louis Levine, " The Development of Syndicalism in America,"
Political Science Quarterly, vol. xxviii, pp. 460-462 (Sept., 1913). Cf.
also Selig Perlman, " From Socialism to Anarchism and Syndicalism "
(1876-1884), pp. 269-300 (vol. ii, chap. 6), in Commons and others,
History of Labor in the United States.

5 6 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

played therein by the state government convinced the miners
that they would be more successful in gaining their political
ends if they had more economic power to back up their re-
quests. The miners were convinced, therefore, that the im-
perative need of the hour was for the extension to other in-
dustries of their type of industrial organization inspired by
socialist aims. This would make solidarity possible, not
only between skilled and unskilled in the metalliferous
mines but also in all mines, all shops, all industries. They
felt that then indeed would an injury to one be the concern
of all. 1

1 There is an excellent description of the older industrial unions,
particularly the Western Federation of Miners and the United Brewery
Workmen, in William Kirk's monograph, National Labor Federations
in the United States, pt. iii, " Industrial Unions," pp. 117-150, Johns
Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science, ser. xxiv,
nos. 9 and 10.

CHAPTER II

THE Industrial Workers of the World, now more gener- %
ally known as the I. W. W., 2 was organized at an " Indus- \

is^

trial Union Congress " held in Chicago in June, 1905.
first or constitutional convention had its inception in an in-
formal conference held in that city, in the fall of 1904, by
six men of prominence in the socialist and labor movement.
These conferees were : William E. Trautmann. editor of the
Brauer Zeitung, official organ of the United Brewery Work-
men; George Estes, President of the United BrotherhdOfl
of Railway Employees; W. L. Hall, General Secretary-
Treasurer of the United Brotherhood of Railway Em-
ployees; Isaac Cowen, American representative of the
Amalgamated Society of Engineers of Great Britain; Clar-
ence Smith, General Secretary-Treasurer of the American

1 The substance of chs. ii and iii was originally published in the
form of a monograph: The Launching of the Industrial Workers of
the World (University of California Publications in Economics, vol.
iv, no. l, Berkeley, 1913).

2 The three letters, I. W. W., have lent themselves to various pic-
turesque and derisive translations : " I Won't Work," " I Want
Whiskey," " International Wonder Workers," " Irresponsible Whole-
sale Wreckers," etc, "The Wobblies " is a nickname by which they
are quite commonly known, especially in the West. It is said that the
I.W.W.'s were so christened by Harrison Grey Otis, the editor of
the Los Angeles Times. And now, in 1917, Senator H. F. Ashurst, of
Arizona, declares that " I. W. W. means simply, solely and only, Im-
perial Wilhelm's Warriors." (Congr. Record, Aug. 17, 1917, vol. Iv,
p. 6104).

58 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Labor Union ; and Thomas J. Hagerty, editor of the Voice
of Labor, official organ of the American Labor Union. 1
Several others not present at this conference were at that
time actively interested in the matter and cooperated in
carrying out these prenatal plans. Two of them, Eugene
V. Debs and Charles O. Sherman, General Secretary of
United Metal Workers International Union, were destined
to play important roles in the organization.

These men were impelled by a common conviction that
the labor unions of America were becoming powerless to
achieve real benefits for working men and women. This
feeling was confirmed and intensified by many recent events
in the trade-union movement. It was not the more conser-
vative, " aristocratic " unions alone which were found want-
ing. Even those labor organizations of the industrial and
radical type, such as the American Labor Union, the West-
ern Federation of Miners, and the Socialist Trade and
Labor Alliance, were believed to be, for one reason or an-
other, quite unprepared to negotiate much less to fight
with the ever more highly integrated organizations of em-
ployers. At the constitutional convention in June, 1905,
Clarence Smith of the American Labor Union explained the
reasons for initiating the movement.

This conviction of ineffectiveness in the face of opportunities
for effective work was strengthened [he said] at the general
convention of the International Union of United Brewery
Workmen last September. It seemed clear that a united, har-
monious and consistent request from all unions and organiza-
tions of the American Labor Union, backed by an administra-
tion in whom the rank and file of the brewery workers had

1 St. John, The I. W. IV(, History, Structure and Methods (revised
edition, 1917), p. 2. Ernest Unterman, a writer prominently identified
with the Socialist party, was also present at this conference, although
he is not mentioned by St. John.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORG4NIZATION 59

confidence, would have brought the Brewery Workmen into
the American Labor Union at that time. And what would
have been true of the Brewery Workmen would have been
true also of other organizations of an industrial character. It
therefore seemed the first duty of conscientious union men,
regardless of affiliation, prejudice or personal interest, to lay
the foundation upon which all the working people, many of
whom are now organized, might unite upon a common ground
to build a labor organization that would correspond to modern
industrial conditions, and through which they might finally
secure complete emancipation from wage-slavery for all wage-
workers. 1

In order to go over the matter and discuss plans more
thoroughly, it was decided to arrange for a larger meeting
On November 29 a letter of invitation was sent to about
thirty persons then prominent in the radical labor and
Socialist movements. This letter contained the following
significant paragraph :

Asserting our confidence in the ability of the working class,
if correctly organized on both political and industrial lines, to
take possession of and operate successfully . . . the industries
of the country ;

Believing that working-class political expression, through
the Socialist ballot, in order to be sound, must have its eco-
nomic counterpart in a labor organization builded as the struc-
ture of socialist society, embracing within itself the working
class in approximately the same groups and departments and
industries that the workers would assume in the working-class
administration of the Co-operative Commonwealth . . . ;

We invite you to meet us at Chicago, Monday, January 2,
1905, in secret conference to discuss ways and means of unit-
ing the working people of America on correct revolutionary
principles, regardless of any general labor organization of past

1 " The Origin of the Manifesto," Proceedings, First I. W . W. Con-
vention, p. 82.

6o THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

or present, and only restricted by such basic principles as will
insure its integrity as a real protector of the interests of the
workers. 1

It is a noteworthy fact that, although the proposition was
concurred in and the invitation accepted with enthusiasm by
the great majority of those invited, agreement was not
unanimous. There were two dissenters Victor Berger and
Max Hayes. It is not recorded that Mr. Berger even sent
his " regrets," but Mr. Hayes explained his position at
length. In a letter to W. L. Hall, December 30, 1904, he
said:

This sounds to me as though we were to have another Socialist
Trade and Labor Alliance experiment again ; that we, who are
in the trade-unions as at present constituted, are to cut loose
and flock by ourselves. If I am correct in my surmises it
means another running fight between Socialists on the one side
and all other partisans on the other. ... If there is any fight-
ing to be done I intend ... to agitate on the inside of the
organizations now in existence. . . . 2

The Western Federation of Miners did not lack enthu-
siasm for this wider venture in industrial unionism. Presi-
dent Moyer's report to the thirteenth convention, which met
just one month before the constitutional convention of June.
1905, contained the following:

The Twelfth Annual Convention instructed your Executive
Board to take such action as might be necessary in order that
the representatives of organized labor might be brought to-

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, pp. 82^-3. The letter was
signed by W. E. Trautmann, George Estes, W. L. Hall, Eugene V.
Debs, Clarence Smith and Charles O. Sherman. A list of those invited
is given in the Proceedings, p. 89. " Mother " Mary Jones seems to
have been the only woman invited to the conference.

2 Ibid., pp. 99-100.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION fa

gether and plans outlined for the amalgamation of the entire
wage-working class into one general organization. Following
out these instructions at a meeting held in the month of De-
cember it was decided to send a committee to meet with the
officers of the American Labor Union. This conference took
place January 4. ... The result . . . was the Manifesto. . . .
The question for you to decide is not one of changing the prin-
ciples, policy or plan of your organization, but as to whether
or not the Western Federation of Miners shall become a work-
ing part of such a movement as set forth in the Manifesto,
which shall consist of one great industrial union embracing all
industries. 1

At about the same time J. M. O'Neill, the editor of the
Miners' Magazine, wrote William D. Haywood, the treas-
urer of the Federation, that

if this convention goes on record giving its unanimous sanction
to the movement that is contemplated in Chicago, such action
will be heralded from the Atlantic to the Pacific, . . . and will
create a sentiment that will keep on crystallizing until capital-
ism will feel that it is threatened in the citadel of its en-
trenched power. 2

The secret conference thereafter to be known as the
January Conference was called to order in the city of
Chicago on the second of January by William E. Traut-
mann. There were twenty-three persons present, represent-
ing nine different organizations; that is, of course, exclu-
sive of members of the Socialist and Socialist Labor parties,
who were not present formally as such. There were present
five officials of the United Brotherhood of Railway Em-
ployees and one member of the Brewery Workmen. Among

1 Proceedings, Thirteenth W. F. M. Convention, p. 21. At the same
time and place it was definitely recommended that the Federation take
part in the convention.

2 Letter dated May 26, 1905, published in Proceedings, Thirteenth W.
F. M. Convention, pp. 230-1.

62 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

those present were : Charles H. Moyer, President, Western
Federation of Miners; W. D. Haywood, Secretary of the
Western Federation of Miners ; J. M. O'Neill, editor of the
Miners' Magazwe; A. M. Simons, editor of The Inter-
national Socialist Review; Frank Bohn, organizer, Socialist
Labor party and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance;
T. J. Hagerty, editor of The Voice of Labor; C. O. Sher-
man, of the United Metal Workers; and "Mother"
Mary Jones. During a three days' session plans for a pro-
posed new labor organization were seriously discussed and
carefully worked out. The report of their committee on
methods and procedure was worked up by the members of
the conference into a " Manifesto " * which contained ( i )
an indictment of " things as they are " in the trade-union
world; (2) leading propositions and tentative plans for a
new departure in labor organization; and (3) a call for a
convention to organize this new union.

The first part of this document is devoted to a discussion
of certain modern tendencies in the labor movement. Trade
divisions among laborers and competition among capitalists
are both disappearing. The machine process is more and
more tending to minimize skill and swell the ranks of the
unskilled and unemployed. The incidence of the machine
process is fatal to labor groups divided according to the
tool used. ' These divisions," in the words of the Mani-
festo, " far from representing differences in skill or inter-
ests among the laborers, are imposed by the employers that
workers may be pitted against one another and spurred to
greater exertion in the shop, and that all resistance to capi-
talist tyranny may be weakened by artificial distinctions."
The employers, however, are united on the industrial plan
and reenforce their consequent impregnable position by

1 The Manifesto is reproduced in the writer's Launching of the In-
dustrial Workers of the World, pp. 46-49. The committee's report is
given in the Proceedings, p. 88.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION 63

making use of the military power and their affiliation with
the National Civic Federation.

The craft form of organization is severely criticized. It
makes solidarity impossible, for it generates a system of
organized scabbery, where union men scab on each other.
It results in trade monopolies, prohibitive initiation fees
and political ignorance. It dwarfs class consciousness and
tends to " foster the idea of harmony of interests between
employing exploiter and employed slave."

Passing on to the remedy proposed, the Manifesto de-
clares that

a movement to fulfil these conditions must consist of one great
industrial union embracing all industries, providing for craft
autonomy locally, industrial autonomy internationally, and
working-class unity generally. It must be founded on the class
struggle . . . and established as the economic organization of
the working class, without affiliation with any political party. 1

The phrase, " craft autonomy," is odd for industrialists.
A. M. Simons gives an explanation. He says that any
union entering the I. W. W. " will retain trade autonomy
in matters that concern each trade as completely as at the
present time, but when it enters the field of other trades,
instead of being met by trade competition . . . will be met
by the cooperation of affiliated unions." 2 This phrase re-
ferring to political parties was the germ of the ill-fated
" political clause " of the preamble, which formulated in an
indefinite way the issue on which three years later the organ-
ization split into two factions. 3 Other clauses provide that

(1) all power shall rest with the collective membership;

(2) all labels, cards, fees, etc., shall be uniform throughout;

(3) the general administration shall issue a publication at

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, pp. 5-6.

2 International Socialist Review, February, 1905, vol. v, p. 499.
(Editorial.)

3 Vide infra, ch. ix.

64 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

regular intervals; and (4) that a central defense fund be
established and maintained. The document concluded with
a call to all workers who agreed with these principles to
" meet in convention in Chicago, the 2/th day of June, 1905,
for the purpose of forming an economic organization of
the working class along the lines marked out in this Mani-
festo."

The Manifesto was signed by all those present at the
January conference and sent broadcast to all unions through-
out America and to the industrial unions of Europe. At
this January conference there was dominant a very radical
idea as to what a labor organization ought to be. The con-
ferees decided that such an organization should not only
provide a means of unifying all crafts and industries for the
better protection and advancement of the immediate inter-
ests of the working class, but that it must also offer, and
consciously push on towards, a final solution of the labor
problem, a solution very frankly assumed to be a socialistic
one.

To say that these conferees were, broadly speaking,
socialists and that they outlined a socialistic program of a
certain sort does not mean, as the daily press report insin-
uated, that the Socialist party was in any way represented
in the conference or that it was a political movement. Max
S. Hayes, anxious to disclaim on behalf of party Socialists
any responsibility for the new undertaking, declared that

As a matter of record and fairness it should be stated that,
first, not a single signer to the above call is officially identified
with the Socialist Party ; secondly, that not one of the signers
has been seen or heard or known on the floor of the American
Federation of Labor conventions as an advocate of socialism
in recent years ; and thirdly, it is doubtful whether any Amer-
ican Federation of Labor delegate, with possibly an exception
or two, had the slightest knowledge that the Chicago [January]
conference was to be held. 1

1 International Socialist Review, vol. v, p. 501 (March, 1905). For
typical press reports of the conference vide infra, p. 107.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION 5

The American Federation of Labor, as the embodiment
of the craft idea, was the subject of bitter attack at this pre-
natal conference. The general opinion seemed to be that
the A. F. of L. had outlived its usefulness, and that its ex-
tinction but not necessarily the extinction of its constit-
uent local unions was a consummation very much to be
desired.

The A. F. of L. very naturally resented its proposed an-
nihilation.

The Socialists have called another convention to smash the
American trade-union movement [said President Gompers].
Scanning the list of twenty-six signers of this call, one will
look in vain to find the name of one man who has not for years
been engaged in the delectable work of trying to divert, per-
vert, and disrupt the labor movement of the country. . . . We
feel sure that the endorsement of the latest accession to this new
movement of Mr. Daniel Loeb, alias DeLeon, will bring unction
to the souls of these promoters of the latest trade-union smash-
ing scheme. So the trade-union smashers and rammers from
without and the " borers from within " are again joining
hands ; a pleasant sight of the " pirates " and the " kangaroos "
hugging each other in glee over their prospective prey. 1

But the members of the January conference did not pro-
pose any wholesale or indiscriminate " smashing from
without." It is true they believed the Federation, as a fed-
eration, to be harmful to the interests of labor and would
have been nothing loath to " smash " it but the federated
units they proposed to take over and unite in a very differ-
ent way.

Mr. A. M. Simons, who claims to have given the final
draft to the Manifesto, says that " the idea expressed at the
conference was to form a new central body, into which ex-

1 Editorial, " The Trade Unions to be Smashed Again," American
Federationist, March, 1905.

66 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

isting unions and unions to be formed could be admitted,
but not to form rival unions." * Discussing the January
conference in the International Socialist Review," Mr.
Simons traces this idea back to two vital tendencies of the
day, viz., ( i ) the merging of trade lines in the class struggle,
and (2) the accelerated growth of class-consciousness on
the part of the capitalists. He concludes that " the only
question about the desirability of forming such an organiza-
tion is the question of .timeliness."

The organized laborers were only a part of the concern
of the conference. Nin pt y-fi vpl [Kr fent of those gainfully

. / / occupied are unorganized.^ It was, of course, realized that
[ "outside of all unions stood the overwhelming majority of
all working men, and, as Daniel DeLeon put it, these men
did not " propose to go into these organizations run by the
Organized Scabbery, because they had burned their fingers
thus enough. The organization of the future has to be built
of the men who are now unorganized that is, the over-
whelming majority of the working men in the nation."

Thus it was really hoped that much could and would be
done by workingmen in the existent unions, without break-
ing away from these local unions. These latter must be
pried away from the A. F. of L., but not themselves de-
stroyed. By all means let us " bore from within " as far as
that can be done; also when we can bore no longer, let us
hammer from without and pound together new bodies from
out the great unorganized mass. This, in brief, was the
position of most of the industrialists. However, not all

1 Private Correspondence, March 26, 1912.

2 Feb., 1905, article entitled, " The Chicago Conference for Industrial
Unionism." For a different interpretation of the Manifesto, vide
Frank Bohn's article in the same journal for April, 1905.

3 DLeon-Harriman Debate, The S. T. & L. A. vs. The Pure and
Simple Trade Union, p. 43.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION 67

would yet go thus far. Even among the Socialist leaders a
note of dissent was heard expressing the belief that to " bore
from within " was the only revolutionary method not abso-
lutely suicidal. 1 Just what fate awaited these January
ideas was to some extent revealed in the proceedings of the
June convention.

The convention called in accordance with the Manifesto
of the January conference met two hundred strong in Chi-
cago on Tuesday, June 27, 1905. This gathering was first
referred to as the " Industrial Congress " or the " Indus-
trial Union Convention," but since before adjournment it
had organized itself as the Industrial Workers of the World,
it is referred to as the First Annual Convention of the I.
W. W. It was a gathering remarkable and epoch-making
in more ways than one, and therefore the story of its activ-
ities is essential, not only to an understanding of the subse-
quent career of the organization, but as a fundamental
chapter in the whole history of industrial unionism. The
discussions and resolutions of the assembly and the final
type of organization which grew out of them can be under-
stood only in the light thrown on them by a study of the
composition of this revolutionary group of men. Its occu-
pational, structural, and doctrinal character should each be
taken into account.

Perhaps the most striking- characteristic of thi^ grtrnp nf
_two hundred radicals was the bewildering range of occupa- f
tions^ represented. The variety of different trades repre-
sented and the varying " quality " levels exhibited in the
organization here gathered to sink all differences and be-
come as one, were astonishingly great. The following list
of the different organizations represented at the convention
reveals at least forty distinct trades or occupations :

1 Among these dissenters were Max Hayes, Victor Berger and A. M.
Simons. Cf. letter written by Mr. Hayes to W. L. Hall in Proceedings,
First I. W. W. Convention, pp. 99-100.

68 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Bakers and Confectioners Union No. 48, Montreal.*

United Mine Workers No. 171.*

United Mine Workers, Pittsburg, Kans.*

Western Federation of Miners.

United Brotherhood of Railway Employees.

Journeymen Tailors Union of America No. 102, Pueblo.*

United Metal Workers International Union of America.

American Labor Union. (The A. L. U. included primar-
ily the United Brotherhood of Railway Employees, the
Amalgamated Society of Engineers and the Inter-
national Musical and Theatrical Union.)

Punch Press Operators Union No. 224, Schenectady.

Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.

Flat Janitors Local Union No. 102, Chicago.

Mill and Smeltermen's Union of the W. F. of M., Butte.

Paper Hangers and Decorators, Chicago.

Federal Union (A. L. U.) No. 252, Denver.

United Brewery Workers No. 9, Milwaukee.*

United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.

Metal Polishers and Buffers Union.

Journeymen Tailors Protective and Benevolent Union of
San Francisco.

Journeymen Tailors of Montreal.

Wage Earners Union of Montreal.

International Musicians Union.

The Industrial Workers Club, Cincinnati.

The Industrial Workers Club, Chicago.

Workers Industrial and Educational Union, Pueblo.

The foregoing organizations were each represented by at
least one delegate with full powers and instructions. The
following named bodies sent uninstructed delegates :

Metal Polishers, Buffers and Platers No. 6, Chicago.*
Carpenters and Joiners No. 181, Chicago*
Scandinavian Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers,
Chicago.

* Affiliated with American Federation of Labor at the time.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION fy

International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths and Helpers,
No. no, Chicago.

German Central Labor Union.

Switchmen's Union No. 29.*

Bohemian Musicians Union.

Hotel and Restaurant Workers.*

Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees,
Division No. 288, Chicago.*

Barbers Union No. 225, Sharon, Pa.*

United Labor League, Sharon, Pa.

Utah State Federation of Labor, Salt Lake City.

Cloak Makers and Tailors, Montreal.

American Flint Glass Workers Union, Toledo.

Commercial Men's Association, Court No. 1093, Milwau-
kee.

Street Laborers Union, Chicago.

Machinists, District Lodge No. 8.*

International Protective Laborers Union, Dayton, Ohio.

Typographical Union No. 49, Denver.*

Central Labor Union, North Adams, Mass.

International Longshoremens' Union No. 271, Hoboken,
N. J.*

Iron and Brass Molders, Schenectady.

Aside from the occupations represented above, the fol-
lowing were each represented by one or more individuals:
machinists, tanners, electrical workers, bookbinders, editors,
teachers, authors, printers, and shoe workers. An attorney-
at-law from New York City presented himself at the con-
vention. The committee on credentials recommended that
he be seated as a fraternal delegate, on account of the miti-
gating circumstances that he wrote for several newspapers
and was a " friend and sympathizer " of labor. After con-
siderable debate the report of the committee was adopted

* Affiliated with American Federation of Labor at the time.

70 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

" with the exception of that portion which refers to the
attorney." 1

This array of occupational or trade types was scarcely
more extensive than that of the structural types here grouped
together. Of these there were the following types, (i)
The simple industrial union, wherein all workers engaged,
in whatsoever capacity, in any particular industry are mem-
bers of the same union. This type was represented by the
Western Federation of Miners 2 really the strongest tap-
root of the I. W. W. (2) The multi-industrial type, a fed-
eration of industrial unions, such as the American Labor
Union, which included railway employees, engineers, and
musicians. (3) The so-called " international " union, rarely
more than national in scope, and merely a national associa-
tion of local unions of a given trade. This type was rep-
resented by the United Metal Workers International Union
of America. (4)The non- federative industrial union, like
the United Mine Workers of America with industrial rather
than trade units, an industrial organization which excludes
federation with similar organizations in other industries, or
with employers. (5) The ordinary non- federative trade
unions, here seen in two types : (a) the trade amalgama-
tion, a federation of unions wherein the constituent bodies
are so united as to preserve their individuality, although
trade autonomy is thereby destroyed. This type is illus-
trated here by the Amalgamated Society of Engineers; (b)
national unions of any particular trade like the iron mold-
ers, wherein the constituent unions are more subordinated
to the national body than in the amalgamation. (6) The
state federation as typified by the Utah State Federation
of Labor. And finally (7) the rather unconventional type
of " union," represented by the Industrial Workers' clubs
and the United Labor League.

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 70.

2 Now called The International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter
Workers.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION 7l

It should be understood that but a small part of the " in-
ternational " or national bodies was represented as a
whole. The greater number were represented by one or
two locals. A number of them were affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor at the time, but had become
dissatisfied with the policies of that body. 1 However, some
of the unions most prominent in the activities of the con-
vention were represented as central or national bodies with
all their constituent local unions. Such were the American
Labor Union and the United Metal Workers.

Those of the unions present which were affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor, though forming a fairly
large group numerically, represented no material defection
from the ranks of the Federation and, generally speaking,
played but a passive role in the work of the convention.
Of the forty-three organizations seated by the credentials
committee sixteen were affiliated with the Federation, but
at least eleven of these were represented by but one local
union. Of all these organizations which had merely local
rather than national representation, the United Mine Work-
ers of America was most widely represented, delegates from
nine of its local unions being present. 2 A little study of
the list of the organizations seated and the localities from
which their delegates came, makes it quite evident that on
the whole the strong delegations from powerful local bodies.
1r>pat*d at strategic points, were those having no connection /

"^"^^^**^^BPB*l^*W**M^"P^^"*""^W"^^^W*Mi^*M^^W^| / /

with the American Federation of Labor, and, conversely, /
that the fourteen American Federation of Labor unions just
referred to were represented as a rule by small and solitary
locals of doubtful strength. 3 The insignificant position of

1 Among these were the Bakers and Confectioners, and the Carpenters
and Joiners.

1 The Journeymen Tailors and the Switchmen each had delegates from
two locals.
3 The United Metal Workers International Union was at least

72 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

the American Federation of Labor bodies in the convention
will become still more manifest by an inspection of the lists
given above. 1 It will be seen that only five of the sixteen
local unions of the American Federation of Labor which
were present had empowered their delegates to install their
respective local unions in the new organization : two locals
of the United Mine Workers and one local each in the
Bakers and Confectioners, the Brewery Workers and the
Journeymen Tailors unions. All the locals of the United
Metal Workers were so empowered. The American Fed-
eration of Labor was represented in no direct way among
the five great powers of this industrialist convention. 2

It was confidently expected by many members of the
January conference that there would be an immediate seces-
sion of a number of national unions from the American
Federation of Labor. But whatever may have been the
hopes of the originators of the movement, the constitutional
convention proved by its very make-up that this new insur-
gent labor body could not, at the outset at least, build a new
organization out of disaffected parts of an old organization.

It has been seen that not all organizations were present
on equal footing. In the first place, no union could have
any influence or any active part in the proceedings of the
convention unless it sent its delegates with full power to
install. The January conference had drawn up certain rules
governing representation in the forthcoming convention :

nominally affiliated with the A. F. of L. at the time of the January
conference, but .Secretary ,St. John writes "that the United Metal
Workers ... as a matter of fact was out of existence before the
I. W. W. convention, but existed on paper for the purpose of giving
its old officials a standing in the new organization."

1 Supra, pp. 68-69. Cf. also Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention,

p. 80.

3 Vide infra, p. 74.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION

Representation in the convention shall be based upon the
number of workers whom the delegate represents. No dele-
gate, however, shall be given representation in the convention
on the numerical basis of an organization, unless he has cre-
dentials . . . authorizing him to install his union as a working
part of the proposed economic organization in the industrial
department to which it logically belongs. . . . Lacking this
authority, the delegate shall represent himself as an individual. 1

The delegates to the convention were in this way grouped
into two classes: representative delegates, with voting
power proportional to the number of members represented,
and individual delegates with merely their own vote, and
in some cases not representing any union even as unin-
structed delegates. This separation of the two hundred
and three delegates, according to the character of their cre-
dentials, may be shown as follows :

Organi-

Dele- zations Members
gates repre-
sented

With power to install TO 23

Without power to install 72 20

Other " individual " delegates ... 61

repre-
sented

51,430

91,500

Voting
strength

51,430
72
61

Total 203

142,991

51,563

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W* Convention, p. 6. According to St.
John this provision was drawn up on account of the fact that " all who
were present as delegates were not there in good faith. Knowledge
of this fact caused the signers of the Manifesto to constitute themselves
a temporary committee on credentials." /. W. W., History, Structure
and Methods, revised 1917 edition, p. 3.

2 The figures here given are those cited by William D. Haywood
(Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 204), but cj. St. John
(The I. W, W., History, etc., pp. 3, 4), whose figures are somewhat
lower. Among the " individual " delegates were " Mother " Mary Jones,
A. M. Simons, Eugene V. Debs, and Robert Rives LaMonte. It was
assumed that individual delegates were in duty bound to become a
part of the revolutionary organization. (Proceedings, First I. W. W.
Convention, p. 54.)

74 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Including the industrial workers' clubs there were forty-
three organizations represented, of which number twenty-
three were represented by delegates having full power to
install. The above analysis shows that of the 142,991 mem-
bers presumably represented, nearly two-thirds sent dele-
gates merely to take notes of the proceedings and report
back. About one-third, some 51,000, were then prepared
to cast their lot with the new undertaking. Also it appears
that about one-third of the delegates wielded practically the
whole voting power of the assembly.

Moreover, the balance of power within this empowered
one-third was most unevenly distributed. Of the 51,000
votes aggregated by those organizations prepared to install,
48,000 votes were distributed among five organizations
(these being the only ones with a voting strength of more
than 1,000) as follows:

No. of

Organization Membership Delegates

Western Federation of Miners 27,000 5

American Labor Union 16,750 29

United Metal Workers 3,ooo 2

United Brotherhood of Railway Employees 2,087 19

Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance 1,450 14

Total 50,287 1 69

These were the organizations which were most prom-
inent in the activities of the convention. Among their
delegates were a goodly number of the most active pro-

1 The United Brotherhood of Railway Employees was at that time
an integral part of the A. L. U., so that its membership must be de-
ducted from the total. This represents nominal membership only.
Hillquit (History of Socialism in the United States, rev. ed., p. 336), re-
ports the A. L. U. as having only seven delegates, whereas there were
ten besides the nineteen of the U. B. R. E., which are of course not
included in his estimate. Cf. Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention,
pp. 610-611.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION 75

moters of the movement. From them especially from the
Western Federation of Miners finally came the great bulk
of the funds for establishing the new union. It is evident
that, numerically speaking, one single organization, the
Western Federation of Miners, held the balance of power,
and of the remaining votes, three-fourths were in the con-
trol of the American Labor Union, these two bodies together
outnumbering the others ten to one. The sequel was to
show that the numerically weaker organization exerted an
influence quite out of proportion to their numbers, because
of the great influence exerted by some of their individual
delegates. Their representatives were radicals, representing
more or less radical unions.

It might seem that the role played in the convention by
an organization as comparatively weak in numbers as the
Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance could be accounted for,
in some measure at least, by its proportionately large dele-
gation. A glance at the table given above shows that the
Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance with a self -estimated
strength of 1450 1 had fourteen delegates, while the West-
ern Federation of Miners, 27,000 strong, had but five dele- ,
gates. This was true to but a limited extent, for in the
first place the voting power of each delegate was in direct
proportion to the number of members he represented. Thus
Haywood and his colleagues of the Western Federation of
Miners had each 5400 votes, while DeLeon and each mem-
ber of his delegation had 103.6 votes. In the second place,
it was a contest of personalities. The fourteen Socialist
Trade and Labor Alliance delegates comprised Daniel De-
Leon and thirteen others. This same prominence of the
individual was more or less evident among the other dele-
gations. Some further concentration of power is evidenced

1 According to its opponents, 600. Cf. Hillquit, History of Socialism
in the United States, rev. ed., p. 337.

76 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

in the fact that William D. Haywood and C. H. Moyer
were both empowered delegates from two organizations,
since they represented the A. L. U. as well as the W. F. M.

Indeed it is rather significant that several of the organ-
izations which finally merged into the Industrial Workers
of the World had little behind them but leaders. In some
cases it appeared that the membership first credited was
greatly exaggerated. Of the organizations that installed as
a part of the new body, St. John declares that three " ex-
isted almost wholly on paper." 1 Several of these labor
bodies were really more shadow than substance. The So-
cialist Trade and Labor Alliance, the United Metal Work-
ers, and the American Labor Union, St. John's three
" paper " unions, had come upon evil days and were in an
advanced stage of disintegration. Hence perhaps their
presence here. They did not want to expire. They pre-
ferred to be transformed into something yet more militant.

The most significant and interesting phase of this unique
body of industrialists was its many-sided intellectual char-
acter. Some of the high lights of divergent doctrine
preached and defended here show more clearly than any-
thing else how stupendous the undertaking was. Perhaps
the least indefinite term which would give them all stand-
ing-room would be " revolutionary socialism," though many
delegates repudiated the name socialist as being synonymous
with reactionist and conservative. If socialists at all, they
were socialists with a radical adjective. In reference to
some the word " anarchistic " should be substituted for

1 Cf. supra, p. 71, note 3. The installment vote at the first convention
records twelve organizations as voting in the affirmative (for list see
Proceedings, First Convention, p. 614, and Brissenden, Launching of
the I. W. W., p. 43). St. John (7. W. W. History, etc., p. 4) mentions
but seven. H. Richter says that eleven organizations were installed by
their delegates: "The I. W. W.: Retrospect and Prospects," Indus-
trial Union News, January, 1912, p. i, col. 3.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION

" revolutionary." They all believed in the " irrepressible
conflict " between capital and labor. They were a unit in
wishing for and aiming at the overthrow of the wages
system the downfall of capitalism. There was no place
here for the " Gomperite " and his program of mutual in-
terests of employer and employee; but the absence from
the scene of the " identity of interest " and " coffin society "
man did not guarantee harmony. 1

As usual, there was disagreement as to the methods to
be used to reach the common end desired. Hence certain
divergent types of doctrine were expounded and certain
warring factions resulted therefrom. St. John enumerates
four main varieties as being predominant : ( I ) Parliamen-
tary Socialists two types, impossibilist (Marxian) and
opportunist (reformist); (2) Anarchists; (3) Industrial
Unionists; and (4) the " labor union fakir." 2 This classi-
fication is ambiguous. No doubt the " labor union fakir,"
who gets into any new move of this sort for what he can
get out of it, has no real economic creed except that of the
profiteer, but he enters a movement of this kind as an expo-
nent of a certain legitimate doctrine and is at least pre-
sumed to belong to that doctrinal faction. It has been seen
that during the proceedings of the convention it developed
that there were delegates present who were not sincere in
their attitude. It is a fact, as St. John points out, " that
many of those who were present as delegates on the floor
of the first convention and the organizations that they rep-
resented have bitterly fought the I. W. W. from the close

1 " Coffin society," a term used in derision of a common tendency
of trades-union to place the emphasis on sick and death benefits, etc.

*I. IV. W. History, etc., p. 5. St. John says (letter of January 5,
1914) that " there were so few anarchists in the first convention that
there was very little need to classify them."

78 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

of the first convention up to the present day." * By no
means all of these are necessarily fakirs, since the outcome
of the deliberations of the first convention was somewhat
different from that anticipated even by the signers of the
manifesto.

There was present a very definite group of anarchists
which, though in a rather small minority, was a constituent
element in the doctrinal types represented. The term " in-
dustrial unionist " was one which really included practi-
cally all the participants. The industrial unionist may cer-
tainly be a socialist, and even of more than one variety ; and
it is also conceivable that the industrial unionist may be an
anarchist. Consequently the term can hardly be used to
mark off any particular faction in a convention of industrial
unionists. The parliamentary socialists constituted one of
the most powerful elements at the convention. In fact, the
two main hostile groups were the impossibilists and the op-
portunists, the first group comprising parliamentary social-
ists of the Socialist Labor party and anti-parliamentary
socialists, naturally having no political affiliations; and the
latter comprising members of the Socialist party.

The line of cleavage then was between the Socialist
party and the Socialist Labor party, that is, between re-
formist and doctrinaire elements, both parliamentary and
both leaning toward industrial unionism. In a less prom-
inent position at first was the direct-actionist group, anti-
political and anarchistic. This antagonism of ideas was of
course the root cause of the defection of the Socialist Labor
party and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance elements
three years later, and was responsible for the existence be-
tween 1908 and 1916 of two national organizations called
the I. W. W. The Socialist party, or doctrinaire wing, is
very logically the descendant of the doctrinaire wing at the

1 /. W. W., History, etc., p. 3.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION 79

first convention, but the direct-actionist or anti-political
wing has, strange to say, grown out of and drawn its lead-
ers from the reformist Socialist party.

These divergent creeds were given color and life by a
few men who really dominated the convention. There is
no organization in existence having less room for hero-
worship than the Industrial Workers of the World. The
manifesto provided that all " powers should rest in the col-
lective membership." Its members seemed firmly convinced
that all labor leaders (except I. W. W. organizers!) are
really " misleaders " of labor, and throughout their propa-
ganda literature is evident this repudiation of leaders and
apotheosis of the " collective membership." Nevertheless
the I. W. W. has been led and misled by leaders ever since
its inception. The first convention rang with the dominant
notes of a handful of men: Daniel DeLeon, William D.
Haywood, " Father " T. J. Hagerty, Eugene V. Debs,
William E. Trautmann, A. M. Simons, Clarence Smith, D.
C. Coates, and C. O. Sherman. Debs, Haywood and
Simons were then, and are today, members of the Socialist
party. Simons and DeLeon were leaders in the two op-
posing Socialist political parties, Simons in the Socialist
party and editor of the Coming Nation, and DeLeon,
editor of the Daily People and the one dominant and na-
tional figure in the Socialist Labor party. T. J. Hagerty
was a Catholic priest. With the cooperation of James P.
Thompson, and others probably, he framed the original
I. W. W. Preamble. He was the designer of the chart
which Samuel Gompers referred to as " Father Hagerty's
Wheel of Fortune," * and the author of a pamphlet entitled
Economic Discontent.

1 Reproduced in The Miners Magazine, vol. vi, p. 15 (Apr. 20, 1005),
and in Carl Legien, Aus Amerikas Arbeiterbewegung (Berlin, 1914),
p. 176. A less unsophisticated draft by Wm. E. Trautmann is pub-
lished in his pamphlet, One Big Union (I. W. W. Publishing Bureau).

go THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Eugene V. Debs, the best known of them all, came into
the movement with all his contagious enthusiasm and elo-
quence, full of optimism for the future of this new organ-
ization.

I believe it is possible [he said] for such an organization as
the Western Federation of Miners to be brought into harmon-
ious relation with the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance .. . .
and I believe it is possible for these elements ... to combine
here . . . and begin the work of forming a great economic or
revolutionary organization of the working class so sorely
needed in the struggle for their emancipation. 1

From the West came William D. Haywood with many
years' experience with the Western Federation of Miners in
Colorado. He was an experienced organizer and was full
of the militant spirit of the Western Federation of Miners.
He scorned agreements and contracts. Speaking of the
Western Federation of Miners at the first convention he
said :* " We have not got an agreement existing with any
mine manager, superintendent, or operator at the present
time. We have got a minimum scale of wages " and ". . . .
the eight-hour day, and we did not have a legislative lobby
to accomplish it." And now he came to Chicago to help
build up the same sort of an organization for not alone the
mining industry but for all industries.

Probably the most striking figure of all was Daniel De-
Leon, editor of the Daily People, a man with a university
education, and a graduate of the Columbia University Law
School. He was active in the organization of the Socialist
Trade and Labor Alliance in 1895 and was an officer in the
Alliance until it was merged in the I. W. W. He came to
the first convention as a delegate from the Socialist Trade

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 144.
* Ibid., p. 154-

THE BIRTH OF THE ORGANIZATION gl

and Labor Alliance. He, too, believed that harmony was
possible.

During this process of pounding one another we have both
learned [he said], both sides have learned, and I hope and be-
lieve that this convention will bring together those who will
plant themselves squarely upon the class struggle and will rec-
ognize the fact that the political expression of labor is but the
shadow of the economic organization. 1

He had been instrumental in creating the Socialist Trade
and Labor Alliance, of which the Socialist Labor party was
thenceforward to be the shadow. It transpired, however,
that the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance actually became
the " shadow " or understudy of the Socialist Labor party,
and this fact was looked upon by A. M. Simons and others
of the Socialist party as having an ominous significance for
any new organizatin to which DeLeon might wish to hitch
the Socialist Labor party as a " shadow." There seemed,
in short, to be some suspicion afloat at the first convention
that the Socialist Labor party proposed, through DeLeon,
to tuck the I. W. W. under its wing. Hillquit asserts that
" the Socialist Trades and Labor Alliance had a record of
having caused more disputes and schisms within the Social-
ist labor movement in America in recent years than any
other factor, and its affiliation with the new movement was
fateful for the latter." And Simons declared that if De-
Leon " could in some way hitch himself on to this new
organization, he would be able to infuse the semblance of
life into the political and economic corpses of the S. L. P.
and the S. T. & L. A." 3

DeLeon emphatically opposed the policy of " boring from

1 Speech before the first convention. Proceedings, p. 148.

2 History of Socialism in the United States (rev. ed.), p. 337.

3 Editorial, International Socialist Review, April, 1905 (vol. v, p. 626).

82 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

within " advocated by the Socialist party opportunists. He
believed it had been tried as a constructive policy and found
wanting. So he proposed to build up on the outside the
necessary economic organization, which finally should move
" under the protecting guns of a labor political party." l

On the other hand, the Socialist party men believed in
making use of the " boring from within " policy among the
local unions, and considered it quite unnecessary for the
economic organization to have any political connections
whatsoever. They considered the political unity of the
workers less vitally important than did the DeLeon group
of doctrinaires.

These, then, were the elements of the heterogeneous
labor mass, which were to be worked up together into "One
Big Union." The thing that made union possible in any de-
gree was the binding influence of common antipathies. It
has been suggested that all were at one in being opposed to
a capitalistic society. They had no difficulty in making
common cause of their mutual hatred of the capitalistic
scheme of things. They were perhaps even more able to
unite because of common opposition to certain things which
they believed were helping to perpetuate the capitalist sys-
tem. Most prominent and powerful of these was the craft
form of labor-union organization.

1 DeLeon-Harriman Debate, S. T. & L. A. vs. The "Pure and Simple"
Trade Union, p. 7.

THE I. W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L.

THE American Federation of Labor, as the alleged em-
bodiment of everything " crafty," has always been the arch-
enemy of the I. W. W. The convention opened with this
thought to the fore, and throughout the eleven days of its
sessions it was referred to again and again. William D.
Haywood's speech calling the convention to order begins
with this paragraph :

This is the Continental Congress of the working class. . . .
There is no organization . . . that has for its purpose the same
object as that for which . . . you are called together today. . . .
The American Federation of Labor, which presumes to be the
labor movement of this country, is not a working-class move-
ment. . . . You are going to be confronted with the so-called
labor leader the man who will tell you . . . that the interests
of the capitalist and the workingman are identical. . . . There is
no man who has an ounce of honesty in his make-up but recog-
nizes the fact that there is a continuous struggle between the
two classes, and this organization will be formed, based and
founded on the class struggle, having in view no compromise
and no surrender. . . . 1

" It has been said," remarked Haywood, " that this con-
vention was to form an organization rival to the A. F. of L.
This is a mistake. We are here for the purpose of forming
a labor organisation." 2 This common opposition to what
they called the " American Separation of Labor " proved

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, pp. 1-2.
Ubid., p. 153-

84 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

to be a fairly adequate " harmony plank " in the platform
of these disaffected workingmen. The stress of opposition
to the Federation was, of course, directed chiefly to its
craft formation, but it also featured prominently the re-
action against ( I ) its assumption of identity of interest be-
tween the employer and employee, and (2) its absolute de-
nial of the necessity of united political action on the part of
the working class.

To these industrialists the American Federation of Labor
was simply the symbol of the craft type of trade union. It
was made the object of the most merciless criticism through-
out the convention. One of its committees drew up a com-
prehensive indictment of " old line trade-unionism." ' The
A. F. of L., which is the fine consummate flower of craft
unionism," it declares, " is neither American, nor a federa-
tion, nor of labor." This, they contend, because (i) it is
only adapted to such conditions as existed in England sixty

/ years ago; (2) it is divided into 116 warring factions; (3)
(/ 1 it discriminates against workingmen because of their TRgfc

I i and poverty; (4) its members are allowed to join the militia

[ and shoot downj)ther union men in time of strike; and (5)

// it inevitably creates a certain aloofness among the skilled

J/ fl workmen the\" aristocrats of labor '^toward those not
' skilled. " There are organizations which are affiliated,"
Haywood asserts, " with the A. F. of L. which . . . pro-
hibit the initiation of, or conferring the obligation on, a col-
ored man ; that prohibit the conferring of the obligation on
foreigners." *

From the opening of the convention it was quite evident
that an ideal labor union was conceived to be something
more than an institution for improving the immediate con-
ditions of labor. Through it immediate interests must be

} Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. I.

THE L W. W. VERSUS THE A. P. OF L. 85

advanced, of course, but its primary object must be to make
an end of labor as a slave function and to establish in place
of the wage or capitalistic system an industrial common-
wealth of co-operators. The convention was convinced
that the craft union was not only comparatively helpless in
the matter of advancing immediate interests, but
_lnfply useless a.g a fulcrum for removing t
system.. " The battles ol tne past," declared the manifesto,
" emphasize this lesson. The, textile _ workers of Lowell,
Philadelphia, and Fall River; the butchers of Chicago; . . .

the long-struggling miners of Colorado,
01 unliy and solidarity upon the industrial battlefield, all
bear witness to the helplessness and impotency of labor as
at present organized/''^)

\Tne r cra;Jit form of organization creates three Jtyges very
obnoxious to the industrial unionist, viz., the " aristocrat "
of laBor, tne J 'jihion_^_sc_ab. and the *' labor lieutenant."
The " union " scab the man who continues^ work at ms
particular trade when the men of an allied trade in the same
industry are on strike is a scab in the sense that he is often
through this indirect scabbing a fatal, perhaps the only
obstacle, to the success of the strike. Hay wood gave an
illustration of this in the butchers' strike in Chicago :

For instance, [he said] in the packing plants, the butchers'
organization was one of the best in the country, reputed to be
50,000 strong. They were well disciplined, which is shown
from the fact that when they were called on strike they quit to
a man. That is, the butchers quit; but did the engineers quit,
did the firemen quit, did the men who were running the ice-
plants quit? They were not in the union, not in that partic-
ular union. They had agreements with their employers which

1 Report of Committee on Press and Literature, Proceedings First
I. W. W. Convention, pp. 4-5.

86 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

forbade them quitting. The result was that the Butchers'
Uirfon was practically totally disrupted, entirely wiped out. 1

It was quite evident that these men who laid so much at
the door of the " union " scab, realized that the latter did
not scab on his fellow union-men because he enjoyed it. He
was forced to be a union scab because his craft had a con-
tract an agreement with the employer. Craftism is what
it is, because it involves a separate binding agreement for
each trade. These, being contracted independently by_ each
craft, naturally expire at different dates, so that the several
crafts in any given industry can never be free to act in
unison. Little reverence for these agreements was shown

m the convention.
^%

It is a fact [said DeLeon] . . . that it is not the unorganized
scab who breaks the strikes, but the organized craft that really
does the dirty work ; and thus they, each of whom, when itself
(sic) involved in a strike, fights like a hero, when not them-
selves involved, demean themselves like arrant scabs; betray
their class all in fatuous reverence to " contracts." :

j*Dejjs pointed to these same contracts as the cause of de-
neat. He cited the strike on the Chicago, Burlington and
Ouincy Railroad in 1888 :

Some 2,000 engineers and firemen [he said] went out on one
of the most bitterly contested railroad strikes in the history of
the country. When they were out, the rest of the employees,
especially the conductors, who were organized in craft unions
of their own, remained at their posts, and the union conductors
piloted the scab engineers over the line. 3

1 Speech at the ratification meeting, Proceedings, First I. W, W. Con-
vention, p. 577.

3 Speech at Minneapolis, July 10, 1905, on " The Preamble of the
Industrial Workers of the World." Published in pamphlet form under
this title by N. Y. Labor News Co., 1905, pp. 26-27.

'Address on "Revolutionary Unionism," Chicago, Nov., 1905. (Pub-
lished in pamphlet form under this title by C. H. Kerr Company,
Chicago.)

THE I. W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L. 87

" Union scabbery " helped to create a kind of " union
snobbery." The craft idea tended to develop the idea of
caste among workingmen, and the skilled were set off from
the unskilled as the " aristocracy of labor." The industrial
unionists emphatically declared that a true labor union must
include all workers, the unskilled and migratory as well as
the " aristocrats."

We are going down in the gutter [said Hay wood] to get at the
mass of the workers and bring them up to a decent plane of
living. I do not care a snap of my finger whether or not the
skilled workers join this industrial movement at the present
time. When we get the unorganized and the unskilled laborer
into this organization the skilled worker will of necessity come
here for his own protection. As strange as it may seem to you.
the skilled worker today is exploiting the laborer beneath him,
the unskilled man,' just as much as the capitalist is. 1

But ultimately, according to Sherman, all workers not
merely the groups connoted by the term " working-class "
must be grouped in the proposed organization.

ot /
C

We don't propose [he said] to organize only the common man
with the callous hands, but we want the clerical force ; we want
the soft hands that only get $40 a month those fellows with
No. 10 cuffs and collars. We want them all, so that when a
strike is called we can strike the whole business at once. 2

A third type condemned by revolutionary unionists was
the so-called " laboi- lieu{e'nant. i; fkis fatter ^mis-leader "

' S *"^*" * IMMMMMMMWMMMMti MBMMHMMW***IMM

oi labor was the symbol ot another opjectionapie teature of
th^A. F. of L., vis., the identity of interests assumption.
Naturally the idea tnat me interests of employer and em-

1 Speech at ratification meeting, Proceeding's, First I. W, W. Con-
vention, pp. 575-576.

1 Ibid., p. 586. The idea of the general strike was not at all promi-
nent at this convention, but was expressed in one resolution. Infra,
P. 9i.

88 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

plnwp are iffcnfjfifl] is the only consistent one for an organ-
ization based on the craft idea. It is said that Mark Hanna
once referred to the organizers and officials of the trade
unions as theV labor lieutenants of the captains of industry." /

^fc^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^MMOpHIMMBHMHMfllllMMMBMMVMMMMMrtBaMBMIMMi^MMiWHBM

The revolutionaryTnT^ustnal) unionists believed that col-
lusion existed between the tool-owners and the labor leaders
of the country. It was declared on the floor of the conven-
tion that " the trade-union movement has become an auxil-
iary to the capitalist class in order to hold down the toilers
of the land." l The delegates from the Socialist Trade and
Labor Alliance (members of the Socialist Labor party,
though not formally present as such) were especially un-
compromising on this point. At the 1900 convention of the
Socialist Labor party the following amendment to its con-
stitution was adopted :

If any member of the Socialist Labor party accepts office in a
pure and simple trade or labor organization, he shall be con-
sidered antagonistically inclined towards the Socialist Labor
party and shall be expelled. If any officer of amure and simple
trade or labor organization applies for membership in the So-
cialist Labor party, he shall be rejected. 2

Daniel DeLeon and the other Socialist Labor party men
at fne convention had absolutely no hope for the " pure and

1"~imple " union. DeLeon believed " that the pure and
simple leaders give jobs to Socialists for the purpose of cor-
rupting them, on the principle that the capitalist politicians
give jobs to workingmen for the purpose of corrupting the
working class. . . ." " The labor movement," he said " has
been prostituted in this country by the jobs . . . that the
capitalist politicians give to some individual workingmen.

1 Trautmann on the reasons for the manifesto, Proceedings, First
I. W. W. Convention, p. 118.

3 Proceedings, Tenth Annual Convention S. L. P., p. 211.
* Ibid., p. 211.

THE I. W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L. gg

The DeLeon faction was by no means alone in this atti-
tude. The majority felt that the American Federation of
Labor was hopelessly entangled in capitalist politics and
irrevocably tied up to the captains of industry through its
labor lieutenants. On the whole, the industrialists had no
hope that the American Federation of Labor could ever be-
come an industrial organization. Some of them, like A. M.
Simons, believed it possible to further their industrial aim
by " boring from within " certain of the constituent unions
in the American Federation of Labor. Others differed
notably the DeLeonites. Their leader said that the theory
of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance was,

That boring from within, withtthe labor fakir/in possession, is

^MgM^I^QAMMiAHHMtMP^

a waste of time, and that the only way to do is to stand by the
workingmen always ; to organize them, to enlighten them, and
whenever a conflict breaks out in which their brothers are
being fooled and used as food for cannon, to have the Socialist
Trade and Labor Alliance throw itself in the midst of the fray,
and sound the note of sense. 1

" We call upon the socialists of the United States," said
another member of the S. T. & L. A., " to get out of the
pure and simple organizations and smash them to pieces." 2

Eugene Debs, too, was convinced of the futility of boring
from within. " There is but one way," he said, " to effect
this great change, and that is for the workingman to sever
his relations with the American Federation and join the
union that proposes on the economic field to represent his
class." 3

The industrialists were most at variance on the question
of the proper political attitude of labor organizations; con-

1 DeLeon-Harriman Debate (New York: N. Y. Labor News Co.,
1900), p. 14.

2 Delegate Dalton, Tenth Annual Convention Proceedings, Socialist
Labor Party, p. 217.

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 143.

90 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

sequently, they were not unanimous in their condemnation
of the Federation's political policy or want of it. More-
over, as became evident during the hot debate over the
political clause, even those who condemned the Federation's
attitude on politics were quite at outs about the political
position which should be taken on behalf of the new organ-
ization. 1

President Gompers took up the cudgels for the American
Federation of Labor. The new movement was inaugurated,
he said, " under the pretext that the American Federation
of Labor refuses to recognize the changes which are con-
stantly taking place in industry. That it is a pretext inex-
cusably ignorant and maliciously false any observer must
know." He goes on to say that " the permanency of the
trade-union movement depends upon the recognition ... of
the principle of [craft] autonomy consistent with the varying
phases and transitions in industry." 2 Mr. Gompers cited,
among others, the case of the Boot and Shoe Workers' In-
ternational Union. The workers in Lynn, Massachusetts,
in a branch of the shoe trade they were makers of " coun-
ters " applied for a charter in the American Federation of
Labor. The Federation authorities advised them first to
join the industrial union of their trade, viz., the Boot and
Shoe Workers' International Union. This they declined to
do, and being refused by the American Federation of Labor,
joined the American Labor Union.

The first five days of the convention were taken up with
the adjustment of credentials, the explanation of the mani-
festo, and the indictment of the American Federation of
Labor " the consummate flower of craft unionism." On
the sixth day the principal piece of constructive work con-
fronting the convention the shaping-up of some sort of a

1 Cf. infra, ch. ix.

'* American Federationist, vol. xii, p. 214 (April, 1905).

THE I. W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L. ^

workable constitution was taken out of the hands of the
committee and made the order of the day. Though Simons
intimates * that the first days of the convention were too
much given over to the reign of the " jaw-smith," yet mixed
with all the chaff unquestionably in evidence was much
intellectual grain. The ideas and suggestions brought out
in all these discussions, the resolutions proposed, all these,
after a crude but critical sifting at the hands of the com-
mittee and the speakers on the floor of the convention, be-
came crystallized in the preamble and constitution. The
following resolutions, selected and condensed from the re-
port of the committee on resolutions, are fairly typical : 2

i. To provide for the establishment and maintenance of an
Educational Bureau comprising a Literature Bureau and a
Lecture Bureau.

3. Resolved, that it be the sense of this convention that the
labor of each individual unit of society is necessary to the
welfare of society, and that all are entitled to equal compen-
sation.

4. Resolved, that the first day of May of each year ... be
designated as the Labor Day of this organization.

6. Resolved, that the seceding workers and seceding organ-
izations in the A. F. of L. be required to make a public state-
ment of the reasons for their secession. . . .

8. Resolved, that we recommend as a final solution of the
class struggle the Social General Strike. . . .

9. Resolved, that it is the sense of this convention to en-
dorse and provide a perfect system of commercial cooperation.

13. Resolved, that it be the sense of this convention that
only those who are wage-workers be eligible to membership in
this organization.

1 6. Whereas, there is already established an International

1 International Socialist Review, vol. vi, p. 75, Aug., 1905.

2 For full text of the report vide Proceedings First I. W. W. Con-
vention, pp. 180, et seq., 193, and 213 et seq.

92 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Bureau of those industrial unions which are based upon the
class struggle, with headquarters at Berlin, therefore be it

Resolved, that this new organization enter into immediate
relations therewith.

20. Resolved, that we condemn militarism in all its forms
and functions, which are jeopardizing our constitutional rights
and privileges in the struggle between capital and labor. Be it
further

Resolved, that any members accepting salaried positions to
defend capitalism, directly or indirectly, should be denied the
privilege of membership in this organization.

To the discussion and emendation of the preamble and
constitution was devoted the bulk of the time during the last
five days of the convention. 1 The preamble drawn up by
the committee on constitution was accepted by the conven-
tion practically in the form presented by that committee,
and without dissent except for the second clause. The first
two clauses read as follows :

The working class and the employing class have nothing in
common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want
are found among the millions of working people, and the few,
who make up the employing class, have all the good things
of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all
the toilers come together on the political, as well as on the in-
dustrial field, and take and hold that which they produce by
their labor, through an economic organization of the working
class, without affiliation with any political party.

The reference to the " political field " in the second
clause brought forth immediate challenge and the whole
clause was the subject of exhaustive debate. Delegate Gil-

1 For the preamble vide Appendix ii. For the constitution as origin-
ally presented by the committee and discussions of the same, vide
Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, pp. 295-512. The amended but
unrevised constitution, as adopted at this constituent meeting, is re-
printed in condensed form in the author's Launching of the I. W. W. t
PP. 49-53-

THE I. W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L. 93

bert, who favored the clause, very concisely explained its
significance.

We are here [he said] to effect an economic organization.
There are two elements in this convention. One element pro-
poses to do away with political action entirely. Another ele-
ment is inclined toward political action. All that this para-
graph is in essence is this: It first of all states very clearly
and plainly that this is primarily an economic organization
based upon the conflict of classes. Secondly, it says in essence
this: That as individuals you are perfectly free to take such
political action as you see fit. As an organization you cannot.
. . . Thirdly, it says this : You shall not as an economic organ-
ization stand committed to any political party at present in ex-
istence. 1

Delegate Simons opposed it, declaring that, " as it stands
it says that we are in favor of political action without any
political party." 2 Delegate Richter also opposed it on the
ground that the struggle has really only begun when the
workers are brought together on the political and industrial
fields, whereas the preamble implied that at that stage the
struggle ceases. 3

Delegate DeLeon argued at length in support of the
clause. To him this " political clause," as it has since been
called, was quite essential to keep the proposed organization
" in line and in step with civilization." "The barbarian," he
said, " begins with physical force ; the civilized man ends
with that when force is necessary." 4 He believed it to be
absolutely impossible to " take and hold " as the preamble
puts it, without the protection or at any rate the harmony
secured through political unity. Of course, the basis of
this political unity was to have no organic connection not

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, pp. 231-232.
1 Ibid., p. 224.

3 Ibid., p. 225.

4 Ibid., p. 227.

94 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

the remotest with the economic organization. The clause
under discussion recognized the two truths " that political
action and the means of civilization must be given an oppor-
tunity and that in this country, for one, it is out of the
question to imagine that a political party can ' take and
hold.' " * This was the Socialist Labor party position. It
had been foreshadowed in its 1900 convention when it en-
dorsed the following resolution :

Genuine trade-unionism not only must fight in the shop . . .
but must especially, uncompromisingly, at all costs and hazards
fight the political parties of capitalism on election day. Its
chief motto must be " No union card will justify the political
scab. He is a traitor to his class." . . . We recognize in the
S. T. & L. A. the economic arm of the S. L. P. and its indis-
pensable adjunct in its conflict between the working class and
the capitalist class. 2

The discussion brought out every shade of opinion on the
ballot. These men were acutely aware of the fact that
business is to a great extent the creator and controller of
politics. As one delegate put it, " dropping pieces of paper
into a hole in a box never did achieve emancipation for the
working class and ... .it never will. . . ." Even Daniel
DeLeon had nothing but contempt for

the visionary politician, the man who imagines that by going
to the ballot box and taking a piece of paper and throwing it in
and then rubbing his hands and jollying himself with the expec-
tation that through that process, through some mystic alchemy,
the ballot will terminate capitalism and the socialist common-
wealth will rise like a fairy out of the ballot-box. 4

The manifesto was very specific in proposing a purely

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W . Convention, p. 231.

2 Proceedings, Tenth Annual Convention S. L. P., pp. 198-199.

8 " Father " Hagerty, Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 152.
* Ibid., p. 228.

THE I. W. IV. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L. 95

economic organization. That the issue would be a political
organization was the prophecy of Frank Bohn, an official of
the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.

Every industrial unionist [he declared] who thoroughly under-
stands the deeper mission of his organization will reach class-
conscious political action. An industrial union cannot increase
the average wage. In some cases it may be less likely than the
craft unions to prevent the decrease in wages. . . . Socialist to
the core must the new economic organization be and when the
June convention has painted the skull and cross-bones on the
door of " pure and simpledom," that last working-class com-
promise with capitalism, there will probably issue a political
organization strong in numbers, but stronger in principle, be-
cause raised by the revolutionary spirit high above "mere
vote-getting subterfuge." 1

In reply to this, A. M. Simons, the editor, declares that,

if it is true that the new union is to be less powerful on the
economic field than the pure and simple unions, and is simply
to constitute a new political party jabbering a lot of jargon
about general strikes and installing its officers as rulers of the
cooperative commonwealth, then it is doomed to a short and
sickening life. 2

A very reasonable interpretation of this political clause is
that the working class must be united politically, but not
necessarily that that union is, or is in, or has any connec-
tion with, the I. W. W. However, the sequel showed that it
was fatal to the unity of the organization. Three years
later it proved to be the rock on which the movement split,
bringing about the bifurcated organization we know at the
present time ; with a dire^t-actionist wing, non-political, and
with a new and expurgated edition of the preamble* and a

1 "Concerning the Chicago Manifesto," International Socialist Review,
vol. v, pp. 588-9, April, 1905.

2 Ibid., p. 591, April, 1905.

96 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

DeLeonite or doctrinaire wing, pro-political another So-
cialist Trade and Labor Alliance with the same old pre-
amble and the same old political clause. 1

The constitution provided a highly centralized scheme of
administration involving a mixed hierarchy of powers. The
general organization was divided into thirteen international
industrial divisions (later called "departments"). Each
of these departmental divisions was supposed to comprise
an allied group of industries, grouped together for admin-
istrative purposes. In the original report of the constitu-
tion committee the industrial or occupational " sphere of
influence " of each division was specified in detail. The
world's industries were divided into thirteen administrative
groups. The report provided that the organization should
" be composed of thirteen international industrial unions,
designated as follows :

Division i shall be composed of all persons working in the
following industries : 'Clerks, salesmen, tobacco, packing houses,
flour mills, sugar refineries, dairies, bakeries, and kindred in-
dustries.

Division 2 : Brewery, wine and distillery workers.

Division 3 : Floriculture, stock and general farming.

Division 4: Mining, milling, smelting and refining coal, ores,
metals, salt and iron.

Division 5 : Steam railway, electric railway, marine, ship-
ping, and teaming.

Division 6: All building employees.

Division 7 : All textile industrial employees.

Division 8 : All leather industrial employees.

Division 9: All wood-working employees excepting those
engaged in building departments.

Division 10: All metal industrial employees.

Division 1 1 : All glass and pottery employees.

1 In 1915 the DeLeonite wing changed its name to " The Workers
International Industrial Union."

THE I. W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L.

Division 12 : All paper mills, chemical, rubber, broom, brush
and jewelry industries.

Division 13: Parks, highways, municipal, postal service,
telegraph, telephone, schools and educational institutions,
amusements, sanitary, printing, hotel, restaurant and laundry
employees. 1

This section provoked instant debate. In fact, two days
and a half about half the time given to the whole consti-
tution were given over to the discussion of this clause. 2
Many delegates considered that such a specific division was
not only a practical impossibility, on account of the very
definite limits to the jurisdiction of most industries, but was a ^>
very inconsistent step for an industrial organization to take, /
since in their opinion it was nothing more or less than a re- J)
creation of craft lines. 3 There was considerable feeling in
evidence that this clause did not satisfy the provision of the
manifesto for " craft autonomy locally, industrial autonomy
internationally, and working-class unity generally." Flaws
and inconsistencies without end could, of course, be found
in such a categorical division, and they were pointed out by
critical delegates with much gusto. The main idea in this
attempt at departmental demarcation of industries was that
a centralized administration was imperative. Most of the
delegates agreed to this. They believed that even the in-
dustry, although the unit or cell of the new structure, should
not be the dominant basis of the administration. That must
be departmental.

Any of these industries [said Delegate Goodwin] are subsi-

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, pp. 299-300. This classi-
fication was amended and re-arranged at the Second Convention. Pro-
ceedings, p. 207.

2 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 300, et seq.

'This objection was, in part, the cause of the refusal of the delegate
of the Longshoremen's Union to install his local. Cf. infra, p. 102.

98 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

diary and supporting the whole organization. . . . The ten-
dency of capitalist development is concentration. We are
going from industrial production to departmental production.
It won't be many years . . . till we have departmental produc-
tion. The tendency in development in the early stages of cap-
ital is to go into industries, and the later tendency is to divide
into departments, and these departments are international. . . .*

As finally amended, the clause omitted any specific cate-
gory of departments and industries and simply provided for
thirteen departments with appropriate subdivisions. It read
as follows :

Art. I., Sec. 2. And shall be composed of thirteen inter-
national industrial divisions subdivided into industrial unions
of closely related industries in the appropriate organizations
for representation in the departmental administration. The
subdivisions, international and national industrial unions, shall
have complete industrial autonomy in their respective internal
affairs; provided, the General Executive Board shall have
power to control these industrial unions in matters concerning
the interests of the general welfare. 2

The list of specifically divided industries was later re-
placed in the constitution, but in a very much improved
form. Wm. E. Trautmann has worked this up even further,
and in 1911 published a still more improved outline in
which the number of departments is reduced to six. 8

The constitutional convention also made provision for
other and subordinate bodies, i. e., industrial councils, which
might be formed. These were to comprise seven or more
local unions in two or more industries and the local indus-

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 427.

2 Ibid., p. 496.

3 Vide I. W. W. Constitution, 1911, art. i, sec. 4, and Trautmann, One
Great Union, Detroit, I. W. W. Literary Bureau, n. d. (Chart insert).

THE I. W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L. O g

trial union. These local unions were the smallest units of
organization then provided for, except that when isolated
individuals applied for membership in a locality where no
local union existed, such persons were admitted into the
organization as " individual " members directly attached to
the general organizaion.

The same principle applied throughout. In case, then,
there were not a sufficient number * of locals in any one in-
dustry to form an industrial department, the local was
directly responsible to the general organization. Then, as
now, the great majority of local unions were chartered
directly by the general organization. At the close of the
first convention the Western Federation of Miners became
the " Mining Department " of the L W. W. ; the Metal
Workers became the " Metal Department " ; and the United
Brotherhood of Railway Employees, the " Transportation
Department." All local unions are industrial in character,
i. e., each one makes the shop its unit and comprises all the
crafts engaged in and around the shop. The mucker in the
mine must belong to the same union as the man who runs
the drill. The idea is to get into the same union all those
workers who are cooperating for the production of a given
class of products.

The officers provided for were : a General President, a
General Secretary-Treasurer, and a General Executive
Board composed of these two officers and the Presidents of
the International Industrial Divisions, 2 The constitutional
committee recommended

1 Art. vii, sec. 4, Constitution (1905), "So soon as there are ten locals
with not less than 3,000 members in one industry, the General Executive
Board shall immediately proceed to call a convention of that industry
and proceed to organize it as an international industrial division of the
Industrial Workers of the World."

8 The office of general president was abolished at the second convention.
Vide infra, p. 143.

I0 o THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

that this convention elect a provisional Board of seven to con-
duct affairs of this organization until the next national conven-
tion. The said provisional Board shall consist of the National
President, National Secretary-Treasurer and five other mem-
bers, two of these five to be elected at large, one to be elected
from the W. F. of M., one from the United Metal Workers
and one from the U. B. of R. E. . . . The provisional Board
shall also have the duty of a committee on style to revise the
constitution and submit a draft to the next convention. 1

In accordance with this recommendation, the Provisional
Board was elected as follows : C. O. Sherman, Metal Work-
ers, General President; William E. Trautmann, Industrial
Workers Club, of Cincinnati, General Secretary-Treasurer;
John Riordan, American Labor Union, member at large;
F. W. Cronin, American Labor Union, member at large;
Frank McCabe, United Brotherhood of Railway Employees ;
Charles Kirkpatrick, Metal Workers, and C. H. Moyer,
Western Federation of Miners. The General Executive
Board was given great power. In its hands was placed the
entire responsibility for the conduct of the affairs of the
organization between conventions. This board was given
full power to issue charters to all subordinate bodies in-
dustrial departments, industrial councils, and local unions;
to supervise the work of general administration and audit
the books of the general office; to levy special assessments
when any of the subordinate bodies are engaged in strike
and the condition of their local treasuries makes it neces-
sary ; to supervise and control the publication of the official
organ and to elect its editor.

Specially worthy of note were the powers given the Gen-
eral Executive Board in regard to strikes and agreements.
The clauses referring to these two points are here given :

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 504.

THE L W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L. IOI

In case the members of a subordinate organization of the
Industrial Workers of the World are involved in strike, reg-
ularly ordered by the organization, or General Executive
Board, or involved in a lockout, if in the opinion of the Presi-
dent and General Executive Board it becomes necessary to call
out any other union or unions, or organization, they shall have
full power to do so.

Any agreement entered into between the members of any
local union or organization, and their employers, as a final
settlement of any difficulty or trouble between them, shall not
be considered valid or binding until the same shall have the
approval of the General Executive Board of the Industrial
Workers of the World. 1

The President, of course, had more extended authority
than the other members of the Board, and was given entire
supervision of the organization throughout its jurisdiction;
but his official acts and decisions, as well as those of the
General Executive Board, were at all times subject to appeal
to the general convention, the decisions of which body, in
turn, might be put to the final test of ratification by a refer-
endum to the general membership. Thus the rank and file
were supposed to be the final arbiters. Throughout the
hierarchy " home rule " was to be accorded in all matters
of strictly local concern, such as details of administration,
by-laws, etc., but matters connected with the general wel-
fare were made subjects of industrial rather than craft (
autonomy. Revenues were derived from charter fees, ini- *
tiation fees and dues, all of which were made very low. A
fixed proportion of all such revenues was to be paid into a
central defense fund.

It is quite apparent that matters which were of purely
internal concern were much more narrowly interpreted than
in the orthodox union. Most things affecting one craft are

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 455.

102 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

frankly declared to affect all crafts even all industries
and only a few matters like by-laws and other routine affairs
were considered to be of merely local concern. The consti-
was built up around the socialistic motto/ "An injury
to one is the concern of aO The document was merely
provisional, and in a crude way served as an initial guide
for drawing up a more comprehensive and permanent con-
stitution later on.

That the constitution was at least acceptable to most of
the delegates was evidenced by the fact that it was adopted
by a six to one vote, 1 and more definitely proven on roll-call
for installation of organizations under the new constitution.
Besides the five leading organizations the Western Fed-
eration of Miners, the American Labor Union, United
Brotherhood of Railway Employees, United Metal Work-
ers, and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, six local
unions and thirty-nine individuals (representing no organ-
ization) unanimously voted for installation. 2 Having
elected its officers and chosen Chicago as its headquarters,
the Convention adjourned, sine die, July 8, 1905.

Delegate Kiehn (representing the Longshoremen of
Hoboken, N. J. ) , among others, refused to install his union.
He explained his vote, stating that in his opinion the consti-
tution was " not according to the spirit of the manifesto."
He believed that dividing the industrial activities of society
into thirteen divisions meant the creation not the destruc-

1 42,719 to 6,998. Proceedings, First I. W. W'. Convention, pp. 609-614.

2 The six locals were the United Mine Workers local union of Pitts-
burg, Kans. (A. F. of L.) ; Punch Press Operators of Schenectady,
N. Y. ; Journeymen Tailors Benevolent and Protective Union of San
Francisco (A. F. of L.) ; Industrial Workers Club of Chicago; In-
dustrial Workers Club of Cincinnati ; Workers Industrial and Educa-
tional Union of Pueblo, Colo. (Proceedings, First I. W. W. Conven-
tion, p. 614). For detailed vote on installation, vide Brissenden, Launch-
ing of the I. W. W., p. 43.

THE I. W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L.

103

tion of craft lines, and also that " it [the constitution]
gives the President or the Executive Board of this organ-
ization czarish powers that are not given to the executive
officers of any pure and simple organization in this coun-
try." 1

Unquestionably the outcome of the convention was very
different from what those most interested had anticipated.
In its final form, the preamble and constitution were not
exactly shaped to the provisions of the January manifesto
at any rate they did not seem to satisfy the authors of the
latter document. This is partly to be explained by the sig-
nificant fact that Daniel DeLeon was not present at the Jan-
uary conference, although the Socialist Trade and Labor
Alliance and the Socialist Labor party were represented by
one of their organizers Frank Bohn. We have seen that
the fear of Socialist Labor party domination or Socialist
Labor party wire-pulling and the fear of the influence of
DeLeon were one and the same. A. M. Simons declared
several months before the Convention that " nothing could
more thoroughly damn the work of the conference which
meets in Chicago next June than the prevalence of the idea
that it was an attempt to revive the S. T. & L. A. . . ."
These fears were to a certain limited extent realized. The
same writer says that " At the first conference [the June
convention] Daniel DeLeon with a crowd of followers ob-
tained such power in the organization as to destroy its
original point of view. Later he was thrown out, or re-
signed, or threw the others out [according to who is telling
the story]." 3 In precisely what way the original point of
view was destroyed is not easily determined. Even Simons
admitted that " the only line of cleavage between bodies

1 Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 527.

2 International Socialist Review, vol. v, p. 563 (March, 1905).
* Private Correspondence, March, 1912.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

representing any strength was over the method of organ-
ization." And " even here," he believed that " the difficulty
was much less fundamental than the heat of the debate
would indicate." *

Beyond any doubt the influence of the Socialist Labor
party (through the delegates of the Socialist Trade and
Labor Alliance), DeLeonism, as it was called, was wider
than this statement would indicate. A " paper " organiza-
tion, outnumbered by all of the organizations in what we
have called the " Big Five," it unquestionably was influen-
tial to a degree quite out of proportion to its numbers, and
in that way, at least, it dominated the convention. The
political clause, which later proved such a rock of dissen-
sion and which was not passed in the first convention with-
out considerable opposition, was one mark left in the con-
stitution by DeLeonism. The virtual overthrowing of the
" boring-f rom-within " policy was another mark left out of
the constitution by DeLeonism. Both of these departures
were of great importance but not the most vital by any
means.

The primary importance of the Western Federation of
Miners in these beginnings cannot be too much emphasized.
In a quite real sense the I. W. W. was born out of the
Western Federation. It was from this militant miners
union that most of the financial bone and sinew came for
setting in motion the machinery of the new union. The
Federation constituted probably one-third of the member-
ship of the organization which had in its mining department
(while it did have it!) by all o<|ds the most vigorously mili-
.tant of all American unions. jThe Federation's bitter fights
I with the mine operators, especially in Colorado, Montana,
I and Idaho, prepared the ground and spread the sentiment
^for the extension of revolutionary industrialism beyond the

1 International Socialist Review, vol. vi, p. 66 (Aug., 1905).

THE I. W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L.

relatively narrow limits of the metalliferous mining industry. \
It was not a coincidence that the I. W. W. sprang into being
so hard on the heels of the strike terrors of Telluride and
Cripple Creek. A delegate at the second (1906) convention
declared that the Butte Miners Union was the father of the
I. W. W. 1

Despite the fact that the I. W. W. did continue to exist,
and, periodically, to thrive after the Western Federation
broke away, it is safe to say that had it not been for the
Federation, with its practical strength and the stimulating
example of its history, there would have been no I. W. W.
It was Western-Federationism quite as much as DeLeon-
ism that moulded the I. W. W. at its inception.

It certainly is not quite true that the first convention was
" captured " by the DeLeon element, as so many insinuate.
DeLeon was elected to no office and neither of the General
Executive Board members elected at large were members
of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance. Debs insists
that " DeLeon did not ' capture ' the organization and Debs
is not ' disgusted ' with it." * The dominance of DeLeon-
ism was then a supremacy of ideas. These ideas may have
been " insane delusions " and finally disastrous to the har-
mony of the movement ; but they were presumably defended
by their chief sponsor and his followers, in firm conviction
that they were essential to the growth of the movement.
DeLeon said on the floor of the convention, " When
I came to Chicago to this convention, I came absolutely
without any private ax to grind or any private grudge to
gratify. In fact ... I have had but one foe . . . and that
foe is the capitalist class." 3

Hermann Richter, now general secretary of the Socialist

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention, p. 447.
2 "The Industrial Convention," International Socialist Review, vol.
vi, p. 86.
* Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention, p. 147.

I0 6 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Labor party wing of the I. W. W., writes in a recent num-
ber of their official organ : " During the proceedings of the
[first] convention it became apparent that not all delegates
understood, or were in free accord with the spirit and intent
of the organization." * This was very natural considering
the composition of the gathering. The sequel proved that
this was the least of the troubles in embryo at that first con-
vention.

All this friction and internal discord was naturally made
to loom large in the editorials of the American Federation-
ist; Gompers, in fact, squinted hard enough at the Chicago
conference to see absolutely nothing in it. The August
'( 1 905) number contained this under the caption "Those
' World Redeemers ' at Chicago " :

After an effort of more than six months . . . the distribu-
tion of tons upon tons of circulars and " literature " through-
out America and every other country throughout the globe . . .
what was the result ? The mountain labored and brought forth
a mouse, and a very silly little mouse at that. . . . And out of this
material [the S. T. and L. A. and the A. L. U.] they proclaim
themselves the " Industrial Workers of the World." Their
nerve is so colossal that it is positively ludicrous. Of course the
two and a half million . . . workmen in the trade-union move-
ment are entirely oblivious that they are included. . . . The wheel
of fortune, otherwise known as ex- Father Haggerty's chart, was
adopted as a " plan " of organization. This plan is so unique
and so fantastic that we accord it space in our columns and thus
give it historic importance. . . [And finally he prophesies that]
as time goes on the active participants in the labor movement
of the future, students, thinkers, historians, will record the
Chicago meeting as the most vapid and ridiculous in the annals
of those who presume to speak in the name of labor, and the
participants in the gathering as the most stupendous impos-
sibles the world has yet seen. 2

1 " The I. W. W., Retrospects and Prospects," Industrial Union News,
vol. i, no. I (Jan., 1912).
2 American Federationist, vol. xii, pp. 514-516.

THE I. IV. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L.

But in spite of dissension on the inside and bitter abuse
and misrepresentation on the outside, the industrialists
were, on the whole, very optimistic about the prospects of
the new-born I. W. W. and held high hopes for its future.
In spite of the emphatic declaration of the manifesto that
the I. W. W. " should be established as the economic organ-
ization of the working class, without affiliation with any
political party," the newspapers and even the labor press
persisted in representing the movement as a political one.
Thus the Milwaukee Journal said :

The Socialists are still earnestly advocating the formation of
a new national organization in the hope of downing the Amer-
ican Federation of Labor, as the Federation is opposed to mak-
ing the labor union a political organization. 1

The Advance Advocate, a labor organ, had this to say :

And now a new industrial union is to be launched in Chicago.
It is going to revolutionize the whole labor movement accord-
ing to the manifesto of its promoters. It is going into politics.
We predict that it will fail. 2

The Iowa State Federation of Labor issued the following
statement :

A few disgruntled office-seekers and would-be politicians have
seen fit to criticize the present methods of our trade organiza-
tions, and these same people have issued a call for a convention
to be held in the city of Chicago, June 27, 1905, to form an
organization, . . . the avowed purpose of which is the complete
annihilation of the present trade-union movement by political
methods. 3

1 Quoted in Proceedings, First I. IV. W. Convention, p. 252.

2 Ibid. s

I0 g THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

The expectation that there would be a general secession
from the American Federation of Labor to the new organ-
ization was not realized and there was practically no Amer-
ican Federation of Labor material in the new body. In
numbers it seemed, in view of later shrinkage, to be at high
tide. The reports of the convention estimated the member-
ship at 60,000, and A. M. Simons estimated that at the very
least the organization would in six months have 100,000
members. 1 The twelve organizations finally installed rep-
resented a membership of 49,010. This excluded the thirty-
nine " individual " members. In regard to this Vincent St.
John writes : " I know that the Annual Convention reports
claim 60,000 members, but the books of the organization
did not justify any such claim, and in fact the average
paid-up membership, without the W. F. of M. (27,000),
for the first year of the organization was 14,000 in round
numbers." z

The I. W. W. was organized, as the constitution expressed
it, to " subserve the immediate interests of the working
class and effect their final emancipation." The attempt to
realize this " final emancipation " was the thing which
marked off the I. W. W. from the typical craft union. This
latter body is craft conscious; the I. W. W. is class con-
scious. The structural and organic form it assumed at the
first convention made for the stupefaction of craft con-
sciousness and the stimulation of class consciousness. The
idea of the class conflict was really the bottom notion or
" first cause " of the I. W. W. The industrial union type
was adopted because it would make it possible to wage this
class war under more favorable conditions.

It is true the Socialist and Socialist Labor parties are
working for the ultimate freedom of the working class, but

1 International Socialist Review, vol. vi, p. 66 (Aug., 1905).
* Private Correspondence, October 5, 1911.

THE I. W. W. VERSUS THE A. F. OF L, IO g

the (Chicago) I. W. W. considers their method political
action a snare and a delusion, and (here both the Detroit
and Chicago factions come together) absolutely impotent
when used alone. It is rather significant that every member
of the provisional board elected at the convention was a
member of the Socialist party. But they emphatically de-
clared that the Socialist party was not to be involved in any
way ; and it never did become involved except as an enemy.
On the other hand, the Socialist Labor party did, through
the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, indirectly affect the
work of the first convention.

The anarchistic element was weak in 1905, and the anar-
chistic leanings now so prominent in the direct-actionist
wing of the organization were then quite overshadowed by
the socialistic and industrial phases of the movement.
Carlton says that " the Industrial Workers may be com-
pared with the Knights of Labor shorn of their idealism and
saturated with class-conscious Socialism " ; 1 and, he, might
have added, with their decentralized administrative system
replaced by a very strongly centralized one this constitut-
ing a fundamental distinction between the I. W. W. and the
Confederation Generale du Travail, a decentralized organ-
ization. Nor should the Industrial Workers of the World
be quite shorn of idealism. That must surely be idealistic
which is " saturated with class-conscious socialism." This
was amply demonstrated at the constitutional convention.
Their idealism was given more of a

bythe persistent tendency to olarp snrialism rm an indus-
trial rather than a political basis. The immediate struggle
rniiSt take"pTace pnmanly in the sliop at the point of pro-

duction only secondarily at the polls.

" By organizing industrially," claims the Industrial

1 F. T. Carlton, History and Problems of Organized Labor (New
York, 1911), p. 82.

IIO THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Worker, " we are forming the structure of the new society
within the shell of the old." a And here he eviderices~Tnr-
idea of the future state of society and the method of its
realization, rather new even to the socialist, and somewhat
akin to that of the anarchists. The First Convention surely
laid its plans, crude as they were, with an eye to the future.
The scope of organization implied that the proletariat of the
future would include more, by far, than the unskilled; that
all those gainfully employed in whatever kind or grade of
work would some day become proletarians, in spirit at
least, and get together in this " one big union."

The first constitution, crude and provisional as it was,
made room for all the world's workers and so at the begin-
ning is a vast and nearly empty structure, with groups of
the lower grades of workers in some of the basic industries
in their proper places in the scheme, but with all the rest a
hollow shell. Whether this empty structure will ever be
" filled up " is a question which time will decide. George
Speed, formerly a member of the General Executive Board
(direct-actionist wing), has characterized this convention
as the " greatest conglomeration of freaks that ever met in
convention." This may have been true, for freak ideas
often did bob up in the convention and some of them got
fixed in the constitution, but at heart this was a vital move,
impelled by high and serious motives. 2

1 This clause was inserted in the preamble at the 1906 convention.
Cf. Constitution I. W. W. as amended to 1008.

2 " C'etait la premiere preparation pratique en Amerique a la revolu-
tion qui doit conduire la societe de la tempete economique au port de
la republique cooperative." L 'Internationale ouvricre et socialiste
(ed. fran^ais), vol. i, p. 63, Stuttgart, 1907 (Report of the Socialist
Labor Party of America to the Congress).

PART II
THE "ORIGINAL" I. W. W.

CHAPTER IV
MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD

THE adjournment of the organizing convention in July,
1905, left the body it had created in a very chaotic condi-
tion. The time and attention of the delegates was so ex-
clusively taken up with the problem of building up " one
big union-" out of many little unions and the task ot work-
ing out a harmony platform of law and policy on which all
could come together, that the matter of business manage-
ment was almost entirely neglected. Indeed some of the cir-
cumstances surrounding the I. W. W. at its inception quite
precluded the ordered and efficient procedure possible to a
well manned and adequately financed organization. The
I. W. W. was not well manned and was practically destitute
of financial resources. The dearth of ability and especially
the want of honesty in its managing personnel were to be-
come all too evident long before the second convention had
come to a close, as was also its practically bankrupt finan-
cial status. Although there were three rather formidable-
looking departments nominally organized as such viz.:
mjiiing, metal and machinery, and transportation none of
theseexcept the mining department represented material
accessions either numerically or financially, and the early
defection of the Western Federation of Miners quite broke
down this one and, what was even more important, cut off
from the Industrial Workers of the World the great bulk
of its financial resources.

The industrial-union idea made marked headway among

114

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

the trade unions of the United States during the first
year of the existence of the I. W. W., and this was quite
largely due to the influence and example of that organ-
ization. Organizers were sent to those places where
serious friction existed between trade-unionists and em-
ployers, or between trade-unionists and the American Fed-
eration of Labor. The I. W. W. devoted very little atten-
tion at that time to the unorganized ; its energy was chiefly
centered on the reformation of the craft unions a policy of
dual unionism. The Federation lost rather heavily in some
quarters to the I. W. W., the disaffection proving most
marked among the brewers and machinists. Max S. Hayes,
in reviewing the situation at the end of the year 1905, wrote
as follows :

The elements that are dissatisfied with the A. F. of L. are
naturally looking askance at the I. W. W., which body appears
to be gaining strength in New York, Chicago, and smaller
places, especially in the West. A national officer of the brewers
told me a few weeks ago that the rank and file in many parts
of the country are clamoring to cut loose from the Federation
and join the Industrialists. . . . Still another national officer, a
Socialist, by the way, said he had visited the little city of Sche-
nectady, N. Y., recently and found the machinists, metal pol-
ishers and several other trades unions in open revolt against
their national organization and going into the camp of the In-
dustrial Workers. Some of the garment working crafts and
textile workers are also affected. It begins to look as though
we are to have another war similar to the struggle between the
old Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. 1

This same unrest and dissatisfaction with the condition
of trade-union organization was evident among many local

1 " The World of Labor," International Socialist Review, vol. vi, pp.
434-5 (Jan., 1006).

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD

unions of the United Mine Workers of America. Only two
local unions of the Mine Workers had finally joined the In-
dustrial Workers of the World at the first convention, 1 but
before the end of the year there were several others desir-
ing admission. In many cases, however, they were unable
to go into the I. W. W. because they had contracts signed
up with the mine operators, and must perforce await their
expiration before any action could be taken. The Mine
Workers' locals at Barrow, Muddy Valley, and Elkville
( 111. ) were in precisely this situation. They reported them-
selves at the second convention as desirous of admission,
but that immediate transfer of allegiance was impossible be-
cause they had two-year contracts with the operators which
did not expire until April, igoS. 2 Although in these in-
stances the contracts were respected and the locals did not
join the I. W. W., that result was not due to any moral in-
fluence emanating from the Industrial Workers of the
World, who, of course, repudiated the validity of contracts
with employers. They believed that, as Haywood expressed
it, " as all is fair in love and war, industrial unionists should
abrogate all agreements which would compel them to vio-
late the principles of unionism." 3

Friction between the Industrial Workers of the World
and the American Federation of Labor continued, of course,
to be in evidence. The nominal possession of a defense
fund by the I. W. W., and the want of such a feature in the
Federation, doubtless appealed to craft unions in time of
need. For that reason, if for no other, many craft union-
ists have felt that Haywood had some reason for saying
that " the only function which the American Federation of
Labor can assume is to act as an advisory board of the

1 The Red Lodge, Mont., and Pittsburg, Kans., locals.

2 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention, p. 324.
8 Voice of Labor, June, 1905.

U6 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

trades-union movement," and that " the ideas of Mr. Gom-
pers are hoary, aged, moss-covered relics of the days of the
ox-team and the pony express, when the craftsmen owned
or controlled the tools of production." 1

There were a few trade unions which joined the Industrial
Workers of the World as a last resort or merely to spite the
American Federation. Such was the case with the Stogie
Makers, who constituted an independent organization in
January, 1906, and who, having been for some reason de-
nied a charter in the American Federation of Labor, finally,
and with noisy repudiation of the principles of the Federa-
tion, joined the I. W. W. 2

Trouble most commonly arose between the Industrial
Workers and the Federation in time of strike. The Indus-
trial Workers objected to what they called the " unfair in-
terference of the A. F. of L. in I. W. W. strikes." Numer-
ous protests against this alleged meddlesomeness of the
Federation were made on the floor of the second convention.
The following excerpt from the report of General- Secretary
Trautmann to the convention will serve for illustration :

. . . strike-breakers were engaged by the American Federation
of Labor officers to take the places of members of the I. W. W.
In Youngstown, Ohio, in San Pedro [Cal.], in Yonkers and in
many other places committees were sent to employers demand-
ing the discharge of I. W. W. supporters ; special boycotts have
been declared against the goods made in factories where mem-
bers of the Industrial Workers of the World are employed, as,
for instance, in St. Louis, Mo., and Butte, Mont. ... In Sche-
nectady, where the I. W. W. efforts gained advantages for
others, too; in Cleveland, Ohio, where the I. W. W. brick-
layers walked out on strike in sympathy with striking hod-
carriers, members of the A. F. of L., and refused an offer of

1 Voice of Labor, June, 1905.

J International Socialist Review, vol. vi, pp. 434-5 (Jan., 1906).

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD 117

ten per cent increase in wages and a closed shop contract, if
they would desert the building laborers, which they refused to
do; in Newark, N. J., where the I. W. W. shoemakers refused
to work with the strike-breakers engaged to defeat strikers of
another organization not in the I. W. W., and similar cases can
be recorded to show that the I. W. W. members are not organ-
ized for the purpose of retaliation against members of their
class. . . . *

The American Federation of Labor was undoubtedly
often guilty of attempts of the kind just mentioned activ-
ities which were looked upon by the " Wobblies " as
crafty methods of undermining and antagonizing the work
of their organization. It happened more than once during
that first year of the younger organization's existence,
and has happened on the occasion of many an industrial

conflict since that time. However, the blame lies not en-

tirely at the door of the Federation, nor has it alone been ;
guilty of such practices. It is, in fact, quite likely that
the first provocation to interference arose from the persist-
ence of the I. W. W. in the policy of organizing or rather
of annexing to itself unions already organized, and usu-
ally so organized in the American Federation of Labor
itself. This policy of double affiliation was warmly dis-
cussed at the first convention, but no definite official decision
of the convention appears in the stenographic report of pro-
ceedings. The I. W. W. has been accused of deliberately
agitating among unions already organized, and that in the
face of open declarations that the I. W. W. does not believe
in dual organization. It is true that such declarations of
policy may have been made by I. W. W. speakers, but it has
not been officially declared to be the policy of the organiza-
tion. A sharp distinction should be drawn here between re-
organizing, or attempting to reorganize, already organized

1 Proceedings, Second I. IV. W. Convention, pp. 71-2.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

bodies dual organizing activities which are not expressly
approved or condemned, and the condition of dual organ-
ism or dual membership which last is expressly forbid-
den. No local union of the I. W. W. may belong to the
American Federation of Labor or to any other national
organization. 1

The I. W. W. has constantly been guilty of agitating in

and building from the old craft unions, and in the earlier

j/days of its history most of its work consisted in thus " bor-

j/ ing from within " the established unions. It is only^in later

| years that it has even approximately lived up to its avowed

* policy of organizing the unorganized the unskilled the

floating laborer. Consequently the provocation of the

American Federation of Labor, and craft unions generally,

to retaliate for the alleged meddlesomeness of. the I. W. W.

was even greater then than it is now.

The vigor of this retaliation on the part of the craft
unions was evidenced by the action taken by such organiza-
tions as the International Association of Machinists, the
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, the United
Cloth Cap and Hat Makers, the United Brotherhood of
leather Workers, and others, which "decreed that the mere
%/ joining of the Industrial Workers of the World would de-

'prive any man or woman of the right to work in industries
controlled by these combinations." 2

This strenuous opposition was largely the cause of more
or less compromising on the part of the Industrial Workers
of the World with the craft-union idea, though, of course,
the very weakness of the new movement and the hard-fixed
habit of years of life and work under the old craft form
was a potent factor here. This much is plain from the

1 Cf. Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention, p. 338.

2 Report of General Secretary-Treasurer Trautmann, ibid., p. 63.

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD ng

record of those early days of I. W. W. history. Many of
its constituent unions retained to a considerable degree the
characteristics of craft unions, and more than that some of
the I. W. W. locals (boasted types and rallying centers for
industrial unionism) were nothing more or less than craft
locals. Even this extremity was no doubt forced upon many
locals on account of the lack of knowledge of industrial
unionism among workingmen, and this made necessary that
rather ambiguous phenomenon of a revolutionary industrial
union largely composed of craft or pseudo-craft units. The
delegates to the second convention had to face this very im-
possible situation. A typical one was that of the Bartenders
and Waiters Local Union No. 83 of Chicago, concerning
which Delegate Shenkan of San Francisco said :

[This] local is a craft organization whose members do not even
follow the vocation their charter would designate. Most of
their members work in other lines of industry, such as cigar-
making, shoemaking, painting, and quite a number of diversi-
fied kinds of work during week days, while on Sundays they
work as bartenders and waiters at picnics, balls, etc. . . . 1

The convention was very desirous that this condition be
remedied as soon as possible, and a resolution was finally
passed stipulating that the General Executive Board must
always organize so far as possible on industrial lines : " The
incoming General Executive Board is hereby directed to
organize the new recruits in and by industries, and to pro-
mote the education in industrialism among those men to
whom charters may have been issued upon a craft system
before they could be enrolled in the I. W. W." 2 In his re-
port to the convention General Secretary Trautmann recom-
mended that

1 Proceedings, Second I. IV. W. Convention, p. 356.

2 Ibid., p. 294.

120 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

as a safeguard against the possible drifting of such [craft]
unions into permanent craft organizations, it should be under-
stood and made mandatory that as soon as a union of employees
in any given industry is formed, all those in such craft unions

must transfer to the respective industrial body But all

recruiting craft unions should be chartered directly from the
general administration, so that constant control can be kept
over the affairs of such organizations, and the proper alignment
be directed as soon as such [action] appears to be opportune
and necessary. 1

However, this antagonism from outside craft unions, and

/these involuntary internal compromises with the craft-union
idea were not the most serious difficulties which now beset
the Industrial Workers of the World. The organization
was threatened with wholesale defection and very soon
actually suffered it in some quarters. During the spring of
1906 it became evident that a movement was afoot in the
lumber camps of the northwest to organize the lumber
workers in a general union outside of the I. W. W. More-
over, it appeared that the moving spirit in the agitation was
one Daniel MacDonald charter member of the Industrial
Workers of the World from the old American Labor Union
a man who had not long since been an organizer for the
I. W. W., and who must at the time have been a member of
that organization, since he was sent as a delegate to the
second convention. Mr. MacDonald explained the nature
of the proposed organization in a letter to Mr. James Brook-
field of Crescent City, California, dated at Butte, Montana,
March 27, 1906. He does not mention the I. W. W. He
writes that

there is a movement on foot now in this state [Montana] and
throughout the western country to organize a United Lumber

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention, pp. 61-2.

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD

Workers' general organization, to be composed of all men en-
gaged in the lumber industry. . . . This organization is to be
constructed on lines broad enough and having sufficient scope
to meet every essential requirement of the men engaged in the
lumber industry, and to give them general support, uniform
benefits and the universal respect and protection so woefully
needed. 1

The attempt was not successful. The lumber industry
was destined to be one of the most fertile fields for the
propaganda of the I. W. W. and to be one of its most solidly
established divisions. This disloyal agitation on the outside
in 1906 was a comparatively insignificant movement. It
merely deprived the organization of a few individual mem-
bers, and delayed somewhat the I. W. W. invasion of the
lumber industries.

The most serious defections occurred in the Metals and
Machinery, and the Mining Departments. The former de-
partment at the outset comprised two groups of metal
workers: the United Metal Workers International Union
and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. The United
Metal Workers had been a part of the American Federation

ii '' "'"~^>^

of Labor until)hortly before the first I. W. W. convention,
and was on its adjournment installed as a part of the Metals
and Machinery Department of the I. W. W. The Amal-
gamated Society of Engineers had also been a part of the
American Federation of Labor.

On account of the somewhat industrial structure of that organ-
ization, as different kinds of workers in the metal industry
comprised its membership, said society had been suspended
. . . from the American Federation of Labor, but by a refer-
endum vote of the members living in the United States and

1 For the letter in full vide Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention
(1906), p. 146.

122 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Canada it was decided to become an integral part of the Amer-
ican Labor Union. . . .*

On the merging of the American Labor Union in the In-
dustrial Workers of the World, the Metal Workers of that
union organized in the Amalgamated Society of Engineers
were naturally installed with the United Metal Workers in
the Metals and Machinery Department. Mutual hostility
and friction between these two groups thus arbitrarily forced
into one department, added to a deplorable lack of coopera-
tion and assistance from the General Headquarters, finally
resulted in the breaking away of the Amalgamated Society
of Engineers, and the consequent loss to the I. W. W. of
about four thousand wage-earners in this one department
during the first year of its existence. This left the Metals
and Machinery Department about three thousand strong,
practically limited in membership to the United Metal
Workers International Union. 2

The most paralyzing blow of all came with the loss of the
whole of the Mining Department in the defection of the
Western Federation of Miners in 1907. Indeed, the Fed-
eration really ceased to be an active member of the I. W. W.
after the second convention of the latter organization in
September, 1906. The W. F. of M. defection was so inti-
mately connected with other dark troubles which came to
light at the second convention that the subject will best be
treated in that connection. 8

The strikes conducted by the Industrial Workers of the
World during the first fifteen months of its existence were
almost uniformly unsuccessful. Its strike activities were,

1 From the report of General Secretary-Treasurer Trautmann, Pro-
ceedings, Second I. W, W. Convention (1906), pp. 51-52.

2 Ibid., p. 53.

Cf. infra, ch. v.

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD

however, quite widespread and pushed in most cases with
energy and enthusiasm. The following groups of workers
were involved: the Stogie Workers of Cleveland, Ohio;
Hotel and Restaurant Workers of Goldfield, Nevada; the
Window Washers of Chicago; the Marble Workers of
Cincinnati ; the Miners of Tonapah and Goldfield, Nev. ;
the Silk Workers of Trenton (N. J.) and Staten Island
(N. Y.) ; and the Saw Mill and Lumber Workers of Lake
Charles, Louisiana. The Stogie Workers were on strike
from January i to October i, 1906. They demanded a ten
per cent wage increase, abolition of the black list, and one
apprentice to every ten employees. 1 Although the strikers
were unable to get the aid they needed from the General
Organization, the strike seems to have been quite successful. 2

In Goldfield, Nevada, strikes were conducted by two dif-
ferent locals. The demand of the Hotel and Restaurant
Workers for the eight-hour day was finally acceded to.
The Miners were on strike both in Goldfield and Tonapah.
They were bitterly opposed by the Allied Printing Trades
Council of the American Federation of Labor, and seem not
to have reached a settlement until late in 1907.

The Window Washers' strike in Chicago began August
i, 1906, and was on at the time of the second convention.
Members of the Window Washers' Union quit work in
thirty-five buildings in the down-town district of Chicago.
The General Executive Board advised that the striking
men be kept at work in other occupations so far as possible
in order to keep down expenses. The Marble Workers of
Cincinnati demanded a nine-hour day and a Saturday half-
holiday. There appears to be no record of the result of
their efforts.

The strikes of the Silk Workers at Trenton, N. J., and

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 106.

2 Ibid., p. 169.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Staten Island, N. Y., were both lost, the cause assigned by
the strikers for their defeat being the fact that they could
get no support from the General Organization. 1

There was a disproportionate amount of energy given to
strikes at this time. Moreover, most of this energy was
misdirected. President Sherman, in his report to the con-
vention, said : " There has been no time since August, 1905,
but what we have had one or more strikes to contend with,
which has been more or less responsible for our organiza-
tion not being in a position to place more organizers in the
field than what it has maintained." *

In discussing the I. W. W. strike record, Secretary Traut-
mann declared that " there was not a single solitary strike
thit the I. W. W. won." They were not rightly conducted,
nor called at the right time.

Those organizations [he explained] formed in the last year on
a strict observance of the laws and principles of the I. W. W.
did not have a strike while those organizations organized on the
craft union principle of immediate gains without voluntary co-
operation of the membership, those organizations were the only
ones that were plunged into a fight immediately after we were
organized. 3

There was certainly little or no cooperative planning of
strikes, especially no careful timing of them, between the
local unions and the general administration. Often during
the first year " strikes were called in times when the general
organization was least prepared, and when it required stren-
uous efforts to meet the requirements of such a conflict with
the employers." *

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 169.

*Ibid., p. 43.

8 Ibid., p. 377-

4 Report of General Secretary-Treasurer Trautmann, ibid., p. 59,

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD

President Sherman believed that the strike activities had
been too exclusively confined to the eastern states, and even
suggested that it might be better for the time being to con-
duct strikes only in the West. He explained his position as
follows :

Nearly all the strikes which have taken place during the life of
the organization have been in the eastern States. The workers
at those points, being so poorly paid, it has been necessary for
them to immediately appeal for benefits, which demonstrates
the fact that we must prepare for war before war is declared.
Many of our strikes . . . have taken place immediately after
the local union was organized, before the members involved in
such strikes were hardened and drilled in the principles of in-
dustrial unionism. . . . One local union in the East . . . be-
comes a greater responsibility to the general organization than
three local unions in the West. 1

At the same time that the industrial unionists were push-
ing their strike propaganda some of them who were also
members of the radical political parties were trying to bring
those parties (viz., the Socialist party and the Socialist
Labor party) together. To do this they realized that the
two parties must agree upon a policy in regard to the atti-
tude which the party should assume toward the trade unions.
With this object in view representatives of the two socialist
parties called a conference which was afterwards known as
the New Jersey Socialist Unity Conference. The sessions
of this conference were held in various New Jersey towns
Orange, Paterson, West Hoboken, Newark at irregular
times between September 10, 1905, and March 4, 1906.
The purpose of the conference, as expressed in the Mani-
festo issued at the close of its sessions, was " to consider
the causes of the division between the two [socialist] camps

1 Report of President Sherman, Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Con-
vention (1906), p. 46. For partial list of I. W. W. strikes vide Ap-
pendix viii.

I2 6 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

and ascertain, if possible, whether solid grounds could be
found for a union of the militant socialist forces ... of the
State.

The conference believed that any union between the revo-
lutionary groups in America depended upon a proper solu-
tion of two problems : " First, the proper attitude for a
political party of socialism to assume tjoward the burning
question of trades unionism ; and second, the proper attitude
for a political party of socialism to assume toward the
ownership of its press, the voice of the movement."

The first of these two problems took up the greater part
of the attention of the conference, and it is the only one
which was of special import in the development of indus-
trial unionism. The very fact of such a conference indi-
cates that there was at least that harmony between the two
camps which was necessary to enable them to get together
to discuss differences. Members of both parties, too, be-
lieved that a harmony platform was actually in process of
successful application, so far as the economic or labor-union
policy of both parties was concerned. For behold the I.
W. W. ! " Such a conference," said the secretary of the
State Executive Committee of the Socialist Labor party,
" taking place at a time when the hitherto divided socialists
are approaching one another and joining hands on the basis
of the Industrial Workers of the World such a conference
we feel confident, at least feel hopeful, will promote the de-
sired end of socialist unity." 8

Shall the political party, the radical political party, be
neutral in its attitude towards the economic organization of

1 Proceedings of New Jersey Socialist Unity Conference, p. iv. The
Manifesto is reprinted on pp. iv-ix of these Proceedings.

2 Ibid.

8 In a letter to W. B. Killingbeck of the Socialist party, ibid., pp.
xv-xvi.

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD

the working class ? This was the real question at issue. The
prevailing sentiment at this conference was in the negative.

A socialist political movement [declared one delegate] can-
not be neutral with regard to economic movements. The
Socialist party itself, on the speakers' banners, says to the
workers, " Join the union of your craft. Join the party of
your class." Evolution forced the Socialist Trades and Labor
Alliance, the class conscious, economic organization of labor.
It was not a mistake. It organized with 25,000 men and today
we have the Industrial Workers of the World with 100,000
men, organized on class conscious lines. If it was a mistake, it
was the kind of a mistake that helps. Neutrality is nonsense. 1

Some of the delegates were more hesitant about such a
proposition as the unqualified endorsement of the I. W. W.
One of the Socialist party representatives expressed his op-
position to such support in these words :

The I. W. W. may be good enough now [he said] but it may
drift, may become bad. Should the Socialist movement base
itself on the I. W. W. and that organization fall, the party
would fall with it. I am opposed to recognizing that organ-
ization until it has proved itself to be of use. In Colorado the
Western Federation of Miners adopted declarations similar to
those of the I. W. W., endorsed the Socialist party, then went
to the polls, not to cast their ballot for the Socialist candidate,
but for a reactionary Democrat. We have nothing definite to
show that the I. W. W. would not do the same thing. 2

The I. W. W. has changed shifted very decidedly and
in that the delegate proved himself something of a prophet,
but its new position is anything but that of a reactionary

1 Delegate Gallo, S. >L. P., Proceedings of New Jersey Socialist Unity
Conference, pp. 7-8.

2 Delegate Killingbeck, ibid., p. 17.

I2 g THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

labor organization voting for a Democratic or Republican
candidate !

The majority were emphatically for a recognition of the
principle of industrial unionism, but there was some differ-
ence of opinion as to whether any particular organization
should be endorsed. A number of the conferees felt that
the I. W. W. should simply be commended as useful for
working out the industrial-union idea, rather than given an
unreserved endorsement. The final conclusions of the con-
ference were embodied in a series of resolutions, and also
expressed in detail in the Manifesto already referred to.
The resolutions pertaining to the question of political-eco-
nomic relations were as follows :

I. Resolved, that the Socialist political movement of the
working class cannot remain neutral to the organized effort of
the working class to better their economic conditions on class-
conscious, revolutionary lines.

II. Resolved, that the A. F. of L. form of organization and
its principles are an obstacle to working class emancipation.

III. Resolved, that the Conference places itself on record as
recognizing the usefulness of the Industrial Workers of the
World to the proletarian movement. . . .

X. Resolved, . . . that . . . steps be taken to bring about a
national conference between the two organizations in order to
bring about unity on a national basis. 1

The Conference holds [reads this Manifesto] that without the
political movement is backed by a class-conscious . . . economic
organization, ready to take and hold and conduct the productive
power of the land, and thereby ready ... to enforce if ... and
when need be, the fiat of the socialist ballot of the working
class ; that without such a body in existence, the socialist polit-
ical movement will be but a flash in the pan . . . ; that a polit-

1 Proceedings of New Jersey Socialist Unity Conference, pp. x and xii.

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD I2 g

ical party of Socialism which marches to the polls unarmed by
such [an] organization, but invites a catastrophe over the land
in the measure that it strains for [and achieves] political suc-
cess. ... It must be an obvious fact to all serious observers
of the times, that the day of the political success of such a party
in America would be the day of its defeat, immediately fol-
lowed by an industrial and financial crisis, from which none
would suffer more than the working class itself. ... By its
own declarations and acts the American Federation of Labor
shows that it accepts wage-slavery as a finality . . . holding
that there is identity of interest between employer and em-
ployee. . . . Consequently [the Conference] . . . rejects as
impracticable, vicious, and productive only of corruption the
theory of neutrality on the economic field . . . , condemns
the American Federation of Labor as an obstacle to the eman-
cipation of the working class . . . [and] commends as useful
to the emancipation of the working class the Industrial Workers
of the World, which instead of running away from the class
struggle bases itself squarely upon it, and boldly and correctly
sets out the socialist principle " that the working class and the
employing class have nothing in common. . . ." 1

The second I. W. W. convention met on September 17,
1907, with ninety-three delegates. The sessions continued
f or's'ixteen days. It had been predicted at the first conven-
tion that the Industrial Workers of the World would within
a year be one hundred thousand strong. This forecast was,
according to Secretary Trautmann's report to the second
convention, very much too sanguine. This report indicated
that there were some sixty thousand members (including
27,000 in the Western Federation of Miners) at the opening
of the second convention. The following tabulation of the
growth of the membership during the first year is arranged
from the data given in Mr. Trautmann's report :

1 Proceedings of New Jersey Socialist Unity Conference, pp. v-vi.

130

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

I. W. W. MEMBERSHIP FIRST YEAR 1

Date

1905
Aug. i ....

Unions Transpor-
directly tation
attached Dept.

Metal
Dept.

Sept i

Oct i

1,000

840

Nov i ....

840

Dec i

840

1906
Jan i

840

Feb i

Mar. i ....

0.275

1,500

Apr i ...

. . . 10,288

3,000

May i

. 11. 520 IQ 1 !

3,000

June i ....

July i ..

Aug i ....

Sept. i ....

* Including S.

T. & L. A. accession, 1200

members.

Total
Membership

1,900
4,247 *
5,078
5,482

8,200

7,8i7

io,775

13,228

16,715
21,000
22,500
45,000
60,000

The data, it will be noticed, is very fragmentary in regard
to the growth of the various departments, and even the fig-
ures representing total membership can be considered by no
means conservative. Mr. St. John, until recently Secretary-
Treasurer of the organization, wrote " that the Second An-
nual Convention reports claim 60,000 members, but the
books of the organization did not justify any such claims;
in fact, the average paid-up membership with the W. F. of
M. for the first year of the organization was 14,000 mem-
bers in round numbers." 2

As has already been intimated, the Mining Department
was from the first not very securely held in the bonds of the

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention, p. 60. These figures are
based on per capita taxes paid and do not include the mining department
which at the time referred to was paying taxes on 22,000 members. Ibid.
''Private Correspondence, Oct. 5, 1911. (The italics are mine.)

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD

general organization, and it is very doubtful whether the
27,000 miners should be included in I. W. W. membership
estimates even during the period while the Western Federa-
tion was nominally a department of the Industrial Workers
of the World. According to Secretary Trautmann, it was
evident "on August I, 1905, that those brave men of the
American Labor Union, numbered then 1,100, and approx-
imately 700 in the Metal Department, [and] could not be
swayed by the denunciation of the opposition in the West,
those under cover as friends, often more dangerous than
those openly fighting the I. W. W." "These 1900 [1800],"
continued Mr. Trautmann, " constituted the only force with
which the constructive work was begun." 1

President Sherman reported that on September 10, 1906,
the locals holding charters in the Industrial Workers of the
World numbered 394, of which number 120 were not at
that time in good standing, so that there were at the time of
the second convention 274 active locals enrolled. 2 The
greater part of this number consisted of local unions directly
attached to the general organization without any intervening
subordinate division or subdivision. A considerable minor-
ity of the total, however, comprised local unions which were
only indirectly attached to the general organization, such
locals being enrolled in District Councils or National Indus-
trial Unions, or even Industrial Departments and being
directly responsible to that council, national union, or de-
partment.

There were but three departments actually organized as
such during the first twelve months. These were the Trans-
portation Department, the Metals and Machinery Depart-
ment, and the Mining Department. The Mining Department

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 60.
* Vide President's report, Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention
(1906), p. 43.

I3 2 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

was the only one of the three having the membership neces-
sary to justify existence as a separate autonomous depart-
ment, and it was finally the only department recognized as
such at the second convention. The Western Federation of
Miners was thus the LW.W.'s only genuine department
and a department, moreover, which was agitating sub rosa
all the while against the general organization of which it
was even a nominal department for but a few months.

Concerning the Transportation Department, Secretary
Trautmann reported to the convention that, " the United
Brotherhood of Railway Employees . . . installed itself as
the Transportation Department of the I. W. W., it being
accepted as a fact that said Brotherhood was an integral
part of the American Labor Union and had at the time of
installment 2,087 members. . . ."

. . . this so-called department [he said] proved to be a con-
stant drain on the general treasury. . . While the Transportation
Department has paid in taxes to the Industrial Workers of the
World the sum of $130.75, the main organization was con-
stantly paying more into that department in the vain hope that
eventually the workers in that industry would rally around the
banner of industrial unionism. . . . x

Although the convention decided not to recognize the
Transportation Department, it did endorse a resolution pro-
viding " that the credentials of all local unions be trans-
portation workers who are sending delegates, be recognized
and the delegates seated." z The break-up of the Metal
and Machinery Department and the bolting of that (chief)
subdivision of it which was formerly and now again became
the Amalgamated Society of Engineers has been referred to
above. 8 The convention took the same action in regard to

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), pp. 55-56.

2 Ibid., p. 9.

3 Cf. infra, p. 122.

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD

this as in the case of the Transportation Department, deny-
ing recognition to the Department but granting it to those
local unions (the United Metal Workers Union in this case)
which had sent delegates to the convention.

It was claimed that seven international unions voluntarily
joined the Industrial Workers of the World, " even though
they were forced by the power of the capitalist combinations
to remain . . . attached to the American Federation of
Labor." * The seven " international " industrial unions are
nowhere specifically mentioned but must presumably have
included unions belonging to the three departments men-
tioned above and which were organized during the first year.
The International Musical Union was one of these so-called
international unions. This organization was not even satis-
fied to be an international industrial union it insisted on
being a Department as well and claimed the title of

the International Musical and Theatrical Union, Subdivision
of the Public Service Department of the Industrial Workers
of the World ... [all this] on the grounds . . . that organ-
izations comprising 1000 and even less members were allowed
autonomous department administration and department exec-
utive boapds; and so that organization has since been using
the prestige of the I. W. W. to justify its existence as a part
of a department not at all organized." 2

There is not now and never has been a genuine, that is to
say a constitutional, Public Service Department in the I.
W. W., and of course the convention could not recognize a
mere fragment of what might some day become a Public
Service Department.

1 Report of General Secretary Trautmann, Proceedings, Second I.
W. W. Convention (1906), p. 63.

2 Trautmann, lo, tit., p. 57.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Since 1906 there have been no Industrial Departments
(i. e., no divisions larger in scope than the National Indus-
trial Union j) in the I. W. W. Nevertheless, the Constitu-
tion continued, up to the tenth convention in 1916, to speak
of the organization as being composed of National Indus-
trial Departments, National Industrial Unions, etc. 1 The
Agricultural Workers' Organization (the "A. W. O."),
organized in 1914, which now constitutes a large and in-
creasingly important division of the I. W. W., is akin to
what the founders wanted to have in the I. W. W. in 1905.
There is more body to it today than there was to any of the
so-called International Industrial Departments of the earlier
period. It is to be noted that in all the editions of the Con-
stitution since 1906 the word " International " has been
replaced wherever it occurred by the word " National."

Throughout the whole of its history the Industrial Work-
ers of the World has been composed almost entirely of local
unions scattered throughout the United States and Canada,
all directly connected with the central office or what is called
the General Organization. The development of subdivisions
(such as Industrial District Councils, International Indus-
trial Unions, and Industrial Departments), between the
general organization and the local union has not been ap-
preciable until within the last two or three years. 1

1 I. W. W. Constitution (1914), p. 4.

* The writer is unable to find any complete list of the " individual "
locals belonging to the I. W. W. in 1906 or 1907. It is not probable
that any such record has been preserved. The following very incom-
plete list has been put together from scattered references in the Pro-
ceedings of the Second Convention :
Local Union No.

144 Power Workers Denver, Colo.

Industrial Workers Union Jersey City ( Mixed local) .

Retail Clerks Union Flat River, Mo.

Industrial Workers Union Paterson, N. J.

Textile Workers Pawtucket, R. I.

MAIDEN EFFORTS ON THE ECONOMIC FIELD

[Note continued.]

Bakery Workers Butte, Mont.

177 Capmakers New York City.

183 Cement Workers Spokane, Wash.

313 Paper Makers New Haven, Conn.

176 Silk Workers New Haven, Conn.

190 Silk Workers New Haven, Conn.

Marble Workers Cincinnati, Ohio.

90 Shoemakers St. Louis, Mo.

299 Window Washers Chicago, 111.

Miners Pittsburg, Kans.

Miners Chicopee, Kans.

139 Hodcarriers

Tobacco Workers Cleveland, Ohio.

365 Mixed Industries Jamestown, N. Y.

185 Mixed Industries San Antonio, Tex.

307 Mixed Industries St. Paul, Minn.

83 Bartenders and Waiters Chicago, 111.

263 Hotel and Restaurant Employees Chicago, 111.

Arizona State Union No. 3 of the Department of Mining.

135

CHAPTER V

THE Coup OF THE " PROLETARIAN RABBLE "
(1906)

THE second convention was the occasion of the first split
in the ranks of the Industrial Workers of the World. At
this time the friction seemed to be chiefly personal, whereas
the second schism in 1908 was primarily due to differences
in regard to principles and policies. It is true that principles
and policies were involved in the feud of 1906, but they
lurked obscurely in the background, while personal antagon-
isms charges and counter-charges of graft, corruption and
malfeasance in office held the center of the stage. From
the inception of the movement the year before a smoulder-
ing dissension developed between the poorer and less skilled
groups of workers largely migratory and casual laborers,
the " revolutionists " or the " wage-slave delegates " as they
were called in the second convention these on the one side,
and the more highly skilled and strongly organized groups
called (by the other side) the " reactionaries " or the
' political fakirs." It might be remarked in passing that,
n this ultra-revolutionary I. W. W., the " conservatism "
of the " reactionaries " ought to be heavily discounted and
:he radicalism of the " revolutionists " raised to the nth
degree to get the true perspective ! Involved with this group
hostility was the trouble stirred up by various members of
the two Socialist political parties.

The first year [writes Mr. St. John] was one of internal
struggle for control by these different elements. The two
136

THE COUP OF THE "PROLETARIAN RABBLE"

camps of socialist politicians looked upon the I. W. W. only as
a battle-ground on which to settle their respective merits and
demerits. The labor fakirs strove to fasten themselves upon
the organization that they might continue to exist if the new
union was a success." 1

But all this internal antagonism was very obscure. It evi-
denced itself chiefly in the personal fight between the Sher-
man-Hanneman-Kirkpatrick faction and the Trautmann-
DeLeon-St. John faction at the second convention, which
finally resulted in the deposition of C. O. Sherman as Gen-
eral President. Mr. St. John has described the situation as
it appeared from his side of the controversy. At the second
convention it soon developed, he says,

that the administration of the I. W. W. was in the hands of
men who were not in accord with the revolutionary program
of the organization. Of the general officers only two were sin-
cere the General Secretary, W. E. Trautmann, and one mem-
ber of the Executive Board, John Riordan. The struggle for
control of the organization formed the second convention into
two camps. The majority vote of the convention was in the
revolutionary camp. The reactionary camp, having the chair-
man, used obstructive tactics in their effort to gain control of
the convention. They hoped thereby to delay the convention
until enough delegates would be forced to return home and
thus change the control of the convention. The revolutionists
cut this knot by abolishng the office of president and electing a
chairman from among the revolutionists. 2

The revolutionists, who were referred to later by their
opponents as the " proletarian rabble " or the " beggars,"
held a pre-convention conference in Chicago on August 14,
1906. This little " curtain-raiser " was called by Local

1 In a letter quoted by Brooks, American Syndicalism: the I. W. W.,
p. 85.

2 The I. W. W., History, Structure and Methods (1917 ed.), p. 6.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Union No. 23 of the Department of Metal and Machinery
which on July 20 sent out a letter to the various I. W. W.
locals in Chicago, which declared that " developments dur-
ing the past year have proven to us that the constitution
does not come up to the requirements of the rank and file
. . . ," and urged a preliminary conference to consider the
following propositions :

First. Is a president necessary in our form of organization ?

Second. Shall this organization be the expression of the
membership ?

Third. Who shall direct the organization work ?

Fourth. Shall the local unions receive a copy of the min-
utes of the General Executive Board sessions ?

Fifth. Shall the local unions be represented at the National
Convention, as set forth in Article VI., General Constitution?

Sixth. Any other question that the Conference may deem
necessary to discuss. 1

The conference met with delegates present from about
sixteen local unions and unanimously decided that a presi-
dent was unnecessary, that all organizers, lecturers, etc.,
should be nominated by the local unions and elected by the
" rank and file," that each local should receive reports of
all Executive Board sessions, which, moreover, should be
open to the rank and file, and that every local union be
represented at the approaching convention by at least two
delegates.

Whereas, the day is at hand [runs their resolution] when we
must abolish anything that pertains to aristocratic power or
reactionary policy, the office of president of a class-conscious
organization is not necessary. The rank and file must conduct
the affairs of the organization directly through an executive

1M I. W. W. Conference Proceedings", Miners' Magazine, Sept. 6,
1906, p. 12.

THE COUP OF THE "PROLETARIAN RABBLE"

board or central committee . . . and, whereas a president can
only be in one place at one time and can only personally organ-
ize the working class in the district in which he is ; he, there-
fore, can only act in the capacity of an organizer. . . . [More-
over,] the expense of a president [$150 per month] would
support at least four class-conscious organizers. . . . 1

Commenting on this conference, J. M. O'Neill remarks that
" there is a vast difference between being class-conscious
and being class-crazy." 2

An inkling of the beautifully chaotic condition of affairs
no later than December, 1905, is given by the comments of
Max Hayes in the International Socialist Review for Jan-
uary, 1906.

I am told by a prominent member of the I. W. W. [he says]
that not all is lovely in that organization, that the original in-
dustrialists and the departmentalists are lining up to give battle,
and that in some places where the DeLeonites and the Anar-
chists had combined and held control the Socialists obtained
possession of the machinery. . . . " If a convention were held
next month," an industrialist writes, " the element in control in
Chicago last July wouldn't be one, two, three, and I predict
that at the next convention the academic vagaries forced upon
us by the DeLeon-Anarchist combine will be dropped for a
plain fighting program that everybody can understand and
conjure with." Rumors are in the air that the Western Miners
and President Sherman and his friends are souring on DeLeon
and Secretary Trautmann and his followers. 3

The principal charge against President Sherman was that
of misdirected and generally extravagant expenditure of the
funds of the organization. The auditing committee at the
1906 convention reported that " the expenditures of the

1 " I. W. W. Conference Proceedings," he. cit., pp. 12, 13.

2 " That Conference at Chicago," Miner's Magazine, Sept. 6, 1906, p. 7.

* International Socialist Review, vol. vi, p. 435.

140

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

ex-General President show gross extravagance and strong
evidence of corruption. During a period of thirty-three
days he flung away on a junketing trip, not a single local
being organized by him at any time, the sum of $731.55.
. . ." 1 William E. Trautmann, the General Secretary-
Treasurer, reported that he was " compelled to pay bills
under protest for services never rendered, or for such
things as should be considered an insult and outrage against
the entire membership. 2

The opponents of Sherman did not believe that these
alleged offenses were either the most important or the most
dangerous of his pernicious activities. When the case fin-
ally came before the Master in Chancery, there was among
the affidavits filed in the case of St. John versus Sherman
one by a certain Lillian Farberg,

who swears that Sherman . . . told her that a conference had
been held at Denver, which was attended by himself (Sher-
man), James Kirwan, J. M. O'Neill, and Victor Berger (of
Milwaukee). At this conference Sherman said an under-
standing had been reached that the Western Federation of
Miners should endorse the Industrial Workers of the World,
that later at the convention of the I. W. W. such action would
be taken as would result in the radical element [the " tramps "
and " beggars "] being thrown out of the organization, and
that Victor Berger at the conference had promised that if this
was done the Socialist party would endorse the I. W. W. 3

The foregoing charges were flatly denied by J. M. O'Neill,
the editor of the Miners' Magazine; at the fifteenth conven-
tion of the W. F. M., he repudiated these and other accu-
sations made by the " DeLeon coterie " and offered $500

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1901), p. 587.

Ibid., p. 58.

' Industrial Workers of the World Bulletin No. 4, Dec. i, 1906.

THE COUP OF THE "PROLETARIAN RABBLE"

141

reward for the establishment of the truth of any of them. 1
Delegate Parks, one of the " wage slave " delegates, de-
clared that

... it is the general opinion of the members of the revolu-
tionary element of this convention that there was among some
of the departments of the Industrial Workers of the World
corruption, graft, and f akiration which would put to shame the
worst of the American Federation of Labor. 2

Immediately on the adjournment of the 1907 convention,
ex- President Sherman issued a statement " to officers and
members of all local unions and all departments of the In-
dustrial Workers of the World " in which he declared,
" that the recent convention ... violated the constitution
in various ways " ; " that the convention was controlled by
the members of the Socialist Labor party under the leader-
ship of Daniel DeLeon," and that this " most disgraceful
gathering " was " illegal and unconstitutional." 3 A month
later Sherman issued on his own behalf a letter to the I. W.
W. membership, in which he denied the various charges of
extravagance and connivance at illegal tactics on his part.
In this letter Sherman says that " not a vote was cast on
any important matter in this so-called convention until
DeLeon had been consulted, or he had given them the " wise
business wink." 4

As far as parliamentary convention tactics are concerned
there is no doubt that both factions displayed a lofty con-
tempt for parlor etiquette. Several months later William

1 Proceedings, i$th W. F. M. Convention, pp. 177-8.

a Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention ( 1906) , p. 226.

3 Statement dated Oct. 4, 1906, Miners' Magazine, Oct. n, 1906,
col. 2, p. 7.

* Letter dated Nov. 6, 1906, Miners' Magazine, Nov. 22, 1906, p. n.
Sherman published another letter in his own defence in the Miners'
Magazine of Nov. i, 1906, pp. 10-11.

1 4 2. THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

D. Haywood wrote to St. John in regard to this matter.
He emphatically condemned " Shermanism," but goes on :
"You were entirely too harsh, unnecessarily so; the Gor-
dian, presidential and other knots that you cut with a broad
axe were only slip knots that could have been easily untied."
" In this way," he concludes, " much dissension could have
been avoided." 1 An anarchist sympathizer with the " pro-
letarian rabble " frankly writes : " Some might claim that
the action of the convention of 1906 was illegal . . . [but]
in a crisis there is no question of legality. It is the time for
deeds.

Seven days had elapsed since the opening of the conven-
tion before the reports of officers were given. During this
time nearly half the time the convention was in session
almost nothing was accomplished. This delay made very
plausible indeed the accusation made by the " wage slave "
delegates that the reactionaries had deliberately planned to
force them out of the convention by resort to these dilatory
tactics. Whether or not the Sherman faction had decided
on such tactics, there is no question but that the freezing
out of the " wage slaves " would be a very natural result.
Article VI. of the Constitution provided that " the expenses
of delegates attending the convention shall be borne by their
respective organizations." Now many of the local unions
could afford to provide their delegates with adequate ex-
pense money; others could afford but very inadequate pro-
vision for expenses. Thus, most of the delegates from
unions in the Mining Department and those in general
from the relatively better established unions were quite
well provided for, the Miners' delegates, e. g., receiving mile-
age plus five dollars per day expense money for every day

1 Letter dated Ada County Jail, Boise, Idaho, March 17, 1907. Pub-
lished in Proceedings r$th Convention, W. F. M. (1907), p. 584.
1 Jean Spielman, Mother Earth, Dec., 1907, p. 458.

THE COUP OF THE "PROLETARIAN RABBLE"

143

they were away from home. The great majority, however,
were paid nothing but mileage and were obliged to pay their
own expenses and had come with funds absolutely insuffi-
cient for a prolonged meeting. Delegate Lingenfelter, in a
speech in support of an unsuccessful motion to allow proxies
to delegates who were compelled to leave on account of lack
of funds, said :

These dilatory tactics that have been pursued by the opposi-
tion have prolonged the convention, due to their express deter-
mination, in my opinion, to freeze out these wage slave dele-
gates. . . . Only last night the boys came to me and said : . . .
" We can't stand it any longer ; we are going broke ; we can't
sleep in boxcars and eat handouts and remain here." *

The " beggars " gained the upper hand. Mr. DeLeon
succeeded in putting through a motion to suspend the above
mentioned article of the Constitution concerning delegates'
expenses, and a resolution was finally passed which author-
ized the payment of $1.50 per day from the general treasury
to all without the necessary expense money. 2

In this way the Trautmann-DeLeon-St. John faction
secured control of the convention and brought about the
deposition of President Sherman the first and last Presi-
dent of the Industrial Workers of the World. The conven-
tion now proceeded to consider some of the problems of in-
dustrial unionism which had cropped out in the course of
twelve months' experience. Meanwhile ex-President Sher-
man and his followers had decided to stand pat but not on
the floor of the convention. They took possession of the
General Headquarters and with the assistance of the police
successfully held them against all comers.

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention ( 1906) , p. 20.

2 By a vote of 378 to 237, ibid., pp. 80, 94.

144

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Upon entering the premises of the General Headquarters the
members of the General Executive Board [newly elected] were
prevented from entering by thugs engaged by members of the
old General Executive Board and two members [of the new
board], Vincent St. John and Fred Heslewood, were attacked
by these sluggers. 1

This picturesque situation is explained to the membership in
an official announcement issued by the new Executive Board
in behalf of the " proletarian rabble " :

Sherman and his hired sluggers are now in forcible possession
of the general office and all the books, records, papers, roster of
local unions, mailing list and other property of the organiza-
tion, necessitating legal procedure on our part to oust them and
regain control of the office and property. . . . The majority of
the General Executive Board was his perfect tool. They
winked at his irregularities, indorsed his extravagance and lent
their efforts to perpetuate him on this organization as they are
now lending their assistance to help him disrupt it." 2

The success of the " beggars, tramps, and proletarian
rabble," that is to say, of the Trautmann-DeLeon-St. John
faction, was hardly complete. They were officials without
an office in which to do business, without equipment of any
sort, and without money. Secretary St. John writes that
they " were obliged to begin work after the second Conven-
tion without the equipment of so much as a postage stamp."
The financial routine in the general office had required the
signature of the president on all checks and prohibited the

1 William E. Trautmann, "A statement of facts," Industrial Workers
of the World Bulletin No. 4, Dec. I, 1906; cf. St. John, /. W. W .,
History, Structure and Methods (3rd ed., 1913), p. 7.

* Machinists' Monthly Journal, vol. xviii, pp. 1109-10 (Dec., 1006).
This announcement is dated Oct. 5, 1006 and carries the following
postscript : " Until we can get charge of the office again we will be
unable to furnish local secretaries with due stamps . . . ," p. I no.

THE COUP OF THE "PROLETARIAN RABBLE"

withdrawal of funds from the bank without that signature.
Now the President was deposed, the office abolished, and the
deposed President refused to sign the necessary requisitions
so that the four thousand dollars belonging to the I. W. W.
in the Prairie State Bank of Chicago was safely out of reach
of both factions. 1

The matter was at last taken to the Court of Chancery
and a restraining order issued prohibiting Sherman and his
friends from appropriating the property of the Industrial
Workers of the World. The findings of the Master in
Chancery were in substance as follows :

1. That the Industrial Workers of the World is a voluntary
association consisting of about 62,000 members residing in
various cities and villages throughout the United States and
Canada.

2. That its 1906 convention was legal and valid.

3. That the acts of Mr. C. O. Sherman after that convention
were illegal, and,

4. That the " attempted abolition '' of the office of General
President was illegal and void. 2

The findings were on the whole favorable to the " wage
slaves " faction, but even so the latter were in a rather for-
lorn position now, having been abandoned to their fate by
the Western Federation of Miners (whose delegates sup-
ported Sherman, some of them bolting the convention be-
fore its adjournment) , and by the Socialist party. Before
long the Western Federation finally withdrew its support
from the Sherman faction and early in the year 1907 the
" would-be usurpers " gave up the struggle, 3 but the West-

1 Mr. Sherman could not draw the money because the signature of the
Secretary-Treasurer was also necessary.

1 These statements are condensed from the report given in the
Industrial Workers of the World Bulletin No. 4, Dec. i, 1906.

" The W. F. M. officials supported the old officials of the I. W. W.

I4 6 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

ern Federation of Miners did not come back into the fold.
They decided to withhold payment of dues to either faction
pending their anticipated and formally realized secession at
their convention in May, 1907.

Mr. Sherman had made a desperate fight. He and his
followers conducted what was virtually a duplicate even if
spurious general office and organization of the I. W. W.
The Shermanites, who had retained control of the " Indus-
trial Worker," 1 the journal of the organization, continued
its publication for several months at Joliet, Illinois. Herein
were published refutations of the charges set forth by the
" DeLeon- Anarchist Combine " in their special series of
Bulletins of the Industrial Workers of the World. With
the surrender of the Shermanites the " Industrial Worker "
was discontinued, and the Trautmann-DeLeon-St John fac-
tion now the I. W. W. established the Industrial Union
Bulletin as a weekly organ.

The now triumphant revolutionists considered that the
whole trouble was due to an attempt to sell out to the capi-
talists, to make the organization a conservative and there-
fore a perfectly harmless association. Mr. Trautmann in-
sisted that their " sole object when forcibly taking posses-
sion of headquarters and all their documents " was to de-
stroy all evidence of their plots for

surrendering the Industrial Workers of the World to the em-

for a time financially and with the influence of their official organ.
The same is true of the Socialist party press and administration. The
radical element in the W. F. M. was finally able to force the officials
to withdraw that support. The old officials of the I. W. W. then gave
up all pretense of having an organization." (St. John, The I. W. W .
History, Structure and Methods, 1917 ed., p. 7.)

1 There is no connection between this paper and the Industrial Worker
later published as a weekly at Spokane, Washington. Nor is this latter
the same Journal as the Industrial Worker recently published in Seattle.
All are I. W. W. organs.

THE COUP OF THE "PROLETARIAN RABBLE"

ploying class and their agents. The stenographic report of the
second convention will prove the falsity of every charge made
against the " tramps " and " beggars " who saved the I. W. W.
to continue its work as the revolutionary economic organiza-
tion of the working class of America. 1

" The danger was great," declared Daniel DeLeon in his
speech at the adjournment of the 1906 convention. "The
conspiracy was deep laid. We see it appearing in the papers
from Denver all the way across to New York. It was a
conspiracy to squelch the revolution in this convention, and
to start over again another American Federation of
Labor." 2

DeLeon' s sentiments regarding the schism of 1906 are
particularly worthy of note, because of the fact that he was "
destined two years later to figure with seceders in a split of /
that same " DeLeon- Anarchist Combine " which was now ,
victorious and of one mind in overthrowing " usurpers "
and apparently in harmony in every way. But in two years
the " DeLeon-Anarchist Combine " was to change to the
DeLeonites versus the Anarchists, each of whom was to
constitute a separate organization called the Industrial
Workers of the World.

Socialist party leaders were as firmly convinced as was
DeLeon that there was a " deep-laid conspiracy," but they
believed that DeLeon was the arch conspirator. When the
Seventh International Socialist Congress met in Stuttgart in
1907, Morris Hillquit and J. Mahlon Barnes presented the
Socialist version of the affair. 3 The fatal trouble from the

1 "A Statement of Facts," Industrial Workers of the World Bulletin^
No. 4, Dec. I, 1906.

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 610.

3 In the Report of the Socialist party of America to the Seventh
International Socialist Congress, L' Internationale ouvricre et socialiste.
Edition frangaise, vol. i, pp. 23-32, " Les mecontents de la Federation.'*

14 8 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

-very beginning, they thought, was the inclusion in the I. \Y.
W. of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, the " enfant
chetif " (as they expressed it) of the Socialist Labor party. 1
They go on to tell how this alleged conspirator prepared the
ground for the " capture " of the convention in the interest
of his " enfant chetif " :

Several months before the 2nd Convention, the Alliance, under
the direction of the adroit chief of the Socialist Labor party,
Daniel DeLeon, planned to take possession of the administra-
tion of the I. W. W., and by means of a skillful manipulation
of the delegates, succeeded in obtaining a majority for itself in
the convention. The Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, in-
deed, dominated the convention. It completely modified the
constitution of the organization, abolished the office of General
'President, and chose a new Executive Board from among its
friends and adherents. But the triumph of the Alliance did not
last. In conformity with the constitution of the I. W. W., the
.acts of the convention are not valid unless ratified by a refer-
<endum of the members. . . . The leaders of the Alliance re-
fused to submit the acts of the convention to a vote of the
members, and the old officials immediately declared them null
cand void. The division was therefore complete in the ranks of
the I. W. W. The two factions maintained rival bodies of
officials and the dispute was carried to the courts, which pro-
nounced in favor of the old administration [Sherman, et a/.].
The great majority of the members supported the original
organization directed by Mr. Sherman in the capacity of Presi-
dent, while the number of adherents to the DeLeon faction did
not exceed 2000 members. 2

1 Loc. cit., p. 30. " La Socialist Trade & Labor Alliance a obtenu le
record d'avoir provoque plus de disputes et de schismes au sein des
mouvements socialistes et ouvriers en Amerique, pendant ces dernieres
annees, que n'importe quel autre organisme, et son adhesion au mouve-
:ment a etc fatal a celui-ci." Ibid.

- Translated from the French. Loc. cit., pp. 30-31.

THE COUP OF THE "PROLETARIAN RABBLE"

Vincent St. John offers some interesting testimony against
the allegations that DeLeonism dominated the second con-
vention :

It is my opinion [he says] that they [the Shermanites] are,,
because of lack of argument with which to sustain a wrong
position, hoping to cause the prejudice which exists against
DeLeon and the Socialist Labor party to blind many to the
true state of affairs, a prejudice to which I plead guilty to hav-
ing had, but which I was unable to justify upon investigation,
a prejudice which exists against this organization and man be-
cause it and he stood upon the ground that we now occupy
fourteen years ago, struggling against grafters and traitors,
and for which they have paid the penalty in being slandered
and vilified. This is no eulogy of DeLeon or the S. L. P. . . .
It is my conclusion. 1

These conflicting opinions are presented for what they
are worth. Oil both sides they should be taken with salt.
The writer makes no attempt to pass judgment except to
point out that the Socialist party report to the Stuttgart
Congress is obviously in error in claiming that the Master
in Chancery pronounced in favor of the old (i. e., the Sher-
man) administration. 2

The " proletarian rabble " recognized that the power of
the opposition would be fatally undermined if it lost the
active support of the Western Federation of Miners. It has
been seen that they did finally lose that support when the
W. F. M. finally cut loose entirely from anything and every-
thing calling itself I. W. W. This the most staggering
defection of all that the young I. W. W. had to face had
been rather plainly foreshadowed as early as the fall of

1 " Vincent St. John on the I. W. W. Convention," Letter to the Editor,
Miners' Magazine, Nov. 8, 1906, pp. 5-6.

2 Cf. supra, p. 145. The report of the Master in Chancery, Industrial
Workers of the World Bulletin, No. 4, Dec. i, 1906.

I5 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

1905. Within three months of the adjournment of the
first convention the report was circulated among various
unions in the West that the Western Federation had refused
to join the Industrial Workers of the World. 1 This rumor
was without foundation. The Western Federation did join
the I. W. W.

Immediately after the close of the first convention [according
to Secretary Trautmann's report] the officers of the Western
Federation of Miners reported to the members of that organ-
ization the actions of the first convention, and a referendum
was issued for the purpose of having the work of the delegates
ratified by the rank and file. At the end of August, notice
was received that the members of the Western Federation of
Miners had approved, by a big majority, the actions of the
delegates in installing that organization as an integral part of
the Industrial Workers of the World, and on September i,
1905, the Western Federation of Miners became the Mining
Department of the Industrial Workers of the World." :

But this was not to be for long. Although the break did
not come for some months after the second I. W. W. con-
vention, some premonitory evidences of disaffection came
to the surface at that meeting. As will be seen, there were
several things which aggravated the trouble in the Mining
Department. The deposition of President Sherman by the
delegates to the second convention, and the consequent con-
fusion, especially in regard to finances, resulted in the bolt-
ing of the convention by the delegates of the Mining De-
partment (the Western Federation of Miners). 3 From the
close of the second convention until the summer of 1907 the
Western Federation was nominally a part of the Industrial

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention, p. 107.

2 Ibid., pp. 50-51.

8 The bolting delegates were : Mahoney, McMullen, Hendricks and
R. R. McDonald.

THE COUP OF THE "PROLETARIAN RABBLE" l ci

Workers of the World, but was all this time becoming more
and more alienated in spirit. For all practical purposes,
January I, 1907, may be regarded as marking the termina-
tion of the Federation's connection with the I. W. W. This
whole controversy between the I. W. W. and its Mining De-
partment, i. e., between the " proletarian rabble " (the
Trautmann-DeLeon-St. John faction) on the one hand, and ^
on the other the " reactionaries " (the Sherman-Hanneman
faction), supported for the most part by the Western Fed-
eration of Miners all this frenzy of squabbling is given a
great deal of space in the Miners' Magazine (the official
journal of the Western Federation) during the last three
months of I9O6. 1

The men most prominent in the activities of the second
convention were Daniel DeLeon, Vincent St. John, C. O.
Sherman, and Wm. E. Trautmann. Members of the Social-
ist party, were less prominent and numerous than they had
been a year before. Neither Mr. Simons nor Mr. Debs was
present at the 1906 meeting. The Socialist Labor party
contingent was, however, quite as strong as ever one of
its new delegates being Mr. Paul Augustine, later the Na-
tional Secretary of the Socialist Labor party. 2 DeLeon's
influence was as strong as ever. He was declared to have
controlled the convention this was reiterated by individ-
uals both inside and outside. Ex-President Sherman, in a
speech in his own defense on the convention floor, said :

Delegate DeLeon has controlled this convention. . . . But, . . .
while I endorse the underlying principles that are advocated by
the Socialist Labor party ... I am opposed to their tactics

1 Especially important are the various reports on the Second I. W. W.
Convention, appearing in the issue of October i8th.

2 In general the members of the two Socialist parties were arrayed
in opposing camps the Socialist party men siding with the Shermanites
and the Socialist Labor men with DeLeon, of course.

ir 2 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

and I do not hesitate to say that time will demonstrate to the
working class that their tactics are suicide [sic] to the move-
ment. 1

The members of the Socialist party, naturally biased
against the Socialist Labor party, were quite ready to
accuse its representatives of steam-roller methods at the
1906 convention. As before, these insinuations were quite
correct in that the Socialist Labor party, through its un-
official representatives, most of all through DeLeon, did thus
indirectly have a great deal of influence in the convention.
But it is yet open to question whether this influence was a
pernicious one. Moreover, the dominant policy of the con-
vention was not an unmixed DeLeon policy and the domi-
nant group contained another element, viz., the more thor-
oughgoing non-, or rather, anti-political faction, attaching
to no political party whatever. The chief spokesmen of this
element were William E. Trautmann, the Secretary-Treas-
urer, and Vincent St. John, 2 who was to succeed the former
in that office several years later. He was a member and
official of the Western Federation of Miners and a radical
and enthusiastic devotee of the principle of industrial
unionism. He emphatically opposed the action of the West-
ern Federation officials at the 1906 convention and instead
of following the majority bolt from the I. W. W., he bolted
the Western Federation and was elected a member of the
General Executive Board of the I. W. W. 3

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 271.

2 Vincent St. John had been a member of the Western Federation of
Miners since 1894 and was in 1906 a member of the executive board of
that organization, but refused to leave the convention and join the
seceding Miners in 1907, choosing rather to bolt the W. F. of M. and
remain with the I. W. \V.

3 " St. John has given the mine owners of the [Colorado mining]
district more trouble in the past year than any twenty men up there. If

THE COUP OF THE "PROLETARIAN RABBLE"

These two men represented the alleged Anarchist end of
the so-called " DeLeon-Anarchist combine " and were the
real spokesmen of the more revolutionary element. They
would have preferred to have had the political clause of the
Preamble stricken out, but were not powerful enough to
swing the majority of the delegates to that position and fin-
ally agreed as a compromise to stand with DeLeon and his
followers for the retention of the political clause. The fight
over the political clause was thus postponed to a later con-
vention.

The financial problem was from the first made more diffi-
cult by a kind of dual unionism which was contrary to the
spirit, at least, of the I. W. W. law, but which was tolerated
because quite unavoidable. The involuntary connection of
many local unions with more than one general organization
resulted in the subjection of such unions to the payment of
dues to each central organization. To relieve this excessive
burden of taxation it was decided by the General Executive
Board to make a discount from the regular dues in favor of
all locals thus situated. This discounting policy, felt to be
necessary in order to hold many unions in the organization,
meant a loss of revenue which could ill be borne.

Moreover, in consideration of some material equipment
in the way of office furniture and supplies, seals and charters
were furnished free of charge to all unions formerly with
the American Labor Union or the Socialist Trade and Labor
Alliance. To top all, the mismanagement and extravagance
resulting from discord in the general office, and incompe-
tence among the officials, almost strangled the organization
before its first anniversary. Debts were contracted with
manufacturers and

left undisturbed he would have the entire district organized in an-
other year." (Statement attributed to mine-owners' detectives and
printed in the Rocky Mountain Nezvs, Feb. 28, 1906, and quoted by Geo.
Speed in a letter to the Weekly People, April 7, 1906, p. 5, col. i.)

154

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

the inability to pay . . . nearly endangered the very existence
of the organization, when threats were made to disclose the
real state of affairs to parties who were straining every nerve
to see the smashing of the I. W. W. . . . Personal loans had
to be contracted to deposit money at the bank when the account
was overdrawn and for three months in succession the con-
stant fear that these conditions would become known kept the
real workers on the administration from engaging enough
assistance to carry on the necessary work. . . . 1

Despite these difficulties there was turned into and ex-
pended from the General Defense Fund (in addition to the
voluntary subscriptions) the sum of $8,910.00 in behalf of
twelve different strikes. The report of the auditing com-
mittee showed that there was on hand August 22, 1906, a net
balance of $3,555-9 2 - 2

1 Report of General Secretary-Treasurer, Proceedings, Second I.
W. W. Convention, pp. 57-8.

2 For complete itemized statement cf. the report of the auditing com-
mittee, vide Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), pp. 579-
94. The cash balance was for some time after the close of the conven-
tion inaccessible to the general officers. Cf. supra, p. 145.

CHAPTER VI
THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION

WITH its " house-cleaning " job off its hands, the con-
vention now turned its attention to some of the specific
problems of policy and constructive work. The activities
of the past fourteen months had brought new and challeng-
ing questions to the fore. One of the most important was
the problem of the agricultural laborer. Attention centered
upon the farm laborers and the lumber workers. Most of
the industrialists agreed that the cooperation of the coun-
try workers farm laborers and lumbermen and the city
proletariat was absolutely necessary for the success of revo-
lutionary industrialism.

The agricultural elements of the working class [said one of the
delegates at the second convention] are going to be the last and
hardest to be organized into this economic organization, and
. . . while we may have the wage slaves of the industrial
centers organized, when the crisis comes we will find [them]
... in an economic organization and bucking against a com-
bination of capitalists and agriculturists, and when that time
comes we will of necessity have to exercise our political rights
and overthrow that opposition. 1

The I. W. W. had already made some headway among
the lumber workers, and it was in connection with this
element that many believed it most feasible to organize the
farm laborers. Secretary Trautmann devoted two solid

1 Proceedings, p. 309.

155

156 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

pages of his report to the discussion of the relations of the
farm and forest workers with the city proletariat. He be-
lieved that the failure of revolutionary movements was
often due to the lack of cooperation between these sections
of the working class. He urged the organization to follow
among the farm laborers those methods which had already
been applied with some success in the lumber camps.

For this work of organizing the farm laborers [he said] we
must look for actual support to the thousands and hundreds of
thousands of wage-earners in the lumber camps of the United
States and Canada. No element is so faithful to the principle,
when once understood, as the hard-working pioneer proletar-
ians in the woods, nor a group of toilers who will fight more
vigorously . . . than those who . . . call themselves " lum-
ber-jacks." Their relation with the farm laborers and the . . .
[seasonal] character of their employment should serve as the
key to open the field for the organizing of the farm wage slaves.
In the summer months most of the lumbermen work as farm
hands or in the saw-mills, and many a black-listed mechanic from
industrial centers seeks as a last refuge from the masters' perse-
cution employment as constantly shifting farm laborer and lum-
berman. The Industrial Workers of the World have organized
and are organizing with astonishing success the lumbermen in
different parts of the country. . . . But . . . their condition will
be jeopardized if the I. W. W. fails to organize the workers in
the fields in which they seek and secure employment during the
remainder of the year, that is mostly in agricultural occupa-
tions, , . . [and] ... to assure a successful protection of farm
laborers and lumbermen, it is absolutely necessary to get the
organizations so organized into direct touch through the gen-
eral administration of the I. W. W. with the organizations of
the Industrial Workers in the cities. 1

An important change in the geographical distribution of

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), pp. 65-6.

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION t --

propaganda and organizing activities was that suggested to
the convention by President Sherman. He thought that
these activities of the Industrial Workers of the World
should not be immediately spread indiscriminately over all
parts of the country, believing it to be most expedient to
allow the eastern section of the United States to lie fallow
for a time, so to speak. He recommended that

the greater part of the money expended for paid organizers be
devoted to the western States for the next six months, for the
following reasons : West of the Missouri River the industrial
conditions are in a far better state . . . than they are in the
eastern States and organizing can be done there without en-
dangering turmoil in the way of lockouts and strikes. . . . We
must get a substantial organization in the West . . . before we
will be prepared to make a general campaign in the East, as
in the eastern States the workers in many of the industries are
so poorly paid that a strike or lockout means starvation if
finance is not forthcoming. . . . Hence I feel the necessity of
first fortifying ourselves with a good Western membership be-
fore exposing the organization to a general assault by the em-
ployers of the East. 1

This proposal was, however, not very favorably received
by the convention. The committee on reports of officers
made, among others, this recommendation, which received
the endorsement of the convention :

We disagree with our President regarding organizing in the
West in preference to the East. . . . The committee believes
that [the fact] that conditions in the East are deplorable is the
very reason why organizing work is necessary in the East, that
the standard of living may be improved, thus accomplishing a
more uniform standard of working-class solidarity. 2

1 Report of the General President, Proceedings, Second I. W. W.
Convention (1906), pp. 45-6.

2 Ibid., p. 423.

! 5 8 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

The average member of the Industrial Workers of the
World was exceedingly sceptical of the value of undiluted
representative democracy for either a labor union or a polit-
ical state. He suspected that any official might, and prob-
ably would, be disloyal. He realized how difficult it is for
any organization which depends on representatives to main-
tain a body of such representatives who really represent.
He knew how easy it is for a delegate to be " reached "
to be influenced by any one of a score of insidious forms of
corruption. This accounts for the stress laid by the Indus-
trial Workers of the World upon the referendum idea, from
the very beginning of its existence. Let the acts of dele-
gates in convention be ratified by referendum vote. The
convention is the law-making body, but it is always subject
to the will of the rank and file. All factions, even that one
which plotted disruption, united in lip service, at least, to the
idea of the referendum. Labor-union democracy must be
made democratic by referendum control. How much of all
this referendum clamor was " sounding brass " is indicated
by some remarks made by Mr. DeLeon (who, of course,
believed in the referendum) at the second convention:

I think it is positively comical [he said] to see men who stand
convicted before this convention of having trampled on the
principles of this constitution . . . who have refused the refer-
endum, men who suspended locals because they did not submit
to the men who lined up with those elements; I think it is
positively comical to have such elements come before this con-
vention and bow down to the referendum and salaam and kow-
tow to the rank and file, or start off screeching like howling
dervishes " referendum " ! 1

The convention had to face the important fact that a very
large proportion of the human raw material for I. W. W.

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 252.

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION

propaganda were foreigners, new to America and speaking
alien tongues. From the very first a very liberal policy in
regard to the foreign element had been adopted by the In-
dustrial Workers of the World. Certainly they could not
consistently adopt a narrow policy here and draw the color
line if they intended really to become an all-inclusive demo-
cratic organization. It will be remembered that protest
against discrimination against the negro by craft unions
was voiced by William D. Haywood at the very opening of
the first convention. 1 At the second convention this liberal
attitude was maintained in regard to all foreign elements.
Moreover, in the work of organizing the immigrants it was
proposed to go still further and take the aggressive.

This convention [said Secretary Trautmann] should instruct
the incoming Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of
the World to immediately find the necessary agencies in
Europe, so that immigrants to this country, before leaving, will
be already furnished with all the information necessary, and
be enlightened as to the real conditions in the United States,
and an appeal should be made to them to immediately join the
existing organizations of the Industrial Workers of the World
immediately after they accept employment in any industry.
The literature of the Industrial Workers of the World should
be distributed in different languages in the various emigration
ports in Europe, and central bureaus be established by the In-
dustrial Workers of the World in American harbors, and be
opened to the immigrants, and information should be furnished
them [as to] how they could . . . participate in the struggles
of organized labor. . . . 2

1 Cf. supra, p. 84. Also, Proceedings, First I. W. W. Convention
(1905), p. i.

2 Report of the Secretary-Treasurer, Proceedings, Second I. W. W.
Convention (1906), p. 68. There was no action taken by the convention
on Trautmann's suggestion that European propaganda agencies be
established.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Requests were made at the convention for literature in
many foreign languages Macedonian, Jewish, Italian, Sla-
vonian, Spanish, etc. on behalf of these and others. For-
eign-language publications and pamphlets were issued and
foreign-language branches of the local unions had been
established and continued to be extended in scope after the
second convention. The Italian Socialist Federation asked
for the services of an Italian organizer, and one was pro-
vided. An Italian paper, // Proletario, had been appearing
for a short time as an official organ of the Industrial Work-
ers of the World, and its publication was continued under
the supervision of the General Executive Board. 1

Furthermore, the structure and scheme of organization in
the local unions was modified to suit the requirements of a
polyglot membership. A motion was proposed and carried

to allow wage-earners of a given nationality to form unions of
their own in the respective industries in which they are em-
ployed and where there are not enough to form unions of that
kind, the parent unions shall allow the [non-English-speaking]
members ... to have branch meetings for educational pur-
poses. 2

It is worthy of note that sex lines were ignored quite as
completely as race lines. Perhaps the organization leaned
backwards a little in the policy of special inducements to
women and " juniors " indicated in the resolution carried
" to remit for female members, ten cents per member per
month to the union, the same to apply to juniors."

The character of the unit group the local union as
being preeminently industrial in nature, was emphatically
reaffirmed and more fully defined than ever before.

1 Bulletin of the Industrial Workers of the World, No. 4, Dec. I. 1906.
1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. no.
*Ibid.

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION

.... the smallest unit of an industrial union [says Secretary
Trautmann] comprises the employees in one industrial plant,
whether large or small. Likewise should all the employees of
industrial corporations, no matter where .... employed, be
members in that respective department of wage-earners, if
already organized. Taking for illustration the Mining Depart-
ment, it should embrace within its folds not only the metallif-
erous, the coal and the salt miners, all the employees in the oil
and gas fields, and the various plants connected with that in-
dustry, but also the employees in oil and gas refineries, the
teamsters and distributors of oil, and any other mining products
in the large or small industrial centers. They should belong to
the same department in which the workers in the mines, or in
the oil fields, are organized. 1

There was some agitation in New York City in the sum-
mer of 1906 to organize that section on a basis of one local
union to each industry, with each local divided into sub-
branches as the needs and extent of its constituency might
require. These latter sub-branches were, moreover, to have
no direct connection with the General Organization. This
plan was opposed at the convention. It was in conflict with
the policy of centralization which characterized the earlier
stages of I. W. W. development. It was emphatically con-
demned by President Sherman as a violation of the consti-
tution. He asserted that it centered the " power of the
whole industry in the hands of the members of one local
union." 2

Centralization was wanted but it was national (or inter-
national) centralization, not district centralization. A pro-
vision had been made the year before for what were called
" mixed locals " which were to include workers in various

1 Report of General Secretary-Treasurer, Proceedings, Second I.
W. W. Convention (1906), p. 61.

2 Report of the Geneial President, Ibid., p. 46.

162 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

industries, but only so to include them temporarily ; it being
understood that so soon as a sufficient number of the work-
ers in any particular industry came into the locality to war-
rant their organization into a union that all members of the
mixed local who belonged to that industry should imme-
diately withdraw from the " mixed " and join the " pure "
industrial union. It was, of course, assumed that no one
should join a mixed local or remain in a mixed local when
a union of his industry existed in that locality. The privi-
lege of membership in mixed locals had already been very
much abused. In numerous intances it was found that
members continued as members of the mixed local, even
after their particular industrial union had been organized,
or even maintained membership in both the mixed and the
industrial body at the same time. This double membership
was not only of no value it was usually positively disas-
trous. It made confusion and brought on factional fights
between " mixed " and industrial bodies, 1 and resulted in a
double, and consequently inflated, membership representa-
tion at the annual conventions. After an extended discus-
sion of the seemingly unmixed evils of mixed " locals," the
convention passed a resolution defining their functions.
" The mixed local," runs the resolution, " is not to be a
permanent institution in the I. W. W. It is merely the
propaganda [body] that will build up an industrial union
for the future. It is a recruiting station [only]."

1 Cf., e. g., the case of the Tinners and Platers of Youngstown, Ohio,
as reported by Delegate Lundy, Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Con-
vention (1906), p. 277.

* Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 287. The
following clause was added to the constitution : " Mixed locals. No
member of a trade that is organized in his locality is qualified for ad-
mission into a mixed local in the same locality, and no member of a
mixed local can remain a member of the same after his trade has been
organized in that locality." Ibid., p. 276. For the discussion of the
" mixed local " problem, cf. ibid., pp. 276-288.

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION

Important subdivisions of the organization were the In-
dustrial Councils. These had been constitutionally defined
as " central bodies composed of seven or more local unions
in two or more industries." * Such central bodies had been
organized during the first year in New York, Chicago, St.
Louis, Cincinnati, Paterson, N. J., and Flat River, Mo.,
and were, according to Secretary Trautmann, " in process
of formation in Cleveland, Seattle, and Toronto, Canada." 2
Steps had also been taken toward the formation of the Ari-
zona (state) District Industrial Council. These bodies had
a definite future role as well as an immediate function
mapped out for them. Here is given some little conception
of the anticipated modus operandi of one part of the co-
operative machinery of a future industrial society of which
the Industrial Workers of the World is proposing to be the
framework. The work of the industrial councils, present
and future, is explained by Wm. E. Trautmann as follows :

If it is the final object of the Industrial Workers of the World
to prepare the government for the cooperative commonwealth,
then likewise should provisions be made to organize the agency,
through which the administration of cities and rural districts
[can] be conducted. The Industrial Council should, therefore,
be organized for that purpose, and the territory to be covered
by such organization should be determined by the central ad-
ministration. . . . While the future functions of such councils
will consist in the administration of the industries by the
chosen representatives of the various industrial unions, their
present-day duties should be to direct the propaganda, the or-
ganizing work, the education through central agencies, the
direction of strikes, and other means of warfare between the
workers and the shirkers, and the supervision of organizers;
in fact, all such functions as will yield better results, if carried

1 I. W. W. Constitution (1905), art. i, sec. 2(b), cf. supra, p. 98.
2 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 60.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

out by a collective direction, should come within the jurisdic-
tion sphere of such councils. 1

The original constitution had provided for thirteen inter-
national industrial departments, which could be organized
in any industry so soon as it contained ten locals with a
membership of not less than 3,000 members. 2 The reaction
against the departmental idea at the second convention was
sufficiently strong to carry an amendment to the constitu-
tion making the prerequisite to departmental organization
in any industry " ten locals with a membership of not less
than 10,000 members." This change was partly the result
of a general feeling that the departmental system was not
as practicable as had been at first believed. Moreover, it
was believed that, so long as departments could be organ-
ized on the basis of a membership of only 3,000, depart-
mental autonomy would be an absolute farce, and simply
resolve itself into local union or locality domination. The
defenders of the departmental idea rightly insisted that that
idea be given a fair chance to work itself out. Another
group industrial unionists who laid great stress on the
local industrial union as the division which should first of
all be possessed of complete autonomy felt that this change
was a change in their favor in so far as it made the attain-
ment of the departmental status more difficult and the exist-
ing number of departments actually less. The departments,
thought DeLeon,

must be in the nature of the states of the United States and
. . . there should be no less and no more autonomy, and for
the same reason that this government of the United States is
not a government of the states but a government of the people,

Report of the General Secretary-Treasurer, Proceedings, Second 7.
W. W, Convention (1906), p. 62.

2 Constitution (1905), art. i, sec. 2(a) and art vii, sec. 4, cf. supra, p. 96.

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION

165

for the same reason the government of this I. W. W. is not a
government of departments, it is a government of the rank
and file. 1

The Universal Label, provided for in Article IV., Section
10, of the original constitution, had not given entire satis-
faction. In fact, a number of the delegates wished to abol-
ish the label altogether. This demand grew out of the
misuse of the label itself. Many locals suffered it to get
into the hands of employers, others cooperated with their
employers in its use. Now cooperation with employers in
any way whatever is in absolute violation of the spirit and
letter of the I. W. W. law. Hence the label was looked
upon by many as something of a very compromising nature.
It came near to being entirely abolished, but finally it was
decided that the label be retained, but used only in strict
accord with the provisions of " Resolution A," which re-
veals the role of the red (revolutionary) label as opposed
to that of the orthodox (" pure and simple ") trade-union
label. The resolution reads :

Whereas, the universal label of our union has been produc-
tive of both good results, such as the general advertising of our
name and the graphic presentation of the unity and comprehen-
sive character of the I. W. W. to the minds of the proletariat ;
and of evil results, such as the advertising of merchandise, the
fostering of a tendency towards the cooperation of the classes,
the general confusion of the minds of working men in regard

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 330. Tridon
makes this statement concerning departmentalism in 1906 : " This sys-
tem soon appeared impracticable and as the purely industrialist view
was beginning to dominate the membership, it was more and more
definitely recognized that the New Unionism should organize from
below upward. In other words, the local industrial union, not the
department, was to be the basis of organization." (The New Union-
ism, p. 100.) By 1917 the departments had practically vanished from
the working structure of the I. W. W. This is shown graphically in
the chart diagram of the organization's present structure in Appendix iii.

!66 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

to the nature of the class struggle, and in its failure to explain
its own significance as to just what or how much of the work
on a product was done by I. W. W. men; and,

Whereas, It should be our endeavor to retain every weapon
that is efficient for the proletariat and against the capitalists;
be it, therefore,

Resolved, That, in an endeavor to eliminate the evils and
continue the good effects of our first year's experiment, we
retain the universal label ; and be it

Resolved, That the use of the universal label shall never be
delegated to employers, but shall be vested entirely in our
organization ; and be it further

Resolved, That except on stickers, circulars and literature
presenting the mer.its of the I. W. W., and emanating from the
general offices of the I. W. W., the universal label shall be re-
tained only as evidence of work done by I. W. W. men; and
be it further

Resolved, That when the label is so printed, it shall be done
by the authority of our union without the intervention of any
employer ; and be it further

Resolved, That when our universal label is placed upon a
commodity as evidence of work done by our men, it shall be
accompanied by an inscription underneath the label stating
what the work is that our men have done, giving the name of
the industrial department to which they belong and the number
or numbers of their local unions, and that the universal label
shall never be printed as evidence of work performed without
this inscription ; and be it further

Resolved, That the universal label shall be of a uniform
crimson color and always the same in design. 1

It has been stated that the experience with, and the depo-
sition of, President Sherman resulted in the abolition of the
office of General President. No doubt the Sherman con-

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 463. In Sep-
tember, 1906, the I. W. W. label had been registered in all but three of
the states of the Union. Ibid., p. 45.

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION

troversy was the principal predisposing cause, but it is very
probable that there would have been some agitation for the
abolition of that office even if there had not been a single
charge against Sherman as President. A good many were
a little shy of the name " President " it savored of the
present political state ! Others thought it involved too great
concentration of power in the hands of one individual.
These latter were the sponsors of the " rank and file " and
the forerunners of those who later figured as " decentral-
izers " in the controversy concerning centralization in the
Industrial Workers of the World. 1 " The people who
direct the Industrial Workers of the World," said Delegate
Reid, " are the rank and file, ... In a multitude of coun-
sellors there is wisdom, and wisdom is not in the brain of
one man to direct this institution." 2 Furthermore, as De-
Leon pointed out, " the President is mainly, essentially and
exclusively an organizer, a general organizer with a high-
sounding title and wages and expenses to match "

The committee appointed to report on the advisability of
retaining the office of President reported that it came to its
negative conclusion " on the assumption that there was not
a man in this convention strong enough or capable enough
to assume the office of President." *

The efforts of the industrial abolitionists did not end with
the attempt to abolish the departments and the universal
label, and the successful abolition of the office of General
President. Many less important matters were put under
the ban. It was decreed that " all rituals, signs, grips and

1 Vide infra, ch. xiii.

2 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 231.

3 Ibid., p. 225.

4 Ibid. The amendment abolishing the presidential office was adopted
by a vote of 354^ to 253, ibid., p. 246.

1 68 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

passwords, borrowed from pure and simpledom, be abol-
ished," and that the use of all terms of salutation of the
more orthodox sort, such as " brother " and " comrade " be
abolished and the term "fellow-worker" be used on all
occasions. 1 Of more material consequence to those con-
cerned was the reduction made in the salaries of the national
officers. The salaries of the General Secretary-Treasurer
(now the national head of the organization), and Assistant
General Secretary-Treasurer were reduced from one hun-
dred and twenty-five dollars per month, to one hundred
dollars. 2 The committee making the recommendation felt
that the former salary was a sum of absurdly bourgeois
magnitude !

The question of political action 3 was thoroughly venti-
lated once more. The more revolutionary group of indus-
trialists renewed their fight to have the clause " until all
the toilers come together on the political as well as the in-
dustrial field " cleansed from the taint of politics by the
striking out of the words " political as well as." The
motion involving this change was emphatically opposed by
the spokesmen of the Socialist Labor party faction. Daniel
DeLeon and Hermann Richter both spoke against the mo-
tion. Mr. Richter, later the General Secretary-Treasurer
of the Detroit (S. L. P.) faction of the Industrial Workers
of the World, believed that " if a man takes the obligation
as a member of this organization there is a duty upon that

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), pp. 567, 420.

2 Ibid., p. 471.

1 A recognition of a wider meaning in the term " political action " is
evidenced in Delegate Foote's statement that "Every action of every
individual in ... organized society is a political action, whether it be as
you say on the industrial [political] or on the economic field. . . . The
action of the Industrial Workers of the World as a so-called economic
organization is a political action in an organized society." Ibid., p. 311.

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION IO9

member to be active at all times, and especially on election
day, in behalf of his class and of himself as a member
thereof." l

Neither side was wholly successful. By way of compro-
mise it was finally agreed that the clause containing the
rather distasteful word " political " should stand unaltered,
but that an additional clause should be appended at the end
of the Preamble. This new clause reads: "Therefore,
without endorsing or desiring the endorsement of any polit-
ical party, we unite under the following constitution." 2
Political action was still recognized and no less emphatically
endorsed than before, 3 but all political activities would now
be subject to very definite constitutional restrictions as to
the relations between the Industrial Workers of the World
and the political parties.

It would seem that, if politics was to be discounted in
the preamble, the discussion of that subject in the local
union should surely be subject to restriction if not absolute
taboo. This was President Sherman's attitude. He thought

that literature bearing on any complexion of a political nature
should be barred from any economic industrial meeting, and
that all organizers [of] .... the Industrial Workers of the
World shall enforce such principles. . . . Your president does
not hesitate to say that, in his belief, if the Industrial Workers

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 309.

2 For discussion of the change in the preamble and on political
action in general, cf. ibid., pp. 305-313. The amended preamble is
printed in full in the Proceedings, p. 614, and in a pamphlet entitled,
Industrial Workers of the World Preamble and Constitution, pub-
lished by the Detroit faction. Cf., also, appendix ii.

8 Spargo to the contrary notwithstanding. He writes : "At the second
convention, September, 1908 the preamble was amended and all emphasis
on the need for political action omitted," Syndicalism, Socialism and
Industrial Unionism, p. 208.

1 7 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

of the World is not kept clear from all political agitation for
the next few years to come ... it will be impossible to build
up an industrial organization. . . - 1

The convention did not agree with him. No doubt this was
partly due to the fact that the majority of the delegates
could not persuade themselves to tolerate any suggestion
(be it ever so wise a one) made by President Sherman.
Moreover, it must have been realized that such a prohibition
of political literature or political discussion could really
never be enforced ; that on the contrary it would even stim-
ulate such discussion. However this may be, the committee
on good and welfare submitted under this head the recom-
mendation that " in local unions at least ten minutes be
given to the discussion of economic and political questions
at each meeting." This resolution was endorsed by the
convention. 2

The famous Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone case occu-
pied much of the attention of the second convention. At
the time of the convention these three men (of whom the
two former were members and officers of the Western Fed-
eration of Miners then the Mining Department of the I.
W. W.) were imprisoned in the Ada County jail at Boise,
Idaho, charged with the murder of ex-Governor Steunen-
berg of that state. This great labor case, culminating in
1907 in the trial and acquittal of the three men, makes up
one of the most interesting and dramatic chapters in the
annals of the labor movement. It was an event which
deeply concerned the Industrial Workers of the World, and
was a really potent factor in shaping the subsequent history
of that organization. The story of the judicial deportation

1 Report of the General President, Proceedings, Sefond I. W. W.
Convention ( 1906) , p. 44-45.

2 /Wrf., p. 573-

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION

171

of these three men had of course become known to the
world long before the 1906 convention of the I. W. W., but
none the less a brief recital of the event and the part taken
by the I. W. W. therein was incorporated in President
Sherman's report to the convention. Some excerpts from
this report are here quoted. It should be remembered that,
at the time of the deportation and trial of these officials of
the Western Federation of Miners, that organization was a
part of the Industrial Workers of the World, and that (with
the exception of Pettibone) these men were, at least for-
mally, I. W. W. men, though they were referred to almost
constantly as officials of the Western Federation of Miners.

It pains me to report [said President Sherman] that on Satur-
day evening, February 17th, 1 Brother Charles H. Moyer, Presi-
dent of the Department of Mining; Brother William D. Hay--
wood, Secretary of the Department of Mining; and Geo. A.
Pettibone, ex-member of the Western Federation of Miners,
were kidnapped by officers of the state of Idaho and, on the
same date, at n : 30 o'clock P. M., were forcibly placed on a
special train and taken from the state of Colorado and placed
in jail in the state of Idaho, charged with murder. This was
done without giving the accused brothers an opportunity for a
defense or hearing. They were arrested at night and were
given no opportunity to notify their families, friends or fegal
advisers of their condition. 2

The Industrial Workers of the World was among the
first to come to the defense of the indicted men. The Gen-
eral Office in Chicago immediately sent out thousands of
circular letters throughout the country asking for contribu-
tions; large amounts were turned over to the Special De-
fense Fund from the General Defense Fund of the I. W.

1 This should be the igth.

2 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention ( 1906) , p. 47.

1 72 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

W., and finally a total of $10,982.51 was raised. This,
labor's common extremity, did actually, though but tem-
porarily, achieve that miracle (to appear later in San Diego
and Lawrence) of I.W.W.'s, Socialists, Socialist Laborites,
Anarchists, and " Pure and Simplers," * even, cooperating
in a common activity. The I. W. W. was the first to or-
ganize protest meetings, and secured the services of Clar-
ence S. Darrow for the legal defense. The slogan " Shall
our brothers be murdered?" was reiterated on every hand
and made the watchword of the defense.

The situation was still a desperate one at the time of the
1906 convention. The men were still held in jail awaiting
trial. It seems to have been the general belief that they
were to be " railroaded " to the penitentiary or the gallows,
and the conduct of the prosecution as well as the postpone-
ment of the trial, all tended to strengthen that belief. The
delegates at the convention decided to turn fifty per cent of
the per-capita tax of the Mining Department into the
Moyer-Haywood Defense Fund. Some of the delegates
undoubtedly exaggerated the influence of the I. W. W. in
the Moyer-Haywood affair. Thus William E. Trautmann
asserted on the floor of the convention that

Money and the best legal talent would not have been able to
save the lives of Charles H. Moyer, William D. Haywood,
Geo. A. Pettibone and Vincent St. John ; z their dead bodies
would . . . bear testimony to the outrages perpetrated by the
class controlling the resources of this land, and all institutions
of oppression, were it not for the vigilance of the few . . .

1 A term applied to members of and believers in what Samuel Gompers
had called the " pure and simple trade union " the conventional type
of unionist who will have nothing to do with radicalism and accepts
implicitly the capitalistic regime.

2 Vincent St. John, who had been organizing for the I. W. W. in the
Coeur d'Alene district of Idaho, was arrested at about the same time.

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION

173

men of the I. W. W., who, facing all the calumnies of the public
press . . . threw their lives into the scale in order to raise the
issue. We must prevent the judicial murder. 1

The jailing of Haywood, especially, one of the most
aggressive and influential organizers of the I. W. W., deeply
affected the members of that body and really subtracted
much from their strength. It was generally felt among
laboring men and women that Moyer and Haywood were
jailed because they were members of the Industrial Work-
ers of the World, or because they were Socialists. A letter
written by Haywood in the Ada County jail on the day that
the second convention opened in Chicago indicates the active
interest he continued to take in the organization even during
his imprisonment. It is here given in part :

ADA COUNTY JAIL,
BOISE, IDAHO, SEPT. 17, 1906.
To THE OFFICERS AND DELEGATES OF THE SECOND ANNUAL

CONVENTION OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD.
Comrades and Fellow Workers:

While you have been in convention today, I have devoted
the hours to a careful review of the proceedings of the initial
convention of the I. W. W. and of the conference that issued
the Manifesto leading up to the formation of the organization
which has . . . rekindled the smouldering fire of ambition
and hope in the breasts of the working class of this continent.
. . . [Quoting here from his own letter to the fourteenth con-
vention of the Western Federation of Miners] organized in-
dustrially, united politically, labor will assume grace and dig-
nity, horny hand and busy brain will be the badge of distinc-
tion and honor, all humanity will be free from bondage, a fra-
ternal brotherhood imbued with the spirit of independence and
freedom, tempered with the sentiments of justice and love of

1 In his report to the convention, Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Con-
vention (1906), pp. 70-1.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

order; such will be ... the goal [and] aspiration of the In-
dustrial Workers of the World. 1

The message was received with boundless enthusiasm. It
stimulated all to more determined efforts in behalf of the
accused. It doubtless had some share in influencing the
minds of that group amongst the delegates, who were in-
clined to favor the general-strike idea. At any rate, they
now urged that that idea be applied in the Moyer, Hay wood
and Pettibone case. They succeeded in having this resolu-
tion presented to the convention :

Resolved, That it is the sense of this convention that in the
event of a new delay in the trial of our brothers, Moyer, Hay-
wood, and Pettibone, or in the event of an unjust sentence in
their case, the national headquarters of the I. W. W. shall im-
mediately proceed to call a general strike and use every pos-
sible means and all the funds at its command in order to war-
rant the working class to resist and overcome the violence of
the masters. 2

A resolution of this sort would, if it had been presented
under similar circumstances, to, say, the 1914 convention of
the Industrial Workers of the World, very probably be
quite unanimously endorsed, but the I. W. W. of 1906 re-
jected the proposal. This does not mean that the general-
strike principle had not taken root in the I. W. W. at all.
It had. Witness the following excerpt from the recommen-
dation of the Committee on the Reports of Officers :

We disagree with our President regarding the general strike
and contend that a general lockout of the capitalist class is the
method by which ... to emancipate our class. We believe
that the general strike can be employed temporarily, as a means

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 41.

2 Ibid., p. 411.

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION

to wring concessions from the capitalist class from time to
time. The committee believes that a protracted general strike
would be no less than an insane act on the part of the working
class. 1

Although the Moyer-Haywood trial and the final acquit-
tal 2 of the accused men made the I. W. W. somewhat more
commonly known and understood among the working
class throughout the country, it was on the whole nothing
less than a calamity for that organization. The I. W. W.
did not even get publicity out of the Moyer-Haywood case.
The Western Federation got all the advertising. It was a
well-established labor organization with an eventful almost
a lurid history. Its earlier activities were more or less
related to the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone affair and the
general public very naturally thought of the Western Fed-
eration when they thought of the Haywood deportation.
The I. W. W. was not popularly associated with the Boise
trial at all. The organization was obliged almost completely
to suspend its vital work of organizing to raise funds
for the defense. But this was not the most serious re-
sult. The Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone deportation was un-
questionably one of the causes operating to split off the
Western Federation of Miners. The imprisonment of Hay-
wood certainly weakened that element in the Western Fed-
eration which backed the I. W. W. and strengthened the
hands of those who were opposed to continued incorpora-
tion with it. This, combined with the deposition of Presi-
dent Sherman, which yet further weakened the forces of
the Miners who supported the I. W. W., finally gave the I.
W. W. knockers in the Western Federation the upper hand.
The result was, first a decision by referendum vote of the

1 Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention (1906), p. 422.

2 Haywood was acquitted July 28, 1907.

I7 6 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Western Federation of Miners not to pay dues to either the
Shermanite or the anti-Shermanite factions in the I. W.
W., and second, the formal withdrawal of the Mining De-
partment and the reestablishment of an independent West-
ern Federation of Miners in the summer of 1907^

Several other matters of relatively lesser import were
given some attention. Even the difficulty of jurisdictional
conflict, the bugbear of the craft union, was known and
struggled with in a labor body supposed to be jurisdiction-
controversy proof. It was so ideally, but the compromises it
was obliged to make with the craft form of union naturally
made trouble. Slight changes were made in the system of
dues; the preamble and constitution were both somewhat
improved in diction and altered in a few other minor de-
tails, but they both remained fundamentally as worked out
in the first convention, except for the abolition of the presi-
dential office. The following officers were elected for the
succeeding year: William E. Trautmann (to succeed him-
self as) General Secretary-Treasurer, and Messrs. Vincent
St. John, A. Maichele, T. J. Cole, C. E. Mahoney and E.
Fischer, members of the General Executive Board, and Mr.
A. S. Edwards, Editor of the Industrial Union Bulletin. It
was decided that the conventions be held the third Monday
in September instead of the first Monday in May, and in
Chicago, unless otherwise specified. The convention ad-
journed on Oct. 3, 1906.

The prevalent opinion at the time, and since, among the
craft-unionists of the American Federation and among the
party Socialists in fact, among all those whose radicalism
is comparatively conservative was that this second conven-

1 The Miners' Magazine continued to bear the I. W. W. label on its
title page until August I, 1007. As explained elsewhere, the two or-
ganizations were virtually divorced as early as January, 1907. Cf.
supra, p. 151.

THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION ijj

tion marked the beginning of the end of the I. W. W., or
at least that the loss of the Mining Department (probably
the organization's most conservative element) was an almost
irreparable loss. 'That the I. W. W. received its death blow
at Chicago and will gradually disintegrate'' is a fact, accord-
ing to Max Hayes, "that no careful observer of labor affairs
will attempt to dispute." * But the I. W. W. continued to
exist, and finally to do more than exist, in spite of the up-
heaval of 1906. It is indeed doubtful if the losses of that
year were unmixed calamities. Though they did deprive
organization of its most reputable, best financed, and most
respectable elements, their loss tended to give sharp definitio
and emphatic impulse toward a more revolutionary policy
This policy was now to be applied and tested among those
forming the lowest stratum of the proletarian mass the un-
skilled and migratory workers. This clear-cut definition of
policv and its point" of application mi^rht never have been

A .., > A. x .... *j

possible Tf the complete working-class hierarchy from lum-
berjack to locomotive engineer had been preserved. -^]ig
I. W. W. became after 1906, and still more after 1908. an /

organization of the unskilled and very conspicuously of the r /

migratory and frequently jobless unskilled.

1 " The World of Labor," International Socialist Review, vol. vii.
pp. 31-2.

CHAPTER VII

THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE

THE third convention of the I. W. W. was in session in
Chicago for eight days beginning September 16, 1907. This
was a much less turbulent gathering than the one of the
preceding year. DeLeon's chronicler says that : "At the
third convention of the I. W. W. . . . almost complete
harmony prevailed. The organization had so far recuper-
ated from the blow it had received the year before that
several organizers were being employed and many new
locals had been formed." * He admits, however, that there
was some friction, explaining that the anarchistic element
" sounded the only note of discord." This, he says, was
the " shadow cast before by the pure and simple physical
force craze that came into full swing a year after."
. This was a congress of the " proletarian rabble " the
DeLeon-St. John-Trautmann faction. The Sherman fac-
tion was no longer in existence. The DeLeonites looked
upon the Shermanites as having been from the first nothing
more than " a bunch of grafting politicians and labor
fakirs." Leaders of the (Chicago) I. W. W. now speak of
the 1906 and the 1908 conventions as marking the slough -
ing-off of the Socialist party politicians at the first and the
Socialist Labor party politicians at the second, respectively.
St. John says that at this 1907 convention " a slight effort
was made to relegate the politician to the rear." 3 The

1 Rudolph Katz, "With DeLeon since '89," Weekly People, Nov. 20,
1915, p. 2, col. I.

2 Ibid. Cf. also infra, ch. ix.

3 The I. W. W., History, Structure and Methods (1917 ed.), p. 7.

178

THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE

Shermanites seem to have had no really substantial constit-
uency at any time. However, it appears that this group did
have a convention in July, 1907. No proceedings or other
documentary records of this convention have been discov-
ered by the writer. The Miners' Magazine remarked edi-
torially that " The Sherman faction that held its convention
in July (1907) was but a burlesque, while the Trautmann
faction that held its convention in September was but a
grim joke. The treasury was empty, and both factions are
confronted with debts which cannot be met." * The Sher-
manite journal, The Industrial Worker, which had been held
by the Sherman group and circulated from Joliet, 111., ap-
peared in July, 1907, and there seems to be no evidence that
any subsequent numbers were issued. Both Shermanites
and DeLeonites claimed control of the bulk of those I. W.
W. local unions which remained after the breaking away of
the Western Federation. 2 Sherman continued to present a
brave and optimistic front at the time of the fifteenth con-
vention of the Western Federation. On June 3, 1907, he
wrote a letter to the convention urging the miners to re-
affiliate with the Industrial Workers of the World (i. e.,
the Shermanite faction). If they would only agree to that,
he declared, it would " require not more than two months
when the so-called revolutionary movement will die of its
own weight, as it is only existing at this time under false
pretenses. . . ." 3

1 November 14, 1907, p. 8, col. 2.

'* The fifteenth convention of the W. F. M. (June, 1907) may be con-
sidered as marking its final separation from the I. W. W. ; the con-
nection had been only nominal after the Second I. W. W. Convention
in October, 1906. As already stated {supra, p. 151) the Federation
was formally suspended from the I. W. W. for non-payment of dues,,
in January, 1907.

* Proceedings, Fifteenth Convention, W. F. M., pp. 232-3.

!8o THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Neither did the " proletarian rabble " have any very ex-
alted notion of the power of the " reactionaries."

The plain truth is [declared one of the alleged false pretenders]
that the Sherman-McCabe Slugging Company has at no time
since the [second I. W. W.] convention had the support of
more than 1,000 members something less than 100 in Xe\v
York, loo in Chicago, and the rest (reactionary pure and
simple unions) lost in the distances between Ahern's saloon
at the St. Regis and Motherwell's saloon at Binghanrs Canyon.

The Shermanites, however, claimed the Mining Depart-
ment, and they seem on the whole to have been justified,
for the pro-Sherman or " anti-proletarian " faction, so
called, eventually dominated the fifteenth convention of the
Western Federation of Miners and made what was already
a virtual separation from the I. W. W. a formal and com-
plete divorce. The Shermanite organ, the (old) Industrial
Worker, in its issue for April, 1907, claimed that the
" Mining Department of the Industrial Workers of the
World gained nearly 3,000 members during the month of
February" (p. 8). The Shermanites also claimed to have
chartered ten locals (outside the W. F. M.) in January. 1

There were present at the first day's session of the Sep-
tember, 1907, convention fifty-one delegates representing
sixty-five local unions, and before the close of the conven-
tion there were 74 local unions represented by 53 delegates
having a total of 129 votes. Few delegates had more than
two or three votes. The Paterson (N. J.) delegation had
28 votes ; George Speed, representing two locals, had twelve :
B. H. Williams, eleven; and Daniel DeLeon, three. Con-
tests were made on 26 of the delegates. Among the other
delegates to this convention were Rudolph Katz, E. J. Foote,
Vincent St. John, F. W. Heslewood, Wm. E. Trautmann,

1 Industrial Worker, February, 1907.

THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE jgi

M. P. Hagerty, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Mr. Katz was
elected temporary chairman. 1

The organization was not prosperous at this time. It was
weakened and almost torn apart by the exhausting internal
struggles it had gone through in its two short years of life.
It had lost its strongest member its main body, almost the
Western Federation of Miners, and with the Sherman con-
tingent a considerable number of individual members in local
unions even though the locals themselves retained their affili-
ation. The writer has not seen any definite statement as to
the magnitude of the loss in locals and individuals due to the
Shermanite defection. The " proletarian rabble," however,
claimed that " 139 of the local unions declared themselves
in favor of all transactions of the convention." 2 At this
time, on the same authority, there were 358 locals " carried
on the books," but only 181 in good standing. 3 On a basis
of locals in good standing the Shermanites took with them
less than twenty-five per cent of the locals in the organiza-
tion, but if we include all locals, the Shermanites must be
allowed to have taken with them sixty per cent of the I. W.
W. locals. Further evidence of serious decline is found in
the very low proportion of I. W. W. local unions which
were represented by delegates at the third convention. If
we may accept Secretary Trautmann's statement 4 to the con-
vention that there were at the time about 200 local unions
in the organization, it appears that but slightly more than
one-third of these locals were represented at the convention.
The " Wobblies " had very little to say at this time about
the membership of the organization. Indeed, there has

1 Proceedings, p. I.

- Industrial Workers of the World Bulletin No. 2, October, 1907.

3 Ibid.

4 Official Report [No. i], Third I. W. W. Convention, p. 2, col. 3.

j82 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

never at any time been very much to say about it. In 1907
they were even less aware of their own numerical strength
than they usually are. They knew, of course, that it was
small and that it had dwindled much since 1905.

The leaders of the Western Federation of Miners fol-
lowed the proceedings with no friendly eye. J. M. O'Neil
declared that " the Trautmann faction does not dare dis-
close its membership. . . ." 1 He stated further that " a
delegate upon the floor of the September convention asked
to know the membership of the organization, but he was
curtly told by the chairman of the convention to " never
mind counting noses but [to] go home and organize."

Official reports to the fifteenth convention of the West-
ern Federation of Miners held the preceding June credited
the I. W. W. with a membership of 32,000, of which num-
ber 8,000 were delinquent. This estimate is presumably
exclusive of the Western Federation. Delegate F. W.
Heslewood (W. F. M. and I. W. W., later a member of the
General Executive Board of the [Chicago] I. W. W.),
who was one of the so-called " wage-slave delegates " at
the second I. W. W. convention, tells the miners' conven-
tion that " in one local in the state of Oregon there are over
3,000 members that travel the streets with red flags and
red neckties demanding the full product of their toil. . . ."
Professor Baniett puts the membership for 1907 at 6.700. 5
General Secretary St. John places it at 5.93I. 6 He esti-
mated the membership for 1905-6 as 23,219. Barnett's

1 Editorial, Miners' Magazine, Nov. 14, 1907, p. 8. col. 2.

3 Ibid.

3 Proceedings, Fifteenth Convention, W. F. M., p. 614.

* Ibid.

5 " Membership of American Trade Unions/' Quarterly Journal of
Economics, vol. xxx (Aug., 1916), p. 846.

* Private Correspondence, Feb. i, 1915.

THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE

figures are, 1905, 14,300; 1906, 10,400. T These estimates
vary widely, but this at least is evident : there was a marked
and progressive decline in membership during the organ-
ization's first two years of membership.

During the twelve-month period ending September, 1907,
one hundred and eighteen locals were organized. 2 Reports
published from time to time in the Miners' Magazine 3 in-
dicate that from the birth of the organization to September
17, 1906, three hundred and ninety-four locals had been
organized. A total of 512 locals had, therefore, been or-
ganized up to the convening of the third convention in Sep-
tember, 1907. As already noted, there were in the organ-
ization at that time about 200 local unions. jTke necessary
inference is that three out of every four locals organized so
far in the history of the I. W. W. had either broken away
from the organization or simply expirecQ This condition
has been characteristic of the I. W. W. in greater or less
degree throughout its brief career. The " turnover " of
local unions as well as of individual members has been im-
mense and very irregular. No continuous reports of the
new locals chartered have appeared in the I. W. W. press.
Weekly reports appeared quite regularly in The Industrial
Union Bulletin through the spring of 1907 and showed
that four or five new locals were being chartered each week
during the three-months period. There is no record of
locals disbanded.

In August, 1907, the International Socialist and Labor
Congress met at Stuttgart. Both factions of the I. W. W.
were represented; the Sherman faction by Hugo Pick and

1 Loc. cit., p. 846.

2 Report of Secretary-Treasurer to Third Convention, Industrial
Union Bulletin, September 14, 1907, p. 7, col. i.

s Especially in the issues from February 22, 1906, on.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

the DeLeon-St. John faction by Fred Heslevvood. The
latter group in its suspiciously optimistic report claimed
that, ". . . starting out with only 2,000 members in 1905,
the Western Federation of Miners not included, the organ-
ization has now 362 industrial unions and branches organ-
ized in 37 States and 3 Provinces of Canada . . . [and]
embraces now 28,000 militant workers. . . ."

The Congress devoted considerable attention to the prob-
lem of labor organization. The discussion of this problem
centered almost exclusively upon two topics : ( i ) the rela-
tions between the political party and the trade union, and
(2) the defects of the craft union. The I. W. W., through
its representatives, was actively interested in both of these
matters. Its sustained opposition to the craft type of union
is characteristically displayed in the report which the Social-
ist Labor party presented to the Congress. It was evidently
written by DeLeon and it may be taken fairly to represent
the attitude of the I. W. W. One paragraph of this report,
which puts very comprehensively the Industrialist's indict-
ment of the old-line union, reads :

The trades-union field [in America] was found by the polit-
ical movement of socialism to be preempted by what is called
craft or pure and simple unionism. This system of unionism
organizes the crafts, not simply as units but as autonomous and
sovereign bodies. The fundamental error of this system of
economic organization was soon found to be desirable by the
capitalist class. The craft union rendered all economic move-
ment fruitless. If indeed the wages in these unions were ever
found higher than among the unorganized, the price that the

1 Compte Rendu, Vile Congres Socialiste Internationale (Brussels,
1908), p. 60.

- Industrial Union Bulletin, Aug. 10, 1907, p. 3, col. 3, p. 4, col. 5. The
report further stated that I. W. W. literature was then being printed in
seven different languages and that the official organ the Industrial
Union Bulletin had attained a circulation of 7,000 paid copies. (Ibid.,
p. 4, col. 5.)

THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE jgc

union paid for such higher wages was to divide the working
class hopelessly. In the first place, the craft union deliberately
excluded the majority of the members of the trade union from
participation through apprenticeship regulations, high dues,
high initiation fees and other devices. In the second place, each
of these craft unions, in turn, could earn its Judas pence only
by allying itself with the employer each time that some other
craft was at war with the employing class. It is superfluous
to enumerate the long catalogue of deliberate acts of treason to
the working class at home and abroad, and the shocking
corruption that such style of unionism was bound to breed
Suffice it to say, as proof, that these craft unions are found
amalgamated with an organization of capitalists, known as the
" Civic Federation," the purpose of which is to establish " har-
monious relations between labor and capital." These craft
unions are mainly organized in the American Federation of
Labor. 1

During the discussion of the relations between the polit-
ical parties and the trade unions a heated argument took
place between representatives of the I. W. W. (DeLeon fac-
tion) and of the Socialist party. 2 The Socialist party dele-
gation made a long report in which the I. W. W. was re-
ferred to in no complimentary terms. F. W. Heslewood,
representing the I. W. W., 3 retorted that that report was " a
tissue of lies and misrepresentations concerning the Indus-

1 (Translated from the French of the report. (L'Internationale
ouvricre et socialiste. Rapports soumis au Congrcs ..... de Stuttgart,

18-24, aout, 1907 ed. franchise (Brussels, 1007), v. I, pp. 61-62.

" Les rapports entre les partis politiques et les syndicats profes-
sionnels, Compte rendu analytigue (Stuttgart Congress, 1907) publie
par le Secretariat du Bureau Socialiste International (Brussels, 1908),
pp. 184-215.

5 Unless it is otherwise specifically indicated, the letters " I. W. W."
will be used in this chapter in reference to the DeLeon-St. John-
Trautmann faction. After the 1908 convention those letters will be
understood to refer to the St. John-Trautmann faction, viz., to the
(Chicago) I. W. W. of today.

186 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

trial Workers of the World in America." 1 He went on to
indicate the I. W. W. conceptions of the Socialist party of
America in these terms :

This vote-catching machine of which the previous speaker
from America (A. M. Simons) is so proud, will stoop to any-
thing and go to any length to secure votes. They have defended
a lot of scab unions of the A. F. of L. in California, have en-
dorsed resolutions condemning the Japanese and asking for
their exclusion from America, although we find that the Japa-
nese, with very little education in revolutionary unionism, make
better union men than the sacred contract scab of the A. F. of L.

At the other end of the continent, in New York, they place
their candidates on the same ticket as Randolph Hearst, a
Democrat, a trust-buster of the Roosevelt type. I have in my
hand here a card . . . asking the workers to vote for " Hearst
and Hillquit." " Hearst and Hillquit " for good government ?
" Hearst and Hillquit " for socialism ? No. " Hearst and Hill-
quit " for votes ! Hillquit, the " revolutionist," one of the
leading stars at this congress, the chief representative of this
vote-catching machine; Hillquit, who has fed you on lies con-
cerning the Industrial Workers of the World. If this is the
way to get socialism, I hope that such a damnable brand will
never be ushered in in my time. What bearing has this crim-
inal work on our grand old slogan, " Workers of the World
unite " ?

In America we have two kinds of unions, one is known as
the American Federation of Labor and the other is the Indus-
trial Workers of the AVorld. One has a million and a half
members and the other has over 70,000 members including the
Western Federation of Miners, that is 40,000 miners and
30,000 directly chartered members from the headquarters of
the Industrial Workers. The larger one is called by the capi-
talist masters and their agents, " The bulwark of Capitalist

1 Speech before the Congress on " The relations between trade unions
and the political party," Industrial Union Bulletin, September 14. 1907,
p. i, col. 5.

THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE

Society," and the chiefs at the head of this scab arrangement
were classed by Mark Hanna as his " able lieutenants," and
that is what they are. 1

DeLeon and Heslewood endeavored to put through a
resolution in condemnation of the general position of neu-
trality taken by Socialist parties in their relations with labor
organizations. They believed that a Socialist party should
definitely endorse radical or socialistic trade unions and
officially frown upon all reactionary unions, and especially
condemn and discourage reaction wherever it might appear
among labor organizations. " Neutrality towards trade
unions," reads their resolution, " is equivalent to neutrality
toward the machinations of the capitalist class."

The resolutions on this subject which were finally adopted
by the congress were much less militant in tone than the I.
W. W. resolution. The prevailing resolution read in part
as follows :

To enfranchise the proletariat completely from the bonds of
intellectual, political and economic serfdom, the political and
the economic struggle are alike necessary. If the activity of
the Socialist party is exercised more particularly in the domain
of the political struggle of the proletariat, that of the unions
displays itself in the domain of the economic struggle of the
workers. The unions and the party have therefore an equally
important task to perform in the struggle for proletarian eman-
cipation. Each of the two organizations has its distinct domain
defined by its aature, and within whose borders it should enjoy
independent control of its line of action. But there is an ever-
widening domain in the proletarian struggle of the classes in

1 Loc. cit.

1 Delegate Heslewood's report on the Stuttgart Congress to the Third
I. W. W. Convention, Industrial Union Bulletin, Sept. 28, 1907, p. i,
col. 6.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

which they can only reap advantages by concerted action and
by cooperation between the party and the trade unions. 1

Further along in the same resolution the Congress declared
that the unions could not fully perform their duty in the
struggle for the emancipation of the workers unless " a
thoroughly socialist spirit inspires their policy " and that it
was the duty of the party and the unions to render each
other " moral support." 2 The editor of the official organ,
however, looked upon these resolutions as being very favor-
able to the I. W. W., which he declared had forced the
Congress to " a recognition of the paramount importance
of the economic organization, with the result that the Con-
gress itself stands almost on I. W. W. ground." 3

The 1907 convention was a gathering of the DeLeon-
Trautmann-St. John faction. At the fourth convention
the first hyphen was to be smashed, but in 1907 both links
held firmly. The general tone was one of harmony. An
attempt was made, however, to reestablish the office of
President. After a long debate on a resolution to this effect
the proposition was defeated. It was decided, however, to
establish the office of General Organizer, the incumbent of
which was expected also to act as Assistant General Secre-
tary.

The original preamble of 1905 had weathered the second
convention without being modified. The first lines of the
second paragraph read : " Between these two classes a
struggle must go on until all the toilers come together on
the political as well as on the industrial field. ..." A mo-

1 Translated from the French. La resolution relative aux '"' Rapports
entre les partis et les syndicats," Compte Rendu Analytique, Congrcs
socialists Internationale, Stuttgart, 1907 (Brussels, 1908), p. 424. Trh's
resolution was reaffirmed at the Copenhagen Congress in 1910. Compte
Rendu Analytique (Ghent, 1911), p. 476.

2 Compte Rendu Analytique, Stuttgart Congress (Brussels, 1908),
P- 477-

3 Industrial Union Bulletin, November 9, 1907, p. 2, col. i.

THE FIG PIT FOR EXISTENCE

tion was made at the third convention to strike out the
words italicized. It was defeated by a vote of 113 to 15. x
The " political clause " of the preamble was the subject
of extended discussion. 2 At this time all efforts to alter
the preamble were unsuccessful. The debate was signifi-
cant, however, in foreshadowing the much more serious
struggle which was to take place a year later when the I.
W. W. was literally split in two over the question of the
retention or the elimination of the " political clause."
Daniel DeLeon was a member of the Committee on Con-
stitution and made a long speech in opposition to the motion
to eliminate from the preamble all reference to the " polit-
ical field," declaring that " the position of the I. W. W. is
that when the day [der Tag of the Socialists, the day of the
Revolution] shall come it shall itself project its own polit-
ical party." 3 DeLeon was supported in his position by
George Speed, who later became a member of the General
Executive Board of the so-called anti-political or Chicago
faction and who has been prominent in the activities of
the I. W. W. on the Pacific Coast. 4 Delegate E. J. Foote
took the same stand and made a cogent argument for re-
taining the political clause.

[The word] " political " [he said] does have a meaning. . . .
The point is raised that the working class will not have a '"gov-
ernment." With that I might agree, but they will have an in-
dustrial administration . . . and that administration must be

1 R. Katz, " With DeLeon since '89," Weekly People, Nov. 27, 1915.
p. 2, col. 6. See also, Proceedings, Third Convention (Official Report
No. 3, P- S-)

2 Proceedings Third I. W. W. Convention (Official Report No. 3.
passim.

3 Ibid., p. 5, col. 3.

* Proceedings, Third Convention (Official Report No. 3, p. 3- col. 5).

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

political in the sense that it is controlled by the ballot on the
inside of your own organization. 1

The constitution committee presented a resolution declar-
ing that " the I. W. W. seeks its political expression only in
its own industrial administration." This is vague, and it
may have been made designedly so. It might have been
brought in to appease those who feared that the I. W. W.
would be made the tail to some political party kite. 2

1 Proceedings, Third Convention, loc. fit., p. 2, col. i.

2 Ibid., p. i, col. 5.

CHAPTER VIII
" JOB CONTROL " AT GOLDFIELD

IT was in a Nevada mining camp that the I. W. W. made
the first notable application of its principles of revolution-
ary industrial unionism. During the years 1906 and 190;
Goldfield was the scene of bitter disputes between the mine
operators on the one hand and the Western Federation oi
Miners and the I. W. W. on the other. 1 These disputes were^
caused, chiefly, by a more or less successful effort on the
part of these two local organizations to supplant the tradi-
tional craft unionism in Goldfield by the " new unionism."

The Western Federation of Miners was quite strongly
entrenched at Goldfield by the time the I. W. W. made its
debut in the labor world. Its local union at Goldfield, No.
220, was an industrial union, that is, its membership com-
prised, as provided for in the W. F. M. constitution, " all
persons working in and around the mines, mills and smel-
ters. . . ." ~ Early in 1906 the I. W. W. had a flourishing
local (No. 77) composed of the " town workers " of Gold-
field. The American Federation of Labor had almost no
foothold in Goldfield at the time, the only A. F. L. locals in
the camp being the carpenters' union and the typographical
union. The I. W. W. local was a more comprehensive or-
ganization even than an industrial union. It was a mass

1 Cf. supra, p. 123.

2 Article I, Section i, W. F. M. Constitution (1910). In 1916 the
Federation changed its name to " The International Union of Mine,
Mill and Smelter Workers."

191

1 92

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

union which aimed to include all the wage-earners in the
community. " We proceeded," says an editorial in the I.
W. W. official journal, " without force, without intimida-
tion, without deportations and without murder, to organize
all wage workers in the community. ... In the organiza-
tion were miners, engineers, clerks, stenographers, team-
sters, dishwashers, waiters all sorts of what are called com-
mon laborers." *

It was apparently this unconventional type of unionism
along with the very radical socialistic leanings of both town
unionists (I. W. W., No. 77) and the mine unionists (W.
F. M., No. 220, affiliated with the I. W. W.) that brought
trouble. The I. W. W. accused the A. F. of L. unions of
beginning it, 2 but the controversy was primarily with the
Mine Operators' Association. Vincent St. John, in a letter
published in the same issue of the Industrial Union Bulletin,
says that the carpenters and typos were used " by the Mine
Owners' Association as a nucleus to colonize the camp
against the Western Federation of Miners and the I. W.
W '/' The dispute began in a " controversy which arose be-
tween the Tonopah Sun, supported by the A. F. of L. locals
in the camp on the one side, and the locals of the Industrial
Workers of the World and the Western Federation of
Miners on the other." 3 The Sun attacked the I. W. W.,
whereupon the I. W. W. (including the W. F. M.) boy-
cotted the newspaper, and the newsboys, who were organ-
ized in the I. W. W., refused to sell it. The Sun then,
according to this W. F. M. version of the affair, 4 sought
the services of strike-breakers to scab on the newsboys'

1 Industrial Union Bulletin, March 30, 1907, p. 2, col. I.

2 Ibid.

3 Report of Acting President Charles Mahoney to the Fifteenth Con-
vention W. F. M., Proceedings, p. 33.

4 Ibid., pp. 33-35. This was in the autumn of 1006.

"JOB CONTROL" AT GOLDFIELD

union, but were unsuccessful. The miners' union (No. 220.
W. F. M.) now called a meeting at which they decided

that local No. 77, Industrial Workers of the World, which
comprised all the town workers with the exception of the
building trades, cease doing business as a local and go into
local 220 of the Western Federation of Miners . . . [and thus
place] all wage-earners in the camp in No. 220 with the ex-
ception of the newsboys who held a charter from the Industrial
Workers of the World, and a portion of the building trades,
who held membership in their international organizations. 1

St. John says that this merger was made at the instigation
of the Mine Owners.

The plan was finally broached [by them] to consolidate the I.
\\ . W. local cooks, waiters, teamsters, bartenders, and clerks
with the W. F. of M. This was looked upon with favor by
the Mine Owners, as they looked upon the I. W. W. local ... as
the radical organization of the district, and the miners . . . were
in their opinion more conservative, and they reasoned that if
the 1,500 miners had a voice and vote on any demands made
by the 400 radicals the conservativeness of the 1,500 miners
could blanket the efforts of the 400 radicals. The miners, on
the other hand, thought they saw an easy, quick and satisfac-
tory solution of what promised to be a serious struggle.

It was voted on and carried."

At first the project was apparently favored by the em-
ploying interests of the district, but they faced about when
they saw that the miners' union (No. 220) " practiced solid-
arity " and apparently used the carpenters' union as their

! Report of Acting President Mahoney to Fifteenth W. F. M. Con-
vention, Proceedings, p. 33.

" Review of the facts in the situation at Goldfield," Industrial Union
Bulletin, April 6, 1907, p. I, col. 3.

194

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

tool. At any rate the miners' union " passed a motion that
all men working in and around the mines as carpenters must
become members of the Miners' Union." This demand was
ignored. 1 The Mine Owners now issued a statement setting
forth that because of the il unreasonable agitation " by the
I. W. \V. ". . . We hereby pledge ourselves to absolutely
refuse to employ any man in any capacity who is a member
of the Industrial Workers of the World, . . ." and " that
the Mine Owners will recognize any miners' union that is
independent of the Industrial Workers of the World. . . ."

Pressure from the Mine Owners' Association finally
brought about a referendum on the question of unscram-
bling. A canvass taken on March 20, 1907, showed a large
majority in favor of the miners and the town workers meet-
ing separately but continuing in other respects as one
union. 3 Nevertheless, the situation continued to grow more
acute, and during the spring the I. W. W. and the W. F. M.
were involved in a desperate struggle for their existence in
Goldfield. 4 From March 10, 1907, according to St. John's
account of it,

until April 22, the W. F. M. and the I. W. W. at Gokifield,
Nevada, fought for their existence (and the conditions they
had established at that place) against the combined forces of
the mine owners, business men, and the A. F. of L. This open
fight was compromised as a result of the treachery of the W.
F. M. general officers. The fight was waged intermittently

1 Report of Acting President Mahoney to Fifteenth Convention W.
F. M., Proceedings, p. 34.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid., p. 35-

4 See Tridon, The New Unionism, pp. 105-6. Tridon states (p. 105)
that in April a compromise was reached owing to the weakness of the
W. F. M. officials. However, it settled nothing, for the struggle
continued intermittently through the summer and fall.

" JOB CON TROL "AT GOLDFIELD j 95

from April 22 till September, 1907, and resulted in regaining
all ground lost through the compromise, and in destroying the
scab charters issued by the A. F. of L. during the fight. The
fight cost the employers over $i 00,000. l

The American Federation of Labor locals in Goldfield
during this period were more or less at the mercy of the L
W. W. and the Western Federation. It is admitted that A.
F. of L. men who were obnoxious to the I.W.W.s were
handled without gloves. Some A. F. of L. members were
forced out of town by the more radical unionists who con-
fess that " they were probably not provided with all the
luxuries of modern civilization." This I. W. W. account
of the situation continues :

The I. W. W. and the W. F. of M. were on strike for a con-
siderable time in Goldfield and had the town thoroughly union-
ized. The bosses, realizing that they were up against a rebel
class of workers, conferred with their good friends and tools,
the A. F. of L., and the result was that the A. F. of L. sent
their own members into Goldfield to scab on the strikers. This
did not happen once, but continuously, and the strikers . . .
did use a little direct action by giving the " union " scabs orders
to the effect that their room was preferable to their company. 3

In April it was reported that " seventy-five per cent of
the business men of Goldfield have locked out the members
of No. 220. They shut down their places of business and
told their help they had to join the A. F. of L. or there would
be no work. ... ." 4 The situation steadily grew worse,
and finally, in December, Governor Sparks telegraphed to

1 St. John, /. W. W., History (1917 ed.), p. 18.

2 " What happened at Goldfield," The Industrial Worker, Aug. 27,.
I 9 l , P- 3, col. i.

3 Ibid. Italics in the original.

4 Industrial Union Bulletin, April 20, 1907, Special Correspondence..

I0 .6 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Washington for Federal troops and they were finally sent. 1
The Governor's second telegram to the President (dated
Dec. 5, 1907) read in part :

At Goldfield . . . there does now exist domestic violence and
unlawful combinations and conspiracies, . . . unlawful dyna-
miting of property, commission of felonies, threats against the
lives of law-abiding citizens, the unlawful possession of arms
and ammunition, and the confiscation of dynamite with threats
of the unlawful use of the same by preconcerted action. -

Soon after the troops were sent President Roosevelt dis-
patched a special commission 3 to investigate the trouble
at Goldfield. The salient facts of the situation are set forth
by this commission as follows :

There has existed at Goldfield, which is exclusively a mining
town of an estimated population of between 15,000 and 20,000
in South Nevada, for over a year past, and especially since
the spring of 1907, a disturbed industrial situation, due to fre-
quently recurring labor difficulties between the mine operators
on the one hand and the miners on the other. The two sides
were represented almost completely by the Goldfield Mine
Operators' Association, ... on the one hand and by the local
union of the Western Federation of Miners on the other, a
union comprising substantially all the miners in Goldfield.
This union, known as Goldfield Miners' Union No. 220, is a
branch of the general organization known as the Western Fed-
eration of Miners. It has carried on its rolls a membership

1 Labor troubles at Goldfield, Nevada, 6oth Congress, 1st Session,
House Document No. 607, pp. 3-5.

* Ibid., p. 4.

3 Consisting of Lawrence O. Murray, Herbert Knox Smith and
Charles P. Neill. Their report as well as other data bearing on the
matter are printed in House Document No. 607, 6oth Congress, ist
Session. " Papers relative to labor troubles at Goldfield, Nevada."
Their report is reprinted in the Congressional Record, Feb. 3. 1908, pp.
1484-1487, vol. xlii, no. 35.

"JOB CONTROL" AT GOLDFIELD

estimated at above 3,000 men, which number, however, in-
cluded members of crafts in Goldfield other than workers in
and about mines. Figures furnished us by the mine operators
showed that about 1,900 mine workers went on a strike on
Nov. 27, 1907. Although a number of strikes and minor diffi-
culties had occurred during 1907, the only acute situation aris-
ing prior to the call for troops existed in the spring of 1907.
This controversy involved not only a dispute between the mine
owners and the miners at Goldfield, but also between the mem-
bers of the miners' union and the members of other crafts in
Goldfield affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.
The Goldfield Miners' union was also affiliated with the organ-
ization known as the Industrial Workers of the World, and an
effort was made to force members of other crafts not affiliated
with this organization to join its ranks. Not only the Mine
Owners' Association and members of the miners' union went
armed, but members of crafts not affiliated with the Industrial
Workers of the World felt it necessary to carry arms to pro-
tect themselves while at work. The condition of Goldfield at
that time was that of an armed camp, and for a time a serious
clash seemed imminent. The controversy resulted in the mur-
der of a restaurant keeper * and aroused such opposition
against the Industrial Workers of the World that a ban was
practically put upon them, and the organization under that
name was forced to abandon Goldfield. This acute situation
disappeared before the spring of 1907. A succession of min-
ers' strikes, however, had taken place throughout 1907, some
of them with apparently little justification; and although the
operators had yielded to nearly all the demands of the union,
it seemed impossible to secure any settled industrial conditions.

1 The reference is to the killing of Tony Silva (a restaurant keeper),
by M. R. Preston (a member of the Socialist Labor party and its
candidate for President of the U. S.) who was on picket duty for the
I. W. W. and the W. F. M. The I. W. W. has always insisted that
Preston shot in self defense and the weight of evidence seems to
justify that contention. See '' Preston's Crime," The Weekly People,
July 18. 1908, p. 3, col. i. (Author's note.)

198 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

The mine operators insist that the socialistic doctrine adopted
and preached by the Western Federation of Miners practically
justified the stealing of ore by the miner. . . . The industrial
situation was further aggravated by the fact that the Goldfield
Union would not enter into any contract governing working
conditions for any specified length of time, and the mine
operators, therefore, could have no assurance at any time that
any settlement of a dispute was more than a temporary make-
shift, nor could they secure any assurance of stable industrial
conditions for any fixed length of time. Moreover, the Gold-
field Miners' Union embraces in one single union not only the
various crafts working in and about the mines, but also clerks,
waiters, bartenders and other miscellaneous crafts and avoca-
tions in Goldfield. On Nov. 27, 1907, a strike of the miners
was inaugurated and is still in effect. This strike grew out of
a refusal on the part of the miners to accept cashier's checks in
payment of their wages. The miners insisted upon some form
of guaranty by the mine operators of whatever paper was
accepted in lieu of cash. Various propositions were made, but
no basis of agreement was reached. 1

The commission reported that there was no adequate ex-
cuse for the request for Federal troops.

The action of the mine operators [said the commissioners]
warrants the belief that they had determined upon a reduction
of wages and the refusal of employment to members of the
Western Federation of Miners, but that they feared to take
this course of action unless they had the protection of Federal
troops, and that they accordingly laid a plan to secure such
troops and then put their program into effect. 2

Although at the time the I. W. W. and the W. F. M. made
common cause, after the final separation of the two national

1 6otli Congress. 1st Session, House Document No. 607, Labor troubles
at Goldfield, Nevada, pp. 20-21.
: Ibid., p. 21.

"705 CONTROL" AT GOLDFIELD

bodies the Federation was not only critical but bitterly de-
nunciatory. The editor of the official organ of the W. F. M.
J. M. O'Neill was derisive in his comments on the role
of the I. W. W. at Goldfield. " The I. W. W. took root at
Goldfield, Nevada," he says, " and a vast number of the
miners became the victims of the sophistry and fell for
the propaganda of the spouting hoodlums. . . . Other min-
ing camps of Nevada became infected with I.W.W.-ism.
. . ." But he comes thankfully to the conclusion that " the
labor movement of Nevada is slowly recovering from the
pestilence of I.W.W.-ism. . . ."

Charges of a very different character were hurled at the
I. W. W. and its Goldfield activities from financial circles in
Chicago. It was stated that " detectives have substantiated
allegations of a conspiracy to commit ten murders, a con-
spiracy formed and fostered within the hierarchy of the
I. W. W. . . ." And that " leaders of the I. W. W. . . .
have been using this labor trouble as a lever for stock-
market jobbery. . . ." This last charge was reiterated in
another issue of the same paper, in which it was suggested
that " certain stock brokers were working hand in glove
with the leaders and agitators at the head of the I. W. W.
to break the market. . . ."

A member of the I. W. W. now living in Goldfield, and
who took part in the industrial struggles of 1906 and 1907,
sends the following brief comment :

In September, 1^06, at the behest of the mine owners, 220 of
the W. F. M. took a vote to take the town workers, No. 77 of
the I. W. W., into their fold. It was carried with the assist-

1 Editorial, Miners' Magazine, Aug. i, 1912, p. 7, col. i.

' 2 Special correspondence, Journal of Finance, Chicago, reprinted in
the Weekly People, June i, 1907, p. 2, col. 5.

3 Special correspondence, Journal of Finance, reprinted in the Indus-
trial Union Bulletin, May 18, 1907.

200 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

ance of the church, and 220 and 77 were amalgamated. The
first cry on the streets before they even held a meeting was that
the cooks and waiters were running the miners' meeting ; then
followed the dissensions mapped out by the mine owners, the
Citizens' Alliance, the stool-pigeons, spies and gum-shoes, till
i he following September the convention expelled the W. F. M.
for non-payment of per-capita tax and the W. F. M. sent
organizers of the Sherman faction, but the dual unions did "not
last long, and in fact 220 itself was shaking, till finally it went
down and the only cry you hear from those whom the powers
that be cannot control is the one big union, and it is only a
matter of a short time till the workers get aroused, and then
there will be something doing. 1

The I. W. W. and the W. F. M. did win important con-
cessions from the Mine Operators in Goldfield and that,
according to officials of the I. W. W., was the reason why
they were so roundly abused. ' The chief crime of the I.
W. W. in Goldfield," said St. John, " was that they had
secured the eight-hour day with wages from $3.00 to $5.00
and board for all restaurant and hotel employees; a ten-
hour day with $5.00 wages for clerks, and an eight-hour clay
with $6.00 per day for bartenders." Most I. W. W. lead-
ers point to the Goldfield situation in those early days as a
conspicuous illustration not only of improvements gained
in wages and hours, but also of the possibilities of job con-
trol by the workers. An I. W. W. who was an active par-
ticipant in the Goldfield achievements of the I. W. W. and
is now a district organizer on the Pacific Coast, writes :

At that time we had job control in many mining camps. At

1 Letter to the author, dated October 21, 1912.

y " The Goldfield Situation," Weekly People, April 6, 1907, p. i. He
tells here the complete story of the Goldfield labor troubles of 1906-07.
It was also claimed that the I. W. W. forced the wages of railroad
laborers in this region from $1.75 for ten hours to $4-5<> for eight
hours. Industrial Worker, Jan. 29, 1910, p. I, col. 5.

"JOB CONTROL" AT GOLDFIELD 2 Qi

Goldfield, I. W. W. miners received $5.00 for eight hours;
bakers, $8.00 per eight hours and board ; dishwashers, $3.00
per eight hours and board. After three years of I. W. W.
prosperity the Nevada employers, with the aid of the A. F.
of L. scabs and organizers, conservative Irish-Catholic I. W.
W. members (!), detectives, spies, state police and Federal
troops, broke up the I. W. W. 1

St. John also looks back to the Goldfieid period as a kind of
an I. W. W. Golden Age. In his historical sketch of the I.
W. W., he writes :

Under the I. W. W. sway in Goldfield the minimum wage for
all kinds of labor was $4.50 per day and the eight-hour day
was universal. The highest point of efficiency for any labor
organization was reached by the I. W. W. and W. F. M. in
Goldfield, Nevada. No committees were ever sent to any em-
ployers. The unions adopted wage scales and regulated hours.
The secretary posted the same on a bulletin board outside of
the union hall, and it was the LAW. The employers were
forced to come and see the union committees. 2

The I. W. W. member quoted above does not agree with St.
John as to the cause of the downfall of the I. W. W. in
Goldfield. The latter attributes it to the occurrence of a
strike during the financial panic of IQO/. 3

Oddly enough, these anti-political, direct actionist I. W.
W.s figured rather prominently in Nevada state politics at
this time. Among the candidates on the Socialist party
ticket in 1906 were the following:

1 Letter to the author dated April 22, 1916. For the Goldfield situ-
ation in general, vide, " Papers relative to labor troubles at Goldfield,
Nev." 6oth Congress, 1st Session, Document No. 607, and St. John,
" Review of the facts in the situation at Goldfield," Industrial Union
Bulletin, April 6, 1907, p. i.

- St. John, op. cit., p. 18. So capitalized in the original.

3 See infra, p. 203.

202 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

For Governor, Thos. B. Casey, miner, W. F. M.

For State Treasurer, J. W. Smith, waiter, I. W. W.

For Register, General Land Office, T. Chambers, laundry
worker, I. W. W.

For Regent, State University, Frank Myrtle, shoemaker, I.
W. W. 1

Despite the success which mass organization met with in
Goldfield, the I. W. W. was not at that time at all partial to
the idea of mass organization. F. W. Heslewood declared
that he was opposed to taking into one local union every
worker around a town, believing as he did that the Goldfield
practice was contrary to " the very fundamental principles
of industrial unionism. . . ." ~ Another member said :

I claim that we have left the field of mass organization and
have got down to the field of industrial integral organization.
I claim that industrial organization as it shall be exemplified
by the Industrial Workers of the World is of an organic nature.
.... We recognize that mass organization is a thing that is
to be abjured when w r e come into an industrial organization.
.... The difference between a mass organization and an in-
dustrial organization is that the mass organization is destruc-
tive . . . [whereas the integral] industrial organization is con-
structive. It proposes to recognize the laws to the minutest de-
tails that environ, govern and control the working class. 3

The reality of the sentiment in favor of some modification
of the original structural form of the I. W. W. in the direc-
tion of a more simple or mass form of organization is evi-
denced by the long discussion on the floor of the convention
of a proposal to abolish the departments. Since 1908 the

1 Miners' Magazine, vol. viii, no. 161, July 26, 1906, p. 13.

2 Fifteenth Convention W. F. M., Proceedings, pp. 832-3.

3 Delegate E. J. Foote, Proceedings, 3rd Convention, Official Report,
no. 3, p. 2, col. I.

"JOB CONTROL" AT GOLDFIELD 2 Cn

I. W. W. has had a precarious foothold in Goldfield. The
combined effects of the exhausting struggles which have
been described and the financial panic of 1907 were over-
whelming for an organization which at the best had little in
the way of reserve resources. " The strike of the W. F.
M. in October, 1907," says St. John, " took place during a
panic and destroyed the organization's [i. c., the I.W.W.'s]
control in that district." l

There is at this time (1916) a struggling local in Gold-
field Metal Mine Workers' Union No. 353, organized in
August, 1914. The author recently wrote to the secretary
of this local, making inquiries in regard to the present labor
situation in Goldfield and the condition of the local union.
He replied : " The economic conditions of this camp forbid
the answer of the questions you ask. ... I trust ... it
will not be long before 353 can meet openly and above
board.'' -

The organization continued to over-indulge in strikes. It
was more or less involved in the strike of the Electrical
Workers of Schenectady in December, 1906. In 1907 it
was involved in the following strikes among others : textile
workers, Showhegan, Maine, February to April ; silk workers
of Paterson, N. J., March; silk workers of Lancaster, Pa.,
fall of 1907; piano workers of Paterson, N. J., April; the
loggers in Eureka, Cal., May. 1907; the saw-mill workers
of Portland, Ore.; the sheet steel workers in Youngstown;
the tube-mill workers in Bridgeport, Conn. ; the miners in
Tonopah, Nevada; the foundry workers in Detroit; and
the smeltermen in Tacoma. Wash., in the summer of 1907.
Goldfield, of course, was the scene of an almost continuous
epidemic of strikes during the years 1906 and 1907.

In his report to the third convention the General Secre-
tary-Treasurer says that

1 St. John, The I. IV. W., History, Structure and Methods, p. 18.

2 Letter dated April 19, 1916.

204

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Not counting the strike and lockout in Goldfield, ... we had
24 strikes in which approximately 15,500 members partici-
pated. Most of these strikes lasted two to six weeks, one nine
weeks, two lasted ten weeks and longer, and the strike of the

Tacoma smeltermen lasted over six months Out of all

these strikes .... two [those at Tonopah and Detroit] must
be considered flat failures. . . . All other strikes ended either
in compromise or in the complete attainment of what -the
strikes had been inaugurated for. 1

The strikers at Schenectady made use of syndicalistic tac-
tics which have been strongly advocated in the I. W. W.
literature. " At two o'clock Monday," [December 10] it
was reported, " about 3,000 men struck. They did not walk
out, but remained at their places, simply stopping produc-
tion." Reports of this strike from I. W. W. sources give
the impression that the American Federation of Labor
bodies in Schenectady did much to block the efforts of the
I. W. W. It was said that on December 12 the local Trades
Assembly of the A. F. L. sent a statement to the press re-
pudiating the I. W. W. and declaring that the A. F. L. was
not concerned in the strike and that " as to any individual
organization affiliated with the American Federation of
Labor going out on a sympathetic strike, such action would
result in the forfeiture of its charter." 3 In both the Bridge-
port and Youngstown strikes, according to St. John, failure

1 Industrial Union Bulletin, September 14, 1907, p. 7, col. 4.

2 The Weekly People, Dec. 22, 1906, p. i. This paper is to be con-
sidered as virtually an I. W. W. organ between July, 1905 and Sep-
tember, 1008. After the latter date, of course, it backed the Detroit
I. W. W.

3 Weekly People, Dec. 22, 1906, p. 2. col. 5. In the same column is
a dispatch containing this statement : "... the general foreman of
the turbine department was called upon to fill the places of the strikers ;
he said he would sooner resign than fill the places with other than
I. W. W. men. We may witness in the near future that foremen
will join the I. W. W., and then good-bye, capitalism!"

"JOB CONTROL" AT GOLDFIELD 2 CT

resulted from the alleged obstructive tactics of the American
Federation. In both cases the loss of the strike is attributed
to "the scabbing tactics of the A. F. of L." 1 The strike
of the Portland (Ore.) saw-mill workers in March and
April is worthy of more than passing notice. On the first
of March 3,000 men walked out on strike, for a nine-hour
day and an increase in wages from $1.75 to $2.50 per day.
It is not probable that any great proportion of these men
were members of the I. W. W. at the time they went on
strike. However, I. W. W. leaders soon came upon the
scene and most of the strikers very soon joined the organ-
ization." The strike lasted forty days.

On account of the exceptional demand for labor . . . most of
the strikers secured employment elsewhere and the strike played
out at the end of about six weeks. [Nevertheless, the employ-
ers] were forced indirectly to raise the wages and improve con-
ditions [and] . . . this strike gave much impetus to I. W. W.
agitation in the western part of the United States. 3

During this strike the I. W. W. opened an employment
office and a restaurant for the benefit of the strikers. 4 The
I. W. W. reports of the duration of the strike and the num-
ber of men out may be exaggerated. John Kenneth Turner,
in his " Story of a New Labor Union," says " that more
than 2,000 were out for over three weeks." D The Portland
saw-mill strike really marked the debut of the I. W. W.
before the public of the Pacific Northwest, and it was some-

1 The I. W. W., History, Structure and Methods, p. 18.
- Industrial Union Bulletin, April 27, 1907, p. 2, col. 4-5.

3 St. John, The I. W. W., History, Structure and Methods, pp. 17-18.
A similar estimate is given in the Industrial Union Bulletin of April
27, 1907, p. 2.

4 industrial Union Bulletin, he. cit.

5 Industrial Union Leaflet No. 16, p. i.

206 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

thing of a surprise to the community. The I. W. W. was
promptly written up as a feature story for the Oregon Sun-
day Journal by John Kenneth Turner. The opening para-
graphs of his article read :

Portland has just passed through her first strike conducted
by the Industrial Workers of the World, a new and strange
form of unionism which is taking root in every section of the
United States, especially in the West. The suddenness of the
strike and the completeness of the tie-up are things quite un-
precedented in this part of the country. These conditions did
not merely happen they came as direct results of the peculiar
form and philosophy of the movement that brought the strike
into being. " If the street-car men had been organized under
our motto, together with all other A. F. of L. men, the street-
car strike would have lasted ten minutes," says Organizer Fred
Heslewood. The boast is not an extravagant one. Wherever
the Industrial Workers of the World are organized they can
paralyze industry at almost the snap of a finger. It is the way
they work.

" Well, you've tied us up. I didn't think you could do it, but
you did. You're clever ; I'll give you credit for that. I didn't
think any union could close this mill," one of the mill owners
is reported as having said to Organizer Yarrow. " You your-
self have taught us all we know," replied Yarrow. " We or-
ganize on the same plan as you do and we've got you."

One peculiar feature about the great mill strike was that . . .
there was absolutely no violence, no law-breaking and no cry-
ing of " scab." Just one man was arrested for trespassing, and
he imagined that he was standing in a public street. Other
strange features were the red ribbons, the daily speech-making
and the labor night and day shifts of organizers who received
not a red cent for their services. 1

1 " Story of a new labor union," Industrial Union Leaflet No. 16,
p. i. This article was also reprinted in the Industrial Union- Bulletin
of April 27, 1907.

"JOB CONTROL" AT GOLDFIELD 2 Q7

In September, 1907, there were undoubtedly not less than
200 locals in the I. W. W. 1 Between September, 1906, and
September, 1907, one hundred and eighteen charters were
issued to local unions, 2 making the total number of locals
chartered since the launching of the organization not less
than nine hundred and twenty-eight. It is evident that in
this period also the " turnover " of I. W. W. locals was very
heavy. There is apparently no report showing the number
of locals disbanded during this period. The average mem-
bership for 1907 was considerably lower than it was for
1906 and was probably about six thousand. 3 The financial
condition of the I. W. W. at this time was indicated by the
report of the Secretary-Treasurer to the third convention.
For the period from October, 1906, to August, 1907, re-
ceipts were given as $30,550.75 and disbursements as $31,-
578.76.*

Considerable progress had been made in organizing the
coal miners. Secretary Trautmann reported to the third
convention that " fourteen unions of coal miners were or-
ganized in Illinois, four big organizations in Pennsylvania,
three in Texas, two in Kansas, one in Colorado a total of
twenty-four unions with an approximate membership of
2,000 . . . ," and he went on to the optimistic conclusion

1 This number was reported to the Third Convention by Secretary
Trautmann, Official Report No. I, p. 2, but in the " Report of the
I. W. W. to the Stuttgart Congress" (1907) we read ". . . the or-
ganization has now 362 industrial unions and branches organized in
thirty-seven states and three provinces of Canada." Industrial Union
Bulletin, Aug. 10, 1907, p. 3, col. 3.

2 Industrial Union Bulletin, Sept. 14, 1907, p. 7, col. i.

3 Secretary-Treasurer St. John put it at 5,931. (Letter dated Feb.
i, 1915) Prof. Barnett makes it 6,700. (Quarterly Journal of Eco-
nomics, vol. xxx, p. 846.) Apparently the administration included the
Western Federation of Miners when they reported to the Stuttgart Con-
gress, 28,000 members. Industrial Union Bulletin, Aug. 10, 1907, p. 4.

4 Third Convention Proceedings, Official Report No. 8, p. 2, col. 4.

208 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

that " the wedge has been driven into the unholy alliance
between operators and the United Mine Workers." * Later
on, when the convention was discussing the United Mine
Workers and the conditions in the Illinois coal mines,
Trautmann commented on the remarks matfe by a delegate
of a U. M. W. local (No. 1475) which had apparently
swung to the I. W. W. He (Trautmann) said :

He represents by a vote of the United Aline Workers an ele-
ment that is today in rebellion against the United Mine Work-
ers of America, that element being not only that one local
which is in rebellion, but three or four or five, and very likely
[it] . . . will be followed by at least one-third of the locals in
the state of Illinois. 2

A few of the problems of policy and internal organiza-
tion which were discussed at the third convention deserve
consideration. Not least important of these was the prob-
lem of the Japanese in California. From the very first the^
I. W. W. had taken a definite stand against any

criminations based upon race, color or nationality. Among

the first words uttered by Wm. D. Haywoocl in calling the

first I. W r . W. convention to order were words of criticism

of the American Federation of Labor for its discriminations

against Negroes and foreigners. From that day to this the

organization has been unique in the constancy and strength

4 of its appeal to and attraction for foreigners. This partic-

ilar phase of the LW.W.'s activities has been given end-

less publicity in connection with the Lawrence and Paterson

strikes. At the third convention, George Speed, a delegate

From California, quite accurately expressed the sentiment

'of the organization in regard to the Japanese question.

The whole fight against the Japanese," he said, " is the

1 Industrial Union Bulletin, Sept. 14, 1907, p. 8, col. 3, 4.

* Proceedings, Third I. W. W. Convention, Official Report Xo. i, p. 4.

"JOB CONTROL" AT GOLDF1ELD 2 OQ

fight of the middle class of California, in which they em-
ploy the labor faker to back it up." l He added, however,
that he considered it " practically useless . . . under present
conditions for the Industrial Workers of the World to take
any steps " to organize the Japanese. This primarily be-
cause he felt that the organization had more work on hand
than it could well attend to. 2 The North American Times,
a daily paper published in the Japanese language in Seattle,
printed in the spring of 1906 an editorial on the I. W. W.,
which ran in part as follows :

To promote the rights and happiness of the workers they have
the intention to make ... a grand success so that the I. W. W.
will finally become the most powerful labor organization in the
world. In the American history of labor there has never been
such a union that may contain the laborers of every nationality
in its membership. 3

A reaction from an excessive indulgence in strikes, or at
least a sign of the consciousness of this excess, is evident
from two resolutions adopted by the third convention :

Resolved, that the convention instruct all our organizers to
discourage strikes and strike talk, and to impress upon those
whom they are organizing the necessity of realizing that the
conquest by the workers of the power to retain and enjoy the
full product of their labor should take precedence in their
minds of all smaller ameliorations of our conditions.*

Resolved, that during this, the constructive period of the
I. W. W., no portion thereof shall enter into any strike, unless

1 Proceedings of the Third Convention, Official Report No. 7, p. i,
col. 2.

2 Ibid.

3 Reprinted in English in the Weekly People, June 2, 1906, p. i.

4 Proceedings of Third Convention, Official Report No. 7, p. 2, col. 3.

2io THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

conducted in an industrial plant which is thoroughly organized
in the I. W. W. . . .*

In regard to the general organizing activity of the I. W.
W., it was proposed in one of the resolutions adopted, that
the organization confine its work for the time being to the
smaller cities where the A. F. of L. is comparatively weak,
and in connection with this that efforts in organization be
concentrated for the present on certain selected industries. 2
Fred Heslewood, member of the General Executive Board,
in his report to the convention, said :

I believe it is an entire waste of money at the present time to
keep said organizers in cities where the A. F. of L. has the
workers divided and organized into crafts. We are not finan-
cially able to tear down this barrier of fakerism at present. I
do not mean that we should not fight it. I mean that we should
pay special attention to the lumber industry before they [sic.]
are rent into fragments by the American Federation of Labor. 3

It was urged that special attention be directed to the mining
and lumber industries and that for the general organizing
propaganda one-half of the income of the general adminis-
tration be devoted to the payment of organizers and the
printing of literature. 4 The editor of the official organ of
the I. W. W. declared that the third convention was

free from the sentimentalism and bourgeois reaction which
characterized the gathering of 1905, and the pure-and-simple,
destructive tactics of the [1906] assembly;. . . . [that] it
marked a distinct advance in an understanding of the philos-

1 Ibid. Official Report No. 4, p. 5, col. i.

2 Proceedings, Third Convention, Official Report No. 5, pp. 4-5.

3 Industrial Union Bulletin, Sept. 28, 1907, p. 2, col. 5.

* A few weeks later the editor of the Industrial Union News wrote
(in the issue of Nov. 9, 1907, p. 2, col. i) that the I. W. W. "accom-
plished the organization of a body of metalliferous miners, nearly 3,000
strong, in the far-off territory of Alaska since the third annual conven-
tion which adjourned September 24."

" JOB CON TROL " A T GOLDF1ELD 2 1 1

ophy and structure of the movement and was a gathering
typically working-class and loyal ... to the workers. . . .

and that for these reasons there could be no possible doubt
of the stability of the organization. 1

A few weeks after the third convention had adjourned
the panic of 1907 struck the country. The I. W. W. was
nearly wiped out of existence. Its only organ, The Indus-
trial Union Bulletin, was obliged first to appear fortnightly
instead of weekly and finally to suspend publication. " Its
locals dissolved by the dozens and the general headquarters
at Chicago was only maintained by terrific sacrifice and de-
termination. . . ." The report of the General Secretary
to the fourth convention explained that when the third con-
vention closed, General Headquarters expected to collect
the moneys due from the local unions, but before collections
could be arranged " the industrial panic struck the country
with all its force, and the misery following in the wake of
that collapse was mostly felt in places where the Industrial
Workers of the World had established a stronghold." The
Secretary went on to say that the revenue for December,
1907, was not more than half what it had been the year bee.
fore. 3 To aggravate the situation still more were rumors
of internal friction between a group of Socialist Labor party i
followers of Daniel DeLeon and the rest of the organiza-
tion. Indeed, very soon after the convention, charges were
made that the Weekly People, the official organ of the
Socialist Labor party, was being used against the I. W.

1 " Reflections on the Third Annual Convention," Industrial Union
Bulletin, Oct. 5, 1907, p. 2.

1 " The I. W. W., its Strength and Opportunity," by " The Com-
mentator," Solidarity, Feb. 25, 1911.

3 Industrial Union Bulletin, Oct. 24, 1908.

* Rudolph Katz, " With DeLeon Since '89," Weekly People, Dec.
4, 1915, P- 2, col. 4.

212 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

This was the beginning of the most serious internal fight in
the career of the I. W. \V. It was to turn on that same
vexed question that seems eternally to plague those who
want to construct labor organizations along radical lines
namely, the relationship that should exist between the union
and the political parties, especially the Progressive, Labor
and Socialist parties. The second clause of the Preamble
(spoken of among the " Wobblies " as "the political
clause ") held the seeds of discord in its apparently harm-
less assertion that the class struggle " must go on until all
the toilers come together on the political as well as on the
industrial field." Here we have the phrase which, at the
1908 convention, was to make the revolutionary syndical-
ists see red and which was finally to result in a bifurcated
I. W. W.

CHAPTER IX

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTIONIST
(1908)

FOR a period of nearly two years following the financial
panic of 1907, the I. W. W. had a precarious and for the
most part uneventful existence. The organization made
practically no headway with its recruiting and propaganda
work. Indeed, it probably lost ground. There was a fall-
ing off in the number of locals in the organization and, at
least for 1909, in the number of local union charters issued.
Vincent St. John, at that time General Organizer, said in
his report to the fourth convention :

The big majority of the locals that have disbanded can be
traced to the inability of the general organization to finance the
number of organizers needed to see that the membership of
these locals have a thorough understanding of the aims and
objects of the I. W. W. before leaving them to their own de-
vices. There are several cases where the disbanding of locals
is the result of the combined opposition of the employers'
associations and their zealous allies, the officials of " harmony
of interests " organizations which call themselves labor organ-
izations for no other purpose than to better accomplish their
task of deluding the workers; 1

It is probable also that there was during the same period a
decline in membership, as indicated by the figures furnished

1 Industrial Union Bulletin, Nov. /, 1908. p. I. Cf. appendix vi.

213

214

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

by the Secretary-Treasurer. 1 But even during these lean

years there was some activity in the textile industry. | From

rnrst to last, so far as the eastern part of the United States

I is concerned, it has been among the textile operatives that

I the I. W. W. has been most active and most successful. In

yhis industry the I. W. W. has a much larger proportion of

The total number of organized workers than it has in any

other, jn the West, of course, the I. W. W. |s most strrmgly

entrenched in the unorganised extractive industries lum-

b^jjigricuiture, ana construction workJ^ In April, 1908,

the General Executive Board issued an official call (printed

in English, French, German and Italian) for the " First

Convention of Textile Workers" to be held May i, 1908.

in Paterson, N. J. In this document the claim is made that

" over 5,000 textile workers have already been organized

into the Industrial Workers of the World. . . ." 8

)uring the eighteen months' period following the finan-
cial crisis of 1907 the I. W. W. almost entirely gave up its
strike activities. 4 Furthermore, the organization seemed to
lave secured no permanent foothold in those communities
where it had been particularly militant and aggressive during
the preceding year. Secretary Trautmann admitted this in
his report to the Fourth Convention. "There is nothing left
in Bridgeport," he said. " nothing in Skowhegan, but in the

1 See Appendix iv, Table A. Professor Barnett's returns, however,
indicate a net gain in membership from 1907 to 1909. (Quarterly
Journal of Economics, August, 1916.) His figures, too. were secured
from the I. W. W. general headquarters. The writer is not able to
reconcile the two sets of figures.

z Cf. appendix iv, Table B.

8 Industrial Union Bulletin, April n, 1908, col. i.

4 In April, 1908, there was a strike of [presumably] I. W. W. quarry
workers at Marble, Colo. The I. W. W. papers reported that it was
successful. There is also reported in August, a strike against reduc-
tions in wages by the French branch of the textile workers' local
at Lawrence, Mass.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTIONIST 215

Portland [Oregon] district the name of the I. W. W. is
cheered and gloried. . . ." *

One of the leaders of the Detroit I. W. W. (now the
Workers' International Industrial Union) says that at this
time " the whole organization was in a state of unrest."
In reference to such a distractingly unrestful organization
as the I. W. W. has always been, this comment is signifi-
cant. He attributes this unrest to two causes, internal dis-
sension and the financial panic.

The membership, upon discovering that the officials were acting
in a manner that foreshadowed . . . conflict within the organ-
ization, withdrew in large numbers. The financial and indus-
trial panic which was then on had also a very bad effect upon
the newly founded local unions of the I. W. W., and many of
these lost members. 3

The outlook was certainly not encouraging for those who
had pinned their faith to the idea of industrial unionism.
The prospect for the new unionism was not bright. ,Jji 1908
the United Brewery Workmen, another large and important
mdustrial union, patched up their differences with the
KederaHon of I ,abor and went back into the

craft-union fold. Thg Western Federation of Miners the \ /

most militant and one of the two or three really powerful \ *
unions organized on the industrial plan had withdrawn
and finally, in May, IQII. joined the American Federation.
At the sixteenth convention of the Western Federation, held
in the summer of 1908, President Moyer said :

I believe it is a well-established fact that industrial unionism

1 Iiidustrial Union Bulletin, Oct. 24, 1908.

2 Rudolph Katz, " With DeLeon since '89," Weekly People, Dec. 18,
19*3, P- 3, col. i.

3 Ibid.

216 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

is by no means popular, and I feel safe in saying that it is not
wanted by the working class of the United States. The
Knights of Labor, the American Railway Union, the Socialist
Trades and Labor Alliance, the Western Labor Union, the
United Brotherhood of Railway Employees, the American
Labor Union, and last, the Industrial Workers of the W r orld
. . . [went down] because they failed to receive the support of
the working class. . . .*

The breach between the Industrial Workers of the World
and the Western Federation of Miners continued to grow
wider. Until April, 1908, William D. Haywood was a
member of both organizations. Even a.fter the complete
and formal separation had been accomplished, Haywood
had been, since his acquittal at Boise, serving in the capacity
of lecturer and organizer for the Federation. His views
must have been profoundly intensified in a more radical
direction than ever during his incarceration and trial for
murder. That his speeches became too rabid even for such
a decidedly militant organization as the Western Federation
of Miners seems unlikely, although the Federation was grad-
'ually growing more conservative. The determining and, in
the eyes of the W. F. M., incriminating fact about Haywood
now was that he remained an I. W. W. after the adminis-
tration and, presumably, the majority of the W. F. M. had
renounced and " cast off " the " larger " organization of
which it had been a part. So it is not surprising that the
following should have appeared on the first page of the
Miners' Magazine for April 23, 1908 :

1 Proceedings, Sixteenth Convention, W. F. M., p. 18. This report
of the death of the I. W. W. was, to say the least, premature.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTION 1ST
NOTICE.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN :

217

This is to inform you that the Executive Board of the
Western Federation of Miners has decided to terminate the
services of William D. Haywood as a representative of the
Western Federation of Miners in the field, the same to take
effect on the 8th da^ of April, 1908.

C. E. MAHONEY, Vice-Pres., W. F. M.

:\ writer in the Evening Post (New York) thinks that
but for this official ousting of Haywood by the W. F. M.,
the I. W. W. might never have survived the trouble, dis-
sension and " hard times " of 1908. " It is doubtful,"
he says, " if either faction of the Industrial Workers of the
World [Detroit or Chicago] would have survived but for a
change in the attitude of the Western Miners' Federation
. . . which left Haywood free to devote all his energies to
the Industrial Workers of the World." * If we can credit
the evidence presented at the 1912 convention of the W. F.
M., the I. W. W. had at least sufficient vitality to be plot-
ting, through its officials, to regain control of the Federa-
tion. In the published proceedings of its twentieth conven-
tion is printed a letter, dated August 4, 1908, from Vincent
St. John to Albert Ryan, a member of the Western Federa-
tion. This letter reads in part :

I believe we could turn in now and lay the wires to defeat
the machine at the next W. F. M. convention, and it can be
done in this way : by picking out good reliable men with abil-

1(1 The Industrial Workers of the World," Evening Post (N. Y.)
Saturday Supplement, Nov. 9, 1912, p. 3, col. 5. This article is one of
a series of three published under the above title in the Evening Post's
Saturday Supplements beginning November 2, 1912. The reader is
referred to them for an excellent short historical sketch and general
estimate of the I. W. W.

2i8 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

ity, and getting- them to place themselves in local unions of the
Federation for the purpose of getting to be delegates to the
next convention. To do this they should cultivate the senti-
ment of the membership in the local to which they go. If the
local is a Moyer local, let them be Moyer men. Let them outdo
the best of them in worship at his shrine. If the local is in-
different, let them be likewise, but let them be elected as dele-
gates. . . . Once we can control the officers of the \V. F. M.
for the I. W. W. the big bulk of the membership will go
with them, and the prestige of the W. F. M. . . . is worth
something to the revolutionary movement, and we should make
an attempt to get it with us, ... take up the matter with
Bechtel and Oppman and have them work with you to control
Arizona for the next convention. Pick out a man or two for
every local in the state, let them get into them and do the work.
... I will try to handle Michigan and Minnesota from here.
If you are shy [of] men, or have any to spare, we can trade
with the different districts. . . .*

President Moyer said that this letter was found among
Ryan's effects " after he had received a sentence of life im-
prisonment in San Quentin penitentiary for having applied
direct action in Los Angeles, which resulted in the death of
two men." These or similar charges had evidently been
made at about the time this letter was supposed to have
been written. St. John, in his report to the Fourth I. W. W.
Convention as General Organizer, denied certain " insinua-
tions of a serious nature " which had been made against
him. 3

fWMM.

The question of " political action " and the bitter and
Idisruptive controversy wnich was waged on that subject at
fthe fourth convention had now become the overshadowing

%MII|I

1 Proceedings, Tiventieth Convention, W. F. M., pp. 283-4.

2 Ibid., p. 283.

n Indtistrial Union Bulletin, Nov. 7, 1908. p. i, col. 6.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTION 1ST

219

issue. The " Wobblies " use the expression " political
action " in referring to almost every r.onrpivahle form of

. f ~ t t

political activity, voting, elections, legislation, etc.. and also.

^ the relationship which does or

obtain between labor organizations and political par-
ties. ^particularly between radical labor bodies and radical
political parties. For some time before this gathering it was
evident that the administration was becoming fatally divided
against itself. The DeLeon-St. John-Trautmann faction
had survived in 1906, to be the administration the I. W.
W. but in less than two years the sentiment in the organ-
ization had developed two subfactions, so to speak. X!l~I-
W. W. appears to develop by fission. The organization
originally was a compound~of licmerents of

Sherman . . . DeLeon . . . { ?* J hn r j . . Trautmann.

I Haywood. ->

Socialist Party.

Haywood.

Anarchist, or

Nihilist.

Industrial
Socialist. /

The Socialists were " abandoned " in 1906, leaving the field
to the " proletarian rabble " :

DeLeon St. John Trautmann.

The "Socialist Laborites " were sloughed off (or they
" ditched the Anarchists," as they themselves would put it)
in 1908, and we had

I. II.

The DeLeonites. The St. John-Trautmann

( S. L. P. or Detroit I. W. W. ) group.

(Chicago I. W. W., "Bum-
mery.")

Later Trautmann abandoned the " Bummery " and joined
the DeLeonites. We now have in 1917 :

220 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

I.
The DeLeon-Trautmann

group.

(The Workers' International
Industrial Union.)

II.

The St. John-Haywood

group.
( Surely.*** 1. W.W.I)

which is the present setting, primed for further hyphen-
smashing !

One of the two factions is thus seen to consist, for the
most part, of members of the Socialist Labor party sup-
porters of the revolutionary Marxian tradition and believers
in political action the doctrinaire group. Their prophet
was Daniel DeLeon. The other group was composed more
largely of Westerners intellectually more nearly philosoph-
ical Anarchists than orthodox Socialists inclined to scoff
at political action and emphatically opposed to allowing the
I. W. W. to have any connection with any political body
or to hold any political policy disbelievers in the state and
in both the Socialist parties because they accept the state
" industrialists with their working clothes on " the essence
of the " proletarian rabble." The first group was ultimately
to constitute a socialistic I. W. W. with headquarters at
Detroit the doctrinaire wing ; the second group an anar-
chistic I. W. W. with headquarters at Chicago the direct-
action wing, referred to by the Detroiters as " the Bum-
mery." 1

Rudolph Katz. a member of the Socialist Labor party,
writes that after the third convention

all the efforts of DeLeon to preserve harmony in the I. W. W.
were unavailing. St. John, Trautmann, Edwards, and the
majority of the five members of the General Executive Board

'From one of the favorite songs of the floating "Wobbly" of the
West. The refrain begins : " Hallelujah, I'm a bum." /. W. W. Songs
to Fan the Flames of Discontent (5th ed.), p. 34. Vide appendix ix.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTIONIST 2 2I

turned over night . . . against the fundamental principles of
industrialism as laid down in the I. W. W. preamble. They
no longer recognized political action as necessary. 1

When the convention was called to order by Mr. St. John
on September 21, 1908, there were twenty-six delegates in
attendance, controlling an aggregate of seventy votes. Two
delegates were debarred from seats in the convention Max
Ledermann of Chicago and Daniel DeLeon of New York ^J
and St. John was made permanent chairman. 2

The West especially the Pacific Coast was well repre-
sented for the first time. There were delegates in attend-
ance from Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and Spokane.
The West was spoken of as furnishing the " genuine rebels
the red-blooded working stiffs," and this was said to be
the first revolutionary convention ever held in Chicago com-
posed of " purely wage- workers." 3 The largest and most
important delegation from the West was popularly known s

as the " Overalls Brigade," brought together in Portland
and Spokane by one J. H. Walsh, a national organizer of
the I. W. W. The " Brigade " numbered about twenty
men who " beat their way " from Portland to Chicago,
holding propaganda meetings en route. A member of tlie
delegation reported this propaganda trip :

We were five weeks on the road [he said]. We traveled over
two thousand five hundred miles. The railroad fare saved
would have "been about $800. We held thirty-one meetings.
The receipts of the first week from literature sales and collec-
tions were $39.02. The second week, $53.66. The third week.,

1 " With DeLeon since '89," Weekly People, Dec. u, 1915, p. 2, col. i.

* Industrial Union Bulletin, Oct. 10, 1908, p. 2. The proceedings were
published in the Bulletin and in the Daily People (New York City).
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was the only woman delegate present.

* Ibid., col. 3.

222 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

$45.78. The fourth week, $28.10. The fifth week, $8.57.
Total, $175.13. These figures do not include the song sales.
The song sales were approximately $200. 1

In the Industrial Union Bulletin for September 19 was pub-
lished a long letter from Organizer Walsh giving a detailed
record of the trip. It was given such heads as these: " I.
W. W. Red-Special! Overall Brigade," " On its way
through the continent Thousands listen to the speakers
Gompers and his satellites furious with rage !" " The Over-
all Brigade," according to Rudolph Katz, " consisted of
that element that traveled on freight trains from one west-
ern town to another, holding street meetings that were
opened with the song, ' Hallelujah, I'm a Bum,' and closing
with passing the hat in regular Salvation Army fashion."

The Socialist Labor party group take the position that
DeLeon was denied a seat in the convention in order to
further the designs of the St. John-Trautmann faction. In
their " nefarious plot " they had the full cooperation of the
" Overall Brigade " which " sat in judgment upon Daniel
DeLeon." Katz goes on to say that " St. John was the
prosecuting attorney." 3 The pretext for unseating DeLeon
(and others) was membership in the wrong local union.
DeLeon was present as a delegate of the Office Workers'
Local Union. His opponents insisted that he should, as an
editor, be enrolled in the Printing Workers' Local. On
such technicalities enough delegates were refused seats to
give the Overall Brigade all the powers of a steam-roller.*
" It was a ' machine ' of the capitalist political design,"
said the Weekly People, " organized . . . among the boys

1 Industrial Union Bulletin, Oct. 24, 1908.

2 "With DeLeon since '89," Weekly People, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 3, col. i.

3 Ibid., Dec. 25, 1915, p. 5, col. 4.

4 Ibid.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTION 1ST 223

from the West." * " In the case of Fellow Worker DeLeon
representing ' Store & Office Workers' Union ' No. 58, the
committee recommended that the protest be sustained and
the delegate not seated because he is not a member of the
local of the industry in which working, such a local being
in existence." ~

" The very same fellows," writes Katz, " who dared
DeLeon to come to the Fourth Convention, closed the doors
to him when he arrived . . . and his credentials were re-
jected on flimsy pretenses."

DeLeon was given the floor to state his case, and he did state
it in his characteristic fashion. The " Overall Brigade " were
seated all in a row on one side of the hall, a tough-looking lot.
Vincent St. John was in the chair with sinister mein, wielding
the gavel and everything that could be wielded to keep DeLeon
out of the convention. Alongside of St. John sat Trautmann,
. . . [and] he, too, looked as though he had traveled all the
way from Seattle by freight train. 3

" Such remarks as ' I would like to get a punch at the pope '
(meaning DeLeon) were overheard in the hall among the
' Overall Brigaders '." " DeLeon told them whither they
were drifting to Shermanism, to Anarchy, to the move-
ment's destruction." * DeLeon's speech in defense of his
right to a seat in the convention was published in the Indus-
tried Union Bulletin (October 10, 1908) under the title,
" The Intellectual against the Worker." Extracts from St.
John's reply and his arguments for refusing DeLeon a seat
are published in the same issue of the Bulletin under the

1 Oct. 10, 1908, p. i, col. 6.

2 "Report of the Committee on Credentials," Industrial Union
Bulletin, Oct. 10, 1908, p. 4, col. 3.

3 Weekly People, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 3.

4 Ibid.

224 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

title, " The Worker against the Intellectual." Katz say?
that this published version of DeLeon's speech was full of
" the basest kind of misrepresentation." He further de-
clares that the reports of the convention published in the
Bulletin were " doctored." 1

DeLeon expressed his opinion of the " Overall Brigade "
very soon after the convention :

Out or this [hobo] element [he declared] Walsh picked . . .
the " Overall Brigade " ; and to the tune " I'm a bum, I'm
a bum," very much like the tune of " God wills it ! God
wills it!" with which Cuckoo Peter led the first mob of Cru-
saders against the Turks, Walsh brought this " Brigade " to
the convention. Some of them . . . were among the " dele-
gates." Most of them, I am credibly informed, slept on the
benches on the Lake Front, and received from Walsh a daily
stipend of 30 cents. This element lined the walls of the con-
vention. 2

For four days the convention did practically nothing but
protest credentials and debate the question whether or not
the Socialist Labor party, through Daniel DeLeon, was try-
ing to control the I. W. W. All this was a prelude to the
contest over the retention of the political clause of the pre-
amble which was fought out on a personal issue the ad-
mission of DeLeon as a delegate. The DeLeonites accuse
the St. John-Trautmann group of trying to make the I. W.
W. what they called a " purely physical force body."
The DeLeonites in turn were charged with attempting tc
subordinate the interests of the I. W. W. to those of the
Socialist Labor party.

Justus Ebert, himself a member of the Socialist Labor

1 Katz, op. cit., Dec. 25, 1916, p. 5, col. 5.

3 " The I. W. W. Convention," Weekly People, Oct. 3, 1908, p. i. col. 7.

s Detroit I. W. W. leaflet. The Tu'o I. W. W.'s.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTION 1ST 2 2$

party, believed that this charge was well founded. For this
reason, in 1908, and some time before the fourth conven-
tion met, he resigned from the Socialist Labor party. Since
that time he has been a member of the (" Anarcho-Syndi-
calist ") I. W. W. His letter of resignation, addressed to
the members of Section Kings County, S. L. P., runs in
part as follows :

The Socialist Labor party believes that the political is the
reflection of the economic. With this belief in mind it aided in
launching the I. W. W., and protected it from the onslaughts
of reaction. . . . The Socialist Labor party has not, however,
had the courage of its convictions, ... [because] having
aided in founding and protecting the economic organization
that is to reflect the true political party of labor, [it] refuses
to vacate the field to its untrammeled and logical development. <
Instead, it persists in being the political guide and mentor of |
the I. W. W. . . . The I. W. W., hampered in its growth by
the illogical posture of the S. L. P., is compelled to serve
notice in big black type that it has no political affiliations of
any kind. . . . The fate of the Socialist Trades and Labor
Alliance will be the fate of the I. W. W., if it permits an ex-
ternal political body to dominate its politics. 1

Now DeLeon was at once the leader of the S. L. P. and
of the political element in the I. W. W. and the anti-parlia-
mentarians perhaps felt that the only way to get rid of
what they called the " political incubus of the S. L. P." was
to eliminate DeLeon and enough of his supporters to make
it possible for the Wobblies from the West to carry the
resolution to eliminate that fearsome political clause. They
were somehow vaguely apprehensive that that phrase in the
preamble which declared that the toilers must " come to-
gether on the political field " would make possible the sub-

1 Industrial Union Bulletin, April 18, 1908, p. 2, col. 4.

226 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

jugation of the I. W. W. by the Socialist Labor party. This
despite the fact that the paragraph in question closes with
the words : " without affiliation with any political party."

The report of the General Secretary-Treasurer expresses
the position of the simon-pure industrialists of the St. John-
Trautmann faction.

Shall the economic organization [the Secretary asks] be per-
mitted to outline and pursue its course in the efforts [sic] to
bring the workers together on the industrial field, the only essen-
tial, and, if necessary, on the political [field] without the inter-
ference and self-assumed guardianship of any political party.
... or shall the economic organization, the Industrial Work-
ers of the World, be turned into a tail of a political party and
its functionaries and its officers be obedient to the commands
and the whims emanating from the emissaries of such political
party ? x

One member of the anti-parliamentarian group F. W.
Heslewood expressed his opposition to any change in the
preamble, saying that he did not want to be called a dyna-
miter. He insisted that " the changing of the preamble by
taking out the word * political ' will inevitably give some-
body a chance to denounce the I. W. W. as an anarchist
organization." 2 The I. W. W. was precisely so denounced
soon after the convention : " The political clause has been
stricken out and with that all semblance of the I. W. W.
has been wiped out. The clause was considered ' confus
ing.' Fact is the clause was so clear that it was a thorn ii
the side of veiled dynamiters." 8

The proposition to strike out the seductive and dangeroi

1 Industrial Union Bulletin, Oct. 24, 1908.

* " Proceedings of the Fourth Convention," Industrial Union Bulletin
Nov. 7, 1908, p. 3, col. 4.
8 Editorial, Weekly People, Oct. 10, 1908, p. i, col. 6.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTIONIST 2 2?

words about the " political field " was adopted and the j
second paragraph of the new preamble now reads : " Be-
tween these two classes a struggle must go on until the
workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of
the earth and the machinery of production and abolish the
wage system."

The " straight industrialists " had now accomplish^
their coup. By " killing " the political clause they hac
presumably, saved the organization from the insidiou \
peril of Socialist Labor party domination ; briefly, the; r
had exorcised the demon of DeLeonism. This was th j
sentiment of the Trautmann-St. John faction. The senti -
ments of the DeLeonites are officially expressed in a leaflet
issued later on by the new but " only genuine and original
I. W. W." organization which they proceeded to establish
at Detroit :

At the fourth annual convention, in September, 1908, [it runs]
" certain prominent members of the organization, some of
them being officials, endeavored to capture the organization
and make of it a purely physical force body. Through their
machinations they seated delegates not entitled to a seat, and
unseated delegates entitled to a seat, threatening violence to,
and committing [it] upon, bona fide delegates assembled there.
The general officers acquiesced in, and endorsed, the actions
of the irresponsible element that packed the convention against
the organization. The delegates who were illegally debarred
from a seat in the convention returned to their respective union
constituencies and reported the actions of the anarchistic crew
who were conducting the so-called convention. 2

1 The new preamble, which has survived five subsequent conventions
unscathed, is reproduced in Appendix ii. For the original preamble
of iox>5, -vide, Brissenden, Launching of the Industrial Workers of the
World (University of California Press), p. 46.

2 Detroit I. W. W. leaflet, The Two I. W. W.'s.

228 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

The fourth convention did very little of importance ex-
cept to split the organization very decisively, if discursively,
on the rock of " politics." A few unimportant constitu-
tional changes were made l and the following officers
elected: General Secretary-Treasurer, Vincent St. John:
General Organizer, Wm. E. Trautmann ; General Executive
Board, Fellow Workers Cole, Miller, Ettor, Whitehead "and
Gaines. 2 The records and property of the organization re-
mained with the St. John-Trautmana faction, which will
be referred to in the following pages as the Industrial Work-
ers of the World, or simply by the three letters, " I. W. W."

Whether or not the St. John contingent was now legiti-
mately entitled to be recognized as the Industrial \Vorker>
of the World is a question which will be discussed in an-
other place. \Vhether they were usurpers or not, they held
and retained control of the offices and property of the or-
ganization. The Socialist Labor or DeLeon contingent
faced this situation as best they could. These " bona fide
industrial unionists rallied," says one of their number, " and
held a convention in Paterson, N. J., and elected a new set
^of general officers and a new General Executive Board/

On November 5, 1908, [reads an official announcement] a
conference assembled in Paterson, N. J., of delegates sent by
the locals that remained true to the principles of the Industrial
"Workers of the World. They attended to the interruptec
work of the general organization, electing a General Executive

1 Cf. report of the eighth day's session, Industrial Union Bulletin,
Dec. 12, 1908, p. 3.

- Ibid., March 6, 1909, p. 4, col. 2.

s H. Richter, General Secretary-Treasurer of the Detroit (S. L. P.)
1. W. W., now officially known as the Workers' International Indus
-trial Union, in a letter to the author, dated February 17, 1915.

4 H. S. Carroll. "The Industrial Workers of the World. A brief
sketch of some history of the organization." Weekly People, Dec.
21, 1912.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTIONIST 2 2Q

Board and other officials, and attended to such other work as
the organization required for its growth and progress. 1

At this rump convention, " credentials were read for
twenty-one delegates from locals of Philadelphia, Boston,
Bridgeport, Brooklyn, and Paterson, of which [number]
eighteen were present. . . ." : This Paterson conference
was virtually a meeting of the two District Councils of New
York City and Paterson and a handful of Eastern locals.
The delegates declared the proceedings of the Chicago con-
vention illegal and naively read the '' anarchist usurpers )r
out of the organization. " The pirates in Chicago," says
Rudolph Katz in his later reminiscences, " were repudiated
by the I. W. W. organizations generally. He adds that only
three issues of the Industrial Union Bulletin (official organ
of the St. John faction) appeared " after that packed ' con-
vention ' had done its deadly work." 3

The most important action of the convention was to re-
duce the monthly per capita to five cents for locals and
three cents to National Industrial Departments and National
Industrial Unions, the idea being that the money should be
controlled locally for organization purposes. 4 Steps were
taken toward the publication of an official journal, tempo-
rary officials were elected to form a kind of ad interim ad-
ministration, and New York City was decided upon for the
location of General Headquarters. 5 Within a few months,

1 Detroit I. W. W. leaflet, A message to the membership of the
Industrial Workers of the World and the working class in general.

* Weekly People, Nov. /, 1008, p. i, col. 6.

" With DeLeon since '89," Weekly People, Dec. 25, 1915, p. 5. The
Bulletin was published more or less regularly until the Spring of 1909.
The issue of March 6 appears to have been the last. On March 18,
No. i of Vol. i of the Industrial Worker [II] was issued at Spokane,
Wash.

* Weekly People, Nov. 7, 1908, p. I, col. 6.
5 Ibid.

230 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

however, the location of national headquarters was changed
to Detroit, Michigan. The Daily and Weekly People served
as official journal for the Detroit organization until Jan-
uary, 1912, when the first number of the (monthly) Indus-
trial Union News made its appearance. C. H. Chase (New
York) was General Secretary-Treasurer. The Executive
Board consisted of C. H. Chase, A. J. Francis (New York),
Wm. Glanz (Paterson), R. McClure (Philadelphia), C. E.
Trainor (Denver), and H. Richter (Detroit). Richter is
at present General Secretary-Treasurer. He was a delegate
to the 1905 convention from one of the local unions of the
Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.

It is exceedingly doubtful whether the " pirates in Chi-
cago " were really " repudiated by the I. W. W. organiza-
tions generally." The figures presented in Appendix IV,
(Table A) indicate that a large proportion of the 200 locals
(to take the lowest estimate) in the I. \V. W. in 1907 had
in some way vanished. The Chicago faction admitted that
17 locals went over to Detroit, 1 and Secretary Richter
writes that when the Detroit faction was reorganized at
Paterson twenty-two locals reported to headquarters. 2 Dur-
ing the months of November and December, 1908, the
Weekly People published in its correspondence columns
about a dozen letters from locals chiefly Eastern locals
which expressly repudiated the " Chicago pirates." Both
organizations sent out official referendum sheets for the
votes of the rank and file of the membership on the resolu-
tions, etc., adopted by the Chicago and Paterson conven-
tions. 3 The writer has not learned of any definite re-

1 Industrial Union Bulletin, No. 7, 1908, p. 2, col. 2.

* Letter to the author, Feb. 17, 1915.

3 The referendum on the Chicago convention and' sent out by the
Trautmann-St. John administration was published in the Industrial
Union Bulletin, Oct. 24, 1908. The DeLeonites issued a special re-
ferendum circular signed by the ad interim officers.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTIONIST

231

ports concerning the returns from these referendums. It is
quite certain that the Chicago group lost many locals which
did not go over to Detroit, inasmuch as only 100 locals are
reported for I9O9. 1 Secretary Richter reports that in 1909
the Detroit I. W. W. had twenty-three locals.'

Now, as to the merits of the controversy. The I. W. W.
set out in 1905, somewhat on the order of the Socialist
Trade and Labor Alliance, proposing to wage war on the
capitalists, primarily on the " economic field," viz., in the
shop, "on the job"; by strikes and boycotts, etc., but ex-
pecting to go forward, as DeLeon put it, " under the pro-
tecting guns of a labor political party." No particular
party was endorsed, however, and any desire for the en-
dorsement of any political party was specifically disclaimed.
The words, " without endorsing or desiring the endorse-
ment of any political party," were inserted at the close of
the preamble in 1906, but stricken out in 1908 (or possibly
1907) . The Detroit I. W. W. at first carried in its preamble
the words, " without endorsing any political party," but
later struck them out. 3 The western membership was ^*}
especially bitter in its hostility to the Socialist party as well
as the Socialist Labor party, and felt convinced that the I.
W. W. was mortgaging its future in allowing itself to get
into any entangling political alliances, formal or informal.
The western I.W.W.s had not borrowed any theoretical
criticism of the state from the French syndicalists, but the
actual concrete experiences of the lower grades of workers
in the western states had developed in their minds a concep-
tion of the political party (reactionary or socialistic) very
similar to that of the revolutionary syndicalist of France.

1 Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Annual Reports on
Labor Organisations, 1909-1914. Cf. also Appendix iv (Table A).

2 Letter to the author, Feb. 17, 1913.

3 Vide Preamble and Constitution of the \V. I. I. L T . (1915), pp. 3-4.

2 3 2

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Felicien Challaye, one of the intellectuals among the French
syndicalists, expresses this common idea very concisely.
He says that, ". . . le parti politique est un agregat d'ele-
ments heterogenes, reunis par le lieu artificiel d'une opinion
analogue : des hommes venus de toutes les couches sociales
s'y condoient, echangent leurs obscurs et steriles bavardages,
cherchent a associer par de louches compromis leurs interets
antagonistes." 1

Indeed, the Western American Wobblies looked upon the
whole modern system of congressional or parliamentary

overnment in much the same way. Parliaments, they say,
are little more than clearing-houses for the exchange of

vague and sterile platitudes." In so far as they do more
than this, they merely further the designs of the big business

roups whom they serve as retainers. In this regard the^

LW.W.s arc sniYiciently Marxian and they would accent
>vith italics Marx's stricture- on the "disease of parliament

T--1
ndustrial Workers' feeling toward pa:

mentary government cannot be better described than in the
vords of the great Socialist. In a letter written to the
york Tribune in ift;? TC^H Marx

that incurable malady, parliamentary cretinism, [as] a disorder
which penetrates its unfortunate victims with the solemn con-
viction that the whole world, its history, and future, are gov-
erned and determined by a majority of votes in that particular
representative body which has the honor to count them among
its members and that all and everything going on outside the
walls of their house wars, revolutions, railway constructing,
colonizing of whole new continents, California gold discov-
eries, Central American canals, Russian armies, and whatever
else may have some little claim to influence upon the destinies
of mankind is nothing compared with the incommensurable

Syndicalism e rcvolutionnaire et syndicalisms reformiste, pp. 13-14.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTIONIST 233

events hinging upon the important question, whatever it may I
be, just at that moment occupying the attention of their honor-
able house. 1

The I. W. W. makes the bald accusation that the political
groups which make up national congresses are simply
(though perhaps indirectly and adroitly) managing public
affairs in behalf of the dominant economic and commercial
interests of the country. To whatever degree this is true
the I. W. W. is sure of its ground in declaring that parlia-
ments are corrupt. But this no more demonstrates the in-
herent folly of parliamentary government than the admitted
corruption perhaps even industrial cretinism of the in-
dustrial union proves the inherent folly of industrial union-
ism. There is a lamentable amount of inherited idiocy in
both labor and legislative organizations. Anything in the
constitution, and more particularly anything in the pre-
amble (which I.W.W.s looked upon as a Magna Carta of
the proletariat), that seemed to commit the organization to
any particular political policy was a source of great uneasi-
ness. This uneasiness was much intensified by the con-
stantly increasing sentiment of opposition to the (political)
state as it exists today, and to all forms of authority,
especially centralized authority. 2 The " Overall Brigade "
was the group which was most conspicuously saturated with
this anarchistic feeling. These men from the West werq
suspicious of all parties; thought voting and legislating
pleasant forms of ritual for deluding the workers ; active!)
antagonized the craft unions, which also they considerec
industrial anomalies of use only as " coffin societies " ; anc
\vere very doubtful about the necessity for leaders of any
kind even leaders of the Wobblies !

1 Resolution and Counter-Revolution (2nd ed., 1904), pp. 109- 10.^

2 Cf. infra, ch. xiii, where the controversy at the seventh and eighth
conventions between the " Centralizers " and the " Decentralizes " is
described.

234 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

The eastern membership, on the other hand, more nearly

approximated the State Socialist type of radicalism. They

were inspired by a group of Socialist Labor party men at

whose head was Daniel DeLeon. They abjured anarchy,

believed in authority (and in its instruments: leaders), were

disillusioned about State Socialism and spared no bitterness

and pettiness in criticizing the Socialist party and its pro-

\ gram of State Socialism and reform in general. Reform in

\ general was to them anathema. They were revolutionary

\ Marxists doctrinaire to the bone saturated with the dia-

yectic.

This doctrinaire faction claimed to be the custodian of
the original I. W. W. idea. It felt itself to be the keeper
of the original tradition of the founders. This original
tradition was expressed in the first preamble if it was ex-
pressed anywhere. The DeLeonites held to that original
preamble, and the fact that they did so lends weight to their
claim that they, and they alone, are the true exponents of
the spirit and purpose which animated the first convention.
They probably do represent the spirit of the fathers the
men of 1905 more exactly than does the " Bummery out-
fit " at Chicago. The Direct- Actionists might just as well
concede this much to the " Impossibilists/' The latter rep-
resent revolutionary unionism in the original bottle: the
former represent the changed form of militant unionism
toward which most of the I.W.W.'s had drifted between
1905 and 1908 new red wine under the old label. The
Direct-Actionists kept the old label to designate the West-
ern American brand of " industrial unionism/' invented (or
blundered upon) by the proletarian from the provincial side
of the Mississippi, simply because they had the power to
keep it. And the whole philosophy of the so-called " Bum-
mery outfit " is the philosophy of power economic power.

A further reason for conceding to the Direct-Actionists

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTIONIST 235

the original name and label (as indeed the Detroiters wisely

did when in 1915 they rechristened themselves "The Work-

ers' International Industrial Union") is that the Direct-

Actionists are the ones who, since 1908, have done by far

the most extensive organizing and propaganda work. It

was the " Bummery " which aroused hope and apprehen- /

sion at Little Falls, at Lawrence, at Wheatland, and on the \ y

Minnesota iron range, and baffled the authorities in its dra-

matic " free speech fights " at Spokane, Fresno, Paterson.

San Diego, Seattle, and Everett. Their membership, though

small, is three times that of the Detroit organization.

Some more definite points of difference between the two
organizations should be noted. They may be set down here
as representing the contrasting viewpoints of Daniel DeLeon
and Vincent St. John. The attitude of these two men can
be tentatively accepted as representing the opinions of most
of those in their respective followings. There is good
reason, then, for saying that the lifting of the hyphen be-
tween DeLeon and St. John was largely due to their con?
flicting opinions about (i) industrial union structure the j
arrangement of industrial groups; (2) sabotage and direct
action; and (3) political action.

( i ) DeLeon believed that the industrial organization of
the workers should be arranged according to the tool used.
All workers using a particular tool should be in the same
local union or branch thereof. St. John believed that pro-
duction should be the criterion. He thought that all work-
ers whose activities contribute toward the output of a given
product should be in the same union. The driver of a
brewery wagon contributes his labor power to the produc-
tion of beer (as also does the stenographer in the office of
the brewery!) and he should be in the Brewery Workers'
Union, as indeed he actually is in this particular case. Only
St. John would say that the Brewery Workmen should form
a component part of the I. W. W.

ct j
^)

236 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

IX"

(^ (2) Direct action and sabotage were condemned by De-

Leon and approved by St. John. DeLeon's opposition was
not based upon moral grounds. He simply had no confi-
dence in the efficacy of these methods. He was firmly con-
vinced that the habitual indulgence in sabotage and in de-
structive tactics in general was a poor preparation for a
working class which expected some day to manage and con-
trol the industries of the world. It was a poor educational
policy.

/ (3) St. John was unconditionally opposed to political
/ action. DeLeon advocated it as a temporary aid in the
/ struggle for emancipation. He appears to have looked for-
ward to the ultimate abolition of political or representative
government and the establishment of a literal industrial
>/ democracy. 1

The constitution of the I. W. W. is not anti-political. It
is merely new-political. Any wage-earner is admitted re-
gardless of creed, race, or political opinion. But it is also
true that in actual practice, as Levine remarks, " the Indus-
trial Workers have played and are playing the game of anti-
politics.'' (i Their spokesmen," he says, " ridicule the ' poli-

1 The author wishes to take this opportunity to express his indebted-
ness to Emil J. Kern, of the Socialist Labor party, for many suggestive
ideas, especially in connection with the DeLeon-St. John controversy.
Whatever merit there may be in the above comparison is due to him.
On the second point, however, Mr. Kern simply states that the differ-
ence was merely a difference of views in regard to stealing. St. John,
he says, approved of it. (Not per se, of course, but because, as he
assumed [on Kern's hypothesis], it helped the interests of the work-
ers.) DeLeon disapproved of it, not on moral grounds, but for the
reasons given above in paragraph 2. The author does not know whether
St. John approves of stealing or not. Some color may be given to
Mr. Kern's contention by the charges which were circulated in Goldfield,
Nev., that the W. F. M. sanctioned the wholesale stealing of ore by its
members. Cf. supra, p. 198, and E. J. Kern, " Socialism and Direct
Action" (San Francisco Labor Clarion, May 31, 1912).

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTION 1ST 037

ticians ' ; severely criticize the Socialist party and insult its y

most prominent leaders. The non-political portion of the
I. W. W. is therefore practically anti-political."

The bitterness of feeling engendered in this controversy
over politics can well be imagined. The J: wo f actions^ of the
I. W. W. hate one another with a hearty fervor that is only
equaled by their united opposition to the American Federa- \/

\\c.\\ <;f Labor. Both claim to be the simon-pure revolution-
ary article. If any " malefactor of great wealth " thinks
that he is being scandalously abused by the I.W.W.s, he
should read some of the things the " red I.W.W.s " have
to say about the " yellow I.W.W.s " and, a fortiori, the
" yellows " about the " reds," or attend a debate between
any kind of an I. W. W. and what he (the I. W. W.) calls
a " coffin society " man of the American Federation of
Labor.

The Secretary of the Detroit I. W. W. (now W. I. I. U.)
says that

to speak of factions of the I. W. W. is doing violence to the
facts in the case. The I. W. W. organized in Chicago, 1905,
established certain principles, methods, and aims, which can be
readily ascertained from the stenographic reports of the first,
second, and third conventions. Among them one of the most
essential and characteristic of the I. W. W. is the distinct and
specific declaration : The workers must organize as a class, on
the political and industrial field, to achieve the emancipation
from wage slavery. The so-called Chicago " I. W. W." has re-
pudiated this position, and carries since 1908, falsely, the name.
Its claim is bogus, as amply demonstrated by its doings since
that time. . . . -

1 Louis Levine, " The Development of Syndicalism in America,"
Political Science Quarterly, vol. xxviii, p. 474 (Sept., 1913). This is
perhaps the best short record and general description of the career of
the I. W. W. as a whole.

2 Herman Richter, private correspondence, March 30, 1912.

238 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

" We hold," says this official, " that our organization is The
I. W. W. Chicago headquarters, and those who follow that
organization, became a different body since 1908." *

At the International Socialist Congress at Vienna in 1914
the Socialist Labor party made a report in which it was de-
clared that

. . . the Anarcho- Syndicalist element [which] caused the split
in the I. W. W. in 1908, went forth throughout the land under
the name, Industrial Workers of the World, and by its advo-
cacy of Anarchy, sensationalism, sabotage, " direct action,"
and " free speech," riots, and similar disorderly tactics, has
cast an odium upon the name of the I. W. W. 2

Such a characterization of the Chicago faction is hardly to
be wondered at in view of some of the statements made by
organs representing the direct-actionists. Thus we are told
that what " the now famous ' Hobo Convention ' . . . actu-
ally did was to restore the preamble to its pristine syndical-
ist purity. . . ." 3

The break was not, however, entirely caused by disagree-
ment over political and economic principles. It was partly
a matter of personal temperament and primarily the per-
sonal temperament of Daniel DeLeon. We have seen that,
rightly or wrongly, DeLeon has been, time after time,
charged with being the instigator of trouble and dissension.
It is difficult to say just why his presence so often seemed to
bring friction and revolt. It was partly due, no doubt, to
the really heroic and rigidly uncompromising way in which
he adhered to his beliefs. It must be attributed in part, the
writer believes, to defects of temper. " The strain of love

1 Private correspondence, Oct. 23, 1911.
3 Weekly People, Aug. 22, 1914, p. 2, col. 2.

3 " Some Preamble History," Voice of the People (Los Angeles),
Oct. 30, 1913, p. 3, col. 3.

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTION 1ST 239

and hate aroused by DeLeon's peculiar personality," writes
one who knew him, " colors all judgments of his career." *
The same writer says that DeLeon was temperamentally a
Jesuit, and that his personal attacks were Jesuitical. 2 This
fact surely should be kept in mind when considering the
controversies in the socialist movement which have been
laid at his door. The present Socialist party broke away
from DeLeon's leadership nearly twenty years ago, 3 and
has since thrived, while the Socialist Labor party has been
reduced to a negligible quantity. In the same way, in
1908, the followers of DeLeon seceded and their fate has
been about the same.

Eugene Debs thought that DeLeon's critics made too little
allowance for his peculiar temper. He insists that whatever
" opposition to the Industrial Workers [is] inspired by
hatred for Daniel DeLeon and the Socialist Trade and
Labor Alliance, is puerile, to say the least. . . . DeLeon is
sound on the question of trade unionism," Debs continues,
" and to that extent, whether I like him or not personally, I
am with him." 4 In another place Debs writes :

The fact is that most of the violent opposition of Socialist
party members to the I. W. W. is centered upon the head of
DeLeon and has a purely personal animus. . . . DeLeon is not
the I. W. W., although I must give him credit for being, since
its inception, one of its most vigorous and active supporters.

1 Louis Fraina, " DeLeon," The New Review, July 1914, p. 391. This
excellent portrayal of DeLeon's personality and achievements as well
as the role he played in the I. W. W. and the socialist movement in
general makes it unnecessary to attempt more than the briefest com-
ment here.

2 Fraina, op. cit., p. 397.

Cf. Hillquit, M., History of Socialism in the United States (5th ed.),
pp. 294-301. "The disintegration of the Socialist Labor party."

4 " The Coming Labor Union," Miners' Magazine, vol. vii, no. 122,.
Oct. 26, 1905, p. 13.

240

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

It may be [he continues] that DeLeon has designs upon the
Socialist party and expects to use the I. W. W. as a means of
disrupting it in the interest of the SocialistLaJier-pai^y, and if
he succeeds it will be because his enemies m the Socialist party,
in their bitter personal hostility to him, are led to oppose . . .
the revolutionary I. W. W. and support the reactionary A. F.
of L. . . .*

DeLeon's name was synonymous with revolutionary social-
ism that socialism which rejects compromise, recognizes the
social value of reform but refuses to deal in reform, and con-
siders revolutionary industrial unionism as the indispensable
basis of socialist political action and the revolutionary move-
ment as a whole. DeLeon saw clearly the impending menace
of State Socialism, particularly within the Socialist movement ;

and his whole program was an answer to that menace

Nearly every American expression of revolutionary theory
and action bears the impress of his personality and activity;
and revolutionary unionism hails him as its philosopher and
foremost American pioneer. 2 . . . DeLeon's espousal of In-
dustrial Unionism and the I. W. W. and his development of an
industrial philosophy of action, constitute his crowning contri-
bution to American socialism. 3

DeLeon's personal character and intellectual leanings
were curiously reflected in the party to which he so unself-
ishly gave the best years of his life. The Socialist Labor
party is doctrinaire, unyielding, Jesuitical as was its leader.
It has always seemed to be suspended after a fashion in an
atmosphere charged with a kind of a pedantic essence of
the Marxian dialectic. It is so impressed with the impor-
tance of its own " mutterings in the Marxian law," that

1<l The Socialist Party and the Trade Unions," The Worker (New
York), July 28, 1906. Reprinted in the Miners' Magazine, Aug. 30,
1906, p. 9.

2 Fraina, " DeLeon," Nezv RsTie^i, July, 1914, vol. ii, p. 390.

3 Ibid., p. 394-

DOCTRINAIRE VERSUS DIRECT-ACTION 1ST

241

when, for example, one of Fellow Worker Walsh's " blan-
ket stiffs " asks what the western lumber-jack is to do when
he is " fleeced " for a three-day job, the party, metaphor-
ically speaking, simply loses. its temper and rails at him and,.,
all the rest of the " Overalls Brigade." The Socialist Labor
party has been pretty accurately summed up by Fraina :

The S. L. P. ignored the psychology of struggling workers The
says'lr its' propaganda was couched in abstract formulas ; just
as its sectarian spirit developed a sort of subconscious idea
that revolutionary activity consisted in enunciating tormulasT
This sectarian spirit produced dogmas, intemperate assertions,
and a general ten^p^ry tnwnrH rn-Hrafurp ideas and caricature
action; and discouraged men of ability from joining the
L~PT"

-" * ^'DeLeon," Nezv Review, vol. ii, p. 398 (July, 1914)-

CHAPTER X

THE I. W. W. ON THE " CIVILIZED PLANE "
(1908-1915)

THE Detroit faction of the I. W. W., which in 1915
changed its name to the Workers' International Industrial
Union, never attained a strength at all comparable to that
of the direct-actionist group. In Appendix IV are given
what membership figures are available for both locals and
individual members. For the total membership, the figures in
columns 3 and 4 (Table A) are probably the most accurate.
They show that the Detroiters had in 1910, two years after
the schism of 1908, about 3,500 members. The following
year their membership was about the same, but in 1912 it
very nearly reached 1 1,000. That was the year of maximum
membership, as it was also, except possibly for the year 1916,
for the Chicago faction. In every year the figures show a
very much smaller membership for the Detroit than for the
Chicago faction. The difference in favor of the direct-
actionists is still more marked in regard to the number of
local unions. The Secretary-Treasurer of the Detroit fac-
tion says that only one new local was organized in 1909
the year following the split. 1 The following table shows
the growth of local union membership : a

1 Private correspondence, Feb. 17, 1915.

J Arranged from figures given by Secretary-Treasurer Richter in
letter dated Feb. 17, 1915.
242

THE I. W. W. ON THE " CIVILIZED PLANE "
DETROIT I. W. W. MEMBERSHIP FIGURES

243

Year.

New locals formed.

Defunct
locals.

Total No.
of locals.

Mixed.

Industrial.

Total.

1908-9 ....

9
i

16
6
24

17
4

23
M
26

34
39
49

Si 1

The reports of membership from the Detroit office are
probably generous, to say the least. The Secretary wrote on
October 23, 1911: "Our membership at present is about
10,000. Locals ... in nearly all states as well as Canada.
Organizations identical with ours ... in principle and
method are active in England, Australia and Africa." 2 On
March 30, 1912, he wrote that the membership had " passed
the 20,000 mark." When the Detroiters held their national
convention in 1913 it was called by them the Sixth I. W.
W. Convention there were 17 locals represented by dele-
gates and the Secretary reported a membership of 11,584.
Twenty-two new locals had been organized, he said, during
the year ending September, 191 3. 3 " The principal re-
verse," says the correspondent of the Weekly People, " was
the lapsing of 14 locals, an unfortunate occurrence caused
solely by the financial inability of headquarters to send out
organizers. . . ." The local unions represented at the con-
vention included the silk workers of Paterson, N. J. ; car

1 Includes 15 mixed locals.

2 Private correspondence.

J Report of the convention by Russell Palmer, Weekly People, Sep-
tember 27, 1913.

244

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

and foundry, carpenters', and a " mixed " union in De-
troit ; a metal and machinery, and a " mixed " local in Chi-
cago; metal workers of Erie, Pa.; hotel and restaurant,
''public service" and lumber workers in Seattle; mattress
makers in Columbus, Ohio; and "mixed " locals in Lynn,
Mass., San Francisco, Portland, Ore., Los Angeles, and
New York City. The convention voted down a resolution
to change the name of the organization and alter the " polit-
ical clause " of the Preamble the vital part of it which
kept the I. W. W. high and dry on the civilized plane. 1
The Secretary reports that while the membership of the
Detroit faction includes workers from nearly all industries,
the chief industries represented are the following: textile,
garment making, metal and machinery, tobacco, food stuffs,
furniture, transportation, automobile, building, lumber,
printing, shoe making, and public service. 2

The DeLeonites probably held a convention in 1914, but
the writer has not come across any report of it. In Septem-
ber, 1915, they held an " Eighth I. W. W. Convention " in
Detroit. A brief report of the proceedings in their official
organ indicates that, in addition to three officers, there were
present seven accredited delegates from the following cities :
Hartford, Conn., St. Louis, Columbus, Detroit and Chris-
tobal, Panama. 3

Not only were DeLeonite locals fewer in number than
the direct-actionist locals, but their average length of life
was undoubtedly shorter. The General Secretary-Treas-
urer says that the more important reasons for the disband-
ing of locals were opposition by employers after strikes,

1 Palmer, op. cit.

2 Private correspondence, H. Richter, Feb. 17, 1915. " Public service"
refers for the most part, to unskilled laborers working for municipali-
ties on street work, etc.

3 Industrial Union News, October and November, 1915.

THE I. W. IV. ON THE " CIVILIZED PLANE " 245

the removal of members to other cities in search of work,
and the lack of men and women for the work of organ-
izing. 1 In reply to a letter addressed to the secretary of a
certain local in New York, the writer was informed that
" there is now no such local union."

We had an organization [the former secretary says] under the
Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, which was begun in 1897
and which, though greatly reduced, was continued until the I.
W. W. was organized in 1905. [Then] ... it grew to about
250 members, but after the split in 1908 it began to decline,
and though we tried several times to reorganize, we failed and
it has gone out of existence. 2

Another typical case is that of a cigarmakers' local in Bal-
timore, which, according to its former secretary, started in
November, 1913, with 22 members and " increased the
wages of all the cigarmakers in the city from 50 cents to
$1.00 per thousand." In January, 1914, the local had 350
members. Then came evil days. " The strike forced on us
by the Royal Havana ... demoralized the membership
[and] the S[ocialist] P[arty] members added to the con-
fusion by creating dissensions. In the year 1915 the organ-
ization was non-existent," and remains so, probably. 3

The Detroit faction, being much less exclusively reliant
on the more strictly economic methods of carrying on the
labor struggle, was naturally much less addicted to strikes.
Nevertheless they did conduct a number of them. In
May, 1910, the laborers of the Michigan Malleable Iron
Company of Detroit, after being on strike two weeks, were
given an increase in wages. In April, 1911, the DeLeonites
conducted a strike of structural-iron painters in New York,

1 Private correspondence, Secretary H. Richter, Feb. 17, 1915.

2 Private correspondence, H. D. Deutsch, April 23, 1916.

3 Letter from the former secretary, April 14, 1916.

246 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

in which 200 men were involved. The following month
they called out 40 machinists in Canton, Ohio. Their most
important strike efforts were made in 1911 and 1912 in the
silk mills of Paterson and Passaic, N. J., and Easton, Pa.
In these strikes the two I.W.W.s very often clashed. Ru-
dolph Katz, of the Detroiters, reports that during the silk
strike of 1911-12 " the silk workers of Paterson . . . joined
the Detroit I. W. W. en masse " but that " in the midst of
the strike Wm. D. Haywood was brought to Paterson and
Passaic . . . and the apple of discord was thrown among
the strikers." * The Socialist Labor party reported the
Paterson-Passaic situation to the Socialist Congress at
Vienna in 1914: "In the big textile strike in Passaic, N. J.,"
their report says, " this organization [i. e., the S. L. P. or
Detroit I. W. W.] was fought by both the Socialist party
and the Chicago I.W.W.-ites, with Haywood leading this
opposition and the capitalist press ably supporting their
flank. . . . That strike of 4,000 men, women and children
was lost through such treachery." The report adds that a
few months earlier in 1912 "the Detroit I. W. W. won a
great strike of 6,000 silk weavers." On December 20.
1913, one of the Paterson members of the DeLeonite fac-
tion sent the following dispatch to the Weekly People:
"Local 152, Bummery Bunch, did their best to pack last
night's meeting [of the Paterson silk workers] but only
partly succeeded. Many legitimate delegates raised their
voices against anarchy expressed through sabotage and
direct action. . . ." Contrary to the foregoing evidence,
the testimony of Adolph Lessig before the L T nited States

1 " With DeLeon since '89," Weekly People, Jan. 22, 1916, p. 3.

* Weekly People, Aug. 22, 1914, p. 2, cols. 2, 3. Report of Socialist
Labor party to the International Socialist Congress, Vienna. Aug. 23-9,
1914.

3 " R. H. P." in Weekly People, Dec. 27, 1913, p. I.

THE I. W. W. ON THE " CIVILIZED PLANE "

247

Commission on Industrial Relations seems to indicate that
there were no serious differences between the two I. W.W.s
during the Paterson strike. Lessig says that there was no
attempt to either quarrel or get together. 1

In 1913 the Detroiters were also concerned in several
smaller strikes. They report a successful strike of textile
workers at Mystic, Conn., in January; a successful strike
involving 50 Philadelphia mechanics in August, and one
involving 16 cigarmakers in Baltimore, who won the wage
increase demanded. In 1914 and 1915 a few San Fran-
cisco ladies' tailors were on strike against the piecework
system and alleged bad treatment. They were both reported
as successful.

The two I. W.W.s continued to hate each other quite as
much as they hated the capitalists, reformers, progressives,
and socialists. St. John has a paragraph in his historical
sketch of the (Chicago) I. W. W. which may very well
stand as the official expression of the direct-actionists'
opinion of the doctrinaires. He says :

The politicians [i. e., the Socialist Laborites] attempted to set
up another organization claiming to be the real industrial
movement. It is nothing but a duplicate of their political
party and does not function at all. It is committed to a pro-
gram of the " civilized plane," i. e., parliamentarism. Its pub-
lications are the official organs of a political sect that never
misses an opportunity to assail the revolutionary workers while
they are engaged in combat with some division of the ruling
class. Their favorite method is to charge the revolutionists
with all the crimes that a cowardly imagination can conjure
into being. "Dynamiters, assassins, thugs, murderers, thieves,"
etc., are stock phrases. Their only virtue is that they put their

1 Report of Testimony U. S. Commission on Industrial Relations,
vol. iii, p. 2456.

248 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

assertions into print, while the other wing of the politicians
[the Socialist party men] spread their venom in secret. 1

In May, 1914, St. John testified as the official representa-
tive of the I. W. W. before the United States Commission
on Industrial Relations. The Detroit I.W.W.s, he said,
" have no information do not give out any information ;
have no organization except on paper, and are committed
to the program of capturing plates at the political pie-counter
. . . and trading ... on the name of the I. W. W. That
is the way they keep alive." At the Seattle hearings of
the Commission in August, 1914, James P. Thompson, at
one time the General Organizer of the Chicago I. W. W.,
expressed himself on the subject of the other I. W. W. He
said that the Detroiters were " quite different from the I.
W. W."

They stole our name [he went on]. They have a political idea
instead of the union idea. . . . After the 1908 convention,
when the politicians of the Socialist Labor party found them-
selves outside of the I. W. W., they held a conference in Pat-
erson, N. J., and they decided they would [have] an organiza-
tion of their own, with a political clause ; and when they came
to decide on a name there was much debate. [The name
" Socialist Labor Union" was proposed.] . . . But another
motion prevailed, and they stole the name of the I. W. W., and
called themselves the Industrial Workers of the World, al-
though they don't amount to much. 3

What the doctrinaires thought of the direct-actionists
or at least what their leaders wanted workingmen in general
to think of them is of equal importance. In a leaflet pub-

1 "The I. W. W. History, Structure and Methods" (ist ed.), pp. 9-10.
"Report of Testimony, U. S. Commission on Industrial Relations,
vol. ii, p. 1458.

3 Ibid., vol. v, pp. 4240 (Aug. 12, 1914).

THE I. W. W. ON THE " CIVILIZED PLANE " 249

lished by the Detroit faction we are told that " the anar-
chist element that still calls itself the I. W. W. proceeded
from the close of the 1908 convention to reveal its true
nature by its actions. The western official organ of this
element 'The Industrial Worker' of Spokane, Wash., began
to advocate theft, petty larceny, chicken-stealing, breaking J
up small employment agencies, and also advised the workers
to ' strike at the ballot-box with an ax.' '

When the doctrinaires held their 1915 convention (the
" Eighth I. W. W. Convention") General Secretary Rich-
ter, in his report, took pains to pay his compliments to the
direct-actionists.

The anarcho-syndicalist aggregation [he said], the so-called
" Chicago I. W. W." which in 1908 with great blare of trum-
pets was going to show the workers how to get out of capital-
ism, via " sabotage " and " direct action " in double-quick
time what is left of them has a precarious existence, trimmed
to a frazzle by the relentless forces of social progress, their
panaceas shrivelled, they make indeed a sorry-looking crowd.' 2

A few months before this, Richter remarked : " Many of
the followers of the Saint [St. John] and ' Big Bill ' [Hay-
wood] are a sadder but wiser lot. Hundreds have already
joined the socialist [meaning the Detroit] I. W. W., and
more are on the way." 3

The Chicago I. W. W. was bracketed with the American
Federation of Labor as being equally with it a snare and a
delusion to the working class.

We find the Bummery [the Chicago I. W. W.] denying the
ballot-box ; we find the American Federation of Labor denying

1 " The Two I. W. W.'s" (Detroit I. W. W. leaflet).
2 Industrial Union News, October, 1915, p. 3, col. 5.
3 " The I. W. W. and its Activities," The Weekly People, March 20,
1915, p. 2, col. 2.

250 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

the class struggle and proclaiming the identity of interest be-
tween master and slave ; we find the Socialist party of Amer-
ica ... seeking the support of the craft union ; ... we find
the Socialist Labor party which says the workers must own
collectively the land and the tools ; ... we find the I. W. W.
of Detroit which says the workers must come together on the
political and industrial fields. . . .*

A sober explanation of the DeLeonites' position as com-
pared with the American Federation of Labor and the
" Bummery " was made by Rudolph Katz to the Commis-
sion on Industrial Relations. He said that the Chicago
I.W.W.s look upon the ballot as a gift from the capitalist
class. The Detroit I.W.W.s consider the ballot " a con-
quest of civilization, and," continued Katz,

we are going to use it. Now a body that repudiates the ballot
naturally has to take something else, such as sabotage and
direct action. Now the American Federation of Labor does
not preach sabotage, but it practices it ; and the Chicago I. W.
W. preaches sabotage but does not practice it. ... The posi-
tion that we take [he concluded] is that if we have the major-
ity, and the capitalists [and] officials who count the ballot . . .
refuse to count us in, well, then there will be a scrap. But we
are going to test the peaceful method first. 2

The DeLeonites cite the recent strike of the clothing
workers in Baltimore in support of their strictures on the
Federation and the Chicago I. W. W. They call it " a des-
perate attempt " by the " Bummery " I. W. W. and the
American Federation of Labor to crush out the Amal-
gamated Clothing Workers. The strike was directed, they
say, by leaders of the United Garment Workers, the Amer-
ican Federation of Labor, and the Chicago I. W. W. 3

1 Weekly People, February 21, 1913, p. 2.

2 Report of Testimony U. S. Commission on Industrial Relations,
vol. iii, p. 2482.

3 Weekly People, Aug. 19, 1916, pp. 1-2.

THE I. W. W. ON THE "CIVILIZED PLANE"

The struggle that is raging in Baltimore between the Amal-
gamated Clothing Workers, on the one side, and the American
Federation of Labor and the Bummery I. W. W. on the
other side, is a struggle of clean versus corrupt unionism. . . .
In this Baltimore affair we have revealed the kinship between
the Bummery I. W. W. and the American Federation of
Labor. These are both nothing more than parasites upon
workingmen. . . . 1

The Detroiters and the Socialist Labor party fight the
anarcho-syndicalist faction of the I. W. W r ., according to the
report of the party to the International Socialist Congress
at Brussels in 1911, because the direct-actionists " advocate
physical force exclusively ; at the same time it [the Socialist
Labor party] gives all possible support to the workers who,
even under the otherwise baneful leaderhip of anarchy, are
trying to throw off the yoke of the capitalist masters and
the reactionary trade-union lieutenants of those masters."

The doctrinaires consider the Chicago I.W.W.s anar-
chists and themselves socialists but socialists of a Simon-
pure Marxian stripe as opposed to the opportunist socialism
of the Socialist party. In one of their propaganda leaflets
they declare that " the only labor organization in the United
States today which is wholly dominated by anarchists is
the so-called Industrial Workers of the World, with head-

1 Weekly People (Editorial), Aug. 19, 1916, p. 4, col. 4.

2 " Le Socialist Labor party combat ceux-ci parce qu'ils prechent
' seulement la force physique', mais en meme temps je donne tout
1'appui qu'il peut aux travailleurs qui, meme sous la direction autre-
ment funeste de 1'anarchie, tentent de se delivrer du joug des maitres
capitalistes et de leurs reactionnaires lieutenants des syndicats de
metier." ("L'Unite socialiste en Amerique: iMemoire de la Com-
mission Executive Nationale du Socialist Labor party (Parti Socialiste
Ouvriere) au Bureau Socialiste Internationale Bulletin Periodique du
Bureau Socialiste Internationale. 2e annee. no. 7, p. 30. (Brussels.
1911).

252

quarters in Chicago, 111." * A propaganda leaflet already
quoted sums up in very characteristic fashion the theoretical
position of the DeLeonites :

This, then, is the inspiring task of the I .W. W., and its pur-
pose and reason of being : To decry the ballot, which is a civi-
lized method of settling social issues; to advocate physical
force only; to preach petty larceny, rioting, smashing ma-
chines, and all these things that come under the term "direct
action," is unnecessary, and also invites disaster to the workers
and helps the forces of reaction. Such measures are suicidal
and condemned by civilization. For these reasons the bona fide
I. W. W. sets its face like flint against any organization that
teaches such tragedy-producing tactics. The working class
cannot " sabotage," cannot dynamite itself into possession of
the plants of production. Its only requisite and available
might is its sound, class-conscious, properly-constructed Indus-
trial Union. With such it is irresistible. By such agency, and
by it alone, can it take permanent possession of the tools of
production, and only in that way can civilization be saved from
a catastrophe. As has been well said, " Right without Might
is a fool's pastime; Might without Right is the sport of the
savage.

Eugene Debs, who was one of the leading spirits in the
organization of the I. W. W. in 1905, and who thought that
the elimination of the political clause by the Chicago faction
in 1908 was a monstrous blunder, endorsed the position of
the DeLeonites on political action. " This faction," said
Debs, " is corner-stoned in the true principles of unionism
in reference to political action." s He thought that there
was " no essential difference between the Chicago and De-

1 Detroit I. W. W. leaflet, " Two Enemies of Labor."
'* Detroit I. W. W. propaganda leaflet, " The Two I. W. W.'s."
3 "A Plea for Solidarity," International Socialist Review, March,
1914, vol. xiv, p. 536, col. 2.

THE I. W. W. ON THE "CIVILIZED PLANE"

253

troit factions of the I. W. W." " If I am right in believ-
ing that a majority of the rank and file of the Chicago fac-
tion favor political action," he said, " then there is no reason
why this majority should not consolidate with the Detroit
faction and thus put an end to the division of these forces."
Debs was of the opinion that, if the I. W. W. had continued
as it began, " a revolutionary industrial union, recognizing
the need of political as well as industrial action, instead of
being hamstrung by its own leaders and converted . . . into
an anti-political machine, it would today be the most for-
midable labor organization in America, if not the world."
The end of the bifurcated era of I. W. W. history came
in September, 1915. when the DeLeonites at their national
convention (called the "Eighth I. W. W. Convention")
changed their name to the Workers' International Indus-
trial Union, and the li'cckly People " announced: "The In-
dustrial Workers of the World as founded at Chicago in
1905 is no more." The reason given by the Detroiters for
the change was virtually that the " Tfrmtflp r y " had dis-
graced the letters " I. W. W." " The name I. W. W.," de-
clared Fellow Worker Crawford, "has come to be associated
with petty larceny and other slum tactics. It is up to us to
choose a new name so as to escape the odium attached to
the one we now bear." 3 Their attitude was more fully ex-
plained in an announcement by the General Secretary-
Treasurer in their official journal.

While the principles, methods and form of organization
adopted in 1905 have stood the test of time [the announcement
runs] a new element has asserted itself under the name of I.
W. W. whose practices and beliefs are different and opposed

1 Ibid., p. 537, col. i.

* October 9, 1915, p. i.

5 Report of the convention, Industrial Union News, October, 1915, p. 2.

254

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

to socialist Industrial Unionism. The capitalists and their
hirelings, quick to exploit any condition that serves their in-
terests, boosted along the shouters of " sabotage" and " direct
action " with such success since 1906 that today " I. W. W."
stands for lunatics on a rampage, in the public mind and a
large portion of the workers. 1

The name Socialist Labor Union, originally proposed in
1908, was again discussed and considered very seriously be-
cause their desire was appropriately to label an organiza-
tion which claimed to stand for " socialist class unionism."
Finally, however, the name, Workers' International Indus-
trial Union, was decided upon " as most appropriate for the
designation of the economic wing of the Socialist move-
ment." z

The W. I. I. U. soon issued a " Manifesto of Socialist
Industrial Unionism " which explained the principles of the
newly-christened organization. The W. I. I. U., declares
the Manifesto,

refuses to conduct the class struggle on the lines of a dog
fight. It does not sanction lawlessness on the part of employ-
ers, the capitalists and their hirelings by doing likewise. It
condemns " sabotage " and all such childish practices by any
one as useless for the working class and harmful to real
progress. 3

1 H. Richter, " The Workers' International Industrial Union," Indus-
trial Union News, January, 1916, p. i.
1 H. Richter, ibid.
1 W. I. I. U. leaflet No. i, " Principles of the W. I. I. U."

PART III

THE DIRECT-ACTIONISTS

CHAPTER XI
FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE

THE existence between 1908 and 1915 of two national
labor organizations bearing the name, Industrial Workers
of the World (or " I. W. W."), with labels of identical de-
sign bodies closely paralleling each other in scope and
structure despite their disparity in doctrine and tactics
makes it very difficult to discuss either group, or LW.W.-ism v
in general, without ambiguity. Thp j, W, W. which has

been most advertised in the United States is the Chicago, or

Direct- Actionist,"_ or " Anarcho-Svndicalist," or " AntL-
PnlitiraT." nr " -Summery " or " red " I. W. W- This is the
I. >W. W. which was actively interested in the strikes a,t
Lawrenc^Massachnsetts. Wheatland. 'California, and many
otligj^ places, and In. "free speech" fights at Spokane^'
Fresno, and San Diego, ^hey are the ".Wobblies ' ? of the.
West: In this present work they are considered, entirely
without prejudice to the admittedly more " correct " and
consistent position of the doctrinaires, to be the I. W. W.
The latter are the socialistic, pro-political, industrial union
the " yellow " I. W. W., the I. W. W. as it started out to be.
It is proposed in these chapters to sketch the main lines
of development of the Chicago organization from 1908 to
the present time, as well as to indicate the general char-
acter of its activities from year to year. The important
and bitterly fought struggle at the seventh and eighth con-
ventions in 1912 and 1913 over the question of decentral-
ization is described as faithfully as possible. The relations
between the I. W. W. and the Socialist party are set forth,

257

258 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

I especially in connection with the adoption of the famous
\sabotage clause by the Socialist-party at its Indianapolis
convention in 1912. The newer phases of the organizing
and propaganda work of the I. W. W., the free-speech
fights, and its increased activity among the unskilled and
floating laborers are described. No attempt is made here to
go into the various strikes and free-speech controversies in
more than a very cursory manner. This is not because their
importance is underestimated. The writer feels that the
field work of the " Wobblies " is really the most significant
part of their history, if for no other reason than that the I.
W. W. expends perhaps more energy in proportion to its
strength and resources in propaganda, organizing and ad-
vertising work afield than does almost any other labor
organization in the country. The more striking episodes in
the career of the I. W. W., like the Lawrence strike and the
Wheatland hop riots, have, however, been extensively writ-
ten up in the magazines and recorded as well in scientific
journals and government reports. On the contrary, the
vicissitudes of the career of the I. W. W. as an organized
body of workers have never even been recited.

The split of 1008 left the direct-actionists in almost as

wi^M* ~~>

weak a condition as the doctrinaires. The weakness of the
latter has been chronic. The former were able to develop
great strength because they had modified their theories to
the extent necessary to make some appreciable application
of them to the actual conditions of economic life. They
were confronted by conditions and met them at the cost of
doctrinal consistency. They were unconscious pragmatists
and the result is that they have made themselves felt to a
much greater extent than the doctrinaires. They have been
strikingly successful as gadflies stinging ,and shocking the
bourgeoisie into the initiation of reforms, flf the " anarcho-
Vgyndicalist " I. W. W. may not properly be called a success-

FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE 259

ful organization, there is at least this much to be said for it :
it has been a far less unsuccessful organization than has the
doctrinaire faction.

For some time after the split in 1908 the Industrial Work-
ers of the World scarcely more than kept alive. The mem-
bership dwindled and locals expired by the score. Between
September, 1908, and May i, 1910, only sixty-six new local
unions were chartered. 1 Only in 1911 did their number
begin to increase, and even then it was a halting and fitful
progress. Levine writes that the I. W. W. had " shrunk to
a mere handful of leaders, revolutionary in spirit and ideals,
and persevering in action, with a small, scattered and shift-
ing following and an unsatisfactory administrative ma-
chinery." z

During the year 1909 the organization was actively in-
terested in a number of strikes. The most important of
these was the McKees Rocks (Pennsylvania) strike in which
6,000 employees of the Pressed Steel Car Company were
out for two months. Other strikes of the year involved the
lumbermen at Somers and Kalispell, Montana; Eureka,
California, and Prince Rupert, B. C. ; the sheet and tin plate
workers at New Castle and Shenango, Pennsylvania; and
the farm laborers at Waterville, Washington. Secretary

1 Cf. Appendix iv, Table A. The industrial distribution of fifty-nine
of these is given in Solidarity (May 14, 1910) as follows :

Quarry workers . . I Hotel workers ... 2 Car builders 5

Bakery workers .. i Packing house Transportation

Metal and machine workers 2 workers i

workers 3 Garmlent workers I Wood workers ... i

Building workers . 8 Glass workers ... I Textile workers . . i

Lumber workers . 2 Coal miners 7 Mixed locals 15

Public service Harbor workers . . i

workers 2 Steel workers 5 59

" The development of syndicalism in America," Political Science
Quarterly, vol. xxviii, p. 470 (Sept., 1913).

260 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Trautmann believed that these " constant irritative strikes "
were more than all else responsible for the fact that less
than one-third the gross membership was active (dues-
paying) membership. These strikes, he said, involved half
the membership in the course of one year. 1

It was in this same year that the I. W. W. made its bow
to^the American public as the militant iail anc} soap-b
belligerent in the free-speech fight. As early as April, 10,06.
there was a minor clash between the, police and the " Wob-
blies," Hit ; t wnT ""* 1 1 "* 1 ' 1 "^arly three years later that the
I W. W. free-speech epidemic assumed national propor-
tiqns. Since 1909 the I.W.W.s have attracted quite as
much attention by their dramatic free-speech controversies
with municipal authorities here and there as they have by
the time-honored resort to the strike. During the next few
years after the schismof 1908 these free-speech struggles"Be-
came rather frequent. The Pacific slope is the most fruitful
soil for these conflicts. Labor is moTe mobile there, and
when the orgaTiizers in any particular town are arrested for
preaching revolution a more effective call to " foot-loose
Wobblies " for an " invasion " is possible. On the Pacific
slope the " Wobblies " almost literally broke into the jails
by hundreds. They came to speak, but with the nearly cer-
tain foreknowledge that they would be collared by the police
before they said many words. They simply crowded the
jails, and in this way, as they intended, clogged the machin-
ery of municipal administration by making themselves the
guests of the city in such numbers as to be no inconsider-
able burden to their real hosts, the taxpayers. Vincent St.
John, then Secretary-Treasurer of the I. W. W., recently
told the United States Commission on Industrial Relations

1 Report of the General Secretary-Treasurer to the Fourth Conven-
tion, Industrial Union Bulletin, Oct. 24, 1908. For list of strikes,
Appendix viii.

FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE 2 6l

that " wherever any local union becomes involved in a free-
speech fight they notify the general office and that informa-
tion is sent to all the local unions, ... with the request
that if they have any members that are foot-loose to send
them along." Mr. St. John stated, however, that the gen-
eral ('. e., the national) organization does not in any way
finance or manage these free-speech fights except to con-
tribute, so far as possible, at the call of the locals. The
management of the struggle is in the hands of the local
union or unions most interested. 1 The same tactics are pur-
sued in nearly every instance a policy of sullen non-resist-
ance on the part of the I. W. W. and of wholesale jailing by
the authorities. The trouble always seems to begin because
local authorities are revolted by or at least nervously ap-
prehensive about either the substance of the I. W. W.
speeches or the language in which their ideas are conveyed,
or both. The remarks are alleged to be seditious, incen-
diary, unpatriotic, immoral, etc., or, whether they are any
or all these or none of them, they are alleged to be pro fan
or vulgar beyond the limits of forbearance. In the judg
ment of the writer the latter charge can be laid at the doo
of the I. W. W. with far greater justification than can the
former. Refinement is not the Wobblies' long suit. How
could it be ? Our town fathers ought to be somewhat more
tolerant of a want of refinement which is more or less in-
evitable under the conditions for which conditions, more-
over, they are in part responsible.

As to the first charge, it can only be remarked that sup-
pression of what authorities think is subversive and sedit-
ious almost invariably has the same effect as would an effort
to smother an active volcano. The ideas get expressed any-
how and more bitterly, with the added circumstance that

1 Industrial Relations (Testimony at hearings), vol. ii, pp. 1460, 1461.

262 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

those who try to do the smothering are burnt. Of course, it
is not easy to determine at just what point language be-
comes directly provocative to violence. This limit of pos-
sible official tolerance is far less often reached than would
be indicated by the actual conduct of local officials in these
circumstances. " It cannot be considered as provocative of
immediate disorder," says Police Commissioner Arthur
Woods, of New York, " if speakers criticize, no matter how
vehemently, the existing order of things, or if they recom-
mend, no matter how enthusiastically, a change which they
believe would improve things." l When George Creel was
police commissioner in Denver he took a similar position
and worked on the theory that all ideas could be safely
given a hearing. He is reported to have given the following
answer to an I. W. W. committee which applied to him for
a " soap-box permit " : " Go ahead, boys ; speak as much
as you like; only there's just one favor I'm going to ask. I
wish you wouldn't spout directly under the army headquar-
ters. They're not important, but they're childish, and they'll
make me lots of bother if you do." The result : nothing
more happened than happens when the mine operators say
that the leaders of the United Mine Workers ought to be
taken out and shot. There was free speech but no fight.

After the experience of Spokane, Fresno, and San Diego,
some members of the organization at least recognized that
no matter how absolute their right to pitch into established
institutions from every angle, the sober necessities of a suc-
cessful propaganda for revolutionary industrial unionism
demanded more concentration upon that subject. In Sep-

1 Ninth annual meeting of the American Sociological Society, Dec.,
1914. Publications,-vol. ix, " Restrictions upon freedom of assemblage,"
p. 32-

3 " Free Speech Fights of the I. W. W." Report to the U. S. Com-
mission on Industrial Relations. Typewritten MS., p. 20.

FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE 263

tember, 1913, Ewald Koettgen, a member of the General
Executive Board, made this suggestion to the delegates at
the eighth convention :

If you confine yourself strictly to the propaganda of industrial
unionism, and then they prohibit you from using 1 the street
^nj^iPf ymi hayp a niu^h stronger (ffise. Many . . . attack
pvervhody. the police, the city officials, religion, politics, and
everything else. They speak about everything under the sun
and these pretexts are used in order to keep them off the street,
whereas, in a good many cities, the organizer could go and
speak on industrial unionism, and be left there a whole lot
longer. . . , x

In the fall of 1909 there were no less than three important
free-speech campaigns conducted by the I. W. W. These
were staged at Missoula, Montana; Spokane, Washington;
and New Castle, Pennsylvania. In 1910 small " fights "
were conducted in the spring and summer in Wenatchee
and Walla Walla, Washington, and during the fall a much
more important one at Fresno, California. This latter
struggle continued until March, 1911. From this time until
the end of the year 1913 hardly a month elapsed that did
not witness a more or less important free-speech contn>
versy between the Wobblies and the municipal authorities
in some part of the United States. In the five-year period,
1909-1913, there were at least twenty free-speech cam-
paigns of importance, continuing under definite I. W. W.
direction for periods ranging from a few days to more
than six months. The most important of these disturbances |
was that at San Diego, which broke out about February i,
1912, and continued until late the following summer. Since
1913 free speech has been a less important issue with the I.
W. W., and there have been comparatively few such dis-

1 Proceedings, p. 102, col. 1-2.

264 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

turbances. Paterson, New Jersey, Aberdeen, South Da-
kota, Old Forge, Pennsylvania, and Everett, Washington,
are almost the only cases of any great importance. The
most serious of these was the Everett free-speech contro-
versy which culminated in the fatal tragedy of November
6, 1916.

The attitude of the citizens of the cities where free-speech
rights have been staged was naturally bitterly hostile. This
was most strikingly noticeable in business and commercial
circles and was of course reflected in the daily press. In San
Diego during the free-speech fight the local papers, almost
without exception, kept up a running fire of editorial abuse
of the I.W.W.s. " Hanging is none too good for them."
said the Tribune; " they would be much better dead, for
they are absolutely useless in the human economy; they are
the waste material of creation and should be drained off
into the sewer of oblivion there to rot in cold obstruction
like any other excrement." 1 In the face of such a tirade
it is interesting to read the report of the Special Commis-
sioner sent by Governor Hiram Johnson to investigate the
disturbances in San Diego. Commissioner Weinstock took
pains to follow up the stories of the brutality and cruelty of
the self-constituted citizens' committee of Vigilantes not
only to the I.W.W.s but also to any who were outspoken
enough to defend them or who were alleged to have aided
and abetted them. Mr. Weinstock says that he " is frank
to confess that when he became satisfied of the truth of the
stories ... it was hard for him to believe that he was not
sojourning in Russia, conducting his investigation there in-
stead of in this alleged ' land of the free and home of the
brave.' " -

1 San Diego Tribune, March 4, 1912 (editorial).

2 Harris Weinstock, Report to the governor of California on the dis-
turbances in the city and county of San Diego in 1912, p. 16.

FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE 2 6$

The organization made no attempt to hold a convention
in 1909, but in May, 1910, the fifth convention met in Qii-
cago. On the first day there were twenty-two delegates
present, representing forty-two local unions in the following
states: California, Colorado, Montana, Rhode Island, Min-
nesota, Ohio, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania,
Arizona, Indiana, and British Columbia. Judging from the
very fragmentary records available there was little busi-
ness of any importance transacted at this meeting. The
delegates adopted a resolution to " reaffirm the original
[Industrial Union] Manifesto of 1905. . . . ," * and dis-
persed.

In September, 1911, fifteen months later, a somewhat
more successful convention was held. This sixth annual
meeting of the I. W. W. was in point of size almost as in-
significant as the preceding one, thirty-one delegates from
eleven states being present. In addition to the regular dele-
gates there were present three " fraternal delegates " from
the Brotherhood of Timber Workers. Twenty-one locals
were represented in addition to the locals included in the
Textile Workers National Industrial Union of the I. W. W.
the only " national industrial union at that time included
in the organization." The convention was harmonious,
and there is, therefore, the less to chronicle. " Most of the
delegates were young men full of the fire and enthusiasm
of youth. ' Intellectuals ' were conspicuous by their ab-
sence." 3 We are told that very few changes were made in
the organic law of the organization. Proposals were made,
however, by the score. In the appendix to the Minutes is a
list containing seventy resolutions which were presented on

1 Proceedings, Industrial Worker (II), June 25, 1910, p. 3.
2 Minutes of the Sixth Convention (Typewritten MS.), PP- i-3-
3 B. H. Williams, "The Sixth I. W. W. Convention," International
Socialist Review, vol. xii, p. 302, November, 1911.

2 66 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

the floor of the convention. 1 The question of politics was
scarcely touched upon. An anti-parliamentary resolution
was voted down without discussion. The bulk of the dele-
gates were undoubtedly wow-parliamentarians, that is to say,
indifferent about politics and legislative action. An official
report of the convention in the Industrial Worker says that
the report of General Organizer Trautmann, which it de-
clared would be published later in Solidarity,

was a scathing indictment of the criminal alliance between the
A. F. of L. fakirs and the self-styled revolutionary socialist
politicians, who, as the report shows, time and again have
acted in full concert in defeating strikes rather than to allow
the workers to win with I. W. W. methods methods whose
success spells ruination for the political and craft union move-
ments which are sucking the life blood of the working class. *

Mr. Trautmann later transferred his allegiance to the So-
cialist Labor party faction. The Weekly People (the official
S. L. P. organ) of July 26, 1913, published (on page 2) a
letter from Trautmann to Eugene V. Debs in which he says :

In the convention of 1911 of the Industrial Workers of the
World my report contained a scathing attack on the anti-
political politicians and the never-will-I-work scavengers who
pose as organizers and spokesmen of the organization. The
convention ordered that report to be printed . . . [but] Vin-
cent St. John and his clique put away the report and it never
appeared.

Official reports of the convention claimed that there had
been " a gradual increase in the moral, financial and numer-
ical strength of the I. W. W." This claim is not entirely
justified by available figures. The number of locals in the

1 Appendix to the Minutes, pp. 1-9.

2 Industrial Worker (II.), Sept. 28, 1911, p. 4, col. i.

FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE

organization was but slightly, if any, greater. Fewer char-

ters were issued and more locals disbanded in 1911 than in

1910. The membership figures are conflicting, those fur-

nished by the Secretary-Treasurer making a less favorable

showing than those of Professor Barnett. 1 Mr. St. John*")

says that the membership of the organization in good stand- I IX""

ing in October, 191 1, was about io,oco.

We do not claim anything [he said] except membership in
good standing; as a matter of fact, however, the General Office
has issued 60,000 due books in the past eighteen months and of
this number only about one in ten keeps in good standing, due
to the kind of work the membership of the most part follow.
in construction, harvesting and working in

the woods, gfcThis~means that they are out of touch with /

tfiglTfganTzation the greater part of the year eithet^ on the job (

or~moving about the country looking for work f and of course
thevcannot and do not keep in ^nnd standing hi 11 " fll rY flr'/J"
up I n passing, it may be stated that the

above number is the largest membership the I. W. \V. has had
since its inception, except when the W. F. of M. was supposed
to be a part of the organization. I know that the second annual
convention reports claim 60,000 members, but the books of the
organization did not justify any such claim ; in fact, the aver-
age paid-up membership with the W. F. of M. for the first
year of the organization was 14,000 members in round num-
bers. 2

There was at this time a very considerable gain in partic-
ular industries, such as metal working and railroad and
building construction. This development is indicated in
Table i, which shows the average membership of the I.
W. W. in the specified industries during the period 1910-
1913:

1 See Appendix iv, Table A.

2 Letter to the author, Oct. 13, 1911.

2 68- THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

TABLE 1 1
AVERAGE MEMBERSHIP (CHICAGO) I. W. W. 1910-1913, BY INDUSTRIES

Industry.

Average Membership.

1910

1911

1912

1913

Textile

4300
1 200

4397
800

2000

500

IOO

600
1800
400
75

200

25
2OO
ISO
1537

9637
1227

144
83
151
204
2366
200
69

207

130
226
ISO

3532

1550
650

2100
300
150
50
1200
1755
450
50
I /CO

250

IOO

50
150

IOO

150

IOO

450

2800

Lumber

Marine Transport

Metal

200
300
150
150
IOOO
IOO
100

200

Automobile

Building Construction

Tobacco

Public Service

Oil

Rubber

Electric Power ... .....

Musical Instruments (Piano, etc.).
Leather

IOO

Mixed locals - ....

1300

9100

12834

18387

14305

If figures are ever misleading, they are so in reference to
the " Wobblies." They are presented, however, in the be-
lief that they have some significance. The organization was
now unquestionably picking up. In 1910 there had been a
number of I. W. W. strikes nine at any rate in which the
organization was actively interested. In April, the farm
hands of North Yamhill, Oregon, who " had been handing

1 Compiled from figures furnished by General Secretary St. John
(Letter of Feb. i, 1915).

269

out the principles of revolutionary unionism in huge, raw
chunks," 1 walked out on account of the discharge of some
of their number. In August, the Gas Works' laborers in
southern California, chiefly Mexicans, were out for about
two weeks for higher wages. The settlement as reported
fixed wages at $2.25 and provided that only I.W.W.s were
to be employed in the future. A strike of the window clean-
ers in Providence for a wage increase and the closed shop
was reported won. These instances will give an idea of the
character of the strikes and the workers involved. In 1910
there appear to have been very few strikes in which the I.
W. W. was interested. Such meager data as are available
about I. W. W. strikes have been gathered together in Ap-
pendix VIII.

Although 1911 was an inactive year as regards strikes,
the condition of the organization was not nearly so hopeless
as it had been.

Despite the prevailing " hard times," [writes " The Commen-
tator"] the I. W. W. is (in February, 1911) upheld by six
weekly papers of its own. . . . Far from being weak and
emaciated, as in 1907, the I. W. W. is putting up a robust fight
for free speech and assemblage at Fresno, Cal. ; and is giving
the Shoe Manufacturers' Association of Greater New York
the struggle of their lives a struggle in which for the first
time the employers combat an organization which means to
make the shop the collective property of the workers. . . . 2

Another indication of growth was the expansion of the I.
W. W. press. At the close of the fourth convention the I.
W. W. had only one paper, the Industrial Union Bulletin,
which suspended publication early in 1909 and whose place
was filled by the Industrial Worker (II.) (Spokane), which

1 Industrial Worker, April 23, 1910.

2 "The I. W. W., its Strength and Opportunity," Solidarity, Feb.
25, 1911, p. 3, col. I.

270 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

in turn passed out in September, 1913. The Industrial
Worker (I.) was published from January, 1906, until the
summer of 1907. The Industrial Worker (III.) (Seattle)
began publication in April, 1916, and continues to appear. 1
It is stated in Solidarity, July 2, 1910, that in 1910 the I.
W. W. had seven papers in as many different languages.

During the twelve months preceding the sixth convention
(Septemeber, 1911) seventy locals were organized and
forty-eight disbanded. They were distributed among speci-
fied industries, as shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 2
Industry Organised Disbanded

Metal and machinery 1 1 10

Food stuffs (Bakers) 2 2

Recruiting locals 13 8

Tobacco i

Building 4 4

Shoe i i

Public Service 8 4

Clothing 3 3

Furniture i

Mining ( coal) 4

Transportation 7 2

Smelting i

Lumber 9 4

Farming 2 2

Car building 2 4

Steel i 4

70 48

Secretary-Treasurer St. John presented an interesting
classification of the reasons given for the disbanding of these
forty-eight local unions. He distributes them as follows :

1 Since this was written its publication has been suspended by the
government.

2 From report of General Secretary-Treasurer St. John to Sixth
Convention; in Appendix to Minutes.

FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE 271

Disrupted by lack of interest 22

Disrupted by strike 6

Disrupted by other organizations 6

Work closing down 5

Disrupted by members leaving locality 2

Incompetent secretary 2

Disrupted by internal dissension i

Members left for Mexico i

No record 3

48 i

It was at this meeting that the question of the authority
of the general administration over the rank and file was
first seriously considered in the I. W. W. A number of
constitutional changes were proposed and most of them
were brought forward with the more or less definite idea of
minimizing, or at least modifying in some way, the author-
ity of the national officers and the other members of the
General Executive Board. These amendments originated
chiefly from local unions in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific
States. The debates lasted several days and involved a rather
thorough discussion of the relations between the different
parts of the organization. All of these proposed amend-
ments were lost, the delegates being of the opinion probably
that few constitutional changes were necessary. 2

At this (1911) convention, W. Z. Foster presented his
report as representative of the I. W. W. at the seventh con-
ference of the International Labor Secretariat which met at
Budapest in August. He was unable to make a very f
able report. The international conference, after giving an
entire day to a discussion of the question of the admission
of the I. W. W., refused it unanimously despite the fact

1 Report to the Sixth Convention. Appendix to Minutes. In ap-
pendix vi, the causes for suspension of locals are shown by individual
unions.

2 B. H. Williams, " Sixth I. W. W. Convention," International Social-
ist Review, vol. xii, pp. 300-302, Nov., 1911.

072 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

that his claims were backed by the representatives of the
Confederation Generate du Travail of France. 1 At about
this time the French syndicalists were facing a serious crisis,
which threatened them as well with complete division. They
escaped then, but there have since developed two groups in
the C. G. T. : the "red" (revolutionary) syndicalists, and
the " yellow " (conservative) syndicalists. 2

Karl Kautsky quotes M. Lagardelle as having admitted
in 1911 that " the present crisis compels a general revision
of the facts and the ideas of syndicalism. After a glorious
beginning we find ourselves faced with that which is gener-
ally the result of forced marches in complete exhaustion."

The I. W. W. had had no direct contact with French syn-
dicalism previous to 1908. Moreover, its relations with the
French movement have not at any time been as close or as
definite as is generally imagined. The I. W. W. organiza-
tion is an indigenous American product, if there ever was
such a thing. The tactics used have come in part through
the reading by I.W.W.s of the writings of Pouget Sorel,
Lagardelle, and others of the French syndicalist school.
This contagion of ideas has also spread through personal
contacts. In 1908 William D. Hay wood went to Europe
and there met some of the leaders of the C. G. T. Again
in 1910 he was present at the International Labor and So-
cialist Congress at Copenhagen. He nominally represented
the Socialist party of America, but he also, in an unofficial
way, championed the cause of American syndicalism as it
had been developed by the Industrial Workers of the
World. 4

1 International Socialist Review, vol. xii. p. 245, October, 1911.
" Cf. F. Challaye, Le syndicalisme revolutionnaire et le syndicalisme
reformiste, pa-ssim.

3 Chicago Evening World (July 13, 1912).

4 Compte Rendu (Ghent, 1911), p. 42.

FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE

The biennial conference of the International (Labor)
Secretariat met at Budapest, Hungary, August 10-12, 1911.
The entire first day's session was taken up with a lengthy
argument over the admission of W. Z. Foster, the I. W. W.
delegate. His credentials were finally rejected since he had
only the support of the French Confederation Generate du
Travail. 1 President Gompers of the American Federation
of Labor, in his report to its convention held later on in the
same year, refers to " the repudiation of the so-called In-
dustrial Workers of the World " at the Budapest confer-
ence. " Inasmuch/' he said, " as the would-be delegate for
the corporal's guard that composes the Industrial Workers
of the World professed to support the policies and program
of the Confederation Generate du Travail of France, his
pretensions were supported by the latter organization." 2
James Duncan, the A. F. of L. delegate at Budapest, re-
ported that " a misguided man, named Foster, from Chi-
cago, claiming to represent an alleged organization of
labor in America, called the International [sic] Workers
of the World, had been for some time in Paris . . ." and
had apparently convinced the C. G. T. that he should be
recognized at the Budapest conference instead of the A. F.
of L. representatives. " During the discussion Foster lost
control of his temper." said Duncan; "he even threatened
assault . . . ocular demonstration of what an I. W. W.
really is( !) . . . [But] the Frenchmen were not dismayed at
their tricolor being smudged with I. W. W. mire." 3

French syndicalism, then, has entered the I. W. W. to
give it certain characteristic strike tactics and a set of foggy

1 Proceedings. Thirty-first Annual Convention, A. F. of L. (Atlanta,
Ga., Nov., 1911), p. 29.

Ibid.

3 Ibid., p. 149. Report of James Duncan, delegate to the Budapest
Conference. This report is also published in pamphlet form.

274 THE 'tXDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

philosophical concepts about the General Strike, the " mili-
tant minority," etc. To this extent the I. W. W. is a syndi-
calist union. In structure it is a decentralized body (to the
extent that it has any body to centralize), whereas the C. G.
T. is decidedly centralized. In its organization and in its
attitude toward compatriot labor bodies it is at variance with
the French Confederation. The French idea has taken more
definite form in the United States in the shape of the Syn-
dicalist League of North America.

V? The^Sjgdicalist League is a propaganda body rather than

a labor organization. iT'is directed largely against the I. W.
x ^ ^^' PP sm g syndicalism to the industrialism of the Amer-
&S ican organization. It believes in the possibility of reform-
ing the American Federation of Labor from within and

< *jjL ^ condemns the dual-unionism of the I. W. W. It is opti-
mistic regarding the craft union. " It is aware," says Wil-
liam English Walling, " that it will be impossible to secure
a revolutionary majority in these organizations, whether
of a socialistic or of an anarchistic character, and it has
imported for this contingency the French syndicalistic
theory of the power of the ' militant minority.' " * A num-
ber of the anarchists were inclined to favor the Syndicalist
League because they feared the " centralized government "
of the I. W. W. 2

Tn this rnnriPrtiQfi it may KP wfll fr> nr.|p foere the orgfan-
ization in UQ V-fc pjfy in Ortaher. 1912, of the Syndi-
calist Educational T^eagn^ M*VI Kjppnlyte Havel, secretary.

1 Internationalist Socialist Review, Mar., 1913, vol. xiii, p. 667, col. I.

2 This view is presented by Harry Kelly, " A Syndicalist League '
(a plea for the launching of a Syndicalist League in the Unite
States) Mother Earth, Sept., 1912. Cf. also Foster, Wm. Z., and Fore
E. D., Syndicalism, which ably draws the distinction between the semi-
anarchistic and semi-conservative syndicalism of the C. G. T. whic
some writers have tried to import, out of hand, into the Unite
States, and the Industrial Socialism of the I. W. W.

FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE 275

and Harry Kelly, treasurer. This, we are informed, " is
an organizatiton of active propagandists formed forjthe__
purpose of spreading the idea of syndicalism, direct-action i
and the general-strike among the organized and unorgan-
ized workers of America." *

In 1911 the trial of the MacNamara brothers for the
dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times building was stirring
the country. The I. W. W. so vigorously championed the
cause of the indicted men that the San Francisco Chronicle
was moved to say :

. . . Now comes every socialist agitator and every rascal who
calls himself a socialist, and declares that even the arrest of
the indicted men is an " outrage." That hobo gang which
calls itself the " Industrial Workers of the World " calls for
a " general strike " as a protest against the alleged " kidnap-
ing " of the men who have been indicted. 2

A few days later the Industrial Worker carried in capitals.
on the front page the following

OFFICIAL I. W. W. PROCLAMATION !
" AROUSE ! PREPARE TO DEFEND YOUR CLASS !"

" A general strike in all industries must be the answer of the
workers to the challenge of the masters ! Tie up all industries !
Tie up all production! Eternal vigilance is the price of lib-
erty." Issued Apr. 25, 1911, by the Industrial Workers of the
World. 3

When the seventh convention met in 1912 the General
Executive Board declared that the MacNamara case "dem-

1 Mother Earth, Nov., 1912, vol. vii, p. 307.

2 May 2. 1911 (Editorial). Reprinted in Solidarity, May 20, 1911, p*
4, col. i.

3 May n, 1911.

276 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

onstrated beyond doubt that no legal safeguard can be in-
voked to protect any member of the working class who in-
curs the enmity of the employers by standing between them
and unlimited exploitation of the workers." Furthermore,
it charged that the A. F. of L. "did not come to their assist-
ance as it should have done . . . [because] the moral sup-
port guaranteed these members of the working class was
practically nil so far as the American Federation of Labor
was concerned." '

These militant utterances nf the T W W served ti n \ n ~
crease a growing hostility to that organization in the Social-
ist party. This increasing opposition was directed against
the, methods and tactics of I.W.W.-ism rather than against
its criticism of capitalist society, its form of organization
^r ; ts idea of the character of the society of the future.
The Socialists objected in general to VM whr>1 f pfrj^npKp
of directaction, and more particularly to certain phases, of
direct action vis., the use of sabotage and violence in gen^

scaJ.

One I. W. W. official cje^ggsj^irec^action^as the " with-
drawal of labor power or efficiency from the place or object
of production." Emma Goldman, a prominent anarchist,
describes it as the " conscious individual or collective effort
tpjprotest against or remedy social conditions through the
systematic assertion of the economic power of the work-
jers." * Professor Hubert Lagardelle, one of the intellec-
tuelles of the French syndicalist movement, explains that
! "Direct Action is opposed to the indirect and legalized action
feoT.democracy, of Parliament and of parties. It means that
instead of delegating to others the function of action (fol-

1 On the Firing Line, pp. 7-9.

1 William E. Trautmann, One Great Union, p. 24, note.

3 Syndicalism (New York, Mother Earth Publishing Assn.), p. g.

FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE

lowing the habit of democracy), the working class is deter-
mined to work for itself." * Sabotage has been defined by
the leading English Syndicalist, Tom Mann, as " the taking
of advantage for personal or class gain." 2 Pouget says
that " le sabotage est la mise en pratique de la maxime : a
mauvaise paye, mauvais travail." 3 IQ its mildest form

sabotage is simply the time-honored trade-union practice
restriction of output, Gustav Herve, the editor of La
Guerre Sociale, advocates its use as a kind of gymnastique I
rci'olutionnaire or training for the revolution which many |
socialists believe may be precipitated by the violence of the f
capitalists, in the guise, perhaps, of martial law. It may be '
convenient to think of direct action as the inclusive term.
Thus it may take the form of concerted abstention from
work and be simply a strike, or it may take the form of
working " in a way detrimental to the boss " and be one
kind of sabotage.

An interesting example of the I.W.W.s press campaign
for the methods of sabotage and direct action was furnished
when in the summer of 1913 the I. W. W. locals of Los
Angeles began the publication of a semi-official weekly paper
called The Wooden Shoe. This name was selected on the
strength of the legend that the word sabotage was miner] ku
France when a workman with a grievance threw Jilfi what
or wooden shoe into the machinery and so clogged it and
stopped production^ This kind of direct action is pictur-
esquely advocated on the front page of each issue of this
paper. Grouped around the title heading The Wooden
Shoe-: are the following boxed mottoes and slogans :

1 Le Mouvement Socialiste, December, 1908, vol. xxiv, p. 453.

2 Interview in the New York World, Aug. 3, 1913, Sec. N, p. i, col. 8.

3 La Confederation Generate du Travail (and ed., Paris, n. d.), P- 46-

278 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

" A kick in time saves nine."

" Kick your way out of wage slavery."

" Our coat-of-arms : The shoe rampant."

" A kick on the job is worth ten at the ballot-box."

" Immediate demands : Wooden shoes on all jobs."

" The foot in the wooden shoe will rock the world."

" An injury to one is the concern of all."

These tactics had been more and more talked about if not
practised by the I. W. W. for several years past. Indeed,
it is safe to say that the practical application of those forms
of direct action which the " Wobblies " considered expe-
dient was becoming constantly more general. When the
Socialists met in convention at Indianapolis in May, 1912,
the problem of the proper attitude for the Socialist party to
take toward the I. W. W., and more especially toward the
" direct action " propaganda, was made the occasion of a
violent controversy. The discussion centered on a motion
to insert a new clause in the constitution of the Socialist
party providing (in Article II, Sec. 6) that " any member
of the party who opposes political action or advocates crime,
sabotage, or other methods of violence as a- weapon of the
working class to aid in its emancipation shall be expelled
from membership in the party. . . ." After a long de-
bate the amendment was adopted by a vote of 191 to 90,
and the now famous Article II., Sec. 6, became a party law. 2
During the discussion there were some quite violent criti-
cisms made of direct action and violence. Delegate W. R.
Gaylord said : "We do not want any of it. None or it ! We
don't want the touch of it on us. We do not want the hint

1 Vide, National Constitution of the Socialist Party (Chicago: Social-
ist Party, 1914), P- 2.

2 Proceedings, National Convention of the Socialist Party, 1912, pp.
136-7. In an analysis of the vote, W. J. Ghent has shown (National
Socialist, June i, 1912) that between 67 and 75 per cent of the delegates
who voted against the clause " were not proletarians."

FREE SPEECH AND SABOTAGE 079

of it connected with us. We repudiate it in every fibre of
us." Victor Berg-er expressed himself very emphatically

nn-he " s

I desire to say [he declared] that articles in the Industrial
Worker, of Spokane, the official organ of the I. W. W., breathe
the same spirit, are as anarchistic as anything- that Tohn Most^
has. ever written. I want to say to you, comrades, that I for
ftne do not believe in murder as a means of propaganda; I do
pot believe in theft as a means of expropriation ; nor in a con-
tinuous rirvt fls a frpp-speerli agr^afjon^ iLverv true Socialist
will agree with me when I say that those who believe that we
should substitute " Hallelujah, I'm a bum " for the Marseil-
laise, and for the Internationale, should start a " bum organ-
ization " of their own. (Loud laughter and great cheering.) 2

It was not alone the advocacy of " direct action " which
incurred for the I. W. W. the enmity of the Socialists.
The latter felt that when the I. W. W. in 1908 " repudiated
political action," it really declared war on the Socialist
party. That party obviously could not consistently approve
of the Detroit I. W. W. because that faction was really the
ward of a rival political organization, the Socialist Labor
party. Ernest Untermann, who was one of the founders of
the Industrial Workers of the World, said at a previous
convention of the Socialist party : " When we organized
the I. W. W., we hoped that it would be both a political
and an economic organization. . . . Instead of that, from
the very outset there crept in an element that made for dis-
integration, and today the I. W. W. has drifted back toward
syndicalism." 3 He declared, moreover, that the I. W. W.,

1 Proceedings, p. 123, col. i.

2 Ibid., p. 130.

z Proceedings, National Socialist Congress, Chicago, May, 1910, p. 281.
See also Untermann, No compromise with the I. W. W., typewritten
Ms. (published in 1913 in the .New York Call and the National So-
cialist).

2 8o THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

deeply in debt to the Socialist party, as he intimated, had
ungratefully obstructed the work of the party :

We helped the I. W. W. in its fight for free speech in Spokane
and for working-class power on the coast, [he said] and yet
while our speakers were collecting money [in San Francisco]
... to help the I. W. W., the fighters from the I. W. W. were
on the outside of our meetings and knocking. . . . They sent
their fighters over to Local Oakland, right across the bay, with
the avowed purpose of breaking up that local and destroying
the activity of the Socialist party. ... I shall be true to the
principle of industrial unionism, but the I. W. W. can go to
hell. (Applause.) 1

Finally the last tie that connected the I. W. W. with the
Socialist party was broken when, in February, 1913, Wil-
liam D. Haywood was recalled from the National Execu-
tive Committee of the party. 2

1 National Convention of the Socialist Party, op. cit., p. 163, col. i.

2 Since this chapter was written several laws have been enacted which
have been more or less directly aimed at the Industrial Workers of
the World. Australia led off with the " Unlawful Associations Act "
passed by the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth in
December, 1916. (Reported in the New York Times, December 20,
1916, p. 5, col. 2. Cf. infra, p. 341.) Within three months of the
passage of the Australian Act, the American States of Minnesota and
Idaho passed laws " defining criminal syndicalism and prohibiting the
advocacy thereof." In February, 1918, the Montana legislature met in
extraordinary session and enacted a similar statute. (These three state
laws are printed in appendix x.) Vide also infra, pp. 344-6.

At Sacramento, on January 16, 1919, according to daily press reports,
all of the 46 defendants in the California I. W. W. conspiracy case
tried there in the Federal District Court were found guilty of conspir-
ing to violate the Constitution of the United States and the Espionage
Act and with attempting to obstruct the war activities of the Govern-
ment. All of the defendants were members or alleged members of
the I. W. W. and the case is similar to the one tried in Chicago in 1918.
On January 17 Judge Rudkin is reported to have sentenced 43 of the
defendants to prison terms of from one to ten years (New York Times,
January 17 and 18, 1919). The trial is reported in The Nation of Jan-
uary 25, 1919. Cf. supra, p. 8.

CHAPTER XII
LAWRENCE AND THE CREST OF POWER (1912)

THE year 1912 marks the high tide of I. W. W. activity. \
From Lawrence, Massachusetts, to San Diego, California,
these restless militants stirred the nation with their startling
strike and free-speech propaganda! Reports of strikes and
free-speech propaganda in Solidarity and the Industrial
Worker show a higher frequency for both these types of
industrial warfare in 1912 and 1913 than for any other
corresponding period in the organization's career. During
the years 1911, 1912 and 1913 there were some fifteen free-
speech fights of considerable importance more than have
been staged in all the rest of its history before or since. 1
The dynamic prominence of this period is less marked for
the free-speech propaganda than for the then strange and
novel syndicalist strike propaganda of the I. W. W. The
strike activities were, however, confined quite largely to a
shorter period 1912 and 1913. As already noted, 2 the
years 1909 and 1910 were more crowded with I. W. W.
strike activities than any previous period. These fat propa-
ganda and lean organizing years were followed by twelve
months of a general all-round leanness which was only
saved from complete sterility by about half a dozen rather
lively free-speech fights. Then followed the " Wobblies' '
two big years, during which more than thirty " I. W. W.

1 Cf. appendix vii.
- Supra, p. 259 et seq.

281

282 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

strikes " x ran their course in different parts of the country.
In Table 3 are given what facts are available concerning
I. W. W. strike activities in 1912.

Overshadowing all others in importance was the gigantic
strike of the textile workers at Lawrence. This great
struggle set new fashions in strike methods. It American-
ized the words, " sabotage," " direct action," and " syndi-
calism " and revealed to the hitherto ignorant public the
manner and effectiveness with which these alleged French
importations could be applied to an existing industrial sit-
uation. Lawrence, together with San Diego, and one or
two other " free-speech" yitips, really intrn^uced the Indus-
trial Workers of the World to the American public. The
organization and its activities were known to students of
the labor problem and to others who happened to be on the
spot when a fight was on, but they were not known to the
great body of citizens. T iflYTfTir p orirl thfi *ree-speech fight
" ^p "amp r>f thi^ Httle jgroup of intransigeants a house^.

hr1H wnrH r ViarH|y less talked about and no whit hpttef un-
derstood than the words " socialist " and " anarchist."_

On January n~ about 14.000 of the textile operatives
left their work. During the strike, which continued untj]
March 14, this number was increased to 23,000. ^According
to a Federal report, " the immediate cause of the strike was
a reduction in earnings, growing out of the State law which
fjrpfnp pffprtivp January T I TQi2, and which reduced the
hours of employment for women, and for children under
1 8 years of age from 56 to 54 hours per week." At the

1 An " I. W. W. strike " may or may not be managed by the I. W. W.
Also, it may be managed by I. W. W. leaders, but include no appreciable
proportion of " Wobblies " among the strikers. The writer has en-
deavored to exclude here all strikes in which the I. W. W. did not in
some way actively participate. Cf. appendix viii.

3 Report on Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, Mass., 62nd
Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Document No. 870, p. 9.

LAWRENCE AND THE CREST OF POWER

283

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284 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

beginning of the struggle only a small minority of the
operatives were organized.

Up to the beginning of the strike [says the Federal report just
quoted] there was little or no effective organization among the
employees, taken as a whole. A few of the skilled crafts,
composed principally of English-speaking workers, had their
own separate organizations, but the 10 crafts thus organized
had at the time of the strike only approximately 2,500 mem-
bers. The Industrial Workers of the World had also some
years before this established an organization in Lawrence.
At the beginning of the strike they claimed a membership of
approximately 1,000. They had at different times names on
their rolls in excess of this number, but it is estimated by
active members of the organization that at the beginning of
January, 1912, there were not more than 300 paid-up members
on the rolls of the Industrial Workers. 1

This statement of the situation is borne out by Mr. John
Golden's testimony before the House Committee on Rules.
He said that when the strike broke out, " according to the
official books of the Industrial Workers of the World, they
had 287 members." 2

During the period of the strike there were many violent
demonstrations and numerous qrts of violence on the part
of deputies, police, and militiamen, as well as on the parJ-jQJ
the, strikers. Early in the strike, Joseph J. Ettor and Wm.
D. Haywood, both I. W. W. officials, came to Lawrence
and thereafter figured prominently in the conduct of the
strike, preaching " solidarity," " passive resistance," "direct
action," and " sabotage " as means to victory. The daily
press reports of the strike greatly exaggerated the violence
of the strikers and almost uniformly neglected to mention

I 0p. dt., p. ii.

2 Hearings on the Lawrence Strike (Washington, Government Print-
ing Office, 1912), p. 75.

LAWRENCE AND THE CREST OF POWER 2 8 -

acts of violence on the other side. In the I. W. W. press
the situation was reversed, and the lawlessness of the con-
stituted authorities greatly overdrawn. A writer who is
not at any rate sympathetic with the I. W. W. describes
the strike activities. He says that shortly after five o'clock
(a. m., January 29, 1912), when it was still dark, an attack
was made upon the street-cars, during which the trolleys
were pulled off the feed-wire, the windows smashed with
chunks of ice, the motormen and conductors driven off, and
the passengers in some cases not allowed to leave the cars,
and in others, pulled from the cars and thrown into the
streets. 1 And while conferences were still going on, ac-
cording to the same authority, the leaders of the Industrial
Workers of the World

made a determined effort, by violence and intimidation of
various sorts to prevent those wishing to resume work from
reaching the mills. The endless chain system of picketing was
put into force, and women . . . who did not work in the mills,
along with " strong arm " men, were pressed into service.
Women were assaulted by men, and pepper thrown in the eyes
of operatives and police officers. Early in the morning power-
ful men followed, threatened, and seized girls on their way to
the mills, twisting their wrists, snatching their luncheons, and
terrorizing them generally. During the night strangers visited
the homes of the workers and threatened to cut their throats if
they persisted in going to work. . . .-

On the other hand, there is fairly conclusive evidence that
the advent of Ettor and Hay wood resulted, if not in the
entire elimination of violent tactics, at least in their marked
reduction and a shifting of emphasis to the tactics of pas-

1 McPherson, The Lawrence Strike of 1912 (Reprint from Sept.,
1912, Bulletin of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers),
P- 25.

9 Ibid., pp. 43-44-

2 86 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

sive resistance. According to one who was on the spot, the
riots occurred

before Ettor's organization was effected, when the strikers
gathered about the mills as an organized mob and mill bosses
turned streams of water upon them in zero weather. After the
" blood-stained anarchists " arrived on the scene, a policy of
non-resistance to the aggressions of the police and the militia
prevailed. 1

Howsoever passive the strikers may have been in their
attitude to the police and the militia, they were probably
quite aggressive in their campaign to win recruits to the
ranks of the strikers. A Lawrence mill overseer reports
that the I. W. W. strike committee 2 did it in this way :

The addresses of the men working [Federal report] are given
to a committee. They are visited after nine o'clock at night by
strangers, generally Poles : " Working today ?" " Yah." (The
man speaking has a sharp knife and is whittling a stick.)
"Work tomorrow?" "I d'no." "If you work tomorrow, I
cut your throat." " No, no, I no work." " Shake." And they
shake hands. 3

There is strong evidence of at least one attempt on the
part of the business and commercial interests of Lawrence
to discredit the strikers. In three places in the city a total
of twenty-eight sticks of dynamite were found. The strik-
ers declared that it had been " planted." Later a business
man of Lawrence, who had no connection with the strikers,

1 Mary K. O'Sullivan, " The Labor War at Lawrence," Survey, vol.
xxviii, p. 73 (April 6, 1912).

2 The chairman of the committee belonged to the I. W. W. but its
personnel included those with other affiliations. (The Strike of
Textile Workers in Lawrence, Mass. [Federal report], p. 66.)

3 " Statements by people who took part." Survey, April 6, 1912, voL
xxviii, no. I, p. 76.

LAWRENCE AND THE CREST OF POWER 2 87

was arrested and finally tried and " convicted of conspiracy
to injure by the planting of dynamite." He was fined
$500.00! 1

There was great friction between the I. W. W. and the
locals of other labor organizations. The Socialists and I.
W. W.s accused the American Federation of Labor leaders
of trying to break the strike. " All the mechanical crafts,"
we read in a pro-I.W.W. journal, " including engineers,
firemen, electrical workers, machinists, and railroaders . . .
remained at work, scabbing on their fellows with the full
sanction ... of their officials." 2 In the face of this an-
tagonism the rank and file of the A. F. of L. membership
contributed liberally to the strike fund, giving about $i 1,000
to the cause of the strikers. Socialist contributions are
placed at $40,000 and those of I. W. W. local unions at
$i6,ooo. 3 The Federal investigators report that " These
relief funds came from all sections of the country and
averaged $1,000 a day throughout the strike." 4

The Lawrence strike funiished the opportunity for some
parading of the idea of a general strike. William D. Hay-
wood, in his first speech to the strikers after his arrival in
Lawrence, said: " ff ^y* pt-^aii r^ ^jfofr workers who,
handle your goods to help yn^ out hy g-ningr on strike, we
will tie up the railroads, put the city in darknp<;; anH starve
the soldiers out/1 5 This agitation became more vigorous,
however, after the strike itself and during the subsequent
trial of the two I. W. W. agitators, Ettor and Giovannitti.

1 Federal report, op. cit., p. 39.

2 L. H. Marcy and F. S. Boyd, " One Big Union Wins," International
Socialist Review, vol. xii, p. 624, Apr., 1912.

8 Ibid., pp. 618-619.

4 The Strike of the Textile Workers of Lawrence, Mass., p. 66.

5 Mary E. Marcy, " The Battle for Bread at Lawrence," International
Socialist Review, vol. xii, p. 538, March, 1912.

288 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

They were in jail at Salem, Massachusetts, at the time of
the seventh I. \V. W. convention in September, 1912. and
the General Executive Board, in its report, threatened that
unless these " fellow-workers are acquitted the industries of
this country will feel the power of the workers expressed in
a general tie-up in all industries. . . ."

In addition to the general strike, a boycott was demanded.
Under the caption, " Boycott Lawrence," a heavily head-
lined announcement was printed on the front page of the
Industrial Worker.- It ran in part :

Boycott Laivrence Railroad men: Lose their cars

for them! Telegraphers: Lose their messages fw them! Ex-
pressmen: Lose their packages for them! Boycott Lawrence!
Boycott it to the limit!

Let nothing, cars, messages, packages, mails or anything
whatsoever that bears the sign, label or address of an official
of the Wool Trust, or of a bank, business house, or prostituted
newspaper, which favors them, or of a judge, policeman or
cossack, or any one who lends the slightest aid to the mill-
owners, go on its way undisturbed !

Boycott Lawrence!

Against the bludgeons of Industrial Despotism bring the
silent might of the Industrial Democracy!
Boycott Lawrence!

The result of the strike was a decided victory for the
strikers. The Federal government's investigators reported
that

Some 30,000 textile mill employees in Lawrence secured an
increase in wages of from 5 to 20 per cent ; increased compen-

1 On the Firing Line, p. 20. This is a pamphlet containing extracts
from the report of the General Executive Board to the Seventh Con-
vention. The report is published in full in The Industrial Worker
(Oct. 24, 1912).

'* March 21, 1912.

LAWRENCE AND THE CREST OF POWER 2 8f)

sation for overtime ; and the reduction of the premium period
from four weeks to two weeks. Also, in an indirect result of
the Lawrence strike, material increases in wages were granted
to thousands of employees in other textile mills throughout
New England. 1

It is a significant fact that the m'g-hpsr percentages of in-,
crises in wages were given to the unskilled employees.
The Lrenerai executive .hoard of the I. W. W. reported the I
range of wage increases as being " from 5 per cent for the \
highly paid workers to 25 per cent for the lowest paid
workers." Moreover, there were other effects, no less im-
portant. This strike demonstrated that it was possible for
the unskilled and unorganized workers (preponderantly im^
rmgrants of various nationalities) to carry on a successful
struggle with their employers! It showed what latent power
is in the great masses of semi-skilled and unskilled work-
ers. Moreover, it demonstrated the power of a new type
of labor leader over the ignorant and unskilled immigrant
workers. A writer who has little sympathy for revolution-
ary unionism says concerning Joseph J. Ettor :

This man . . . steeped in the literature of revolutionary social-
ism and anarchism, swayed the undisciplined mob as completely
as any general ever controlled the disciplined troops . . . [and
was able] to organize these thousands of heterogeneous, here-
tofore unsympathetic and jealous nationalities, into a militant
body of class-conscious workers. His followers firmly believed.
as they were told, that success meant -that they were about to
enter a new era of brotherhood, in which there would be no
more union of trades and no more departmental distinctions,
but all workers would become the real bosses in the mills. 3

1 Federal report, op. fit., p. 15.

2 Ibid.

s McPherson, op. cit., pp. 9-10. For a different view see W. E. Weyl,
"The Strikers at Lawrence.'' Outlook. Feb. 10, 1912, p. 311. Weyl
thinks that " the workers' real attitude is that of the ordinary trade-
unionist."

290 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD
The Lawrence Citizens' Association reports that Ettor

avowed himself an advocate of the doctrine of " direct action,''
of violence, as a believer in the philosophy of force, for he
proclaimed time and again . . . that " he who has force on
his side has the law on his side." He also advocated destroy-
ing the machinery of employers who did not grant all the de-
mands of the strikers. 1

The effect of the strike on the membership of the I. W.
W. in Lawrence was to increase it greatly but only tem-
porarily. Just after the strike the organizers claimed 14,000
members in Lawrence. In October, 1913, there were 700.-
An investigator for the Federal Commission on Industrial
Relations reports that they had over 10,000 members im-
mediately after the strike. 3 The I. W. W. itself claimed
20,000 in Lawrence in June, 1912, as well as 28,000 in
Lowell, and boasted that " in nearly every town in the New
England states there are locals ranging from 800 to 5,000
in membership." 4 The Federal investigator referred to
puts the Lawrence membership of the I. W. W. in 1914 at
about 400 and says that local I. W. W. officials attribute
this low figure to unemployment, but he himself thinks that
other factors entered. 5 The wage increase gained was, he
said, offset by the increased speed required on the machines.

1 " Lawrence as it really is not as syndicalists, anarchists, socialists,
suffragists, pseudo-philanthropists, and muck-racking yellow journal-
ists have painted it." Congressional Record, vol. xlviii, no. 82, 62nd
Congress, 2d Session, March 18, 1912, p. 3544.

2 R. F. Hoxie, " The Truth About the I. W. W.," Journal of Political
Economy, vol. xxi, p. 786 (Nov., 1913).

3 Selig Perlman. " The Relations Between Capital and Labor in the
Textile Industry in New England." Report to the Commission, type-
written iMS., p. 12.

4 Industrial Worker, July 4, 1912, p. I, col. 4.

5 Perlman, op. cit., p. 17.

LAWRENCE AND THE CREST OF POWER 2 QI

This amounted to 50 per cent. Another factor was the
forced scattering of I. W. W. leaders after the strike. He
found in 1914 only one of eight local I. W. W. leaders who
were there at the time of the strike and reports that the em-
ployers established a system of espionage in the mills. 1

Lawrence made the I. W. W. famous, especially in the
East. It stirred the country with the alarming slogans of
a new kind of revolution, ^nrialisnj wfls respectable even
reactionary hv rnmparigon Thf " ^Vobblies " frankly ab-
jured the rules under which, as they would express it. foe
capitalist garge isjl^ye^l. They said, " If it serves our in-
terests as members of the working class to obey certain
accepted canons of conduct, we will obey them because it
would be detrimental to our class to disobey them." Law-
rence was not an ordinary strike. It was a social revolution
in parvo. St. John is said to have written to Haywood that
" a win in the Lawrence mills means the start that will only
end with the downfall of the wage system." This was a
class war and the I. W. W. insists that the principle of mili-
tary necessity justifies it in a policy of schrecklichkeit, at
least to property, which on the syndicalist hypothesis was
stolen anyway, in the beginning. The I. W. W. abjures cur- '
rent ethics and morality as bourgeois, and therefore inimical
to the exploited proletarian for whom a new and approved y
sytem of proletarian morality is set forth. In this prole-
tarian code the sanctions of conduct are founded on the
(material) interests of the proletarian, as such. The cri-
terion is expediency effectiveness to one particular end, the
overthrow of the wage system and the establishment of
something else the words industrial democracy or cooper-
ative commonwealth are commonly used in reference to that
nebulous future state that all radicals see as in a glass, more

1 Perlman, op. cit., pp. 12-16.

2 McPherson, op. cit., p. 15.

2^2 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

or less darkly. This means that staid old New England was
confronted with an organization which derided all her fond
moralities. The most shocking dcfi of these I.W.W.s was
the dcfi they hurled at the church. Only less so was the
defi they leveled at the flag. The I. W. W. said that the
church, obedient to the dictates of big business, preached
to the workers a servile obedience now for the sake of a
hypothetical heaven of comfort later, ergo, they said, the
church is unethical and we abjure it for a superior prole-
tarian ethics. It considered that the flag was being made
the excuse for a jingo patriotism which made the enlarge-
ment and conquest of markets and the further exploitation
of labor the end and aim of patriotism. In brief, the church
and the flag are made to serve commercialism. Commer-
cialism is evil because unjust. Therefore, its servants are,
pro tanto, evil also and rightly to be repudiated.

The conflicting attitudes are well illustrated by two plac-
ards carried along Lawrence streets during the strike. The
I. W. W. paraded first with, among others, a placard read-
ing:

XX Century civilization For the progress of the

human race we have jails, gallows, guillotines, . . . and elec-
tric chairs for the people who pay to keep the " soldiers " tc
kill them when they revolt against Wood and other czars of
capitalism.

t ! rise! !! Slaves of the World!!!

No God! No Master!
One for all and all for one!

The citizens (no reference here to the textile operatives)
of Lawrence paraded their righteous indignation as follows

" For God and Country,
The Stars and Stripes forever,
The Red Flag never.
A Protest against the I. W. \Y.,
Its principles and methods."

LAWRENCE' AND THE CREST OF POWER 293

Perhaps there is no better illustration of the reaction of
the great bulk of the progressive citizenship of the country
to the I. W. W. strike-drama than the following editorial
paragraph published during the strike :

On all sides people are asking: Is this a new thing in the
industrial world? . . . Are we to see another serious, perhaps
successful, attempt to organize labor by whole industrial
groups instead of by trades? Are we to expect that instead
of playing the game respectably, or else frankly breaking out
into lawless riot which we know well enough how to deal
with, the laborers are to listen to a subtle anarchistic phil-
osophy which challenges the fundamental idea of law and
order, inculcating such strange doctrines as those of " direct
action," " sabotage," " syndicalism," " the general strike," and
" violence " ? . . . We think that our whole current morality
as to the sacredness of property and even of life is involved
in it. 1

At the seventh convention held in Chicago in September,
1912, there were present forty-five industrialists; twenty-
nine of these being delegates from as many regular local
unions ; one delegate each represented the two National In-
dustrial Unions which were component parts of the I W.
W., viz., the Textile Workers and the Forest and Lum-
ber Workers; seven were General Executive Board mem-
bers, and seven " fraternal delegates " from the Brother-
hood of Timber Workers. Locals in eight states and Brit-
ish Columbia were represented. 2 During the time the

1 Editorial, "After the Battle," Survey, vol. xxviii, no. i, April 6,
1912, pp. 1-2.

2 Report of the Seventh Convention, pp. 2-3. Wm. E. Trautmann,
who had gone over to the Socialist Labor party faction, charged that
"two-thirds of the voting power of the whole convention" was lodged
in the hands of two delegates, one of whom was a paid officer. (''Open
letter to Wm. D. Haywood," Weekly People, May 31, 1913, p. 2.)

294 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

convention was in session, Joseph J. Ettor, a member of the
General Executive Board, was awaiting trial in the Essex
County jail in Salem, Mass. He wrote to the delegates that

all of the past term's progress is mainly due to the policies
adopted, particularly by the sixth annual convention, and . . .
I feel it an urgent duty on my part to advise that as much as
conditions will allow, the lines laid down by the last conven-
tion be ratified. . . . x

The General Executive Board specifically recommended
to the convention the use of direct action as a weapon of
the working class.

The only effective weapon that the workers have with which
to meet this condition [runs the Board's report] is to [sic]
render unproductive the machinery of production with which
they labor, and have access to. Militant direct action in the
industries of the world is the weapon upon which they must
rely and which they must learn to use. 2

With the growing interest of the I. W. W. in the workers
injbmT agrtciilturaj anH lumber industries came a realization
ofjthe need for some kind of a land policy. Delegate Cov-
ington Hall presented a petition which was adopted as a
resolution by the convention :

Why not . . . proclaim today [the resolution asks] what we
will be compelled to proclaim tomorrow a land policy ? Why
not base this policy on the motto of the Russian peasant,
" Whose the sweat, his the land," and couple this with a new
I. W. W. motto : " Whose the sweat, theirs the machines " ?
In other words, proclaim that we will recognize no title to
machinery except that which vests its ownership in the users. 3

1 Letter dated September 14, 1912, Report of the Seventh Convention,
pp. 26-27.

" Industrial Worker, Oct. 24, 1912, p. 4, col. 3.

8 Report of the Seventh Annual Convention, pp. 9, 24.

LAWRENCE AND THE CREST OF POWER 095

The most important aspect of this convention was the
sentiment which was evidenced by some of the delegates in
favor of reducing the power of the national administration
the central office often referred to in this and following
conventions as " Headquarters." This agitation for de-
centralization was not particularly successful, but the idea
was given a hearing. At the following convention a much
more extended discussion took place and the subject will be
resumed in connection with the discussion of that meeting. 1
At this 1912 meeting the question of decentralization came
up in the discussion of a motion to give the General Exec-
utive Board jurisdiction over the calling, management and
settlement of all free-speech fights. The alleged object of
the motion was to restrict the number of such controversies.
The " Wobblies " had been even more inclined to over-
indulge in free-speech fights than in strikes, and some
thought this appetite might be kept in better control if it
were made more difficult for locals to get support for such
struggles from the national office. The motion was lost by
an overwhelming majority. This vote expressed a signifi-
cant reaction from the traditional I. W. W. policy of cen- 4 /
tralization. That the latter policy was still strong was in-
dicated in the overwhelming defeat of motions to deprive
the General Executive Board of its power over the strike
activities of the organization.- The policy of the conven-
tion was centralist on strikes and decentralist on free-speech
fights. The editor of The Agitator, an anarchist exponent
of industrial unionism, believes this was due to the fact that
the I. W. W. had had much experience of " free-speech
fighting " and realized the need for local autonomy, whereas
it had had limited strike experience and so had " not yet
learned the danger of allowing a few men ... to control

1 Vide infra, p. 303 et seq.

* " The I. W. W. Convention," The Agitator, Oct. 15. 1912.

296 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

its strike activities." The writer imagines that geography
was also a factor. The proponents of continued centraliza-
tion of strike power were the more disciplined eastern mem-
bers. The defenders of local autonomy in free-speech fights
were the western " Wobblies " and the nature of their life
and experience bred in them much of the anarchistic spirit
of individualism.

The Socialist Labor party and the doctrinaires of Detroit
thought that this convention was a very insignificant gath-
ering. One of the DeLeonites described it : " About thirty
men acting in the capacity of delegates and about a score
of onlookers, leaning with their backs against the walls
leisurely smoking their pipes or chewing tobacco. . . . This
constituted the convention. . . ." * It is interpreted differ-
ently by one who is with the direct-actionists at least in
sympathy. He says :

It is a significant proof of the sound base of the I. W. W.
philosophy that the tremendous growth of the past year has
not brought with it the germ of opportunism. There was no
suggestion of a desire on the part of any of the delegates to
swerve from the uncompromising and revolutionary attitude
of the organization ; nor was there any reaching out for " re-
spectability." Every man was a " Red," most of them with
jail records, too. . . . All striving ... to hasten the day when
" the whistle will blow for the Boss to go to work." 2

1 Arthur Zavels, " The Bummery ' Congress ' ", Weekly People, Oct.
12, 1912, p. i.

3 J. P. Cannon, "Seventh I. W. W. Convention," International So-
cialist Review, vol. xiii, p. 424, col. 2 (Nov., 1912).

CHAPTER XIII
DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION

IN 1913 the visit of Tom Mann, the well-known English
labor leader and advocate of revolutionary unionism, re-
vived the discussion of " dual unionism " and the respective
merits of what the French Syndicalists called la penetration
and la pression cxtericure, 1 or what the American " Wob-
bly " calls " boring from within " arid " hammering from
without," respectively. Even before his visit a growing
minority had been feebly protesting against the accepted I.
W. W. policy of creating a new organization without re-
gard to existing labor (or craft) unions in the locality in-
stead of allowing the unorganized and especially the rad-
icals to enter the old unions (of the A. F. of L.) and
" bore from within " their conservative shells to let in the
light of revolutionary industrial unionism. This renewed
interest was largely due to the exchange of ideas with
European radicals at international congresses. The policy
in Europe and in England has been precisely " the boring
from within " policy, and European unions especially the
Confederation Gcnerale du Travail of France has pros-
pered by it both in numbers and influence. Jn IQII, Wil-
liam Z. Foster, a member of the I. W. W.. visited Europe
and made a careful examination of the labor organizations
there. He returned fully convinced that the T 1 W. W_
should change its policy on " dual unionism " and begin to
"Lore from within" the American Federation of Labor.

1 E. Pouget, La confederation gcnerale du travail (2nd ed.), p. 47.

297

298 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

In connection with the proposal of his name for the office
of editor of the Industrial Worker he sent a letter on the
subject to that paper. He makes such a cogent exposition
of the case against dual unionism that the greater part of it
is here given :

The question, "Why don't the I. W. \V. grow?'' is being-
asked on every hand, as well within our ranks as without.
And justly, too, as only the blindest enthusiast is satisfied at
the progress, or rather lack of progress, of the organization to
date. In spite of truly heroic efforts on the part of our organ-
izers and members in general . . . the I. W. \V. remains small
in membership and weak in influence. It is indeed time to ex-
amine the situation and discover what is wrong.

The founders of the I. W. W. at its inception gave the
organization the working theory that in order to create a revo-
lutionary labor movement, it was necessary to build a new
organization separate and apart from the existing craft unions
which were considered incapable of development. This theory
and its consequent tactics has persisted in the organization,
and we later comers have inherited them and, without any
serious investigation, accepted the theory as an infallible
dogm^/Parrot-like and unthinking, we glibly re-echo the sen-
iment that "craft unions cannot become revolutionary unions,"
[and usually consider the question undebatable. Convincing
arguments in favor of the theory I have never seen nor heard
I used to accept it without question like the vast majority of
the I. W. W. membership does now, and in practice it has
achieved the negative results shown by the I. W. W. today
with its membership of but a few thousands. The theory's
strength is due to its being the one originally adopted by the
founders of the I. W. W., and to me this is but a poor recom-
mendation, as these same founders, in addition to giving us a
constitution manifestly inadequate to our needs and the chang-
ing and ignoring of which occupies a large share of our time,
made the monumental mistake of trying to harmonize all the
various conflicting elements among them into one ' -'-.'.ppy

DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION

299

Family " rey^)l^onaj^nr^pJ7.^<;j^n a blunder which cost the
i. \V. \V. time years of internal strife to rectify and one that
gives these founders who have mostly quit tht- organization,
anything but an infallible reputation. And if we look about
us a little, at the labor movements of other countries in addi-
tion to considering our own experiences, we will be more in-
clined to question this theory that we have so long accepted as
the natural one for the revolutionary labor movement. It has
been applied in other countries and with similar results as here.
The German syndicalist movement, with a practically sta-
tionary membership of about 15,000, is a pigmy compared to
the giant and rapidly growing socialist unions with their 2,300,-
ooo members. The English I. W. W. is ridiculously small
and weak; the German syndicalist organization, the English
I. W. W. and the American I. W. W., using the same dual
organization tactics in the three greatest capitalist countries,
are all afflicted with a common stagnation and lack of influence
in the labor movement. On the other hand, in those countries
where the syndicalists use the despised " boring from within "
tactics, their revolutionary movements are vigorous and power-
ful. France offers the most conspicuous example. There the
C. G. T. militants, inspired by the tactics of the anarchists
who years ago, discontented at their lack of success as an in-
dependent movement, literally made a raid on the labor move-
ment, captured it and revolutionized it, and in so doing devel-
oped the new working-class theory of syndicalism, have for
one of their cardinal principles to introduce [sic] competition
in the labor movement .by creating dual organization. By
propagating their doctrines in the old unions and forcing them
to become revolutionary, they have made their labor move-
ment the most feared one in the world. In Spain and Italy,
where the rebels are more and more copying French tactics,
the syndicalist movements are growing rapidly in power
and influence. But it is in England where we have the most
striking example of the comparative effectiveness of the two
varieties of tactics. For several years the English I. W. W.
with its dual-organization theory carried on a practically bar-

300

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

rcn agitation. About a year ago, Tom Mann, Guy Bowman
and a few other revolutionists, using the French " boring from
within '' tactics, commenced in the face of a strong I. W. \V.
opposition to work on the old trades unions, which Debs had
called impossible. Some of the fruits of their labors were
seen in the recent series of great strikes in England. The great
influence of these syndicalists in causing and giving the revo-
lutionary character to these strikes which sent chills along the
spine of international capitalism, is acknowledged by innumer-
able capitalist and revolutionary journals alike.

Is not this striking success of " boring from within " after
continued failure of " building from without " tactics, which
is but typical of the respective results being achieved every-
where by these tactics, worthy of the most serious considera-
tion on the part, of the I. W. W. ? Is it not time that we get
up off our knees from before this time-honored dual organiza-
tion dogma and give it a thorough examination? And I'll
promise or threaten that if I am elected editor the matter
will get as thorough an investigation as lays in my power. . . .

. At Berlin a few months ago Jouhaux, secretary of the C. G. T.

^.[Confederation Generate du Travail], in a large public meet-
ing advised them to give up their attempt to create a new move-
ment and to get into the conservative unions where they could
make their influence felt. At Budapest he extended the same
advice to the I. W. W. via myself, and I am frank to state that
I am convinced that it would be strictly good tactics for both
movements to adopt it. I am satisfied from my observations
that the only way for the I. W. W. to have the workers adopt
practice the principles of revolutionary unionism

Jo give up its attempt to create a new labor movement, turn
itself into a propaganda league, get into the organized labor
movement' and by building up better fighting machines \vithin
the old unions than those possessed by our reactionary enemies,
revolutionize : those jimions even as our French syndicalist fej-
lo\\L- workers have so successfully done with

1 "As to my candidacy/' Industrial li'orkcr (II), Nov. 2, 1911.

DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION

301

Upon the arrival of Mr. Mann, Mr. Foster again took up
the cudgels for the opponents of dual unionism.

Among many of the syndicalists [he said] the sentiment is
strong, and growing ceaselessly, that the tactics followed by
the I. W. W. are bad, and that endeavors should be made in-
side the A. F. of L. ; that it is in the existing unions that the
syndicalists must struggle without ceasing. . . . l

Mr. Mann agreed with him. In a speech published in the
International Socialist Review 2 he expressed his belief that
" if the fine energy exhibited by the I. W. W. were put into
the A. F. of L. or into the existing trade-union movement
. . . the results would be fifty-fold greater than they now
are/' He went on to " urge the advisability, not of drop-
ping the I. W. W., but certainly of dropping all dual organ-
izations and serving as a feeder and purifier of the big
movement." William D. Haywood replied that " it might
as well be said that if the fine energy exhibited by the I. W.
W. were put into the Catholic church, that the results would
be the establishment of the control of industry." 3 He
went on to show that it is well-nigh impossible for the un-
skilled man to get into the A. F. of L., even when he does
desire to do so, because of what Haywood characterizes as
*' a vicious system of apprenticeship, exorbitant fees," etc.*
Mr. Hay wood's fellow-worker, Joseph J. Ettor, joined him
in his attack on Tom Mann's position :

The theory that what is needed to save the Federation is the
energetic and vigorous men who are now in the I. W. W. is
on a par with the " socialist " advice of [sic] how to save the

1 The Syndicalist (London). March. 1913.
- Vol. xiv, p. 394 (Jan., 1914)-
5 " An appeal for industrial solidarity."
view, March, 1914, vol. xiv, p. 546.
4 Ibid.

International Socialist Re

302

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

nation; but we don't want to save the Federation any more
than to save the nation. We aim at destroying it. The Social-
its Ls advised us to roHup our sleeves and 'become active polit-
ically within capitalism " We must capture the government.
Tor the workers," etc. We tried, but the more we fooled with

beast the more it captured us. Our best men went to
*' bore from within" capitalist pai I'iametllij, and dty councils,
only to be disgusted, thrown out, or fall victims of the gain
and pnvironment iii which they tound themselves. . . . We_
learned at an awful cost particularly this : That the most un-
scrupulous labor fakers now betraying the workers were once
our '' industrialist," " anarchist " and " socialist " comrades,
who grew weary of the slow progress we were making on the
outside, went over, and were not only lost, but . . . became
the greatest supporters of the old and [the] most serious ene-
mies of the new. 1

Mr. Mann's attitude was not appreciably changed during
his trip through the United States. His reaction to the sit-
uation so far as the principle of " dual unionism " is con-
cerned is explained in an article contributed to a French
journal. He wrote :

As the situation appears to me after many deep conversa-
tions and discussions with working men of all conditions, I say
very emphatically that the I. W. W. should work in harmony
with the American Federation of Labor. There is not the
least necessity for having two organizations. The field of
action is wide enough for all to be able to cooperate in the
economic struggle. . . .

The greatest danger to which it [the A. F. of L.] is subject
at present is the firm hold the politicians have on it. Their
influence grows in the unions as well as in the Federation, and
that because the energetic, militant, enthusiastic men (les
hommes energiques et ardents) who comprise the I. W. W.
refuse to work on the inside of the unions, so that they leave a

1 " I. W. W. versus A. F. of L." The \ r ew Review, p. 283.

DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION

free field to the politicians, to whom the task becomes rela-
tively easy. . . . We know what comes to pass when the poli-
ticians get control of the unions and direct them. 1

In reporting the eighth convention of the " Summery "
I. W. W., the Weekly People - declared that the St. John
crowd was in control and that a wooden shoe was made
use of in calling the convention to order and attempting to
maintain it in order. This meeting continued in session
from the I5th to the 2gih of September, 1913. There were
present thirty-nine delegates and the seven members of the
Executive Board. Three national industrial unions were
represented : the Textile Workers by two delegates having
thirty-one votes: the Forest and Lumber Workers (for-
merly the Brotherhood of Timber Workers) by one dele-
gate with thirteen votes; and the Marine Transport Work-
ers by one delegate with forty-two votes. The other thirty-
five delegates represented eighty-five local unions with one
hundred and ninety-two votes. 3

Attention has been called to the rather tepid discussion
of the problem of decentralization at the 1912 convention.*
During the intervening year this question had called forth

1 " Impressions d'Amerique," La Vie Ouvriere (Paris), vol. v, pp.
722-723. " Je die que c'est grand dommage et que cela peut preparer un
desastre, que 1'admirable ardeur combattif des industrialists actuelle-
ment groupes dans le I. W. W. ne s'exerce pas a 1'interieur de la Fed-
eration Americaine du Travail." Ibid., p. 723. Cf. his pamphlet, Pre-
pare for Action, p. 14. For an excellent discussion of dual unionism,
see William English Walling, Labor Union Socialism and Socialist
Labor Unionism -(Chicago, C. H. Kerr Co., 1912), chap, xviii, "The
Question of the Moment Dual Organization" (pp. 90-96).

* October 4, 1913, Editorial.

3 Proceedings of the Eighth Convention of the I. W. W., September,
1913, p. 2. The distribution of voting power among the delegates de-
pends, as explained in chapter ii, upon the membership of the locals
represented. Cf. article iv, section 7, of the I. W. W. Constitution
(1914 ed., pp. 14-16).

4 Supra, p. 295.

304 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

such bitter factional animosity in the organization that we
find it in 1913 divided into two hostile camps and threat-
ened again with disruption. The issue is significantly com-
parable to the " states' rights " controversy in our political
history. The I. W. W. administration and its supporters
were, very naturally, " centralists." They favored a strong
federal government for the I. W. W. and attacked the "de-
centralizers' " program for the emasculation of the gen-
eral administration and the establishment of a loose eon-
federation of sovereign local unions the states' rights
program in industry. The states' rights doctrine failed of
acceptance in the I. W. W. as it has failed in American
politics. Nevertheless, the decentralization crisis in the I.
W. W. deserves more than passing notice. In the first place,
the doctrine was not annihilated in 1913; it was merely
smothered. The I. W. W. may yet be " unscrambled." In
the second place, this issue is perhaps the most fundamental
one ever given wide discussion by the I. W. W. member-
ship. It involves directly the whole question of the struc-
ture of the organization, the proper distribution of func-
tions and authority among the several parts of the organ-
ization and, indirectly, questions of efficiency in carrying-
on propaganda and organizing work and of the relative
merits of authoritarian (state) socialism, and so-called
" voluntary socialism." As the two groups lined up at
Chicago in 1913, we may say that the controversy between
the administration's supporters and the defenders of the
local unions was, on the whole, a struggle between the
western membership, individualistic and tainted with anar-
chism, and the eastern membership, more schooled to sub-
ordination infected with state socialism.

The attack of the decentralizers took the form of specific
resolutions for the abolition of various features of the
general administration and the restriction of the powers of

DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION 305

the Executive Board and general officers. The abolition
of the office of president in 1906 was in part an expression
of this revolt against centralized authority. But now, with
the presidency eliminated, with very little organization at
the best, with a degree of central power and authority
which the United Mine Workers of America would con-
sider mild indeed, and with a constantly shifting member-
ship of less than 15,000, we find that there is actually a
little group of western locals which assumes that there fs
already a dangerous centralization of power and authority
at " Headquarters." Some five hundred resolutions were
introduced at the convention and a large number of these
were assorted decentralist proposals for giving the local
union relatively greater power demands, in other words*
for readjustments which were expected to result in in-
creased " local autonomy." This local autonomy was to
be secured for the benefit of the " rank and file," i. e., the
individual members, and particularly for the " rank and
file " membership of the " mixed " locals so predominant
in the western part of the country. From the standpoint of
the mixed local, " the disease within the I. W. W. is ...
the gigantic machine formation attempted to be [sic~\ foisted
upon it by the authoritarian socialists who presided at its
birth . . ." " Decentralization deals essentially," we are
told, " with the right of the locals to control themselves
and through their combined wills to run the general organ-
ization." * Following up the attack, the knights of the
rank and file proposed to abolish, inter alia, the General
Executive Board, the office of the General Organizer, and
the national convention ! ~ One wonders that the Constitu-

1 Covington Hall in The Voice of the People, Oct. 9, 1913, p. 2, col. 3.

1 Proceedings, p. 43. All of these resolutions were proposed by a
delegate from Phoenix, Arizona. In connection with the resolutions
it was " moved and seconded that a committee on style be called for,

306 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

tion itself was not put bodily on the index! Indeed, a year
later, a leader in the movement in California did write an
article to show that the I. W. W. Preamble is syndicalistic,
and the Constitution state socialistic, and therefore that the
latter should be abolished. 1 For two weeks the delegates
wrangled over propositions of this kind and the general
subject of decentralization. Two and a half days were de-
voted to the proposal to abolish the General Executive
Board. This action was desired by locals in southern Cali-
fornia and other parts of the West, as well as by a few of
the eastern locals. 2 Concerning their demands, a supporter
of the administration said :

They [the decentralizers] claim they will never submit to the
rule of a minority of four or five men. . . . They do not want
to submit to the rule of the G. E. B. composed of four or five,
but they will submit to the authority of the General Secretary
and the General Organizer whom they want to function in the
place of the G. E. B. The authority of the minority of five or
seven men is something terrible, but the authority and rule of
the minority of two is not so terrible. 3

The locals of Calgary [Canada], Portland, Oregon, Seattle
and Spokane, Washington, and Phoenix, Arizona, presented
a resolution asking that " the function of the headquarters
[i. <?., the general administration] be reduced to a mere
correspondence agency." No action was taken. 4 " We .
are working ... to overthrow this [wages] system," said

whose duties shall be to strike from the constitution all references to
the powers of the General Executive Board, General Organizer, and
General Secretary." Ibid.

1 Caroline Nelson, " Economic socialism or State capitalist socialism,
Which?" Tlte Voice of the People, July 30, 1914, p. 4, col. 3.

2 Proceedings, 8th I. W. W. convention, p. 81.

3 Delegate Schrager, ibid., p. 71, col. i.

4 Ibid., p. 84, col. i.

DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION 307

a decentralist fellow-worker, " and we claim . . . that the
rank and file of the proletariat will have to do this them-
selves." The General Executive Board members, accord-
ing to this delegate, " place themselves in exactly the same
position over these people [the workers] and put them-
selves in the same [position of] unique power over them
as the capitalist class." Said another : " The minority in
this organization is ... ruling . . . today, namely, the G.
E. B. I am certainly in favor of abolishing the G. E. B.
I don't see any use for it. I don't see what they can do for
the rank and file." According to the majority report of
the constitution committee (which was lost) all authority
was, in the absence of the G. E. B., to be vested in the Gen-
eral Secretary-Treasurer and the General Organizer, both
responsible to the rank and file. 3 In line with the foregoing
was a resolution providing for a reduction in the per-capita
tax of " mixed " locals from fifteen to five cents per month.
The proponents of this resolution insisted that the " mixed "
locals bore more than their share of the financial burden
that they practically supported the national organization.*
The proposition was given extended debate and finally
killed. Naturally it was opposed by the General Executive
Board. 5

This attack on the already weak central authority took
the form of an attempt, first, to abolish the G. E. B. ; sec-
ond, to cut down the financial support of the general office ;
third, to abolish the convention and substitute for it the
initiative and referendum ; fourth, to place agitators under
the direct control of the rank and file; and fifth, to make

1 Delegate Van Fleet, op. cit., p. 69.
-Ibid., p. 69 (Fellow-worker McEvoy).

3 Ibid., p. 71.

4 Ibid., p. 112.

5 Ibid., p. 33. An unsuccessful effort had been made at the third con-
vention in 1907 to abolish the initiation fee.

308 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

the general officers mere clerical assistants. The only real
success achieved by the decentralizers in these efforts in
1913 was the introduction into the I. W. W. constitution
of a provision for the initiative and referendum. 1 The in-
troduction of the referendum feature is another illustration
of the unconscious tendency to follow the lines of our polit-
ical development. Note, too, that the I. W. W. referendum
advocates hailed from those very states which have recently
attracted attention by introducing this feature into their
political structure. The I. W. W. is now much more de-
centralized than it was in 1905 or even 1913, and it appears
to be drifting toward further changes in that direction. So
far, the movement away from what little centralized power
it could boast may be seen in two phases: i, the aboli-
tion of the presidency; 2, the placing of the General Exec-
utive Board under the control of a general referendum
which can be initiated at any time and upon any subject by
request of not less than ten locals in not less than three
different industries.

In discussing the proposed abolition of the convention,
Delegate B. E. Nilsson asserted that only at the second and
fourth conventions had anything worth while been done,
and that in both these cases all that had been accomplished
had been done against the constitution, and concluded with
the statement that " this [eighth convention] has cost us
over $3,000 and it isn't worth three cents." Delegate
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn advocated the abolition of the con-
vention. She said that it was not genuinely representative,
inasmuch as all the locals could not afford to send dele-
gates. 3 The proposal was finally defeated. In general, the
decentralizers anarchistic advocates of the doctrine of

1 Preamble and Constitution (1914), article vii.
-Proceedings, p. 117, col. I.
3 Ibid., p. 118, col. i.

DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION 309

the militant minority found themselves decidedly in the
minority, and so far unsuccessful. " Fully a hundred of
the resolutions," says one prominent anarchist who at-
tended the convention, " were progressive, favored decen-
tralization, and were fathered, mothered, and nursed by
half a dozen militants. But every radical resolution," he
thought, " was either lost, laid on the table, or amended so
that it was useless. The motion for decentralization was
lost by three to one, as was the motion to do away with the
G. E. B." * Another opponent of centralized authority ex-
plained how " for two long and tedious weeks they [the
decentralizers] presented their ideas . . . and the central-
ists slaughtered them by the brute force of voting power
. . ." " The decentralizers held," he said, " that a revo-
lutionary movement does not depend [so much] upon votes
as it does upon the recognition ... of the fact that all
minorities are to have an equal voice . . . with the major-
ities . . . [because] the minority is always more militant
than the majority." 2 In the same issue which carried this
statement, the Voice of the People said editorially :

[The decentralization struggle in the I. W. W. is] a war be-
tween the advocates of " I am going to save myself " and those
of " let me save you." . . . Centralization in labor unions is
nothing less than government by representation, or political
action. The advocates of centralization in the I. W. W. are
socialists, in fact, if not in profession. . . . Only when they
repudiate labor-union governmentalism will they become real
direct-actionists. 3

The " decentralist agitation " first assumed definite form

1 Ben Reitman, " Impressions of the Chicago Convention." Mother
Earth, October, 1913, vol. viii, p. 240.

a G. G. Soltes, " Convention Notes," Voice of the People, Oct. 23,
1913, p. 2, col. 3. The italics are not in the original.

3 " The question of decentralization," p. 2.

310 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

at a conference of the Pacific Coast locals of the I. W. W.
held at Portland, Oregon, in February, 1911. At this con-
ference the eight-hours movement, plans for the establish-
ment of agitation circuits for organizers and this most of
all the evils of centralized authority were discussed. 1 At
this conference was established the Pacific Coast District
Organization, known among the I.W.W.s as the " P. .C.
D. O." This organization was an interesting compromise
between the idea of absolutely self-governing locals on the
one side and servile locals completely controlled by a
bureaucratic national machine on the other. It undertook
to exercise some of the sovereign functions of " Head-
quarters." According to a member of the General Exec-
utive Board,

this P. C. D. O. was to have its own due stamp books, head-
quarters, General Secretary, General Executive Board, and
paper this paper was the [Industrial] Worker. But the P.
C. D. O. made no success . . . because of not having a strong
enough ground to build upon in order to interest the western
membership. 2

It was believed in some quarters especially at " Head-
quarters " - that the real purpose of the Western Slope
constituency which organized the P. C. D. O. was to dis-
rupt the I. W. W., or to effect a secession from the national
body. Some months after the Conference above referred
to an editorial appeared in Solidarity the administration
organ. It declared that their purpose

was to disrupt the I. W. W. and form an independent organ-
ization in the West. The Conference itself proposed that the
G. E. B. reduce the per capita [tax] to the P. C. D. O. to five
cents and allow the locals in that district organization to buy

1 Report of Committee, Solidarity, Feb. 18, 1911, p. 2, col. 4.

2 J. M. Foss in his report to the eighth convention, Proceedings, p. 37.

DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION

their stamps directly from the district headquarters. . . . The
final conclusion of the sixth convention was that such an or-
ganization as the P. C. D. O., for purposes of closer unity,
localized activity and propaganda, was fully justified and
should be supported, but efforts to divide or disrupt the organ-
ization as a whole would be fought to the bitter end. 1

The administration saw in the P. C. D. O. a very sub-
versive imperium in imperio, and when the eighth conven-
tion met, the G. E. B. issued the following statement con-
cerning the western promoters of the P. C. D. O. idea :

Decentralization is what they want. To gain this point of
control in the movement, they begin with the officials by saying
they have too much power, and to break up the machine we
must divide up in various parts, do away with the General
Executive Board and the General Office. The first move . . .
was . . . when the scheme of a Pacific Coast District Organ-
ization was launched under the mask of perfecting more organ-
ization [sic] in the I. W. W. At the [P. C. D. O.] convention
held in Portland, Ore., they were to establish a western head-
quarters, . . . get control of the western organ, The Industrial
Worker, elect their own General Executive Board, and get out
their own due-books and stamps, etc. This idea ... is now
prevailing in various sections throughout the organization.
The P. C. D. O. scheme . . . failed because of [lack of] sup-
port [and] died with its first convention because of the facr
that it smacked of disruption and decentralization. . . . 2

In the I. W. W., as in all voluntary organizations cover-
ing areas of continental magnitude, doctrines are allocated

territorially. There are many point trast between

-......* **"*""'* ( ''*^^

1 Solidarity, Oct. 21, 1911, p. 2, col. 3.

2 Report to the eighth convention, Proceedings, p. 36. Some of the
delegates at this convention appeared to think that the P. C. D. O.
"scheme" was instigated indirectly by the capitalists. Delegate Foss
said : "... it is much cheaper for the masters to work within our
organization rather than to fight us openly." Ibid., p. 38, col. i.

312 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

the eastern and the western constituencies of the Industrial
Workers of the World. At present we are only concerned
with the eastern and western attitudes toward the idea of
decentralization. The western environment drives the petit
bourgeoisie to demand political home rule or local auton-
omy in legislative government. The result is the recent
remarkable spread of the initiative, referendum and recall
in the three Pacific Coast states. In these same three states
we find the chief strongholds of industrial autonomy. The

life of the western proletarian jrnhnes him with the triore
ir Irin^ nf t-Ql 1P ]|i nn w hirh fYrp.^ps itseMn

r Jess rf>h prpn * H^manr] f or ^ri industrial state
made up of self-governing lor a1 g rrm ps of wnrfarg. The
results have been the partially successful drive from the
West for the referendum idea in union government, the
chronic decentralist mutterings which have constantly ema-
nated from the West, the open but unsuccessful decentralist
attack at the eighth convention and the P. C. D. O. In
the long run the decentralist pressure has had its effect and
the organization, as already intimated, is now less central-
ized than it was a decade ago. The writer realizes that the
analogy between western political pioneering and labor-
union or industrialist pioneering in that section must not be
pushed too far. For example, the ultimate result of I. W.
W. decentralization is anarchist communism, which is qititg
different from the kind of political society resulting- from
the home-rule and referendum statutes enacted by a middle-
class electorate.

The I. W. W. leaders were not unaware of the effect of
the geographical environment. B. H. Williams, the editor
of Solidarity, puts it in this way :

We see in the West, individualism in practice, combined with
a theory of collective action that scoffs at individual or group
initiative by general officers and executive boards and con-

DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION

ceives the possibility of " direct action " in all things through
the " rank and file." Hence the proposal . . . for minimizing
the power of the general administration.

He explains that the eastern delegates come from a different
environment. Industry in the East is highly developed and

centralized. They don't think of Pennsylvania in a geo- ]

graphical sensjj.

Without the individualistic spirit himself, the eastern worker
nevertheless recognizes the value of individual initiative in
promoting mass action and in executing the mandates ... of
the organization. The problem before the sixth convention
was to preserve the balance between these two sets of ideas.
In that the convention succeeded admirably. 1

Another industrialist thinks that " the western part of the
country, being very little developed industrially, has a ten-
dency to develop individualism in the minds of the workers.
. . . QT> the other hand, the workers in the large industrial
centers develop a strong collectivism which expresses itseff
in jnass_action," and which requires a " close lly] central- __,
ized organization."^ 2

The western local union is usually a " mixed " union,
and it is therefore not directly connected with any " shop "
or industry. It is more nearly a propaganda club. It usu-
ally has a hall of some kind for meetings, and in many cases
this hall is open all the time. Sometimes there is a " jungle
kitchen " attached and meals can be served to itinerant
Fellow Workers who are passing through. T|ns^jTiearis
that there is naturally more hall-room conversation and Icss^

1 " The sixth I. W. W. convention," International Socialist Review,
vol. xii, pp. 301-2, Nov., 1911.

J Ewald Koeltgen, "I. W. W. Convention" (8th, 1913), International
Socialist Revieiv, vol. xiv, p. 275, Nov., KM 3. Professor Hoxie took the I
same general view that decentralization was the slogan of the western I I**** Jj
m.cmhership. "' Thr Truth about the I. \V. \Y.." Journal of Political}
Economy, Nov.. 1013. vol. xxi. p. 788.

i
I

314 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

iii-ilic

in the
Many

strictly industrial simp organization of the East.
members felt that too much time was wasted in talking
politics and religion. At the eighth convention there was
some criticism of the loquaciousness of the western " wob-
bly " and of his personal appearance as well.

Today you have got to have a man go up and address the
public that looks like a human being [said Delegate Olson].
[See what] you have got in the western country by their
ragged agitators; you have got nothing but disappointment,
and then you holler at the General Secretary. . . . If the rank
and file were educated well enough to make use of the organ-
ization instead of arousing animosity they would do away with
this spittoon philosophy. 1

Frank Bonn, in describing the methods by which this group
of so-called " spittoon philosophers " in the mixed locals is
said to have attempted to disrupt the I. W. W., asks, " Is
this chair-warming sect now the leading element in the I.
W. W.? Is it in a majority? If it is, the I. W. W. is not
dying. It is dead." 2

Whatever may be the merits or demerits of philosophic
anarchism, it is unquestionable that the anarchist the naive
anarchist, at any rate is an unmitigated nuisance. Per-
haps the General Executive Board had something of this
sort in mind when they said that " word pictures of the
ideal will not serve to satisfy the cry for bread for any
great length of time regardless of how beautifully they may
be portrayed . . . ," and reminded the delegates that " re-
sp'onsibilities, financial, moral and physical, must be met
and not shirked." 3 The Board was more specific farther
on in its report :

1 Proceedings, Eighth Convention, p. 52.

2 International Socialist Review, vol. xii, p. 44, July. 1911.

3 Report of the Eighth Convention, Proceedings, p. 37, col. i, 2.

DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION

315

There is an element in the I. W. W. [it declares] whose sole
purpose seems to be to disrupt the organization. We refer to
the syndicalists or decentralizers, as they are all the same, in
their attempt to disrupt the I. W. W. . . . While we do not
believe in a highly centralized organization, neither is the I.
W. W. such. In fact, it is the most decentralized movement
in the world today. It does not interfere with the action of
the locals as long as they abide by the fundamental principles
of the organization. . . . We find a situation in the West that
if carried on means a complete disruption of the only indus-
trial organization in the world. In time of strike they sit
around the hall talking of what ought to be done or devising
ways and means to do away with General Headquarters. . . .
They will talk of sabotage and direct action but leave it to the
boss to use it on the few who take up the fight. If these con-
ditions continue, the I. W. W. will die of dry rot. 1

Delegate Foss, in a despondent moment, remarked that
there was " a general tendency to prevent organization of
any kind in this [I. W. W.] movement." At another time
he remarked : " The western portion of this organization
does not need any decentralization. Decentralization has
got hold of it now and that is the very reason why this
organization has no job control in the West. . . ."

In 1912 the G. E. B. had assured the membership that
they were " not unmindful of the danger that will ever live
in centralized power/' but they asserted that "it does not
follow that to centralize the administrative machinery of
your organization necessarily means a centralized power,"
and that " the only means by which centralization of power
can be avoided is by correct education and a thoroughly in-
telligent membership. . . ." 4

1 Report of the Eighth Convention, Proceedings, pp. 103-4.

2 Ibid., p. 70. 3 Ibid., p. 56, col. 2.

* Report to the Seventh Convention, Industrial Worker, Oct. 24, 19^2,
p. 6, col. i.

3 i6 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

A writer who favored the decentralists says that their
defeat was due very largely to their " crudity and inexperi-
ence/' " Possessed of a red-hot issue, they failed," he said,
" to make good with it " partly " because of their unfamil-
iarity with the principles of decentralization." 1 Alexander
Berkman, one of the most prominent anarchists in the
United States, regretted the victory of what he might have
called the " entrenched oligarchy " at Chicago.

The question of local autonomy [he says], in itself such an
axiomatic necessity of a truly revolutionary movement, has
been so obscured in the debates of the convention that appar-
ently sight was lost of the fact that no organization of inde-
pendent and self-reliant workers is thinkable without com-
plete local autonomy. It does not speak well either for the
intelligence or spirit of the convention delegates that the
efforts of the decentralists were defeated. The convention has
given a very serious blow to the . . . spirit of the social revo-
lution by [passing] the resolution that the publications of the I.
W. W. should come under the supervision of the General Ex-
ecutive Board. That is centralization with a vengeance. . . .
We consider the convention ... a sad failure [and] ... we
sincerely hope that the real militants and revolutionists of the
I. W. W. will take the lesson to heart and exert all their ener-
gies to stem the tide of conservatism and faint-heartedness in
the I. W. W. organization. 2

In a very interesting article Ben Reitman, another anar-
chist, has set down his more personal impressions of this
eighth I. W. W. convention. After assuring us that 98
per cent of the " extremely interesting crowd " of delegates
had in all probability been in prison, but that none of them
were criminals, he continues :

* Onlooker, " The Question of Decentralization," Voice of the People,
Oct. 9, 1913, p. 4, col. 2.

* Alexander Berkman, " The I. W. W. Convention," Mother Earth,
Oct., 1913, vol. viii, pp. 233, 234.

DUAL UNIONISM AND DECENTRALIZATION

As I sat in the hot, stuffy, smoky room of the convention
hall day after day and heard the discussions, and saw how
little regard the delegates had for grammar and the truth, and
realized that most of the delegates knew as much about the
real labor movement as they did about psychology, and that
they cared little about the broad principles of freedom, . . .
I marvelled at the big things the I. W. W. have done during
their short career ; . . . and I said to myself, " God ! Is it
possible that this bunch of pork-chop philosophers, agitators
who have no real, great organizing ability or creative brain
power, are able to frighten the capitalistic class more than any
other labor movement organized in America? Is it true that
this body of politicians were able to send 5,000 men to jail in
the various free-speech fights ? . . . Are these the men who put
a song in the mouth and a sense of solidarity in the heart of
the hobo? Are the activities of these men forcing the A. F.
of L. and the sociologists to recognize the power and necessity
of Industrial Unionism?" And as I looked at the delegates
and recounted their various activities, I felt that each one
could say, " Yes, I'm the guy." And then I wondered how
they did it. 1

The I. W. W. was by this time developing some slight
capacity for introspection. A few of the leaders at any
rate clearly understood some of the weaknesses of the
organization. Xhe editor of the official organ makes the
frank admission that " at present we are to the labor movej-
ment whathe high diver is to the rirEllft n gpr|c:a t 1 O

Weattract the crowds

[but] ** far fls m^l-ing industrial unionism fi\ flip

life of the worker, we have failed miserably." 2

1 Ben Reitman, " Impressions of the Chicago Convention," Mother
Earth, October, 1913, vol. viii, pp. 241-242.

1 Editorial, " Sensationalism vs. Organizing Ability," Solidarity, Aug.
23,

CHAPTER XIV
RECENT TENDENCIES

THE mutual hostility between the Western Federation
of Miners and the I. W. W. has not lessened since 1907.
This antagonism has been most acute in the Arizona, Ne-
vada and Montana mining camps. In the Arizona-Montana
territory the feeling on the side of the Federation is indi-
cated by the following extract from a letter written to the
twenty-first convention of that organization by a membei
in Jerome, Ariz.

We are very sorry [he writes] that we are unable to send
delegate to Denver, but we have the fight of our life here wit
an I. W. W. bunch. They are coming here from all over;
already they have got in some dirty work by getting some of
our members to quit the W. F. M., . . . there seems to be
concerted movement on the part of the I. W. W. to get in where
the W. F. M. are doing good work and disrupt the union. 1

It is not unnatural that there should be increasing friction
between the two organizations, inasmuch as the Western
Federation has become on the whole more conservative,
while the I. W. W. has grown constantly more revolution-
ary. In June, 1910, the W. F. M. voted for affiliation with
the American Federation of Labor and the alliance was
finally consummated in May, 1911. "What the mine
owners failed to do by force," declares the I. W. W., " they

1 T. P. Esmond, letter dated July 17, 1914, Proceedings, 2ist Conven-
tion, W. F. M. (1914), p. 26.
3:8

RECENT TENDENCIES 319

have accomplished through Civic Federation methods. The
process will doubtless continue, until the W. F. of M. be-
comes as completely the football of metalliferous mine own-
ers as the United Mine Workers is of the coal barons." l At
its twentieth annual convention in 1912, the W. F. M. now
not only divorced from the I. W. W., but wedded to the A.
F. of L., reversed its traditional embargo on agreements
and accepted the policy of entering into contracts with the
operators. 2

.Article-V,,, section 4. of the Federation's Constitution^
( IQIO edition) stipulated that "no local union or unions of
the W. F\ M. shall enter into any signed contract or verbal.
fnr an y sprifipfl length of time witfr tfa 1 ' 1 * pm "

plovers." This clause was strirkpn onf in TOT-? _Jhe re-
visecTedition of the Constitution for that year expressed
the new policy of the Federation (now; the Jntf rri;<t1 ' nria1
Union of Mine. Mill and Smelter Workers) Jn these terms :
" Local unions or groups of local unions may enter into
wage agreements for a specified time, providing such agree-
ments have the approval of the Executive Board. . . ." 3

The bitterness between the two organizations was most
acute in the Butte (Mont.) mining fields. The situation
reached a dramatic climax in the summer of 1914 when, on
June 13, the Union Hall of Butte Miners' Union No. I (W.
F. M.) was dynamited. . The writer is not sufficiently
familiar with the facts to tell this story in detail or to ex-
press an opinion as to whether or to what extent the I. W.
W. element in Butte was responsible for the dynamiting.

1 Editorial, Solidarity, July 9, 1910, p. 2, col. 4.

2 Proceedings, 2Oth W. F. M. Convention, p. 426.

3 Constitution and By-laws of the W. F. M. (1912), art. viii, sec. 4.
President Moyer discusses this change of policy on trade agreements
in his report to the 22nd (1914) convention (Proceedings, pp. 37, 4)-
For constitutional provisions of the I. W. W. on contracts, cf. infra, p.
330.

320

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

The friction between I. W. W. sympathizers and the man-
agement of the local W. F. M. union Butte Miners' Union
No. i was unquestionably a factor in the quarrel which
culminated in the dynamiting outrage. There were cer-
tainly other factors. The local organization had been grad-
ually dividing into two factions the " Reds " and the
" Yellows." Among the " Reds," I. W. W. members and
sympathizers predominated. The " Yellows " comprised
the local officials of the union and their followers, and they
were in a majority. It was alleged by the " Reds " that at
the union meetings the administration element deliberately
packed the hall with the " reactionaries " before the hour
of opening, so that the " Reds " could not even voice their
grievances. Then the hall was blown up. The administra-
tion accused the I. W. W. and pointed out that such a deed
was to be expected of a group which avowed its belief in
the doctrine of " direct action by the militant minority."
The Miners' Magazine declares that " the ' Red ' faction
composed of I. W. W. members dynamited the Union
Hall." 1 At the last W. F. M. convention (1916), Presi-
dent Moyer said that the real cause of the Butte tragedy
was the " poison the I; W. W. promoters were scattering "
in the minds of the Butte miners. 2 A large portion of the
two weeks' session of the twenty-first W. F. M. convention
(Denver, 1914) was taken up with a discussion of the Butte
dynamiting and the alleged complicity of the I. W. W.
therein. One of the delegates related the following inci-
dent, which he said took place in front of the Union Hall
in Butte a short time before the dynamiting:

Three of the mob . . . presented I. W. W. cards ... at the

1 July 2, 1914, p. 5.

* Report of Proceedings, 22nd W. F. M. Convention, Miners' Maga-
zine, Aug. 17, 1916, p. 2.

RECENT TENDENCIES

door and asked to be admitted to the meeting, and on being re-
fused, one of them laid his I. W. W. card on the sidewalk,
stooped down and patted it with his hand and said, " We will
make you fellows eat that card before long." 1

Lewis J. Duncan, the Socialist mayor of Butte, declared
that the I.W.W.s did not take part in the dynamiting. In
a letter dated June 29, 1914, and addressed to the United
Labor Bulletin (Denver), he asserts that

the responsibility for Tuesday's disturbance cannot truthfully
be placed on the I. W. W. The "600 itinerant I. W. W.
trouble-makers " on whom your report lays the blame for the
June 1 3th trouble, are non-existent. . . . The men in revolt
against the local officers of the miners [union] and against the
W. F. of M. officials are a majority of the miners of Butte, and
only a small minority of them are connected with the Propa-
ganda League of the I. W. W. here, or are even sympathetic
with the I.W.W.s. We have no economic organization of the
I. W. W. in this city. It is untrue that even all those in the
lead of the local revolt are connected with the I. W. W. . . , z

But scarcely more than a week after the dynamiting it
was announced in the newspapers that

plans for forming an independent union of miners were made
today at a meeting . . . attended by 5000 miners. . . . The seced-
ers [the dispatch continued] have an executive committee of
twenty, a majority of whom are known to be members of the
Industrial Workers of the World. . . . 3

Apparently nothing came of this in the way of an I. W. W.

1 Delegate Murray, Proceedings, 2ist Convention W. F. M. (1914),
p. 146.

* Miners' Magazine, July 16, 1914, p. 7. 'Mayor Duncan's statements
were denied by the editor, ibid., pp. 8-10.

s The New York Times, June 22, 1914, p. 18, col. 3. Butte dispatch,
dated June 21.

322

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

organization, for there was no I. W. W. local in Butte in
1914. At the present time, however, there is an active
local there.

Entirely apart from the Butte controversy there has been
a marked feeling among the officials of the Western Fed-
eration that the I. W. W. had deliberately attempted to dis-
rupt the Federation. President Moyer thought the I.W.W.s
had tried by crooked methods to get control of, or disrupt
the W. F. M. 1 He alleged that " there had been a conspir-
acy entered into both in and out of the Western Federation
of Miners ... to secure control of this organization for
the purpose of getting it back into the I. W. W.," z and that
" publications edited by this direct-action, sabotage-howling
coterie have lent their aid to this campaign. . . ." 3 Mr. J.
M. O'Neill, the editor of the Miners' Magazine, a man who
has since 1907 been particularly lavish of epithets on
I.W.W.-ism, complained that

Since the Western Federation of Miners repudiated by refer-
endum vote the aggregation of characterless fanatics, who make
up the official coterie of the International Workless Wonders,
the officials of the Western Federation of Miners have been
assailed by every disreputable hoodlum in the I. W. W. ... *
The time has come [he went on] when the labor and socialist
press of America must hold up to the arclight these profes-
sional degenerates who create riots, and then, in the name of
free speech, solicit revenue to feed the prostituted parasites
who yell " scab " and " fakiration " at every labor body whose
members refuse to gulp down the lunacy of a " bummery "
that would disgrace the lower confines of Hades. 5

1 Report to the 2Oth Convention, W. F. M,. Proceedings (1912), p. 14.
1 Proceedings, 2Oth Convention, W. F. M., p. 283.

3 Ibid., p. 24.

4 Editorial, Aug. i, 1912, p. 6, col. I.
6 Ibid., p. 7, col. 2.

RECENT TENDENCIES 323

Each faction of the I. W. W., according to O'Neill, claims
to be " the genuine brand of unionism that is ultimately
destined to shatter empires, scatter kingdoms and strangle
economic slavery to death. . . ." 1 Another editorial in the
same journal declares that the Federation is

unalterably opposed to their tactics and methods. . . . Indus-
trial unionism will not come through soup houses, spectacular
free-speech fights, sabotage or insults to the flags of nations.
. . . Men will not be organized or educated by means of vio-
lence, for violence is but the weapon of ignorance, blind to the
cause that subjugates humanity and sightless to the remedy
that will break the fetters of wage slavery.

There has been less trouble between the coal miners'
union and the I. W. W. because the United Mine Workers
have always been much less radical than the Western Fed-
eration and the I. W. W. has really never succeeded in mak-
ing inroads of any consequence among the United Mine
Workers. J^s^ifaEES 5 ? International Vice President of the
U. M. W., told the United States Commission on Industrial
Relations that the I. W. W. was " rather an unknown quan-
tity among the coal miners. In fact," he said, " we do not
let them propagate their doctrines; at least, we try to pre-
vent their ideas from becoming accepted by our people. . . .
There is nothing constructive about their philosophy; it is
all destructive." i

The Mine Workers' Union is perhaps the most construc-
tively business-like, and certainly one of the most success-
ful, unions in the world. Their hard-headed constructive
work is most of all evidenced in the business agreements
which they negotiate with the operators at regular intervals.

1 Miners' Magazine, June 20, 1912, p. 9.

2 Hearings, Washington, D. C, Apr. 6, 7974. Final report and testi-
mony, vol. i, p. 453.

324 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

To the I. W. W., agreements particularly all time agree-
ments are in themselves evil. Consequently the friction
between the world's smallest and most revolutionary indus-
trial union and its largest and most conservative industrial
union was experienced primarily in connection with these
agreements. " Wherever the bona fide labor unions have
succeeded in effecting a satisfactory agreement with the
employers," declares the Miners' Magazine, ". . . there will
be found the I. W. W. organizer, attempting to create dis-
sension." *

The Wobblies justified their attacks upon the Mine Workers
[said President John Mitchell at the U. M. W. convention in
1906] by saying that we make trade agreements which so tie
the hands of our members as to render us unable to strike at
any time during the year when conditions would seem pro-
pitious. They lost sight of the fact that if we ... were . . .
at liberty to strike at our own sweet will, the operators would
have precisely the same right and could lock us out whenever
trade was dull. . . . 2

The most recent conflict between the I. W. W. and the
Mine Workers was in the anthracite region around Scran-
ton, Pennsylvania. In April, 1916, entirely against the will
of the United Mine Workers, according to a conservative
writer,

the I. W. W. leaders decided to close down certain of the col-
lieries about Scranton. The method . . . was to picket the
collieries in the early morning hours, from four o'clock until
seven, to urge the men not to go to work, and then, if unsuc-
cessful by that means, to drive them off by force. 3

1 Editorial, United Mine Workers' Journal, Reprinted in Miners'
Magazine, July 2, 1914, p. 9.

* Report to I7th Annual Convention (1906), Minutes, pp. 53-4.

3 Katherine Mayo, Justice to All: The Story of the Pennsylvania
State Police (Putnams, 1917), p. 225.

RECENT TENDENCIES 325

At about _ this tiny* ^914) Rn^erj^ Debs. one of the
founders^' thr I W W. was pg-ain urging the formation
o,a great revolutinn Qr Y ''"^i^tr^ 1 union. He proposed to
begin wjth- the two big miners' union" the Western ^4-
eration and the United Mine Workers which organizations
were to form the head and center of the new union.

If is vain to talk about the I. W. W. [he said] ; the Chicago
faction, it now seems plain, stands for anarchy. So be it. Let
all who oppose political action and favor sabotage and the pro-
gram of anarchism join that faction. The Detroit faction, for
reasons not necessary to discuss here, will never amount to
more than it does today. A new organization must be built
with the miners, the leading industrial body, at the head of the
movement. 1

' The_consolidated miners and the reunited I. W. W. f " he
said, " wr>]i|rj rlraw trv thptngHyeg a ^ tne trade unions witty
industrial tendencies^ H t* 111 ? w^i 1 ^ thf reactionary fed-
eration of craft unions ^A. F. of L.] be transformed from
both within and without, into a revolutionary industrial
organization?*" in the same article Debs advocated a re-
union oi thg Socialist and Socialist Labor parties, and Wil-
liam English Walling in commenting on Debs' proposal for
uniting the W. F. M. and 'the U. M. W. says that such an
outcome " if not immediately probable, is decidedly pos-
sible." 3

The ninth I. W. W. convention, which met in Chicago,
Sept. 21, 1914, was not an important one. It was in session
less than a week and there were not more than twenty-five

" Industrial Organization," Miners' Magazine, May 7, 1914, p. 6,
col. 2.

3 "A plea for solidarity," International Socialist Reviciv, March, 1914,
P- 538.

" Debs, revolutionary unionist," New Review, vol. ii, p. 426, July,
1914-

326 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

delegates present. 1 The writer attended the sessions of
September 22, 23 and 24. On the 22nd he counted ten
delegates actually present, and about the same number of
spectators. The next morning there were sixteen delegates
on hand, and on the 2/th, seventeen. No stenographic re-
port of the proceedings indeed, no complete report of any
kind whatsoever has ever been issued. A very brief ac-
count was printed in Solidarity, which emphasized the fact
that all the delegates were " typical specimens of the work-
ing class rank and file, with some contempt for empty theo-
rizing and a marked preference for action." 2 On the 23rd,
resolutions were presented asking for a reduction in the
amount of dues payable to the national office and proposing
to limit convention delegates to one vote each irrespective
of the size of the locals which they represented. Both were
lost. The latter resolution was supported by a militant
minority which very naturally believed that the majority is
sluggish always behind time and therefore nearly always
wrong. They insisted that the fiew and fruitful ideas
always come from the minority and that it should, therefore,
be given representation rather according to its (assumed)
revolutionary initiative than according to its numerical
strength. Their attitude was primarily the result of the
difficulty they experienced both in and out of the organ-
ization in getting their militant ideas " across " to the large
majority. In a lesser degree they were stimulated by the
example set them by their fellow syndicalists in France
where the " militant minorities " in the small unions of the
C. G. T. are given the same representation and voting power
as the large unions of that body. For this reason small
groups which make up the " extreme left *' in the C. G. T.

1 Solidarity (Oct. 3, 1914, p. i).

2 Ibid., Oct. 3, 1914, pp. i, 4.

RECENT TENDENCIES 327

have more influence than similar groups have in this coun-
try. 1

The unemployment situation had been particularly acute
the preceding winter and it was reported that the greater
part of the membership of the I. W. W. were out of em-
ployment at the time of the convention. ". . . the I. W. W.
has no apologies to offer," says Solidarity, " for the small-
ness of its last convention. . . . most of our members are
out of work, and few, if any, Pacific Coast locals could
have financed a delegate for even four days in 'Chicago." z
According to the account appearing in the I. W. W. press,
it was the understanding of the convention

that [unemployed] parades to City Hall, Capitols, etc., should
be discouraged as nothing more substantial than hot air is to
be found in these political centers. The delegates agreed with
Haywood that the places for the unemployed to demonstrate
were the places where there was plenty of food and clothing
so that they could help themselves. 3

At the same time the delegates decided to take definite steps
toward organizing the unemployed. According to the Chi-
cago papers, Haywood had said : " Millions have been ap-
propriated for the militia ; nothing for the wealth producers
who will be without work. Where warehouses are full of
food, go in and take it; where machinery is lying idle, use
it for your purposes; where houses are unoccupied, enter
them and sleep." * At a later session (on September 24)

1 Cf. Louis Levine, Revolutionary Syndicalism in France, ch. viii, for
a more adequate description of the "one union, one vote" plan of
representation.

* Editorial, Oct. 24, 1914, p. 2, col. 2.

8 Solidarity, Oct. 3, 1914, p. I, col. 4.

4 Chicago Daily News, September 22, 1914. This same dispatch stated
that there were fifty delegates present twice as many as the *' Wob-
blies " themselves claimed.

328 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

there was adopted unanimously and without discussion a
resolution which, in effect, stipulated that all speakers be
instructed to recommend to the workers the necessity of
curtailing production by " slowing down " and the use of
sabotage. The resolution also suggested the publication of
an explanatory leaflet on this subject. 1 The Daily News
dispatch, just quoted, reports F. H. Little, an executive
board member from California, as saying, " Wherever I go,
I inaugurate sabotage among the workers. Eventually the
bosses will learn why it is that their machinery is spoiled
and their workers slowing down."

At the same session it was proposed that a conference on
harvest organization be held, and from this time on the
harvest and the other agricultural workers attracted more
and more of the organization's attention.

There was some discussion of the methods used in con-
ducting the business of the local unions, especially in regard
to the bookkeeping system or lack of system. No definite
decision was reached, but the remarks of the delegates showed
that they were beginning to realize that financial and mem-
bership records cannot be kept by the futurist or impres-
sionistic methods which are so effective on the soap-box.
It was realized also that responsible persons must be selected
for the work of the local secretary-treasurer, and it was
urged that some uniform system of bookkeeping be adopted
for the use of local secretaries. Some I. W. W. officials,
like some bank officials, no doubt abuse the confidence placed
in them, although the daily press probably heralds to the
world the I. W. W. defalcation with greater promptness
and enthusiasm than it does that of the banker. A dispatch
in the OnmhaBee (Nov. 24, 1916) says that the local " sec-
retary-treasurer of the Industrial Workers of the World

1 See the report in Solidarity, Oct. 3, 1914, p. 4, col. 4.

RECENT TENDENCIES 320

has been missing for the last four days and so is $250 which
was to be used for the relief of strikers and their families
in Duluth, Minn." In another instance, according to Vin-
cent St. John, " the National Secretary [of the ' National
Industrial Union of Forest and Lumber Workers ' of the
I. W. W.] left with all the funds in his charge six or eight
months ago and the organization had to start all over
again. . . ." *

The European war had broken out less than two months
before this convention met and the delegates did not fail
to adopt a resolution against war. It was worded in part as
follows :

. . . The ignorance of the working class is the reason for the
continuation of the war. . . . The [German] Social Democ-
racy was a movement that engendered a spirit of patriotism
within political boundary lines. The industrial movement will
wipe out all boundaries and will establish an international re-
lationship between all races engaged in industry. . . . We, as
members of the industrial army, will refuse to fight for any
purpose except for the realization of industrial freedom. 2

Only two constitutional amendments of importance were
passed at the ninth convention. One was a further develop-
ment of the machinery of the referendum and constituted a
victory for the decentralist boosters of the " rank and file."
The first three clauses read as follows :

(a) Any local union in good standing with the General Office
may institute or initiate a call for a referendum to be submitted
to the General Office at once, with reasons and arguments for
same.

1 Letter dated July 16, 1913, to W. Beech, Proceedings, 8th Convention,
I. W. W., p. 24, col. i.

2 Solidarity, Oct. 3, 1914, p. 4, col. 4.

330 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

(b) Upon receipt of the initiative call for a referendum the
General Office shall publish same with arguments for and
against, and must submit it to all Local Unions, National In-
dustrial Unions and Industrial Departments for seconds within
30 days.

(c) Before any referendum shall be submitted, the call for
the same must be seconded by at least ten [local] unions in
good standing in at least three different industries. 1

The other amendment expressed in more specific terms
than ever before the attitude of the organization toward
agreements between employers and employees. It replaced
the former blanket prohibition with a clause which specifi-
cally defines the kinds of agreement which must be avoided,
and, inferentially, permits the making of agreements which
are free from the objectionable features specified. The
amendment is to Article III. and is as follows :

No Local Union affiliated with the General Organization,
Industrial department, or National Industrial Union of the I.
W. W. shall enter into any contract with an individual, or cor-
poration of employers, binding the members to any of the fol-
lowing conditions :

1. Any agreement wherein any specified length of time is
mentioned for the continuance of the said agreement.

2. Any agreement wherein the membership is bound to give
notice before making demands affecting hours, wages or shop
conditions.

3. Any agreement wherein it is specified that the members
will work only for employers who belong to an Association of
the employers.

4. Any agreement that proposes to regulate the selling price
of the product they are employed in making. 2

These two years of unprecedented field activity were nat-

1 Preamble and Constitution of the I. W. W., 1916, art. vii, sec. 5.
*Ibid., art. iii, pp. 11-12.

RECENT TENDENCIES -531

urally years of growth in membership. This is more
especially true of 1912 than of 1913, during the latter part
of which a decline set in. The membership was at its high
tide in 1912 after the Lawrence strike. The I. W. W. then
boasted more than 18,000 members. 1

Never since that time has it reached that point nor had it
previously, unless we include the W. F. M. in the member- / \r

ship for 1905. There was also during both years a net in-
crease in the number of locals in the organization. During
the year ending August 31, 1913, two hundred and thirty-
six new locals were organized, and during the same period
one hundred were disbanded. The new locals were organ-
ized in largest numbers in the lumber, textile, and metal and
machinery industries. Thirty were " mixed " locals. 3

In the following table is a complete list of these new and
defunct locals classified to show the number gained and lost
in each industry :

TABLE 4

Number of local unions organized and disbanded during the year
ending August 31, 1913, classified by industries as reported. 3

Industry Organized Disbanded

Agricultural i 2

Amusement i

Automobile i i

Bakery 4 i

Brass I

Brewery and distillery i

Brick, tile and terra cotta i 2

Building construction 13 2

Building employees i 2

Button 2 2

Clerks, butchers and delivery 2 i

Confectionery and fruits 2 I

Car i

1 Cf. appendix iv.

* Proceedings, Eighth I. W, W. Convention, p. 30.
3 Adapted from data in Proceedings, Eighth I. W. W. Convention,
p. 30.

332

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Industry Organized Disbanded

Coal miners 3 2

Construction (general) 4 2

Corn products i

Department store i i

Domestic service I i

Electrical i i

Fishermen I

Furniture 2

Glass i i

Hotel and restaurant 2 3

Laborers, general 2 3

Leather 2 2

Light and power plant i

Lumber 41

Marine transport 3

Match i i

Metal and machinery 18 10

Miners I

Mixed locals 30 19

Musical and theatrical I

Oilcloth i

Oil workers 3 i

Packing house I 3

Paper mills I

Piano and instruments 4

Plaster composition i

Pottery i i

Printing plant i i

Propaganda League i 2

Public service 10 2

Railroad construction 5 4

Railroad employees 5 5

Reed, willow, and rattan 4 i

Rubber 3 3

Ship construction i

Steel 5 4

Street car 2

Sugar plant 2 2

Textile 32

Tobacco 6 3

Transport i 2

Watch and clock I

Wood 3

236

100

RECENT TENDENCIES 333

The membership declined considerably in 1913 and 1914,
since which time it appears to have increased slightly. COQ;

wvftHve ftstim atp - s fiy it qf about. 15.000 in TOT3 J T T nnn i'rL. /

1914, and 15,000 in 191 5. ^ The author has not yet been
a51e to get a reliable estimate of the membership for
1916. The reports of the tenth convention (November,
1916) as published in Solidarity give no clue. A dispatch
to the Weekly People (December 9, 1916, p. i) reports
that the delegates claimed to represent a constituency of
35,000 to 40,000. As to 1912, Professor Hoxie said the
average paid-up membership was 14,300 and that " local
and national bodies have an additional dues-paying mem-
bership of 25,000 on which no per-capita tax has been
paid to the General Organization," and credits the organ-
ization (for 191^) with a "nominal non-dues-paying en-
rolment of from 50,000 to 60,000." He came to the con-
clusion " that 100,000 or more men have liad I. W. W. dues
cards in their possession during the past five years. 2 The
figures in Appendix IV indicate that more than 191,000
persons have at one time or another during the last ten
years been members of the I. W. W. This table also shows
that the I. W. W. often gives very exaggerated membership
estimates. This was true in 1913 when unofficial I. W. W.
estimates ran into the hundreds of thousands. At this time,
it is reported that, " Hoxie walked into the office of St.
John, the General Secretary, and said, ' Look here, St. John,
I've got the goods on you. You have only 14,300 mem-
bers.' ' You're a liar, Hoxie," replied St. John, ' we have

1 Cf. appendix iv, table A. For the status of the I. W. W. in Cali-
fornia in 1914, see the writer's report to the U. S. Commission on
Industrial Relations on " The I. W. W. in California."

2 "The Truth about the I. W. W.," Journal of Political Economy,
Nov., 1913, vol. xxi, p. 786.

334 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

14,310." Levine gives an estimate (doubtless furnished
by the general office of the I. W. W.) which is unques-
tionably much too high. He puts the membership for
August, 1913, at 70,000 distributed as follows: textile in-
dustry, 40,000; lumber industry, 15,000; railroad construc-
tion, 10,000; metal and machinery industry, 1,000; and mis-
cellaneous, 4,ooo. 2 The numerical insignificance of the I.
W. W. as compared to the American Federation of Labor
was strikingly indicated by Professor Hoxie in the course
of his remarks before the American Economic Association
in December, 1913. He said that in 1913 the I. W. W. had
paid-up membership amounting to

1 i ) Less than one one-hundredth of the membership of the
American Federation of Labor;

(2) Less than one-sixtieth of the voters of the Socialist
ticket in 1912;

(3) Less than one-twentieth of the membership of a single
industrial union in the A. F. of L. ;

(4) Less than six one-thousandths of the general body of
organized workmen ;

(5) Less than one in 2,000 of American wage- workers. 8

The years 1914 and IQI 5 were marled hy a ftefinUo dump
in the fortunes of the I. W. W. followed in 1016 by a notice?
able increase of activity^ St. John says that the decrease in
membership during these years was most marked in the
following industries : " lumber, railroad construction, build-
ing, packing house, amusement workers and the public ser-
vice industries." 4 A possible exception to this general in-

1(< The Development of Hoxie's Economics," Journal of Political
Economy, vol. xxiv, p. 875, note (Nov., 1916).

" The Development of Syndicalism in America," Political Science
Quarterly, Sept., 1913, vol. xxviii, p. 478.

3 Proceedings of the 26th meeting, American Economic Review, vol.
iv, no. I, supplement, pp. 140-141 (March, 1914).
* Letter to the author, Feb. i, 1915.

RECENT TENDENCIES

activity is the National Industrial Union of Marine Trans-
port Workers of the I. W. W., which affiliated with the I.
W. W. in April, 1913, and has since made some progress. 1
St. John informed the United States Commission on Indus-
trial Relations that the cause of this falling-off was the in-
dustrial depression. He said that " the membership on the
Pacific Coast from one end of it to the other, seventy-five
percent of them, have been out of work in the last year and
have not paid any dues." Leonard Abbott thought that
the reaction or slump of 1914-15 in the I. W. W. was "due
perhaps to the great emotional strain of revolutionary
activity. . .. ."

There is something almost pathologic [he said] in the present
reaction of the I. W. W. It has stressed too much the destruc-
tive side sabotage, violence. Acts of violence have a very
violent rebound the boomerang effect. Violence should not
be made a tactic. You can see the apotheosis of violence in
Europe today. The I. W. W. has too much gloried in it. 3

In the latter part of 1915 and in 1916 came a revival of
I. W . W'. Jllltlllty. """Trie i most energetic group of all has
been the Agricultural Workers' Organization or the "A. W.
O.." ( t/rganized April, 1915), which has taken great strides
in pushing the propaganda of industrial unionism among
the farm laborers and harvest hands and organizing these
hitherto unorganized laborers. At the tenth convention
" the A. W. O. held the center of the stage, being repre-

1 Proceedings, Eighth I. W. W. Convention, p. 5, col. 2, p. 6, col. I.
In this branch of the I. W. W. in New York City there were in 1917
about 5000 members (mostly Spaniards) of whom not less than half
were in good standing.

1 Industrial Relations (Hearings), vol. ii, p. 1462.

3 Speech at the I. W. W. Hall in 8ist Street, New York City, January
31,

336 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

sented by seven delegates with 36 votes each." The "A.
W. O." has its headquarters in Minneapolis and is strongest
in the Middle West and Northwest. The following extracts
from a daily press dispatch will give an idea of the stir
which is being made by the " A. W. O." of the I. W. W.
The accuracy of the report is questionable but it is pre-
sented for what it is worth.

State and city officials of the states comprising the great
American grain belt are considering holding a conference in
the near future to devise methods of coping with the Industrial
Workers of the World. Thousands of these migratory mendi-
cants have thronged the Middle West this year creating a reign
of terror throughout the rural communities and intimidating
all who do not join their organization

Coming with the slogan " Six Dollars a Day or No Work,"
thousands of I. W. W. members and organizers have spread
over the agricultural districts of the Middle West, attempting
to organize harvest hands into a semblance of a union and
compel the farmers to grant their demands

I. W. W. gangs have taken possession of trains, clubbing off
all who could not show a membership card in their organiza-
tion. In most cases they have even driven trainmen from their
trains. . . . Often they travel in mobs of 300 or 400

Great camps are established, not only by the I. W. W. but by
those who are not members of that organization. The men
congregate at these " jungles," cook their food, often pil-
fered from nearby farms, wash their clothes, bathe, and not in-
frequently stage drunken orgies. This year the I.W.W.s have
posted signs at their " jungles " reading, " For I.W.W.s only,"
and any man who dares wander into their camp without proper
credentials is due for a beating. . . . This year they have been
more numerous than ever

1 Solidarity, Dec. 2, 1916, p. I. General Secretary Hay wood reported
to the convention that the A. W. O. had enrolled at that time 18,000
members. Proceedings, p. 36.

RECENT TENDENCIES

337

All methods of handling the situation have proven unavail-
ing One method suggested is for each state to employ

forces of mounted police similar to the famous Northwest
Mounted Police of Canada to keep the bands from congregat-
ing, break up their " jungles " and otherwise deal with them.
Power seems the only force they recognize, and they laugh at
the county sheriffs and town constables. 1

The year 1916 saw a recrudescence of both free speech
and strike activities. The most important were the Everett
Free Speech fight culminating in the tragedy of November
6 and the miners' strike on the Mesaba range during the
spring and summer. The scope of the present study does
not permit of a detailed account of either of these highly
important labor struggles. Indeed, this is hardly possible
now, since in neither case is the story complete.

Many signs suggest the possibility of a split in the I. W.
W. before many months. The growing strength of the A.
W. O. and its natural yearning to be a big independent
organization as well as the failure of the Pacific Coast to
send more than one solitary delegate to the tenth conven-
tion, both indicate a possible development of internal dis-
cord sufficient to divide the I. W. W. into eastern and west-
ern wings Mr. Roger W. Babson in one of his recent con-
fidential labor reports suggests another way in when a shift-
ing of power may come. "A very large labor organization
. . . has taken steps," he says. " to leave the Federation of
Labor and form an industrial union. ... A convention for
this purpose is planned for Chicago in the near future. The
Industrial Workers of the World plan to gain control of this
convention and may succeed."

1 The New York World, Aug. 13. 1916, p. n, col. i (dated Sioux
City, la., Aug. 12).

2 R. W. Babson, Reports on Labor, "The I.W.W.'s latest move,"
Confidential Bulletin of the Co-operation Service, no. L-59, Aug., 1916.

338 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

A correspondent in the Weekly People says that one dele-
gate at the tenth I. W. W. convention declared that there
was very likely to be a split in the organization and inti-
mated that, in such an event, the Agricultural Workers'
Organization would be the chief factor in bringing it about. 1
The same writer continues :

The A. O. W. . . . has a membership of from 18,000 to 20,000.
This seems to be a lot, but last night one who just arrived from
the harvest fields told me that workers traveling through the
West on box cars were thrown off if they had no red card of
the I. W. W., and many were beaten up. . . . He told me that
eight or more go in groups with revolvers and board trains
going out from the limits of a town and go through the train
kicking and beating-up anyone who has no red card. 2

No convention was held in 1915. The tenth convention
met at Chicago in the latter part of November, 1916. Fairly
complete reports have been published in the columns of
Solidarity* There were in attendance about 25 delegates,
including three members of the General Executive Board
and the General Secretary. The delegates were almost en-
tirely from the East and Middle West, only one coming
from the Pacific Coast. 4 The editor of Solidarity, com-
menting upon the character of the convention, says that
" the tenth convention is remarkable as denoting the decline
of the ' soap-boxers ' as the dominant element." ' The
dominant tone," he says, " was constructive rather than
controversial and the general demand was for such consti-
tutional and other changes as would make for greater effi-

1 Dec. 9, 1916, p. i, col. 3. Dispatch signed " R. E. P."
3 Ibid.

3 Issues of .December 2, 9, and 16, 1916. The Proceedings were pub-
lished in full in 1917.

4 Solidarity, Dec. 2, 1916, p. i, col. I.

RECENT TENDENCIES

ciency in the work of the organization," and he approvingly
quotes one delegate as exclaiming, " The I. W. W. is pass-
ing out of the purely propaganda stage and is entering the
stage of constructive organization. 1

The most recent official report says that the organization
now (January i, 1917) "consists of six industrial unions:
Marine Transport Workers, Metal and Machinery Work-
ers, Agricultural Workers (A. W. O.), Iron Miners, Lum-
ber Workers, and Railway Workers, having fifty branches
and 200 unions in other industries, together with 100 re-
cruiting unions directly united with the general organiza-
tion." The paid-up membership is put at 60,000 on Jan-
uary 1st, 1917, up to which date it is claimed' that an aggre-
gate of 300,000 membership cards had been issued since
1905. 3 The bulk of the present membership is distributed
amongtthe following- industries : textile, steel, lumber, min-_
inff T farming, railroad construction, p,n^ marine {ransporta-^
tion. Except in the textile industry, the majority of these
workers are migratory unskilled labor^ rg *

The activities of the I. W. W. are by no means confined
to the United States and Canada. The organization has
been gradually extending its propaganda in most English-
speaking countries. This study is primarily concerned with
the I. W. W. in the United States. But in any case it would
be impossible to present any adequate record of its work in
other countries because of the difficulty of getting at the

1 Solidarity, Dec. 2, 1916, p. i.

* St. John, The I. W. W., History, Structure and Methods (1917 edi-
tion), p. 23.

3 Ibid., p. 24. Charters were issued to 116 locals (in 27 States and 2
Canadian provinces) during the two years ending Sept. I, 1916. These
included 8 recruiting unions and 9 Propaganda Leagues. ( Vide Report
of General Secretary, Proceedings, Tenth Convention [1916], pp. 33-36,.
where there is a list of these new locals.)

4 St. John, op. cit., p. 23.

340

facts of the situation. The announcements from the Chi-
cago headquarters make reference to four foreign jurisdic-
tions, viz. : its British, New Zealand, Australian and South
African " administrations/' It is unlikely that the " Brit-
ish Administration " amounts to anything. The writer has
happened upon vague references to an " I. W. W. local "
in London, but has not been able to either disprove or verify
them. It is in the British colonies of South Africa a and
Australia that the I. W. W. has made headway with its
propaganda and organizing work. After the outbreak of the
European War the I. W. W. in Australia became the object
of no little attention on the part of the government because
of their anti-militarist agitation. Finally in Australia sev-
eral of the Wobblies were arrested, tried and convicted on
charges of high treason.

All the machinery of the capitalist state has been turned loose
against us [says an I. W. W. paper published in Sydney] . Our
Tiall has been raided periodically as a matter of principle, our
literature, our papers, pictures, and press have all been con-
fiscated ; our members and speakers have been arrested and
charged with almost every crime on the calendar ; the author-
ities are making unscrupulous, bitter and frantic attempts to
stifle the propaganda of the I. W. W. 2

Some idea of the nature and seriousness of that propa-
ganda may be had from the meagre reports which have
reached this country. A writer in the Sunset Magazine 3
says that the striking coal miners

had Australia at their mercy. ... In vain did the gov-

1 In the summer of 1918 it was reported in a press dispatch from
/Johannesburg that a branch of the I. W. W. had been established
among the natives at Durban (New York Times, July 19, 1918, p. 15,
col. 5).

3 Direct Action (Sydney), reprinted in Solidarity, Mar. 17, 1917, p. 4-
3 March, 1917, p. n, col. i, "The Raised Fist of Labor."

RECENT TENDENCIES 34 r

eminent plead with the strikers for coal to start troop and
wheat ships. ... As a last resort, the leaders . . .. were ar-
rested. . . . The Industrial Workers of the World, the mili-
tant aggressive organization whose doctrine of a general re-
bellion is rapidly spreading through the " paradise of labor,"
demanded the release of the miners [and] threatened to burn
down Sydney if their demands were not complied with. They
made good. Night after night the incendiary work went on
in Sydney. . . . Terrorized by the handful of industrial rebels,
the commonwealth Avas forced to yield. The strike leaders
were finally released [and] the demands of the strikers were
granted.

A month later the New York Times published some
special correspondence on the subject. It appears that in
October, 1916, charges were preferred against 15 I.W.W.s
in New South Wales. 1 These charges involved, according
to this report, treason and wholesale arson in Sydney,
amounting to $1,250,000. The chief issue involved was the
conscription policy of the government, to which the I. W.
W. was opposed. They were brought to trial on October
loth. The warrant against them charged that they were
preaching sabotage by means of surreptitious pamphlets and
openly upon the streets. Further, the warrant alleged, says
the Times correspondent, "that they plotted rebellion against
the King; that they conspired to burn down buildings in
Sydney . . . endeavored to put force or restraint upon the
Parliament of New South Wales, [and that] they endeav-
ored to intimidate and overawe Parliament." *

Their anti-war campaign at last became so obnoxious to
the government that the House of Representatives, in De-
cember, 1916, passed a statute, called "The Unlawful Asso-

1 One of them was the editor of Direct Action, an I. W. W. paper
published in Sydney.
* New York Times, April 14, 1917, p. 6.

342 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

ciations Act," which practically made it a criminal offense
to be a member of the I. W. W. ; the apparent intention of
the authorities being to arrest all prominent I. W. W. speak-
ers and hold them for the duration of the war. 1

The Australian Unlawful Associations Act 2 is to " con-
tinue in force for the duration of the present war and a
period of six months thereafter, but no longer." Section 3
runs in part as follows : " The following are hereby de-
jf dared to be unlawful associations, namely: (a) the asso-

ciation known as the Industrial Workers of the World ;
and (b) any association which, by its constitution or propa-
ganda, advocates or encourages, or incites or instigates to,
the taking or endangering of human life, or the destruction
or injury of property. . . ." The act imposes the penalty
of imprisonment for six months upon any person who
" continues to be a member of an unlawful association,"
who " advocates or encourages [or who " prints or publishes
any writing advocating or encouraging "] . . . the taking
or endangering of human life, or the destruction or injury
of property," who " advocates or encourages . . . any action
intended or calculated to prevent or hinder the production,
manufacture or transport ... of troops, arms, munitions
or war-like material," or who " knowingly gives or con-
tributes money or goods to an unlawful association."

In Australia as in the United States there were prior to
the war two I. W. W. organizations in existence : a polit-
ical I. W. W. and a non-political I. W. W. In that country,
however, the political group (counterpart of the Detroit

1 Cf. letter from the General Secretary of the Australian Adminis-
tration, in Report of General-Secretary-Treasurer to the Tenth I. W.
W. Convention (1916), Proceedings, pp. 42-43. Fide, also, New York
Times, Dec. 20, 1916, p. 5, col. 2.

'The Unlawful Associations Act (No. 41 of 1916), assented to Dec.
21, 1916, and amended by the Unlawful Associations Act (No. 14 of
1917), assented to July 27, 1917.

RECENT TENDENCIES 343

wing in the United States) has been by all odds the more
influential. Although both these groups were pretty well
smothered by the war and the Unlawful Associations Act,
the I. W. W. industrial union idea made its appearance in
another form in the summer of 1918. In July of that year
representatives of some of the most powerful unions of
New South Wales held a conference in Sydney. This so-
called " Industrial Conference Board " drew up a constitu-
tion for an organization on the I. W. W. model, adopted
the I. W. W. preamble almost word for word, and launched
!< The Workers Industrial Union of Australia." 1 Four of
the six clauses of the preamble are almost identical in phras-
ing with that of the American I. W. W. The other two
clauses are worded as follows :

Between these two classes [proletarian and capitalist] the
struggle must continue until capitalism is abolished ... by the
workers uniting in one class-conscious economic organization to
take and hold the means of production by revolutionary indus-
trial and political action. " Revolutionary action " means to
secure a complete change, namely the abolition of capitalistic
class ownership of the means of production whether privately
or through the state and the establishment in its place of
social ownership by the whole community. . . . We hold that,
as the working class creates and operates the socially operated
machinery of production, it should direct production and de-
termine working conditions. 2

1 Christian Science Monitor, October 4, 1918.

2 The preamble is printed in full in The World (Oakland, Cal.),
October 18, 1918, p. 3. (iReprinted from the British Columbia Feder-
ationist, Sept. 27, 1918, article by W. Francis Ahern, Australian cor-
respondent). Mr. Ahern gives a detailed description of the structure
of the new union and shows that in this respect, also, it follows the
American I. W. W. very closely. Other meetings in furtherance of
this project are reported to have been held in the fall of 1918 in Brisbane
and Melbourne. (Ibid.} This recrudescence of militant industrialism
in Australia appears to be an indirect outcome of the defeat of the
Labor party in the federal election of 1917.

344

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

In the United States the Federal government has enacted
no law analogous to the Australian Unlawful Associations
Act. Several of the individual States, however, have passed
so-called "criminal syndicalism" laws and the United States
Senate on May 6, 1918, passed a so-called anti-sabotage
bill * which the newspapers declared was aimed at the I. W.
W. The State laws referred to are quite generally under-
stood to be directed against that organization. None of
these statutes, however, mentions the I. W. W. by name.
The Senate bill referred to declares to be unlawful any
association

one of whose purposes or professed purposes is to bring about
any governmental, social, industrial or economic change within
the United States by the use, without authority of law, of
physical force, violence or physical injury to person or prop-
erty, or by threats of such injury, or which teaches, advocates,
advises or defends the use ... of physical force, violence or
physical injury to person or property, or threats of such in-
jury, to accomplish such change or for any other purpose, and
which, during any war in which the United States is engaged,
shall by any such means prosecute OF pursue such purpose or
professed purpose, or shall so teach, advocate, advise or de-
fend. . . . 2

The penalties proposed in the bill are more severe than in
the Australian law. It would punish by imprisonment for
not more than ten years or by a mie of not more than
$5,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment, anyone who,
while the United States is at war, (a) acts as an officer, or
speaks as the representative, of such an association, (b)
becomes or continues to be a member of, or contributes any-

Cong., 2nd sess., S. 4471.
2 Ibid. The bill has been amended by the Judiciary committee and
favorably reported to the House, where it is now on the calendar.

RECENT TENDENCIES 345

thing to, such an organization, or (c) publishes or distrib-
utes any publication whatever which defends the use of
" physical force, violence or physical injury to person or
property ... as a means of accomplishing any govern-
mental, social, industrial or economic change." The last
section of the bill would impose a fine of not more than
$500 and imprisonment for not more than one year, or both,
upon any landlord who permits on his premises, while the
United States is at war, any meeting of such an association
or any assemblage of persons who teach or advocate the
use of physical force or violence, etc. 1

So-called " criminal syndicalism " or sabotage laws have
been enacted by the States of Idaho,- Minnesota, 3 North
Dakota, 4 Montana, 5 South Dakota, 6 and Nebraska. 7 In the
State of Washington a " syndicalism bill," 8 and in Arizona
a " sabotage " law, were passed by the State legislatures in
1918 but were vetoed by the governor in each case. The
"criminal syndicalism" laws of Minnesota, Idaho and Mon-
tana are reprinted in Appendix X. The South Dakota stat-

1 6sth Cong., 2nd sess., S. 447L The one hundred odd members of tho
I. W. W., who were indicted in 1917, were indicted, tried and convicted,
not under any specific anti-sabotage, " criminal syndicalism " or unlaw-
ful associations statute, but under section 4 of the " Espionage Act " of
June 15, 1917, and sections 6, 19 and 37 of the Criminal Code of the
United States. (The United States of America vs. William D. Hay-
wood, et al., no. 6125 in the District Court of the U. S., Northern Dis-
trict of Illinois, Eastern Division.)

'Acts of 1917, ch. 145. Approved Mar. 14, 1917.

3 Acts of 1917,. ch. 215. Approved Apr. 13, 1917.

* Approved Jan. 30, 1918.

6 Acts of 1918, ch. 7. Approved Feb. 21, 1918.

'Special Session, isth legislative assembly (1918), Senate bill no. 12.
Approved Mar. 23, 1918.

7 Laws and resolutions passed at the 36th (extraordinary) session of
the legislature (1918), ch. 9. Approved Apr. 9, 1918.

8 Senate bill no. 284.

346 THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

ute is very similar to that of Minnesota. It defines criminal
syndicalism " as any doctrine which teaches or advocates
crime, sabotage (sabotage as used in this act means wilful
and malicious damage or injury to the property of another),
violence or other methods of terrorism, or the destruction
of life or property, for the accomplishment of social, eco-
nomic, industrial or political ends." It declares such advo-
cacy to be a felony and punishes " by imprisonment in the
state penitentiary for not less than one nor more than
twenty-five years, or by a fine of not less than $1000 nor
more than $10,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment
. . ." anyone who (i) advocates or " suggests " such doc-
trines, (2) publishes, circulates or has in his (or her) pos-
session printed matter which advocates or " suggests " any
doctrine that economic or political ends should be brought
about by " crime, sabotage," etc., (3) belongs to or assem-
bles with any group or organization which advocates or sug-
gests such a doctrine, or (4) permits in any room or build-
ing owned or controlled by him (or her) any assemblage of
this character. This statute is not limited to the duration
of the war, which, indeed, is not mentioned. The North
Dakota and Nebraska laws are less comprehensive and less
drastic than the law of Minnesota. They are anti-sabotage
laws within the scope of the definition of sabotage given
above in the South Dakota act. Of all the " criminal syn-
dicalism " statutes referred to in these pages that of South
Dakota inflicts the heaviest penalties. The Minnesota law
has recently come into the courts x and the State Supreme
Court, in a decision rendered April 19, 1918, held it to be
constitutional. 2

The I. W. W. does not lack constructive ideas. The

1 In the case of State vs. Moilen, 167 N. W. 345.

2 A digest of the court's opinion is given in the Monthly Labor Review
(U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), vol. vii, pp. 177-179 (July, 1918).

RECENT TENDENCIES

347

trouble has been always that those ideas have not been ap-f
plied very extensively. They have remained merely a partf
of the Wobblies' varied collection of slogans and doctrines.
As the delegates at the tenth convention realized, the first
decade of I.W.W.-ism in America has been marked by ex-|
cessive propaganda activity critical and non-constructive, |
if not destructive .... and very little constructive \
activity. 1 This fact is strikingly illustrated by the very *
transient character of its" membership. The " '-turnover "
for the decade 1905-1915 has been exceedingly heavy not
only as measured by individual members but also by local
unions. The most favorable report of the present strength
of the I. W. W. is given in the World Almanac for 1917,
where it is stated that the I. W. W. is composed of five hun-
dred and thirty-five recruiting and industrial unions (not
including five [foreign] "national administrations") and
has a membership of 85,ooo. 2 This latter figure probably
included delinquent members, and in any case is almost cer-
tainly much exaggerated. The same statement applies to
the figure given for local unions. But even on such a gen-
erous assumption, the figures in columns 7 and 1 1 of Table A
(Appendix IV) show, first, that there have been more than 5
five times as many local unions chartered by the I. W. W.
as are now in the organization, and second, that there
have been at least twice and probably ten times as many [
membership cards issued during the past ten years as there
are members in the organization today. But the real situa-
tion is much worse. Conservative estimates of the active
membership in 1915 put it at 15,000, distributed among 150

1 Cf. Caroline Nelson on " The Constructive Side of the New Union-
ism," in Aggressive Unionism, pp. 20-24.

3 P. 125. The five " national administrations " reported are : Aus-
tralia, Great Britain, Hawaii, New Zealand, and South Africa. The
World Almanac for 1916 reported 300 local unions.

348

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

local unions, 1 Not less than 2,000 locals were chartered
and approximately 200,000 membership cards issued in the
ten-year period 1905-1916. This indicates that only 7.5 per
cent of the locals chartered and of the individuals enrolled
in the I. W. W. have remained in the organization. This
means an average annual turnover (of individual members
and locals) for the past ten years of 133 per cent. As the
table shows, the numerical strength of the I. W. W. in com-
parison with the whole number in labor organizations and
the whole number gainfully employed is very insignificant.
Its membership in 1910 was four-tenths of one per cent of
all trade-unionists and two-hundredths of one per cent of
all gainfully employed. In the textile industry where the
I. W. W. is numerically strongest, the Detroit I. W. W. had
enrdlled in 1910 one per cent and the Chicago I. W. W,
fourteen per cent of all trade-unionists.

It is not easy to say to what extent the I. W. W. is likely
to develop its constructive features. la so far as more and
more stress is placed on job organization, the I. W. W. is
and will continue to become a more constructive organiza-
tion. But it is not easy to credit the statement made at the
tenth convention that the I. W. W. has " passed out of the
propaganda stage." It will become more actively construc-
tive, probably, but only its complete annihilation can put a
period to its propaganda work.

1 In the case of the United States of America v. William D. Hay-
wood, et at., now (June, 1918) being tried in Chicago, the Government
indictment credits the I. W. W. with a membership of 200,000. The
author believes this is much too high, although the organization has
unquestionably grown. It is probably based on gross accumulated mem-
berships and would give a fair indication of the number of persons who
have, at one time or another, been members of the I. W. W. (Indict-
ment in U. S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern
Division, no. 6125, p. 7).

190

190;

190

191
191!

il the
of the

wage

;s into

) cope

The

set of

in the

wag-e

ass to

ve in-

3f the

Clauses

348

local n
and ap
ten-ye^
cent oi
in the
means
and lo<
table si
parisoi
the wh
Its mei
all tra<
all gai
I. W. A
enrdlle
fourte(
It is
to devt
more s
and wi
tion.
tenth c
propag
tive, pi
period

Un tl
wood, ei
indictme
author 1
unquesti
berships
have, at
ment in
Division

APPENDIX II
THE I. W. W. PREAMBLE'

A. CHICAGO

The working class and the employing class have nothing in
common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want
are found among millions of working people and the few, who
make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

[Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all
the toilers come together on the political, as well as on the
industrial field, and take hold of that which they produce by
their labor through an economic organization of the working
class, without affiliation with any political party.]

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the
workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the
earth and the machinery of production and abolish the wage
system .

We find that the centering of management of industries into
fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope
with the ever-growing power of the employing class. The
trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of
workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the
same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage
wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to
mislead the workers into the belief that the workers have in-
terest in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the

Additions to the original preamble are printed in italics. Clauses
dropped from it are enclosed in square brackets.

34Q

350 APPENDIX II

working class upheld only by an organization formed in such
a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all in-
dustries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout
is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one
an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, " A fair day's wage for a
/I fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolution-
ary watchword, "Abolition of the wa<>e system." It is the his-
toric mission of the working class to do away with capitalism
The army of production must be organized, not only for the
every-day struggle with capitalists, but to carry on production
when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing
industrially we are forming the structure of the new society
within the shell of the old. [ Therefore we, the working class,
unite under the following constitution^

[Therefore without endorsing or desiring the endorsement of
any political party , we unite under the following constitution^

Knowing, therefore, that such an organization is absolutely
necessary for our emancipation, we unite under the following
constitution :

B. DETROIT '

The working class and the employing class have nothing in
common. There can be no peace as long as hunger and want
are found among millions of working people and the few, who
make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

[Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all
the toilers come together on the political, as well as the in-
dustrial field, and take and hold that which they produce by
their labor through an economic organization of the working
class, without affiliation with any political party.]

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the toilers
come together on the Political field under the banner of a distinct
revolutionary political party governed by the workers' class in-

1 Additions to the original preamble are printed in italics. Clauses
dropped from it are enclosed in square brackets.

APPENDIX III

STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION OF THE I. W. W. 1
(1917)

Chicago, e. g.

Seat tli ,

1 For chart showing structure of the I. W. W. in 1912 vide St. John, The I. IV. W.its history, struc-
ture and methods, (ist ed.) p. 2. St. John's chart is reproduced in the author's Launching of '\
I. W. W.

APPENDIX II

351

terest, and on the industrial field under the banner of One Great
Industrial Union to take and hold all means of production and
distribution, and to run them for the benefit of all wealth pro-
ducers.

The rapid gathering of wealth and the centering of the
management of industries into fewer and fewer hands make
the trade unions unable to cope with the ever-growing power
of the employing class, because the trade unions foster a state
of things which allows one set of workers to be pitted against
another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping
defeat one another in wage wars. The trade unions aid the
employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the
working class have interests in common with their employers.

These sad conditions must be changed, the interests of the
working class upheld and while the capitalist rule still prevails
all possible relief for the workers must be secured. That can
only be done by an organization aiming steadily at the complete
overthrow of the capitalist wage system, and formed in such a
way that all its members in any one industry or in all indus-
tries, if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is
on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one
an injury to all.

\Therefore, without endorsing any political party, we unite
under the following constitution^

Therefore we unite under the following constitution.

> fi

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(4

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IO JdQtUtl^J

Su_ -_.- ' _* ._ _..

- S S

Total Membership.

Miscellaneous. ( h )

o oo"

NO <M

Q 1 1 | 1^1 1 1

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oil? i i $1 55 1

Barnett. ()

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0*8. 8 1 8, 8, i

2" * 2 12 2" 2

Secretary-Treasurer.

ON S

1 1 1 ' III ' \

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flO t>

00
ON O^ ON

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ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON

APPENDIX IV

353

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354

APPENDIX IV

355

o o"

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Detroit.

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1: t: 1:. ii-: :| :l||: :

.. jj .; s* .!,.:.:::; J3 : c rt g :::

> i

356

APPENDIX IV

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United Metal Workers.
Textile group (9 organ
Textile Workers
Total in group

Lumber and Wood
Working group (8
organizations)
Bakery Workers
Brewery Workers
Restaurant and Trade

'1 '''

~ S-

IS *>
o vj Q

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cr,

I
"rt

"rt

APPENDIX IV

357

TABLE D. MEMBERSHIP OF THE I. W. W. (CHICAGO AND DETROIT) AND OF
ALL LABOK ORGANIZATIONS IN THE U. S., 1905-1917

Members of labor
organizations
in the U. S.

Members of the I. W. W.

Chicago.
(St. JohnJ 1 (Barnett)

Detroit.
(Barnett)

1 00; . .

1,945,000
1,906,300
2,077,600
2,090,400
2,003,100
2,138,000

2,336,500
2,440,800
2,701,000
2,674,400

23,219

M,300
1 0,400
6,700
13,200
IO,7OO

9,100
13,800
18,300
14,300

12,000

3,475 s
3,5
10,700
5,000

2,000
2,000

1906

5,931
5,397
3,7*9
4,617
4,330
18,387
14,851
,365
i5,ooo 3
60,000*

2OO,OOO 5

1908.....
1909

T.QIO

IOI I . .

1QI2. ....

IQI-J. .

IOI .1 . .

yl J

1 Adapted from Barnett, of. (it. (Qur. your. Eton., Aug., 1916.)
a Private correspondence. (1905-1914.)

3 Haywood, W. D. Testimony Industrial Relations Commission, Washington, May 12, 1915
(Final rtfort and testimony , vol. xi, p. 10581).

4 St. John, V. The I. W, W, Hittory, Structure nd Methods. (1917 Ed., p. 93.)

Credited in the government indictment in the case of The United States of America v. Wil-
liam D. Haywood, et a/., no. 6125, p. 7.

Wolman, op. cit.

358

APPENDIX V

i i

S
S

W
PH

Industrial
character.

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2

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APPENDIX V

359

'S
is

Industrial
character.

'a 2 u *> w
1111 1

Local unions
numbered.

N N w tr>

\f\ PO O O O

a 1

Industrial
character

I 1

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vv u v w o u i> 5 t> u uu o> - 5
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numbered.

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360

APPENDIX V

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numbered

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APPENDIX V

361

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362

APPENDIX V

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APPENDIX V

363

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364

APPENDIX VI

REASONS FOR LOCALS DISBANDING l
(Aug. 31, 1910 to Sept. i, 1911)

Locations.

Industry.

Reasons for Diibanding.

Muncie, Ind
Jackson, Mich. . . .

Strike.
Lack of interest.
Strike.
Members left town.
Shop closed.
Lack of interest.
Strike.
Lack of interest.
W. F. M. and Business Men's Asso'n.
Lack of interest.
Members left town.
Lack of interest ( ? )
Disrupted by A. F. of L. and W. F. M.
Lack of interest ( ? )
Lack of interest.
Lack of interest.
Members blacklisted out of town.
No record.
Internal wrangles.
Lack of interest.
Lack of interest.
Joined A. F. of L.
Disrupted by A. F. of L.
Lack of work.
No record.
Lack of interest.
Lack of interest.
Lack of interest.
Lack of interest.
Shut down.
Shut down.
Shut down.
Strike.
Strike.
"Bum" [defaulting?] secretary.
" Bum " [defaulting?] secretary.
Lack of interest.
Lack of interest.
Lack of interest.
Strike.
Lack of interest (?)
Mexican Revolution.
Lack of interest.
Joined A. F. of L.
No record.
Lack of interest.
Lack of interest.
Lack of interest.

Dunkirk, N. Y...
W. Pullman, 111...
Missoula, Mont...
Olean, N. Y

Mixed

Xegaunee, Mich . .
National, Nev....
Lu rain Ohio .....

Mixed

New York

Building workers. . . .
Mixed

Woonsocket, R. I.
Anaconda, Mont..
Providence, R. I..
Seattle

Mixed

Hotel

Honolulu .......

Building constructors.
Building constructors.
Building constructors.

Roundup, Mont..
Sioux City, la ....
Pittsburgh

New York

Public service ......

Clothing ..........

Anderson, Ind. ..
Pittsburgh

Metal workers ......

Mixed

Portland, Ore
Providence ......

Pittsburgh

Steel workers ......

Woods Run, Pa..
McKees Rocks. ..
Massillon, Ohio . .
New Castle, Pa. . .
Lyndora (?), Pa.
Hammond, Ind. . .
Hegewisch(?),Ill.
South Chicago, 111.
East Chicago, Ind.
Fostoria, Ohio.. ..
Anacortes, Wash..
San Diego, Cal. ..
Vancouver, B.C..
Butte, Mont
Redlands, Cal
Kalispell, Mont. . .
Deer River, Minn.
Honolulu

Car builders

Steel workers ......

Public service

Agricultural

1 Adapted from Rtfort of Secrttary-Trtasurrr to the bth I. W. W. Cnvtntittt; Apptndue
to Minutes.

APPENDIX VII

FREE SPEECH FIGHTS OF THE I. W. W.

(Partial list.)

365

Date.

Begun.

Place.

October . .

November

Spokane, \Vash

December ....

New Castle Pa

May

Wen&tchee, Wash

June

Walla Walla Wash

October

Fresno, Cal.

fulv ..

Victoria, B. C.
Denver, Colo.

September

Superior, Wis.
Kansas City, Mo

November

Aberdeen, Wash

IQI2

Aberdeen, S. D.
New Bedford, Mass

September

Minneapolis Minn

February

Denver, Colo

Tulv . .

Minot N D

Seattle, Wash.

1914

Aberdeen, S. Dak.
Paterson, N. J.

Old Forge, Pa

November

Everett, Wash.

366

APPENDIX VIII

APPENDIX VIII
PARTIAL LIST OF STRIKES MANAGED OR PARTICIPATED IN BY THE I. W. W.

Year and
month
called.

Place.

Class of workers
affected.

Issue.

1906

Paper makers.

T~)fr-

West New Brighton Ct

Skowhegan, Me.

I. W. W.

Goldfield, Nev

Miners and others.

1907
Feh

Recognition of I W W

Apr ....

Portland Ore

Saw-mill workers.

company store; hos-
pital.

Mflv .

Oct

Yonkers N Y

Street car men

and longer hours.

Silk workers

1908

Quarry workers

Textile

Against wage cuts

1909

May ....

Lumbermen.

May ....

Tulv ..

Prince Rupert, B. C. . .
New Castle, Pa

Lumbermen.
Sheet and tin plate ....

McKces Rocks Pa >

Press Steel Car Co ....

Wages, hours and gen-

Waterville Wash

eral conditions.

1910
Mar ....

North Yamhill Ore .

Textile

I.W.W.'s.

June ....
Tulv . .

St. Louis, Mo

Garment workers.

Aue ....

Gas works laborers. . .

\Vagcs (Mexicans.)

Oct

Window cleaners

Closed shop* wages.

Nov

Pittsburgh Pa

Nov

Brooklyn NY

1911
T an

La Grande Wash ....

Against cut in wages

T an

New York, N Y

1912

Apr
Apr ....

Kansas City, Mo

Street railroad construc-
tion.
Piano and organ.

Mar

Wtffo

Mar

Lumbermen.

May . . .

Portland Ore

Wages

June ....
Fune . .

White Salmon, Wash..

Construction workers..
Textile.

Wages; conditions.

APPENDIX VIII
APPENDIX VIII Concluded

367

Year and
month
called.

Place.

Class of workers
affected.

Issue.

1912
July....
July....
Oct
Nov

Dec

New Bedford, Mass. . .

Textile.
Dock workers.

Against cut in wages.
Laborers ( Slavonian
I.W.W.s).
Against cut in wages
(10 camps on the
Portland, Eugene and
Eastern, between
Portland and Eu-
gene, 300 out).

30 cents per hour and
decent quarters.

Wages, hours, condi-
tions.

Wage increase.
Against cut in wages.

General conditions.

Discharge of I.W.W.s.

Wages, hours, condi-
tions.
In sympathy with sugar
workers.
Wapes and hours.

Little Falls N Y

Cleveland Ohio

Cyclone wire fence

Portland Ore

Construction laborers. .

Lumbermen.

Construction camps on
the Canadian North-
ern.

Grays Harbor.

North Yamhill, Ore...
Big Creek Cal

1913
Jan

Feb
Feb

Construction work ....
( Stone and Webster)
Rubber workers.
Silk workers.

Paterson N J

Feb
Jan
Mar

Mar
Mar
Apr
Apr. ....
May.. . .
June ....
Aug
Sept ....
Nov
?

Hazelton N J

San Francisco, Cal ....

Cannery workers
Textile.
Rubber workers.
Tailors.
Electric workers.
Sash and door.
Lumbermen.
Textile.

Seattle, Wash

Rock Island, 111

Marshfield, Ore

Wheatland Cal

Pittsburgh Pa

Tobacco workers.
Textile.
Dock laborers.
Barbers.

Iron miners.
Quarry workers.
Miners.
Miners.

New York N Y

1916
June ....
June
Aug
Oct. . . .
1917
Feb

Feb. ....
Ar>r. . .

Mesaba Range, Minn.
Red Granite, Wis

Old Forge, Pa

Philadelphia Pa

APPENDIX IX
SELECTIONS FROM THE I. W. W. SONG BOOK

ARE You A WOBBLY?

BY JOE FOLEY

(Tune: "Are You from Dixie?")

Hello, there, worker, how do you do?
You're up against it ; broke, hungry, too.
Don't be surprised, you're recognized,
I know a slave by the look in his eyes.
You want what I want well, that's liberty,
Your frowning face seems to tell it to me.
Where there's a will, Bill, there's a way, Bill,
So listen to what I say.

CHORUS

Are you a wobbly? then listen, Buddy,

For the One Big Union beckons to you

The Workers' Union, the Industrial Union ;

Tell every slave you see along the line :

It makes no difference what your color,

Creed or sex or kind,

If you are a worker, then it's kick right in and join.

Become a wobbly and then we'll probably

Free ourselves from slavery.

You like the idea, but then you say,
" How can we do it when is the day ?"
When all the ladies and all the babies
And every man who works for a wage

1 I. W. W. songs to fan the frames of discontent, I4th [General De-
fense] Edition, Chicago, I. W. W. Publishing Bureau, April, 1918.
368

APPENDIX IX 369

Gets in the Union One Union Grand
All hands together we'll make our demand ;
When you and I, Bill, lay down our tools, Bill,
Fold up our arms, Bill, and walk off the job.

DUMP THE BOSSES OFF YOUR BACK

BY JOHN BRILL

(Tune: " Take it to the Lord in Prayer ")
Are you poor, forlorn and hungry ?

Are there lots of things you lack ?
Is you life made up of misery ?

Then dump the bosses off your back.
Are your clothes all patched and tattered?

Are you living in a shack?
Would you have your troubles scattered ?

Then dump the bosses off your back.

Are you almost split asunder?

Loaded like a long-eared jack?
Boob why don't you buck like thunder ?

And dump the bosses off your back.
All the agonies you suffer,

You can end with one good whack
Stiffen up, you orn'ry duffer

And dump the bosses off your back.

HALLELUJAH ! I'M A BUM ! l
O ! I like my boss,

He's a good friend of mine,
And that's why I'm starving

Out on the picket-line!
Hallelujah ! I'm a bum !

Hallelujah! Bum again!
Hallelujah! Give us a hand-out

To revive us again !

1 Not published in the i4th edition. (Quoted only in part).

370 APPENDIX IX

MR. BLOCK
BY JOE HILL

(Air: " It Looks to Me like a Big Time Tonight ")
Please give me your attention, I'll introduce to you
A man that is a credit to " Our Red, White and Blue " ;
His head is made of lumber, and solid as a rock ;
He is a common worker and his name is Mr. Block.

And Block he thinks he may

Be President some day.

CHORUS
Oh, Mr. Block, you were born by mistake,

You take the cake,

You make me ache.

Tie on a rock to your block and then jump in the lake,
Kindly do that for Liberty's sake.

Yes, Mr. Block is lucky; he found a job, by gee!

The sharks got seven dollars, for job and fare and fee.

They shipped him to a desert and dumped him with his truck,

But when he tried to find his job, he sure was out of luck.

He shouted, " That's too raw,

I'll fix them with the law."

Block hiked back to the city, but wasn't doing well.
He said, " I'll join the union the great A. F. of L."
He got a job next morning, got fired in the night,
He said, " I'll see Sam Gompers and he'll fix that foreman
right."

Sam Gompers said, " You see

You've got our sympathy."

Election day he shouted, "A Socialist for Mayor!"
The " comrade " got elected, he happy was for fair,
But after the election he got an awful shock.
A great big Socialist Bull did rap him on the block.

And Comrade Block did sob,

" I helped him to his job."
*******

APPENDIX IX 37!

TIE 'En UP!

(Words and music by G. G. Allen)
We have no fight with brothers of the old A. F. of L.
But we ask you use your reason with the facts we have to tell.
Your craft is but protection for a form of property,
The skill that you are losing, don't you see.
Improvements on machinery take your tool and skill away,
And you'll be among the common slaves upon some fateful day.
Now the things of which we're talking we are mighty sure

about.
So what's the use to strike the way you can't win out ?

CHORUS

Tie 'em up ! tie 'em up ; that's the way to win.
Don't notify the bosses till hostilities begin.
Don't furnish chance for gunmen, scabs and all their like ;
What you need is One Big Union and the One Big Strike.

Why do you make agreements that divide you when you fight
And let the bosses bluff you with the contract's "sacred right"?
Why stay at work when other crafts are battling with the foe ?
You all must stick together, don't you know ?
The day when you begin to see the classes waging war
You can join the biggest tie-up that was ever known before.
When the strikes all o'er the country are united into one
Then the workers' One Big Union all the wheels shall run.

A. F. OF L. SYMPATHY

BY B. L. WEBER

(Tune: "All I Got was Sympathy")
Bill Brown was a worker in a great big shop,

Where there worked two thousand others ;
They all belonged to the A. F. of L.,

And they called each other " brothers."
One day Bill Brown's union went out on strike,

And they went out for higher pay ;
All the other crafts remained on the job,

And Bill Brown did sadly say :

272 APPENDIX IX

CHORUS

All we got was sympathy ;

So we were bound to lose, you see ;
All the others had craft autonomy,

Or else they would have stuck with glee,
But I got good and hungry,

And no craft unions go for me.
Gee ! Ain't it hell, in the A. F. of L.

All you get is sympathy.

Bill Brown was a thinker, and he was not a fool,

And fools there are many, we know.
So he decided the A. F. of L.

And its craft divisions must go.
Industrial Unions are just the thing,

Where the workers can all join the fight ;
So now on the soap box boldly he stands,

A-singing with all of his might :

CHORUS
*******

THE MESSAGE FROM O'ER THE SEA
(Tune: "Don't Bite the Hand that's Feeding You

One day as I sat pining
A message of cheer came to me,
A light of revolt was shining
On a country far over the sea,
The forces of rulers to sever
And the flag of the earth to unfold
To secure our freedom forever
And a world of beauty untold.

APPENDIX IX

CHORUS

All hail to the Bolsheviki!
We will fight for our Class and be free,
A Kaiser, King or Czar, no matter which you are
You're nothing of interest to me ;
If you don't like the red flag of Russia,
If you don't like the spirit so true,
Then just be like the cur in the story
And lick the hand that's robbing you.

We have lived in meek submission
Thru ages of toil and despair,
To comply with the plutes' ambition
With never a thought nor a care.
An echo from Russia is sounding
'Tis the chimes of a True Liberty,
It's a message for millions resounding
To throw off your chains and be free.

373

SCISSOR BILL
BY JOE HILL

(Tune: " Steamboat Bill")

You may ramble 'round the country anywhere you will,
You'll always run across the same old Scissor Bill.
He's found upon the desert, he is on the hill,
He's found in every mining camp and lumber mill.
He looks just like a human, he can eat and walk,
But you will find he isn't when he starts to talk.
He'll say, " This is my country," with an honest face,
While all the cops they chase him out of every place.

CHORUS

Scissor Bill, he is a little dippy,
Scissor Bill, he has a funny face.
Scissor Bill should drown in Mississippi,
He is the missing link that Darwin tried to trace.
*******

374 APPENDIX IX

PAINT 'R RED

BY RALPH CHAPLIN

(Tune: "Marching through Georgia")

Come with us, you workingmen, and join the rebel band ;
Come, you discontented ones, and give a helping hand,
We march against the parasite to drive him from the land.
With ONE BIG INDUSTRIAL UNION !

CHORUS

Hurrah ! hurrah ! we're going to paint 'er red !
Hurrah ! hurrah ! the way is clear ahead
We're gaining shop democracy and liberty and bread
With ONE BIG INDUSTRIAL UNION !

" Slaves " they call us, " working plugs," inferior by birth,
But when we hit their pocketbooks we'll spoil their smiles or

mirth

We'll stop their dirty dividends and drive them from the earth
With ONE BIG INDUSTRIAL UNION !

We hate their rotten system more than any mortals do,
Our aim is not to patch it up, but build it all anew,
And what we'll have for government, when finally we're through,
Is ONE BIG INDUSTRIAL UNION !

CASEY JONES THE UNION SCAB
BY JOE HILL

The Workers on the S. P. line to strike sent out a call ;
But Casey Jones, the engineer, he wouldn't strike at all ;
His boiler it was leaking, and its drivers on the bum.
And his engine and its bearings, they were all out of plumb.

APPENDIX IX
CHORUS

Casey Jones kept his junk pile running ;
Casey Jones was working double time ;
Casey Jones got a wooden medal,
For being good and faithful on the S. P. line.

The Workers said to Casey : " Won't you help us win this

strike?"

But Casey said : " Let me alone, you'd better take a hike."
Then some one put a bunch of railroad ties across the track,
And Casey hit the river with an awful crack.

Casey Jones hit the river bottom ;
Casey Jones broke his blooming spine,
Casey Jones was an Angeleno,
He took a trip to heaven on the S. P. line.

When Casey Jones got up to heaven to the Pearly Gate

He said: "I'm Casey Jones, the guy that pulled the S. P.

freight."
"You're just the man," said Peter; "our musicians went on

strike ;
You can get a job a-scabbing any time you like."

Casey Jones got a job in heaven ;
Casey Jones was doing mighty fine ;
Casey Jones went scabbing on the angels,
Just like he did to workers on the S. P. line.

The angels got together, and they said it wasn't fair,
For Casey Jones to go around a-scabbing everywhere.
The Angels' Union No. 23, they sure were there,
And they promptly fired Casey down the Golden Stair.

'Casey Jones went to Hell a-flying.

" Casey Jones," the Devil said, " Oh, fine ;

Casey Jones, get busy shoveling sulphur;

That's what you get for scabbing on the S. P. line. '

376 APPENDIX IX

THE PREACHER AND THE SLAVE
BY JOE HILL

(Tune: "Sweet Bye and Bye")
Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right ;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet :

CHORUS

You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky ;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

And the Starvation army they play,
And they sing and they clap and they pray.
Till they get all your coin on the drum,
Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum :
Chorus.

Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out,
And they holler, they jump and they shout.
" Give your money to Jesus," they say,
" He will cure all diseases today."

If you fight hard for children and wife
Try to get something good in this life
You're a sinner and bad man, they tell,
When you die you will sure go to hell.

Workingmen of all countries, unite,
Side by side we for freedom will fight :
When the world and its wealth we have gained
To the grafters we'll sing this refrain :

LAST CHORUS

You will eat, bye and bye,
When you've learned how to cook and to fry
Chop some wood, 'twill do you good,
And you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye.

APPENDIX IX

THE RED FLAG
BY JAMES CONNELL

The workers' flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead;
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold
Their life-blood dyed its every fold.

CHORUS :

Then raise the scarlet standard high ;
Beneath its folds we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

Look 'round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise ;
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung,
Chicago swells its surging song.

It waved above our infant might
When all ahead seemed dark as night ;
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We will not change its color now.

It suits today the meek and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place ;
To cringe beneath the rich man's frown,
And haul that sacred emblem down.

With heads uncovered, swear we all,
To bear it onward till we fall ;
Come dungeons dark, or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn !

378 APPENDIX IX

WHAT WE WANT

BY JOE HILL
(Tune: "Rainbow")

We want all the workers in the world to organize

Into a great big union grand

And when we all united stand

The world for workers we'll demand.

If the working class could only see and realize

What -mighty power labor has

Then the exploiting master class

It would soon fade away.

CHORUS

Come all ye toilers that work for wages,

Come from every land,

Join the fighting band,

In one union grand.

Then for the workers we'll make upon this earth a paradise
When the slaves get wise and organize.

We want the sailor and the tailor and the lumberjacks,

And all the cooks and laundry girls ;

We want the guy that dives for pearls,

The pretty maid that's making curls,

And the baker and staker and the chimneysweep ;

We want the man that slinging hash,

The child that works for little cash

In one union grand.

We want the tinner and the skinner and the chambermaid,

We want the man that spikes on soles,

We want the man that digging holes,

We want the man that's climbing poles,

And the trucker and the mucker and the hired man,

And all the factory girls and clerks

Yes, we want every one that works.

In one union grand.

APPENDIX X

COPIES OF STATE " CRIMINAL SYNDICALISM " STATUTES

MINNESOTA
CHAPTER 215 S. F. No. 942 1

An act defining criminal syndicalism, prohibiting the advo-
cacy thereof and the advocacy of crime, sabotage, violence, or
other unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accom-
plishing industrial or political ends, and assemblage for the
purpose of such advocacy; declaring it unlawful to permit the
use of any place, building or rooms for such assemblage in
certain cases; and proznding penalties for violations of the
provisions thereof.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MIN-
NESOTA :

SECTION i. Criminal syndicalism defined. Criminal syn-
dicalism is hereby defined as the doctrine which advocates
crime, sabotage (this word as used in this bill meaning malic-
ious damage or injury to the property of an employer by an,
employe}, violence or other unlawful methods of terrorism as
a means of accomplishing industrial or political ends. The ad-
vocacy of such doctrine, whether by word of mouth or writing
is a felony punishable as in this act otherwise provided.

SEC. 2. Teaching or advocating syndicalism declared a fel-
ony^ Any person who- by word of mouth or writing, advocates
or teaches the duty, necessity or propriety of crime, sabotage,
violence or otter unlawful methods of terrorism as a means

1 Session Laws of Minnesota for 1917, PP- 31 1-312.

379

380 APPENDIX X

of accomplishing industrial or political ends, or prints, pub-
lishes, edits, issues or knowingly circulates, sells, distributes or
publicly displays any book, paper, document or written matter
in any form, containing or advocating, advising or teaching
the doctrine that industrial or political ends should be brought
about by crime, sabotage, violence or other unlawful methods
of terrorism; or openly, wilfully and deliberately justifies by
word of mouth or writing, the commission or the attempt to
commit crime, sabotage, violence or other unlawful methods of
terrorism with intent to exemplify, spread or advocate the
propriety of the doctrines of criminal syndicalism, or organ-
izes or helps to organize or becomes a member or voluntarily
assembles with any society, group or assemblage of persons
formed to teach or advocate the doctrine of criminal syndical-
ism, is guilty of a felony and punishable by imprisonment in
the state prison for not more than five years or by a fine of not
more than one thousand dollars or both.

SEC. 3. Assembling for purpose declared a felony. Wher-
ever two or more persons assemble for the purpose of advo-
cating or teaching the doctrines of criminal syndicalism defined
in this act, such an assemblage is unlawful and every person
voluntarily participating therein by his presence, aid or insti-
gation is guilty of a felony and punishable by imprisonment in
the state prison for not more than 10 years or by a fine of not
more than $5,000.00 or both.

SEC. 4. Ozvtier or lessor of buildings for assemblage liable
for gross misdemeanor. The owner, agent, superintendent, or
occupant of any place, building or rooms who wilfully and
knowingly permits therein any assemblage of persons prohib-
ited by the provisions of section 3 of this act, or who, after
notification that the premises are so used, permits such use to
be continued, is -guilty of a gross misdemeanor and punishable
by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year
or by a fine of not more than $500.00 or both.

SEC. 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and
after the date of its passage.

Approved April 13, 1917.

APPENDIX X 381

IDAHO

CHAPTER 145 S. B. No. 183

An act defining the crime of criminal syndicalism and pre-
scribing punishment therefor.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO :

SECTION i. Criminal syndicalism is the doctrine which ad-
vocates crime, sabotage, violence or unlawful methods of ter-
rorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political
reform. The advocacy of such doctrine, whether by word of
mouth or writing, is a felony punishable as in this Act other-
wise provided.

SEC. 2. Any person who :

1 i ) By word of mouth or writing, advocates or teaches the
duty, necessity or propriety of crime, sabotage, violence or
other unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accom-
plishing industrial or political reform ; or

(2) Prints, publishes, edits, issues or knowingly circulates,
sells, distributes or publicly displays any book, paper, docu-
ment or written matter in any form, containing or advocating,
advising or teaching the doctrine that industrial or political
reform should be brought about by crime, sabotage, violence or
other unlawful methods of terrorism; or

(3) Openly, wilfully and deliberately justifies, by word of
mouth or writing, the commission or the attempt to commit
crime, sabotage, violence or other unlawful methods of terror-
ism with intent to exemplify, spread or advocate the propriety
of the doctrines of criminal syndicalism ; or

(4) Organizes or helps to organize or becomes a member
of, or voluntarily assembles with any society, group or assem-
blage of persons formed to teach or advocate the doctrines of
criminal syndicalism ;

Is guilty of a felony and punishable by imprisonment in the
State Prison for not more than ten years or by a fine of not
more than five thousand dollars, or both.

SEC. 3. Whenever two or more persons assemble for the
purpose of advocating or teaching the doctrines of criminal

382 APPENDIX X

syndicalism as defined in this Act, such an assemblage is un-
lawful, and every person voluntarily participating therein by
his presence, aid or instigation is guilty of a felony and pun-
ishable by imprisonment in the State Prison for not more than
ten years or by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars,
or both.

SEC. 4. The owner, agent, superintendent, janitor, care-
taker, or occupant of any place, building or room, who wilfully
and knowingly permits therein any assemblage of persons pro-
hibited by the provisions of Section 3 of this Act, or who,
after notification that the premises are so used, permits such
use to be continued, is guilty of a misdemeanor and punish-
able by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one
year or by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, or both.

Approved March 14, 1917.

MONTANA

An a-ct defining criminal syndicalism, and the word sabot-
age; prohibiting the advocacy, teaching or suggestion thereof ;
and prohibiting the advocacy, teaching or suggestion of crime,
violence, or the commission of any unlawful act or thing as a
means to accomplish industrial or political ends, change or
revolution; and prohibiting assemblages for the purpose of
such advocacy, teachings or suggestions: declaring it unlawful
to permit the use of any plate, building, rooms or premises for
such assemblages in certain cases; and providing penalties for
the violation thereof .*

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE

OF MONTANA:

SECTION i. Criminal syndicalism is hereby defined to be the
doctrine which advocates crime, violence, force, arson, de-
struction of property, sabotage, or other unlawful acts or
methods, or any such acts, as a means of accomplishing or
effecting industrial or political ends, or as a means of effecting
industrial or political revolution.

1 Laws of the State of Montana passed by the Extraordinary Session
of the Fifteenth Legislative Assembly, Helena, February, 1918. (Chap.
7, S. B. No. 2).

APPENDIX X

SECTION 2. Sabotage is hereby defined to be malicious, fel-
onious, intentional or unlawful damage, injury or destruction
of real or personal property, of any form whatsoever, of any
employer, or owner, by his or her employee or employees, or
any employer or employers or by any person or persons, at
their own instance, or at the instance, request or instigation of
such employees, employers, or any other person.

SECTION 3. Any person who, by word of mouth or writing,
advocates, suggests or teaches the duty, necessity, propriety or
expediency of crime, criminal syndicalism, or sabotage, or who
shall advocate, suggest or teach the duty, necessity, propriety
or expediency of doing any act of violence, the destruction of
or damage to any property, the bodily injury to any person or
persons, or the commission of any crime or unlawful act as a
means of accomplishing or effecting any industrial or political
ends, change or revolution, or who prints, publishes, edits,
issues or knowingly circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly
displays any books, pamphlets, paper, hand-bill, poster, docu-
ment, or written or printed matter in any form whatsoever,
containing, advocating, advising, suggesting or teaching crime,
criminal syndicalism, sabotage, the doing of any act of vio-
lence, the destruction of or damage to any property, the injury
to any person, or the commission of any crime or unlawful act
as a means of accomplishing, effecting or bringing about any
industrial or political ends, or change, or as a means of accom-
plishing, effecting or bringing about any industrial or political
revolution, or who shall openly, or at all attempt to justify, by
word of mouth or writing, the commission or the attempt to
commit sabotage, any act of violence, the destruction of or
damage to any property, the injury of any person or the com-
mission of any crime or unlawful act, with the intent to ex-
emplify, spread, or teach or suggest criminal syndicalism, or
organizes, or helps to organize or becomes a member of, or
voluntarily assembles with any society or assemblage or per-
sons formed to teach or advocate, or which teaches, advocates,
or suggests the doctrine of criminal syndicalism, sabotage, or
the necessity, propriety or expediency of doing any act of vio-

APPENDIX X

lence or the commission of any crime or unlawful act as a
means of accomplishing or effecting any industrial or political
ends, change or revolution is guilty of a felony, and upon con-
viction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the State
Penitentiary for a term of not less than one year or more than
five years, or by a fine of not less than $200.00 or not more
than one thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprison-
ment.

SECTION 4. Wherever two or more persons assemble or con-
sort for the purpose of advocating, teaching or suggesting the
doctrine of criminal syndicalism, as defined in this act, or to
advocate, teach, suggest or encourage sabotage, as defined in
this act, or the duty, necessity, propriety, or expediency of
doing any act of violence, the destruction of or damage to any
property, the bodily injury to any person or persons, or the
commission of any crime or unlawful act as a means of accom-
plishing or effecting any industrial or political ends, change or
revolution, it is hereby declared unlawful and every person
voluntarily participating therein, by his presence aids or insti-
gates, is guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall
be punished by imprisonment in the State prison for not less
than one year or more than five years, or by a fine of not less
than two hundred dollars, or more than one thousand dollars,
or by both such imprisonment and fine.

SECTION 5. The owner, lessee, agent, superintendent, or per-
son in charge or occupation of any place, building, room or
rooms, or structure, who knowingly permits therein any as-
sembly or consort of persons prohibited by the provisions of
Section 4 of this act, or who after notification that the place
or premises, or any part thereof, is or are so used, permits such
use to be continued, is guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable
upon conviction thereof by imprisonment in the county jail for
not less than sixty days or for not more than one year, or by
a fine of not less than one hundred dollars, or more than five
hundred dollars, or by both such imprisonment and fine.

SECTION 6. This act shall take effect and be in full force
from and after its passage and approval.

Approved February 21, 1918.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This bibliography makes no pretense of being exhaustive. The writer
has endeavored, however, to list all the source material he has been able
to lay hands on. But source material is very fugitive and no doubt there
are numerous omissions, especially of leaflets and pamphlets. In general,
secondary material has not been included unless it (i) deals directly
with the I. W. \V. as an organization, (2) is published by the I. W. W.
or under its label, (3) is written by a person who has, at one time or
another, been a member of the I. W. W. or unless (4) it has been cited
in the foregoing pages.

There is a vast amount of periodical material dealing with the real or
alleged activities and escapades of the I. W. W. : its strikes, free-speech
fights, etc. There is also an extensive literature (in English, French,
Italian and other languages) devoted to special aspects of syndicalism
or I.W.W.-ism. Among the important topics covered are the following:
industrial -versus craft unionism ; parliamentarianism and political ac-
tion; war and militarism ; I.W.W.-ism and (state) socialism; I.W.W.-ism
and anarchism ; syndicalist tactics : direct action, sabotage, the General
Strike, job control, etc.; unskilled and migratory labor, etc., etc. A few
items of this vast secondary reference material have for obvious reasons
been included in this bibliography but the bulk of it has been omitted.
Vide note to sec. 5, infra, p. 400.

i. OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Constitution and By-Laws of Industrial Workers of the World
(adopted at Chicago, 1905), (at head of title "Labor is Entitled
to all it Produces"), Chicago, I. W. W. Pub. Bureau, n. d., 32 pp.
Original constitution of the I. W. W.

Constitution of the Transportation Department of the I. W. W., and
By-Laws of the Steam Railway Sub-Division. 1905.

Die Industriellen Arbeiterz'crbdnder der Welt, Vorwort u, Konstitution,
Chicago, 1906, 24 pp.

Industrial Workers of the World, Industrial Council of New York City
and Vicinity, Constitution and By-Laivs, adopted at New York,
1905, 16 pp., n. d.

Industrial Workers of the World, founded at Chicago, June 27 July
8, 1905, " Preamble and Constitution, amended 1906, 1907 and 1908,
ratified by referendum vote" (at head of title "Labor is Entitled
to all it Produces"), Detroit, General (I. W. W.) Headquarters,
n. d., 32 pp.

tf*

386

BIBLIOGRAPHY

L'Union itidustrielle du nionde, Avant-propos et constitution, amendes,

1906, Chicago, I. W. W., 1906, 31 pp.

Preamble and constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World,
Organised July 7, 7905 (at head of title "Labor is Entitled to all
it Produces"), Chicago, General (I. W. W.) Headquarters, no date,
32 p., pamphlet (as adopted 1905 and amended by conventions
and ratified by referendum vote 1906, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1911, 1912,
1913 and 1914)-

Translations of the constitution printed in German, French,
Italian, Polish, Finnish and Lithuanian.

Preamble and Constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World,
Amended to 1908, Chicago, General Headquarters, no date, 32 pp.

Preambolo e Costitusione de la Industrial Workers of the World
(Lavoratori Industrial* del Mondo), Chicago, I. W. W., 1906, 35 pp.

Proceedings of the First Convention of the I. W. W., New York Labor
News Company, New York, 1905. Reported by W. E. McDermutt
and revised by Wm. E. Trautmann, Secretary of the Convention,
616 pp.

" Proceedings of a Conference of Delegates from Local Unions of the
Industrial Workers of the World, held in Chicago, August 14,
1906" (signed by the Committee), Miners' Magazine, September
6, 1906, vol. viii, no. 167, pp. 12, 13.
The pre-convention conference of 1906.

Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention of the I. W. W. f
Chicago, 1906. Published by I. W. W., Chicago, 1906, 619 pp.

" Proceedings of the So-called Second Convention of the Industrial
Workers of the World," Industrial Worker, vol. ii, no. i, January,

1907, pp. 4-9, continued in February, March, April and May, 1907.
(Sherman's version; not stenographic).

" Proceedings of the ' Rump ' Convention of Socialist Labor Party
(or Detroit) faction, Paterson, N. J., November i, 1908," published
serially in the Weekly People, during months immediately follow-
ing the convention.

Proceedings of the Third I. W. W. Convention, called to order by
Wm. E. Trautmann, Monday, September 16, 1907, at Chicago, ad-
journed September 24 (stenographically reported by W. E. Mc-
Dermutt) " official report " published by authority of the Conven-
tion, printed on unbound sheets, 54 pages, Chicago, no date.

Proceedings of Fourth I. W. W. Convention, 1908, 5th-ioth days
sessions in Industrial Union Bulletin, Oct. 24, Nov. 7, Dec. 12,

1908, Feb. 20, Mar. 6, 1909.

(The writer is unable to find anywhere the proceedings of the
first days of the convention).
" Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Convention of the I. W. W.," Chicago,.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

387

1910. Published in Industrial Worker, vol. ii, nos. 8-10, 12-14,
May 14, 21, 28; June u, 18, 25, 1910.

"Proceedings of the Sixth Convention of the I. W. W." (Detroit),
Industrial Union News, October, 1913, pp. I, 3-4, Detroit, September
15-17, 1913.

Minutes of Sixth I. W. W. Convention. 55 typewritten sheets (Sep-
tember i8th to September 28th, 1911), Chicago, 1911.
In U. S. Department of Labor Library.

Report of the Seventh I. W. W. Convention, Chicago, 111., September
16-26, 1912, 40 unbound printed pages (I. W. W. label), no date.

Proceedings of the Eighth I. W. W. Convention, September 15 to 29,
1913, stenographic report, Cleveland, I. W. W. Pub. Bureau, no
date, 164 pp.

" Proceedings Tenth I. W. W. Convention ( 1916) ," Solidarity, Decem-
ber 2, 9, 16, 1916.

Proceedings Tenth Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World,
Chicago, Nov. 2O-Dec. I, 1916, Chicago, I. W, W. Publishing Bureau,
1917, 155 PP-

" President Sherman's Report to 1906 Convention," Miners' Magazine,
October n, 1906, pp. 8-10, vol. viii, no. 172.

" Report of the General Secretary-Treasurer, I. W. W., Second Annual
Convention, Chicago, 111., September, 1906, Chicago, International
Press, no date, 42 pp.

"Report of the General Executive Board of the I. W. W. to Seventh
I. W. W. Convention, Chicago, September 17-27, 1912." Printed
in full in Industrial Worker, October 24, 1912, pp. 4, 5, 6. Extracts
in pamphlet, On the Firing Line, Spokane, 1912.

On the Firing Line. Extracts from the report of the General Executive
Board to the Seventh Annual Convention of the Industrial Workers
of the World, Chicago, September 17 to 27, 1912, Spokane, Wash.,
46 p. (This report published in full in Industrial Worker, October
24, 1912). Contains also Smith, Walker C, "What is the I. W,
W. ? " pp. 42-46.

Report of General Executive Board to Eighth I. W. W. Convention,
Proceedings, pp. 33-37-

Report of General Secretary-Treasurer St. John to Eighth I. W. W.
Convention, Proceedings, pp. 29-31.

Industrial Workers of the World, Tenth Convention. Report of

the General Secretary-Treasurer. Held at Chicago, November-
December, 1916. Signed by Wm. D. Haywood, Chicago, I. W. W..
Press, 1917, 30 pp.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2. PROPAGANDA LEAFLETS AND MISCELLANEOUS OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS

(a) CHICAGO I. W. W. LEAFLETS

Address to Railroad Workers. Chicago, I. W. W., n. d.
""Address to Street Car Workers," Industrial Union Leaflet No. 19,

Chicago, I. W. W., no date.
"Address to Wage Workers by the Industrial Workers of the World,"

Industrial Union Leaflet No. 18, Chicago, I. W. W., no date.
Agricultural Workers Attention. Chicago, I. W. W. [1918].
Ameringer, Oscar, Union Scabs and Others, New Castle, Pa.: I. W. W.

Publicity Bureau, n. d.
Doran, J. T. (" Red "), Big Business and Direct Action. Leaflet pub. by

Lumber Workers Industrial Union No. 500, I. W. W. N. p., n. d.

, Law and the I. W. W., Chicago, I. W. W. Publishing Bureau, n. d.

Dougherty, T. F. G., How to overcome the High Cost of Living.

Cleveland, I. W. W. Publicity Bureau, no date, 15 pp., booklet, 2c.

It is to be done by organizing industrially.
Do you want Mob Rule? [1918]. A general defence of the I. W. W. on

the five counts made in the Federal indictment of 1917.
Ebert, Justus, Is the I. W. W. Anti-political? Cleveland: I. W. W.

Publicity Bureau, 1913.
Everett's Bloody Sunday, tlte Tragedy that horrified the World, a Story

of Outraged Toilers. Seattle: 1916.
Facts for Marine Transport Workers. N. p., n. d.
Fraina, L. C, The I. W. W. trial. A Socialist Viewpoint. Chicago,

I. W. W. Publ. Bureau, 1917.
Hammond, Edward, Two Kinds of Unionism. New Castle, Pa.: I. W.

W. Publicity Bureau, n. d.
Helen Keller scores I. W. W. Prosecutions, Chicago, I. W. W. Pub.

Bur., 1918. Reprinted from the New York Call.
The L W. W. [Chicago, I. W. W. Pub. Bureau, 1917?]-
" Industrial Unionism in the Textile Industries," Industrial Union

Leaflet No. w.
Is Justice Dead in Tonopah? The true Facts of the Pancner Case,

Tonopah-Pancner Defence Committee, Publicity Bureau, no date.
Lake Marine Workers on Ships and Docks. A few words to you,

Cleveland, I. W. W. Publishing Bureau, n. d.
Lewis, Austin, A War Measure, Chicago, I. W. W., n. d.
Melis, Louis, Hotel and Restaurant Workers, Chicago, I. W. W. Pub-
licity Bureau, no date, I. W. W., leaflet.
Metal and Machinery Workers organize (4-page folder). Chicago [?]

n. d.
Metal Workers and Industrial Unionism ("To all Workers Employed

in the Metal and Machinery Industry ...''), Industrial Union

Leaflet No. 17, Chicago, I. W. W., no date.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

3S9

Mitconeeptiens of the I. IV. W., N. Y. I. W. W. Defense Committee,
1918. Reprinted from The Labor Defender, Dec. i, 1918, pp. 4-5.

Mitchell, " Rusty," Address to Railroad Graders, I. W. W. leaflet,
New Castle, Pa., I. W. W. Publicity Bureau, n. d.

Nelson, E. :S., Appeal to Wage Workers, Men and Women, New Castle,
Pa., I. W. W. Publicity Bureau, no date.

Russia in America. Bloody Sunday in Everett, Washington, Seattle, 1916.

St. John, Industrial Unionism and the I. W. W., New Castle, Pa., I. W,
W. Publishing Bureau, n. d., 15 pp. booklet.

St. John, Vincent, Is the I. W. W. all-sufficient for the Workers'
needs? Leaflet ( 1917 ?) . Originally printed in Solidarity, July, 1915.

St. John, Vincent, Political Parties and the Industrial Workers of the
World. Cleveland: I. W. W. Publicity Bureau; n. d

St. John, Vincent, Why the American Federation of Labor cannot be-
come an Industrial Union. New Castle, Pa.: Solidarity Literary
Bureau, n. d.

Smash the I. W. W.f N. d. [On the Federal conspiracy prosecutions
of 1917-1918.]

Smith, Walker C., War and the workers, New Castle, Pa., I. W. W.
Publishing Bur., n. d.

Some Tips for Railroad Workers, Chicago (?), n. d. (4 page folder).

Stirton, A. M., Getting Recognition, Cleveland, Ohio, I. W. W. Pub-
licity Bureau, no date.

The Unskilled Labor Problem [Chicago, I. W. W. Pub. Bureau, 1917].
Reprinted from The Public.

To Colored Workingmen and Women, Chicago, n. d.

To the Lumberjacks of Northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan
(copies in Finnish, Swedish and Polish), Cleveland, .Solidarity Pub-
licity Bureau, no date.

Unions fight for the Right to strike, Chicago, I. W. W. Pub. Bureau, n. d.

Varney, H. L., The Truth about the I. W. W., Chicago, I. W. W. Pub-
lishing Bur., n. d.

Walquist, August, Eight Hour Work Day, What it will Mean, and
How to get it, I. W. W. leaflet, Cleveland, I. W. W. Publicity
Bureau, 1913.

Warning. The Deadly Parallel. Comparison of I. W. W. and A. F.
of L. statements on the war. (I. W. W. label.) N. p., n. d.

What do you think of this? Chicago, General Defense Committee, 1917.
On the Tulsa, Okla., affair.

Who are the Conspirators? Chicago, I. W. W., Feb. 21, 1918. (Issued
by the General Defense Committee.)

Why? How? When? leaflet, New Castle, Pa., I. W. W. Publicity

Bureau, no date.
Why You should Join the I. W. W. With cartoons under title " Don't

390

BIBLIOGRAPHY

be a Mr. Block ... Be an I. W. W. ! " Minneapolis, Minn.,
Agricultural Workers' Organization, I. W. W., no date.

(b) DETROIT I. W. W. LEAFLETS

Constructive Industrialism The Structure of Industrial Unionism,
leaflet, Detroit Branch, Los Angeles, no date.

Industrial Unionism, Detroit leaflet. Same as, Th* Industrial Workers
of the World; One Union for all Wage Workers, no date.

Industrial Unionism versus Anarchy and Re form, leaflet, Detroit Branch,
Detroit, Mich., no date.

The Industrial Workers of the World: One Unicn for all Wage Work-
ers, leaflet, Detroit Branch, Detroit, no date.

Manifesto of Socialist Industrial Unionism, Principles of the Workers'
International Industrial Union, Leaflet No. I, issued by the Gen-
eral Executive Board, Detroit, 1916.

Trainor, C. E., Richter, H., and McLure, Robt. (General Executive
Board of the [Detroit] Industrial Workers of the Woild). A
Message to the Membership of the Industrial Workers of the
World and the Working Class in General, leaflet, Detroit Branch,
Detroit, no date.

The Two I.W.W.s., leaflet, Detroit Branch, Detroit, no date.

Edwards, A. S., "Analysis of the Preamble of the Industrial Workers
of the World." (Insert in Trautmann, Wm. E., Handbook of In-
dustrial Unionism. Large folding sheet on which the principles of
industrial unionism are analyzed and expanded in successive tabu-
lar columns.)

"The Industrial Organization of the Workers" (Chart of Industrial
Divisions), Voice of Labor, June, 1905.

Industrial Union Manifesto in St. John, The I. W. W ., Its History,
Structure and Methods (1917 edition), pp. 25-9.

/. W. W. Songs: to fan the flames of discontent, general defense (i4th)
edition, Chicago : I. W. W. Publishing Bureau, April 1918, 57 pages.

Riebe, Ernest, Twenty-Four Cartoons of Mr. Block, Minneapolis,
Minn., Block Supply Company (1912?) [27 pp.], illus. ("Most of
the cartoons . . . were originally published in the Industrial Worker
of Spokane, Wash.," Introd.).

Trautmann, Wm. E., Industrial Unionism: Handbook No. 2, Means
and Methods, Chicago, I. W. W. : no date, 32 pp.

, Handbook of Industrial Unionism: 3rd edition, revised. Explan-
ation of the principles of the I. W. W.. 34 pp., pamphlet
(Chicago) : I. W. W., no date, contains also (in form of insert

BIBLIOGRAPHY

sheet) Edwards, A. S., "Analysis of the Preamble, Industrial
Workers of the World" (published also in Italian and Polish).

, One Big Union. An outline of a possible industrial organization of
the working class. C. H. Kerr Company, Chicago, 1911, 31 pages
and chart (Fifth revised edition called "One Great Union"
Detroit).

, One Great Union (fifth revised edition). "A complete portrait of
industrial organizations ; with a map outlining the inter-relationship
of the industrial enterprise the world over, compiled from statis-
tical tabulations of Bureaus of France, Germany, Denmark and
the United States of America . . . Previously published by C. H.
Kerr under title : " One Big Union." On inside front cover the
author states that the Hungarian, Polish and Bohemian " trans-
lations now in the book market have not been authorized . . . and
the revenues derived [therefrom] . . . are not being used for
the propaganda of industrial unionism but to support a band of
irresponsible scavengers on the labor movement." At head of title :
"An Injury to One is the Injury to All One Union, One Emblem,
One Enemy." (Detroit: I. W. W. Literary Bureau, no date),
31 pp., IDC.

(d) CERTAIN OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS OF OTHER LABOR ORGANIZATIONS

American Labor Union, Preamble, Constitution and Laivs of the.
Adopted' at Salt Lake City, Utah, May, 1898. Revised to June, 1902,
Denver, Scollin and Baker, no date, 26 pp.

Duncan, Jas., Report of James Duncan, delegate of the American
Federation of Labor to the Budapest Labor and Socialist Con-
ference, August, 1911, pamphlet, Quincy, Mass., Nov., 1911, 34 pp.
Reprinted in International Holders' Journal, March and April, 1912,
48: 172; 255-63.

International Musical Union, Constitution, By-Laws and General Laws
of (united with the American Labor Union). In effect September
i, 1903, Cleveland, International Musical Union, 1903, 36 pp.

L' Internationale Ouvricre et Socialistc (International Socialist Con-
gress, 7th, . Stuttgart, 1907). fidition franchise publiee par le Sec-
retariat du Bureau Socialiste Internationale, 2 vols., Brussels, Inter-
national Socialist Bureau, Maison du Peuple, 1907, 422 pp., 584 pp.

Knights of Labor, Constitution of the General Assembly and for State,
National Trade, District and Local Assemblies of the Order. Re-
vised to 1892, Philadelphia, Published by the General Assembly,
1893, 92 pp.

Socialist Labor Party of the United States of America, Constitution
(Adopted at the Tenth National Convention held in New York
City, June 2 to 8, 1900), 16 pp.

392

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Socialist Labor Party, Constitution as amended to 1908, New York,
N. Y., .Labor News -Co., 1908, pamphlet.

Socialist Labor Party, Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Convention,
Grand Central Palace, New York, July 4-10, 1896, New York,
Goldman, 1896.

Social Labor Party, Proceedings of the Tenth Convention, New York,
June, 1900. Stenographic report by B. F. Keinard (with an ap-
pendix containing the constitution and platform of the party and
numerous historical and official documents). New York, New
York Labor News Company, 1901, 325 p.

Socialist Labor Party, Programtna e Statute e Manifesto delta S. T.
and L. A. (Libreria del Proletario, serie ii, vol. iv), New York,
Tipografia del " Proletario," pamphlet.

" Socialist Labor Party. Report to the International Socialist Congress
at Amsterdam, August, 1904," pamphlet. Published also in Report
of the Socialist Labor Party of the United States of America to
the International Congress held in Stuttgart, August 18-25, I 97,
signed by DeLeon and Henri Kuhn (Stuttgart Reports, edition
f'-anc,aise, vol. i, pp. 44-56).

Socialist Labor Party " Report of Socialist Labor Party to Stuttgart
(1907) International Socialist Congress," by Daniel De Leon (con-
tains report on I. W. W., Socialist Unity Conference, and relations
between Socialist Labor party, Socialist party and I. W. W.) (in
L' Internationale Ouvriere et Socialiste, Stuttgart, 1907, edition
franfaise, vol. i, pp. '43-72).

Socialist Labor Party of the United Siates of America, Report to the
International (Socialist) Congress held in Stuttgart, August 18-25,
1907, signed by Daniel DeLeon and F. Bohn, 20 pages (New York:
New York Labor News Company, 1907). (Includes, pp. 4-9,
Socialist Labor Party Report to Amsterdam Congress, 1904).

, As to Socialist Unity in America. Memorial of the National

Executive Committee of the Socialist Labor Party of the United
States to the International Socialist Bureau, Brussels (Belgium).
In Bulletin periodique du bureau sociaiiste international, 2 annee,
no. 7 (Brussels, 1911), pp. 28-35.
In French, German and English.

Socialist party, National Constitution Amended to August 3, 1915,
pamphlet, Chicago, issued by the National Office of the Socialist
party, no date, 20 pp.

Socialist party, National Convention, Indianapolis, May 12-18, 1912,
Proceedings. Stenographic report by W. E. McDermutt. Edited
by Jno. Spargo, Chicago, National Socialist Press, 1912, 248 pp.

Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance of the United States and Canada,
Constitution. Adopted at its First Convention, New York, June,

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1896. Revised at its Sixth Convention, Providence, R. I., 1901.

Issued by the General Executive Board, New York, 1902, 30 pp.
Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance of the United States and Canada:

Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention, Roxbury, Boston,

Mass., July, 1897. New York : Published by the General Executive

Board, no date, 20 pp.
" Socialist Unity Conference," Proceedings of the Neiv Jersey, Newark,

March 4, 1906, Jersey City, J. M. Reilly and Jno. Hossack, 1906,

80 pp.
Socialist Unity Conference, 1917, New York City, January 6 and 7.

Proceedings reported in the Weekly People, January, 1917.
Western Federation of Miners: Constitution and By-Laws (Amended

to July, 1910) . Denver : Pearl Print Shop, no date, 32 pp.
Western Federation of Miners, Official Proceedings of the Thirteenth

Annual Convention, Salt Lake City, May 22-June 9, 1905. Denver :

Reed Publishing Company, 1905.
" Father " T. J. Hagerty's " Wheel of fortune," reproduced on

p. 220, with reprint of the January [1905], Manifesto.
Western Federation of Miners [Proceedings of] Fourteenth Annual

Convention, Denver, May 28-June 13, 1906. Denver : Reed Pub-
lishing Company, 1906.
(Bears I. W. W. label).
The Workers' International Industrial Union. Founded at Chicago,

June 27-July 8, 1905. New name adopted 1915. Preamble and

Constitution amended 1906, 1907, 1908, 1913, 1914 and 1915. Ratified

by referendum vote. New name of the Detroit I. W. W. Detroit,

Mich.: General Headquarters [1916] 32 pp.

3. OFFICIAL AND SEMI-OFFICIAL PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS OF THE I. W. W.

Alarm. Swedish-Norwegian-Danish, Minneapolis, Minn., monthly,
50 cents.

A Bermunkds (The wage worker), Hungarian, Cleveland, weekly, $1.50.
Published by the Hungarian-speaking locals of the I. W. W.

Bulletin, Lumber Workers Industrial Union No. 500, /. W. W. (Spokane
district), Spokane, Wash, (small news sheet, published irregularly).

Buoreviestnik, Bulgarian, Chicago; weekly, vol. i, no. I, April 15, 1917,
$1.00.

California I. W. W\] Defense Bulletin (weekly), San Francisco
(Nov. 4, 1918- ).

Darbininku Balsas (The Voice of the Workers), Lithuanian; Baltimore,
weekly, I. W. W. organ.

The Defense News Bulletin (weekly), Chicago. Published by the
General Defense Committee of the I. W. W. (has no mailing privi-
leges), (1917- ). Name changed to The New Solidarity, No-
vember 16, 1918.

394 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Direct Action, "Australian administration," I. W. W. organ; Sydney,

N. S. W., Australia; weekly (Jan., 1914 ).

L 'Emancipation, Olneyville, R. I., monthly.

A Felssabadulds (Emancipation), Hungarian I. W. W. Journal, $2.00

(Dec., 1918- ), Chicago.
Golos Trusenka (The voice of the laborer), Russian I. W. W. paper

(1918- ), $1.00, Chicago.
La Huelga General, " Organ de la union cie los trabaj adores industriales

del mundo"; I. W. W. organ; Los Angeles, weekly, Ano i, Aug.

2 3, I 9 I 3; pub. by Spanish branch of the I. W. W.
The [I. W. W.} Defense Bulletin of the Seattle District, Seattle.

" Published weekly by the Seattle District Defense Committee."
[/. W. W.] Defense News Bulletin (weekly), vol. i, no. i (Nov. 9,

1918- ), Chicago. Published by the General Defense Committee.
(Name changed to The New Solidarity, Nov. 16, 1918).
/. W. W. Trial Bulletin, Chicago. Single page news sheet " issued

by the Defense News Service," I. W. W. Publishing Bureau.

(For the first month published daily. Title: Daily Bulletin.) Twice

a week. No. i, about Apr. i, 1918.
Industrial Union Bulletin, Official publication of the I. W. W., Chicago ;

weekly, Mar. 2, iox>7-Mar. 6, 1909; suspended publication with Mar.

6, 1909; Aug. 8-Dec. 12, 1908 publ. semi-monthly; (anti-Shermanite

organ of the "proletarian rabble").
Industrial Union News, organ of .S. L. P. faction of I. \V. W., Detroit,

iMich. ; monthly, pub. by the General Executive Board, vol. i, no. i,

January, 1912. (Now the organ of the Workers International

Industrial Union).

The Industrial Unionist, Jewish, Brooklyn. Quarterly. (i5c. a year.)
The Industrial Unionist, Auckland, Australia, monthly. Published by

the Auckland I. W. W. local.

The Industrial Unionist, Seattle, Wash. Published irregularly ( 1918- ) .
" Organ of the Western branches, Industrial Workers of the

World."
The Industrial Worker, I. W. W. organ, Joliet, 111.; monthly, vol. i,

no. i, Jan., 1906 (suspended publication).
Industrial Worker (II), I. W. W. organ; weekly, Spokane, Wash.;

published by the General Executive -Board of the I. W. W. ; Fred

Heslewood, editor; (suspended publication), Mar. 18, 1909-
Inditstrial Worker (III), I. W. W. organ; Seattle, Wash.; weekly.

April i, 1916- , suspended publication.
Industrial Workers of the World, Organ of the Trautmann-St. John

faction 1906-1907; No. 4, Chicago, Dec. i, 1906; No. 5, Chicago,

Jan. 10, 1907; a series of irregularly published bulletins.
The Industrial Worker, London. (Organ of the " British !. W. W.

Administration").

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Der Industrials Arbciter, Chicago, monthly (Feb., 1919- ).

" Issued by the Jewish Press Committee under the direction of
the G. E. B. of the I. W. W."

Industrijalni Radnik (Industrial Worker), Slavonian; I. W. W. organ;
Duluth, Minn. (" can be read by Croatians, Slovenians, Dalmatians,
Servians and Montenegrins"). $1.50 per year.

The Labor Bulletin, published monthly by the Portland (Ore.) locals
of the I. W. W. ; June, 1912-

The Labor Defender, New York [Feb. 16, 1918- ]. Published semi-
monthly by the Industrial Workers of the World Defense Com-
mittee. (Affiliated with the General Defense Committee of Chicago.)
Name changed to The Rebel Worker, February, 1919.

Het Licht (The Light) (Flemish), Lawrence, Mass. Monthly, 50 cents.

Loukkataisteht (The Class Struggle), New York (January, 1919- ).
Finnish.

The Lumber Jack, Alexandria, La. ; weekly, vol. i, no. i, Jan. 9, 1913- ;
published by National Industrial Union of Forest and Lumber
Workers Southern District (I. W. W.). Later published as The
Voice of the People at Portland, Ore. Publication suspended.

A Luz (Light), (Portuguese), .New Bedford, Mass. Semi-monthly,
50 cents.

The New Solidarity, weekly (Nov. 16, 1918- ), Chicago. Published
by the General Executive Board of the I. W. W. Official organ.
(Successor to the Defense News Bulletin).

The New Unionist, 'Seattle, Wash., vol. i, no. i, July 6, 1918. Pub-
lished weekly by the New Unionist Publishing Co. Publication
suspended.

News Bulletin [of the] Lumber Workers Industrial Union, [Seattle
district], Seattle. (Four-page news sheet.)

La Nueva Solidaridad (Spanish), Dec., 1918- , Chicago, $1.50.

// Nuovo Prole tario, Italian I. W. W. paper (Dec., 1918- ), Chicago,
$1.50.

Nya Verlden (The New World), Chicago (February, 1919- ).

// Proletario (The Proletariat), Italian, Boston. Weekly, $1.00.

Prum ny Delnik (Industrial Worker), Bohemian; semi-monthly,
Chicago.

Rabochaya Rech (The Voice of Labor), Russian, Chicago. -Weekly,
50 cents.

Ragione Nuova, Italian I. W. W. organ; monthly, Providence, R. I.;
25c. a year.

The Rebel Worker, New York (February, 1919- ). New name of
the Labor Defender.

El Rebelde (The Rebel), Spanish, Los Angeles. Semi-monthly, $1.00.
Published by I. W. W. local union, no. 602.
" Organo de los Trabajadores Industriales del Mundo."

396 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Socialist Union World, Detroit I. W. W. organ ; monthly, published by

L. U.'s 400, 427, 675, Seattle; soc. a year; August, 1914.
Solidariiet (Swedish monthly), Seattle, Wash.
Solidarity, official organ of I. W. W. ; weekly, published by I. W. W.

Publ. Bureau, Chicago; Dec. 18, 1909-1917. Suppressed by the

Government.
Solidarnosc (Solidarity), Polish, Chicago. Semi-monthly, $1.00.

Official Polish organ of the I. \V. W.
Tcollisuustyo lainen (Industrial Worker), Finnish, I. W. W. organ

(daily?); Duluth : The Socialist Publishing Company; formerly

called Socialist.

Timber Worker, Seattle, Wash.; weekly, suspended publication.
La Union Industrial, Spanish, Phoenix, Ariz.; published by the Local

Unions of the I. W. W. at Phoenix, Ariz.
Voice of Labour. Johannesburg, S. Africa, organ of " South African

administration I. W. W."
Voice of Labor, Chicago. Organ of the American Labor Union, monthly

from January, 1905. Suspended in 1005.
Voice of the People, weekly, published weekly by National Industrial

Union of Forest and Lumber Workers, Southern District, New

Orleans, La.; Jan. 9, 1913- , Covington Hall, Editor; beginning

with vol. iii, no. 29, July 30, 1914. published in Portland, Ore.;

published weekly by the City Central Committee of the I. W. W.

of Portland ("owned by the Lumber Jacks") ; originally published

at Alexandria, La., under title, The Lumber Jack; $1.00, publication

suspended.

Der Weckruf, Chicago, weekly (1912- ).
Weekly Bulletin of Lumber Workers Industrial Union No. 500, I. W.

W., Main Office, Chicago. (Two-page leaflet news sheet.)
The Wooden Shoe, published weekly by the I. W. W. locals of Los

Angeles; Bill C. Cook, James O'Neil, editors (Aug., 1912- ),

suspended publication.
Der Yacker, Jewish, I. W. W. organ; Brooklyn; monthly, May i, 1915.

The following journals though not organs of the I. W. W. contained

during the periods specified a vast amount of news and controversial

discussion of the 1. W. W. and I.W.W.-ism :

The Miners Magazine, 1905-1909. Official organ of the Western Fed-
eration of Miners (now the International Union of Mine, Mill and
Smelter Workers), Denver.

The Weekly People, 1905-1908. Official organ of the Socialist Labor
Party, New York.

The New Review, 1913-1916, New York. (Publication suspended).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

397

The International Socialist Review (1905-1918), monthly, Chicago. This
magazine has been for several years past virtually an I. W. W. organ.

4. OTHER SYNDICALIST AND REVOLUTIONARY LABOR PERIODICALS

La Accion Obrera (Syndicalist), Buenos Ayres.

L'Action Dlrccte, Syndicalist weekly, Paris, vol. i, no. i, January 15,
1908.

Adelante, Syndicalist, Punta Arenas, Chile.

The Agitator (changed to The Syndicalist January, 1913), Lakebay,
Wash.; semi-monthly, Jay Fox, editor. A workers' semi-monthly
advocate of the modern school, syndicalism and individual freedom.

American Labor Union Journal, Butte, Mont.; published by the Ameri-
can Labor Union, Jan., 1903- Dec., 1904 (vols. i-ii).

The Anarchist, London, weekly.

De Arbeid, Syndicalist, Holland, bi-weekly.

L'Azvenire (The Future), Italian, advocates syndicalism, New York;
weekly, published by Carlo Tresca of the I. W. W.

// Awenire Sociale, Rome ; fortnightly review.

Baiaille syndicaliste, Paris; daily.

The Blast, San Francisco ; weekly, Revolutionary Labor Weekly ; *\lex
Berkman, editor and publisher, vol. i, no. I, January 15, 1916.

Brand, weekly organ of the revolutionary syndicalist movement of
Sweden, Stockholm.

Le bulletin international du monrement syndicaliste, Bourg la Reine,
France, weekly, Ch. Cornelissen, Aug., 1907- ; contents repro-
duced every week in English in Solidarity and The Industrial
Worker, various syndicalist papers in Europe and La Accion Obrera
(Buenos Ayres).

The Class Struggle, New York (1917- ), published every two months
by the Socialist Publication Society, devoted to International
Socialism.

The Decentraliser, socialist and industrialist, Hallettsville, Texas;
monthly, 25c. a year.

Dvrekte Aktion, Stockholm.

Dvrekte Aktion, Christiania, Norway, Dec. i, 1910.

Divenire Sociale, Rome; published fortnightly; syndicalist, 1905- ,
edited by E. Leone.

Die Einigkeit, syndicalist organ of the " Freie Vereinigung Deutscher
Gewerkschaften, Berlin; weekly, 1906- . Started 1896 but radi-
cally syndicalistic only since 1006; represents revolutionary syndical-
ism in Germany.

L'mancipation, Industrialist unionist, Lawrence, Mass., monthly.
Freedom, San Francisco, monthly (publication suspended).
Der Freie Arbeiter, Anarchist, Berlin; weekly.

398 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Golos Truda (Voice of Labor), (Russian, advocates Syndicalism, New
York; weekly, published) by the Russian Labor Group.

La guerre sociale, Paris.

Herald of Revolt, Anarchist, London; monthly, Jan., 1911-

L'Humanite, Socialist daily published since 1905, Paris. Contains many
articles by Revolutionary and Reformist Syndicalists, strong syndi-
calist leanings.

The Industrial Socialist (semi-syndicalist organ), Bridgeport, Conn.

The Industrial Syndicalist, London, monthly. Edited by Tom Mann,
vol. i (1910-1911) issued monthly in pamphlet form, a special
article making up each number.

The Industrial Unionist, London ; weekly.

The Industrialist, official organ "Industrialist League," London, monthly.

The International. "A journal devoted to the cause of Syndicalism,"
San Diego, semi-monthly ; Laura Payne Emerson, editor and pub-
lisher, Aug. 17, 1914-

International Socialist Review (Industrial Socialism), Chicago, monthly;
C. H. Kerr, editor; C. H. Kerr & Co., publishers.

The Journal of the Knights of Labor, Washington, D. C, 1890, early
volumes published in Philadelphia; suspended publication May,
1904 to July, 1905.

Land and Liberty, Anarchist monthly, Apr., 1914- , Hayward, Calif.,
Wm. C. Owen, editor. Suspended.

The Liberator, New York, monthly (Max Eastman, ed.), vol. i, no. I,
March, 1918.

The Masses, New York, monthly, publication suspended.

The Maoriland Worker (industrial unionism), weekly, Wellington, New
Zealand.

Miners Magazine, The, weekly; published by the Western Federation
of Miners (International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Work-
ers) Denver, Colo.

Mother Earth, Anarchist monthly, New York; Emma Goldman, editor.

Le mouvement socialiste, Paris. Revue de critique sociale, litteraire
et artistique bi-mensuelle Internationale, 1899- ; semi-monthly,
Jan., 1903 to August, 1905 ; monthly, September, 1905- . Hubert
Lagardelle, editor.

Neo-Marxian. Especially valuable for student of revolutionary
syndicalism. Was for a time the organ of the intellectuals of the
French syndicalists.

The Nevada Workman, Goldfield. A weekly newspaper devoted to the
organization of the workers along industrial lines, August, 1907-

The New International (published monthly by the Socialist Propaganda
League) (1917- ) "A journal of revolutionary socialist recon-
struction." New York.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

399

The New Review. A critical review of international socialism, New

York, weekly to April, 1913, then monthly to April, 1915, then semi-
monthly. Publication suspended.
Pagine Libere, Lugano.
The People, Sydney, N. S. W., So. Australia; weekly, Industrial

unionism.
The People (continued as The Weekly People, q. v.), New York, 1891-

1908, vol. xi-vol. xvii has title " The Worker," vol. xviii title reads,

" New York Socialist," ceased publication with vol. xviii, 1908, daily.
Pionier, Unabhangiges sozialrevolutionares Organ ; Berlin, weekly, Jan.,

1911- . Represents the revolutionary syndicalist movement in

Germany.

Pluma Roj'a, Anarchist, Los Angeles, Calif., Oct., 1913-
El Producidor, Santiago, Chile, weekly, syndicalist paper.
The Proletarian. In Japanese, with some articles in English, Chicago ;

a monthly advocate of Industrial unionism for Japanese workers ;

3Sc. a year.
The Proletarian (monthly), Detroit, Proletarian Publishing Co. (vol.

i, May, 1918).
The Proletariat. Published every other month by the Jack London

Memorial Institute, vol. i, no. i, May- June, 1918, San Francisco.
Pueblo Courier (Pueblo Labor Advocate, 1904- ), Pueblo, Colo.;

official newspaper of the Western Labor Union.
The Question, official organ of the Unemployed Army; San Francisco;

Jan., 1914- ; published irregularly, no. 5 appeared. Suspended

publication.
The Radical Review (" Devoted to the critical study of scientific

socialism"). Published monthly by the Radical Review Publishing

Association, New York, vol. i, no. I, July, 1917.
The Referendum. Exponent of Marxian socialism and industrial

unionism, weekly, Faribault, Minn.
Regeneracion, Los Angeles, Calif.; syndicalist weekly. Includes an

English section.
Revolt. " The voice of the Militant Worker " ; Advocates industrial

socialism ; weekly, San Francisco, July, 1910- , suspended. Thos.

J. Mooney, publisher.
Social Justice, Pittsburgh.
The Social War, anarchist, published every three weeks ; subscription

voluntary, New York, 1913-
Solidaritet, Copenhagen, syndicalist, weekly.
Solidarity, monthly syndicalist magazine issued by the Industrial

Democracy League, of New South Wales.

Solidarity, organ of the Industrial Democracy League (London, Eng-
land) ; monthly "A journal of industrial unionism."

4OO

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Syndialist (formerly The Agitator), Chicago. Edited by W. Z.
Foster and J. A. Jones twice a month, published by the Syndicalist
Publ. Association, vol. iii, no. i, Jan. i, 1913.

The Syndicalist, London, monthly, 1912- (formerly the Syndicalist
Railwayman').

The Syndicalist and Amalgamation News, London, monthly, edited
under auspices of Industrial Syndicalist Education League, Febru-
ary, 1914-

Syndicalist Railwayman, London, monthly.

Syndikalisten, Lund, Sweden, fortnightly, official organ of Sveriges
Arbetarcs Central Organisation.

The Toiler. A monthly review of international syndicalism, May,
1912- , Kansas City, Mo.; published by the Toiler Publishing
Bureau; official organ of the Syndicalism League.

El Trabajo. Published by the Magellan Labor Federation (Syndical-
ist) at Punta Arenas, Chile.

La vie oiivriere, Paris ; Revue syndicaliste, bi-mensuelle.

I 7 olce of Labor, organ of American Labor Union, Chicago; monthly,
January, 1905, combining American Labor Union Journal and Rail-
way Employees Journal ; published by the American Labor Union ;
vol. ii, nos. 30-41, title reads "American Labor Union Journal."

La Voix du Peuple, Paris: Confederation Generate du Travail; weekly,
Dec. i, 1900-

Vorbote, Unabhangiges Organ fiir die Interessen des Proletariats;
Chicago, weekly.

The Wage Worker. "The only 3-color ' roughneck ' revolutionary
monthly on earth;" Seattle, Wash.; Aug., 1910- , $1.00.

Weekly People. Organ of the Socialist Labor Party, New York,
1899- . Before vol. x, no. 13, title reads, The People, edited by
Daniel De Leon to 1914.

Why. A semi-monthly Revolutionary Advocate of Anarchism. Tacoma,
Wash., $1.00.

5. PARTIAL LIST OF BOOKS AND ARTICLES ox THE I. W. W.

In this section have been included references to matter, (i) dealing
directly with the I. W. W. as an organization, (2) on I.W.W.ism,
syndicalism, socialism, anarchism, etc., as related to the I. W. W., (3)
written by or about persons who have been members of the organization,
(4) published by the I. W. W. or any of its publishing agencies and (5),
to any other secondary material cited 1 in the foregoing pages.

Names of authors who have belonged to the I. W. W. at one time
or another are marked with an asterisk.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 4OI

(a) BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS

American Federation of Labor, Executive Council, Industrial unionism
in its relation to trade unionism; being a report of the Executive
Council of the A. F. of L. to the Rochester, N. V. t Convention, in
which the subject is fairly presented, Washington, D. C., Amer.
Fed. of Labor [1912], 7 pp.

Babson, R. W., "American Federation of Labor or Industrial Workers
of the World, Which?" (in Babson' s Reports on Economical
Cooperative Movements, Confidential Bulletin of the Cooperative
Service, No. L, 63, Wellesley Hills, ;Mass., October, 1916. Labor
Forecast), 4 pp.

Batdorf, J. W., The Menace of the I. W. W., New York : Anti-socialist
Press, 1917 (32 pp.. loc.)

Bliss, W. D. P., " Industrial Workers of the \Vorld "Article in the
New Encyclopedia of Social Reform. New edition, pp. 619-20.
New York : Funk Wagnalls, 1908.

Brissenden, P. F., Launching of the Industrial Workers of the World.
University of California Publications in Economics, vol. iv, no. i,
82 pp., Berkeley, 1913.

Brooks, J. G., American Syndicalism, The I. W. W. (Bibliography),
New York: (MacMillan, 1913, 264 pp.

* Brown, William Thurston, The Revolutionary Proletariat, Chicago,

I. W. W. Press, n. d. Pamphlet.

, Will You Have War or Peace? Chicago, I. W. W. Press, n. d.

Pamphlet.

Bruere, Robert W., " Notes on the I. W. W. in Arizona and the North-
west," in Reconstruction after the War. (Journal of the National
Institute of Social Sciences, vol. iv, April i, 1918), pp. 99-108.

Bruette, Wm. A., The Industrial Workers: A clear and forcible expose
of the crimes and policies of the /. W, W., Chicago, Bureau Ameri-
can, no date. Quotes from Brooks, "American Syndicalism " which
the author does not mention. Pamphlet.

Callender, Harold, The truth about the I. W. W. (illus.), Chicago

[I. W. W.], n. d., 14 pp. Reprinted from The Masses.
. " The war and the I. W. W." In the Proceedings cf the National
Conference of Social Work . . . , Forty-fifth annual session ....
Kansas City, Mo., May 15-22, 1918. (Chicago, 1919), pp. 420-425.

* Chaplin, Ralph, When the Leaves Come Out, Chicago, I. W. W.

Publicity Bureau, 1917? (Revolutionary songs and poems).
Chumley, L. S., Hotel, Restaurant aiid Domestic Workers, Chicago,

I. W. W. Publishing Bureau, n. d., 38 pp.
Chunks of I.W.W.ism, Auckland, N. Z., I. W. W., n. d., pamphlet. 16 pp.

402 BIBLIOGRAPHY

* [Cole, James Kelly]. Revolutionary Writings of James Kelly Cole,

Chicago, I. W. W. Publicity Bureau, n. d., 85 pp., 25 cents.
Comstock, A. P., " History of the Industrial Workers of the World in
the United States" (Thesis for M. A. degree) (Typewritten MSS.
in Columbia University library), 54 pp., bibliography, 3 pp., 1913.

* Debs, E. V., Class Unionism, Chicago, C. H. Kerr & Co., 1909.

Pamphlet.
, Industrial Unionism, New York, New York Labor News Co., 1911,

pamphlet, 25 pp. Address at Grand Central Palace, New York,

December 10, 1905. (Advocates formation of one union for all

wage-workers ) .
, Revolutionary Unionism, Chicago, C. H. Kerr & Co., 1909. Speech

delivered at Chicago, November 23, 1905. Pamphlet.
Debs, E. V. and others. Unionism, Industrial and Political, Chicago,

C. H. Kerr & Co., 1909. Pamphlet.
Debs, E. V. and (Russell, C. E,, Danger Ahead for the Socialist Party

in Playing the Game of Politics, Chicago, C. H. Kerr, n. d., 32 pp.,

pamphlet, 5 cents. Also in International Socialist Review, Jan., 1911.

* DeLeon, Daniel (editor), As to Politics: a Discussion upon the relative

Importance of Political Action and of Class Conscious Economic
Action, and the Urgent Necessity of Both, New York, Labor News
Press, 1907, 78 pp. (" The contents of this pamphlet is a discussion
that took place in the columns of The People, under the head "As
to Politics " during the months of November and December, 1906,
and January and February, 1907" Introduction).

* DeLeon, Daniel, The Burning Question of Trade Unionism, New

York: New York Labor News Co., 1904, pamphlet, 27 pp., 5 cents.
A lecture delivered at Newark, N. J., April 21, 1904.

, Flash-Lights on the Amsterdam [socialist] Congress (1904), New

York: New York Labor News Co., pamphlet, 150 pp., 25 cents.

, Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World, New York:

New York Labor News Co., 1905, 48 pp., pamphlet. (Also re-
printed in Miners' Magazine, 1905, Oct. 19, 26, Nov. 2, Nov. 9).
Address delivered in Minneapolis, July 10, 1905, 5 cents. German
and Norwegian translations.

, Reform or Revolution, New York: New York Labor News Co.,
1906, pamphlet, 32 pp., 5 cents. Address delivered at Wells Me-
morial Hall, Boston, January 26, 1896.

, Socialism vs. Anarchism, New York: New York Labor News Co.,

n. d. " Buzz Saw " series, vol. i, no. i. Pamphlet.

, Socialist Unity, New York : New York Labor News Co., n. d.,

pamphlet, 5 cents.

, Unity, New York: New York Labor News Co., 1908, 24 pp.

Address in New York City, February 21, 1908. Stenographically

BIBLIOGRAPHY

reported by Sidney Greenburg. (Resolutions on Unity Question,
pp. 25-27).

, What Means this Strike? New York: New York Labor News Co.,

1 93, 3i PP-, 5 cents. (Address delivered by Daniel DeLeon
in the City Hall of New Bedford, Mass., February n, 1898).

* DeLeon, D., and Harriman, Job, The Socialist Trade and Labor

Alliance versus the "Pure and Simple Trade Union" New York:
New York Labor News Co., 1900, The People Library, no. 19,
December, 1900, 44 pp., 5c.

* Doran, J. T. ("Red"), Evidence and cross-examination of, in the

case of the U. S. A. vs. Wm. D. Haywood, et al. [Chicago, General
(I. W. W.) Defense Committee, 1918], 151 p.

* Ebert, Justus, American Industrial Evolution from the frontier to

the factory. Its social and political effects, New York : New York

Labor News Co., 1907, pamphlet, 88 pp., 15 cents.
, Trades Unionism in the United States, 1742-1905 Bulwark of

Capitalism or framework of Socialism? An historical glimpse,

New York : New York Labor News Co., n. d., pamphlet, 26 pp., 50.
, The Trial of a New Society, Cleveland, Ohio : I. W. W. Publicity

Bureau, 1913, 75 cents, 160 pp. (The Lawrence strike).
Ethics and Aims of the I. W. W. [Chicago, I. W. W. Press, 1919].

Pamphlet. Translated into Yiddish.

* Ettor, J. J., Industrial Unionism: The Way to Freedom, Chicago,

I. W. W. Press, 1912, pamphlet, 22 pp.

, Testimony before United States Commission on Industrial Rela-
tions, New York City, May 22, 1914, The American Federation of
Labor, the Socialist Party and the Industrial Workers of the World,
Final Report and Testimony, vol. ii, pp. 1549-57. (Also includes
testimony of St. John, Gompers and Hillquit).

* Ettor and Giovannitti before the Jury at Salem, Massachusetts, No-

vember 23, 1912 containing their speeches before the jury and
Giovannitti's poem " The Walker," pp. 73-80, Chicago : Industrial
Workers of the World, no date, pamphlet, 80 pp., 25 cents.

* Flynn, E. G., Sabotage: The Conscious Withdrawal of the Workers'

Industrial Efficiency, Cleveland : I. W. W. Publicity Bureau, April,
1915, pamphlet, 32 pp., 10 cents.

Ford, E. C. and * Foster, Wm. Z., Syndicalism, Chicago, W. Z. Foster,
1912, pamphlet, 47 pp., 10 cents.

* Foster, Wm. Z. and Titus, H. F., Insurgency: The Economic Power

of the Middle Class, Seattle, Trustee Printing Co., 1908, 14 pp.,
10 cents. Reprinted from Workingman's Paper of iSeattle, Sep-
tember 10, 1910.

Frankenthal, Barbara L., The Diesel Motor (In Hanson, N. H.,
"Onward Sweep of the Machine Process," pp. 21-30). (Meaning

404

BIBLIOGRAPHY

of this invention for unskilled laborers. It will force them into the
industrial union). Chicago: I. W. W. Publicity Bureau [1917?]
G. B., "The Last War" (in Haywood, The General Strike, pp. 19-44),
Chicago : I. W. W. Publicity Bureau, n. d., pamphlet, 48 pp.

* George, Harrison, History of the I. W. W. trial, Chicago, General

Defense Committee (in press).

, Is Freedom Dead? (Chicago, I. W. W. Publishing Bureau, n. d.,

22p., ice. " Sequel to the suppressed pamphlet, Shall freedom
die?" (illus.).

* George Harrison, The Red Dawn: The Bolshevlki and the I. II'. W.,

25 pp., Chicago, I. W. W. Publishing Bureau [1918].

* Giovannitti, Arturo, Arrows in the Gale, (poems), Riverside, Conn.,

Hillacre Bookhouse, 1914, 108 pp.
, , "The Walker" (poem), (in Ettor and Giovannitti before the

Jury at Salem, Mass., pp. 73-80). (Also in International Socialist

Review, vol. xiii, p. 201, September, 1912.)
Glynn, T., Industrial Efficiency and its Antidote, in Hanson, N. H.,

Onward Sweep of tlw Machine Process, pp. 9-21.
Groat, Geo. G., " Revolutionary industrial unionism," chs. xxvii and

xxviii (pp. 426-452) in his Organised Labor in America (New

York, 1916).

* Hagerty, Thomas J. ("Father" Hagerty), Economic Discontent and

its Remedy, Terre Haute, Ind. : Standard Publishing Co., 1902,
pamphlet, 47 pp., 10 cents.

* Hagerty, Thomas Joseph, A. M., S. T, B., Why Physicians Should

be Socialists, Terre Haute, Ind.: Standard Publishing Co., 1902,
pamphlet, 24 pp., 5 cents.

Hanson, Nils H., The Onward Sweep of the Machine Process, Chicago :
I. W. W. Publicity Bureau [1917?], 32 pp.

Harre, T. Everett, The I. W. W. An Auxiliary of the German Espion-
age System. History of I. W. W. anti-war activities, showing how
the I. IV. W. program of sabotage inspired the Kaiser's agents in
America, with introduction by R. M. Easley, 64 pp., [1918], 25 cents.

* Haywood, William D., Evidence and Cross-examination of, in the case

of the U. S. A. vs. Wm. D. Haywood, et al. [Chicago, General
(I. W. W.) Defense Committee, 1918], 312 pp.

* Haywood, Wm. D., The Case of Ettor and Giovannitti, Lawrence,

Mass., Ettor and Giovannitti Defence Committee, 1912. Pamphlet.
, The General Strike, Chicago: I. W. W. Publicity Bureau, n. d.,

pamphlet, 48 pp. (Address delivered in New York, Mar. 16, 1911).

(New edition, containing also " The Last War " by "G. B.," pp.

19-44). Printed also in Polish.
, Letters relating to Free Speech Fights. (Copies of letters received

from I. W. W.s on the firing line) and extract from Grant S.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 405

Youman's book. Legalised Bank Robbery, " The Labor Troubles,"
10 pp., typewritten MS. (23 1.), United States Commission on
Industrial Relations. U. S. Department of Labor Library.
, Testimony before United States Commission on Industrial Rela-
tions, Washington, D. C., Industrial Relations, Report of Hearings,
vol. xi, pp. 10569-10599, " Labor and the Law," Washington, D. C,
May n, 13. 1915.

Reprinted in pamphlet form by I. W. W. Publishing Bur.
(Chicago, n. d., 70 pp.)

* Haywood, Wm. D. and Bohn, Frank, Industrial Socialism, Chicago :

C. H. Kerr and Co., 1911, pamphlet, 64 pp., 10 cents.

Herve, Gustave, Patriotism and the Worker, New Castle, Pa. : I. W. W.
Publicity Bureau [1912], 31 pp.

Hillquit, Morris [The I. W. W.], pp. 332-339 in his History of Social-
ism in the U. S., 5th ed., New York, 1910.

Hoxie, Robt. F., " The Industrial Workers of the World and revolu-
tionary unionism," ch. vi (pp. 139-176) in his Trade Unionism in
the United States, (Bibliography on I. W. W. and Syndicalism,
PP- I7S-6). Appleton, 1917.

[The I. W. W. and the Chicago conspiracy trial] in The Labor Scrap
Book, pp. 16-19 (Chicago, Kerr, 1918), (ioc., pamphlet).

I. W. W. One big Union of all the Workers. The greatest thing on
earth, Chicago, I. W. W. Publishing Bureau, n. d., 32 pp.

[Industrial Workers of the World], in the New International Year
Book, 1917, PP. 356-357.

The "Knights of Liberty" Mob and the I. W. W. Prisoners at Tulsa,
Okla. (No.v. 9, 1917), New York: National Civil Liberties Bureau,
February, 1918, 16 pp. Reprinted in The Class Struggle, vol. ii,
PP- 371-375 ('May-June, 1918).

* Koettgen, Ewald, One Big Union in the Textile Industry, Cleveland,

Ohio: I. W. W. Publicity Bureau, 1914.

* Kurinsky, Philip, The I. W. W., its Principles and Methods, Brooklyn,

Yiddish I. W. W. Publicity Association [1916], 63 pp., pamphlet, ioc.
Text in Yiddish.

Legien, Carl, " Die Knights of Labor und die Industrial Workers of
the World " (in his Aus Amerikas Arbeiterbewegung, Berlin, Verlag
der Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands, 1914,
pp. 162-184).

Includes a reproduction of " Father " T. J. Hagerty's " Wheel of
Fortune" (p. 176) and a German translation of the January Mani-
festo (of 1905).

Lewis, Austin, Proletarian and Petit-Bourgeois, Chicago, I. W. W.
Publishing Bureau [1914?], 47 pp.

Contains also: What comes of playing the game, by Chas. Edw.
Russell and Those zuho earn and those who work, by Scott Nearing.

406 BIBLIOGRAPHY

* McDonald, Edward, The Farm Laborer and the City Worker A

Message to Both, Newcastle, Pa. : Solidarity Literature Bureau,
n. d., pamphlet, 13 pp.

Macy, John, Socialism in America, "The American Books" series,
New York : Doubleday Page, 1916, ch. ix, " Industrial Workers of
the World," pp. 157-84 ('Sympathetic and pro-I. W. W.).

Marot, Helen, American Labor Unions, New York: Holt, 1914, ch. iv,
" Industrial Workers of the World," pp. 48-64.

" Les Mecontents de la Federation [the I. W. W.s] "in Report of
the Socialist Party of America to. the Stuttgart International
Socialist Congress, 1907, L' Internationale Ouvriere et Socialiste,
Stuttgart, 1907, edition franchise, vol. i, pp. 23-32.

National Civil Liberties Bureau, War-time Prosecutions and Mob
Violence, invohnng the rights of free speech, free press and peace-
ful assemblage. From April I, 1917 to May I, 1918. New York,
1918, 22 pp.

" This list of cases is compiled from the correspondence and press
clippings of the National Civil Liberties Bureau . . " Cases " in-
volving primarily the I. W. W.," pp. 10-11; I. W. W. cases of.
" search and seizure," pp. 21 ; other I. W. W. cases, passim.

*Nilsson, B. E., Political Socialism: Capturing the Government, Port-
land, Ore., n. d., pamphlet, 32 pp.

An " attempt to show that the working class have little or nothing
to gain through political action, and that the energy expended in
such action is worse than wasted."

* Perry, Grover H., The Revolutionary I. W. W. t Cleveland, Ohio.:

I. W. W. Publicity Bureau: 1915, 24 pp., 5 cents.
Contains also Hoiv scabs are bred, by the same author, and The

constructive program of the I. W. W., by B. H. Williams.
Plotting to convict Wheatland Hop Pickers, Oakland, Cal., International

Press, 1914, 28 pp.
The Revolutionary I. W. W., London : n. d., pamphlet.

* St. John, Vincent, The I. W\ W.: its History. Structure and Methods,

Chicago: I. W. W. Publicity Bureau (1917), "Revised 1917" to
Jan. i, 1917, 32 pp, pamphlet, contains also the " Industrial Union
Manifesto" (of 1905), pp. 25-9, and "The trend toward industrial
freedom", by B. H. Williams (pp. 30-32). Reprinted from the
American Journal of Sociology symposiums on " What is
Americanism ? " Finnish and Russian translations.

, Industrial Unionism and the I. W. W., Chicago : I. W. W. Pub-
licity Bureau, 1913, 16 pp., pamphlet.

, Testimony before United States Commission on Industrial Re-
lations (New York, May 21, 1914), "Final Report and Testimony,"
vol. ii, pp. 1445-1462, 1571-2.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

407

Schroeder, Theodore A., " The history of the San Diego free speech
fight," ch. x (pp. 116-190) in his Free speech for radicals (1916
enlarged ed.) New York: Free Speech League, 1916. (This chap-
ter originally appeared in the New York Call, Sunday issues be-
ginning, Mar. 15, 1914).

Shall freedom die? Chicago, I. W. W. Publishing Bureau [1917], 20 pp.,
ioc., " 166 union men in jail for labor ... by one of them."

* Smith, Walker C., The Everett Massacre. A history of the class

struggle in the lumber industry, 358 pp. (illus.), Chicago: I. W. W.

Publishing Bureau, 1918.
, Sabotage, its History, Philosophy and Function, Spokane, Wash.?;

1913, pamphlet, 32 pp.
, War and the Workers, Cleveland : I. W. W. Publicity Bureau,

n. d., leaflet. Also under title, "War! United States, Mexico,

Japan." (Also in Solidarity, May 20, 1911.)
, What is the I. W. W.? pp. 42-46 of pamphlet: On the firing line.

* Speed, Geo., Testimony before United States Commission on Industrial

Relations, San Francisco, August 27, 1914, in Industrial Relations
5 : 4936-49-

Spielman, Jean E., The Tramp as a Home Guard, New Castle, Pa.:
I. W. W. Publicity Bureau, I. W. W. leaflet.

* Steiger, J. H., The Memoirs of a Silk Striker; an Exposure of the

Principles and Tactics of the I. W. W. (Paterson, N. J.?) privately
printed, 1914.

* Thompson, Jas. P., Testimony before United States Commission on

Industrial Relations, Seattle. Wash., August 10-12, 1914111 In-
dustrial Relations, vol. v, pp. 4233-42.

* Trautmann, Wm. E. Direct Action and Sabotage. Pittsburgh : So-

cialist News Company, 1912, 43 pp, illustrated, 10 cents.
, Industrial union methods, Chicago, C. H. Kerr [1912], 29 pp.
, Industrial Unionism, Chicago : C. H. Kerr & Co., 1909, pamphlet,

29 p., 5 cents. Same as " Industrial Union Methods."
, Industrial Unionism: The Hope of the Workers, Pittsburgh:

Socialist News Co., 1912, pamphlet.
, Vom Niederlagen sum Sieg, Chicago: I. W, W., 1911, pamphlet,

5 cents.
, Why Strikes are Lost: How to Win, 23 pp., Newcastle, Pa.:

Solidarity Literature Bureau, n. d.

* Trautmann, Wm. E. and Rovin, A. M., War against zvar, Los Angeles,

Cal. [1915], price, 15 cents, 46 pp.

* Trautmann, Win. E. and Schlecweis, Industrial Combinations, New

York: Industrial Literature Bureau, 1909, pamphlet, 32 pp. Chart
insert " showing arrangement of industrial enterprises." Text is
largely a running analysis of the chart. (" Printed by members
of the I. W. W.")

408 BIBLIOGRAPHY

*Tridon, Andre, The New Unionism, New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1917,
198pp.

The truth about the I. W . W., New York: National Civil Liberties
Bureau, Apr., 1918, 55 pp., 5 cents.

" Facts in relation to the trial at Chicago by competent industrial
investigators and noted economists." Symposium of opinions ex-
pressed by various writers.

Turner, Jno. Kenneth, Story of a New Labor Union (reprinted from
Oregon Sunday Journal), written during the strike of the Portland
Mill Workers, Industrial Union Leaflet No. 16 also in Industrial
Union Bulletin, April 13, 1907.

Two Enemies of Labor. The complaints of the Anarchists [Chicago
I. W. W.], Socialist Labor Party leaflet, n. d.

United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of North America, General Execu-
tive Board, The Deceit of the I. W. W.: A year's record of the
activity of the Industrial Workers of the World in the cloth hat
and cap trade, New York, 1906, 31 pp.

The United States of America vs. William D. Haywood, et al.
(No. 6125). In the. District Court of the United States, northern
district of Illinois, eastern division. Indictment on sections 6, 19
and 37 of the criminal code of the United States, and section 4 of
the "Espionage Act" of June 15, 1917 (32-page pamphlet).
Chicago: I. W. W. Publishing Bureau [1918].

United States Commission on Industrial Relations, The American Feder-
ation of Labor , the Socialist Party and the Industrial Workers of
the World. Testimony of representatives (Gompers, Hillquit, St.
John and Ettor) before United States Commission on Industral
Relations (New York: May 21-23, 1914)1 "Final Report and Tes-
timony," vol. ii, pp. 1443-1579.

, Industrial Conditions and Relations in Paterson, N. J . Industrial

Relations 3: 2413-2645 (I. W. W. strikes in the silk mills and the
relations between the two factions of the I. W. W.).

, Report on I. W. W. Activities; especially its Strikes and Frcc

Speech Fights Laurence, Paterson; Free speech at Denver, Spokane,
Fresno r San Diego, Aberdeen, and Minot, S. D. (by Daniel
O'Regan?), 106 pp., typ. MS. U. S. Department of Labor Library.

United States Congress, House of Representatives, Papers relative to
Labor Troubles at Goldfield, Nev. Messa-ge from the President of
the United States transmitting Report of Special Commission on
Labor Troubles at Goldneld, Nev., and papers relating thereto
House Doc. No. 607, 6oth Cong, ist Sess. (Washington: Govern-
ment Printing Office, 1908-), 30 pp.

Untermann, Ernest, No compromise with the I. W. W., typed MSS.
4 PP-> published in 1913 in New York Call and the National
Socialist.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Vanderveer, Geo. F., Opening Statement [to the jury] in the case of the
U. S. A. vs. [I'm. D. Hayivood, et al, Chicago : I. W. W. Publishing
Bureau [1918], pamphlet, 25 cents, 102 pp.

Weinstock, Harris, Report to the Governor of California on the dis-
turbance in the city and county of San Diego in 1912, Sacramento,
State Printing Office, 1912, 22 pp.

* Williams, B. H., Eleven Blind Leaders, New Castle, Pa. : Solidarity

Literature Bureau, n. d., 32 pp., 10 cents. Contains also " Syndical-
ism and Socialism" by B. H. W(illiams), editorial reprinted from
Solidarity, April 27, 1912, pp. 30-31).

Woehlke, W. V., The I. W. W. [Cleveland, O., Nat'l. Metal Trades
Assn., 1912], 1 6 p. A sketch of the I W. W. Reprinted from the
Outlook, July 6, 1912.

, "The problem of the I. W. W.," ch. xiii (pp. 125-133) in his

Union labor in peace and war (San Francisco, Sunset Publishing
House, 1918).

* Woodruff, Abner E., The Advancing Proletariat: A Study of the

Movement of the Working Class from Wage Slavery to Freedom,
Cleveland : I. W. W. Publicity Bureau, Aug., 1914, pamphlet, 32 pp.,
10 cents.

* Woodruff, Abner E., The Evolution of Industrial Democracy, Chicago :

I. W. W. Publishing Bureau [1917], 40 pp. (Originally published
in Solidarity, issues of November and December, 1916).

(b) MAGAZINE ARTICLES

1903 * Trautmann, Wm. E., " The United Brewery Workers and In-

dustrial Organization," American Labor Union Journal, Sept.
3, 1003-

* Debs, E. V., " The industrial convention," International Socialist

Rev., vol. v, pp. 85-6, August, 1905.

1904 * Debs, E. V., "Unionism and Socialism," Way land's Monthly,

Girard, Kans., August, 1004, no. 52, pp. 2-44, pamphlet.

1905 * DeLeon, Daniel, " The preamble of the Industrial Workers of

the World," Miners' Magazine, vol. vii, nos. 121-124, Oct. 19,
26; Nov. 2, 9, 1905.

Address delivered in Minneapolis, July 10, 1905. Published
also in pamphlet form.

* Hagerty, " Father " Thomas J., " Reasons for Industrial Union-

ism," Voice of Labor, March, 1005.

Hamilton, Grant, "A story of ' funny ' unionism." American Feder-
ationist, vol. xii, p. 137 (March, 1005). The American Labor
Union from the A. F. of L. standpoint.

* Haywood, Wm. D., " Industrial Unionism," Voice of Labor,

June, 1905.

4 IO BIBLIOGRAPHY

1905 * Simons, A. M., " Industrial Workers of the World," Inter-

national Socialist Review, vol. vi, pp. 65-77, August, 1905.

* Trautmann, Wm. E., " The Smashing Process Against Industrial

Unionism and Socialism." Letter (dated at Cincinnati, June
17, 1905) in Weekly People, June 17, 1905, pp. i, 2, 3. Open
letter to the Brewery Workers and the working class.

1906 Conlon, P. J., "Went up like a rocket; came down like a stick."

Machinists' Monthly Journal, vol. xviii, pp. iioS-iui (De-
cember, 1906).

A trade-union obituary of the I. W. W. after its second
convention.

"The [1906] Convention of the Industrial Workers at Chicago."
Editorial, Miners' Magazine, Oct. 4, 1906, vol. viii, no. 171,
PP. 6-7.

* Debs, E. V., " Industrial Unionism," Miners' Magazine, Jan. 25,

1906, pp. 8-12, vol. vii, no. 135. Reprinted from the Daily
People. Also in International Socialist Review, August, 1910,
vol. xi, p. 90.

O'Neill, Jno. M., " Our comment on the various reports of the
[second] I. W. W. convention," Miners' Magazine, Nov. 8,
1906, pp. 6-9.

*St. John, V., "Vincent St. John on the [1906] I. W. W. Con-
vention." (Letter to Editor), Miners' Magazine, Nov. 8, 1906,
pp. 4-6, vol. viii, no. 176.

* 'Simons, A. M., "Die Lage in den Vereinigten Staaten," Neue
Zeit. 24 Jahrg. Bd. i, Feb. 3, 1906, pp. 622-27.

1907 Currie, B. W., " How the West Dealt with the Industrial Workmen

[sic] of the West," Harpers Weekly 51 : 908-10, June 22, 1907.

* Foote, E. J., " The Positive [Value] of Industrialism," Industrial

Union Bulletin, May 4, 1907.

* Heslewood, F. W., " (Relations of Trade-Unions and the Political

Party," Industrial Union Bulletin, September 14, 1907.
Spielman, Jean E., "Are the I. W. W. still Revolutionary?"
Mother Earth, Dec., 1907, vol. ii, pp. 457-460.

* Trautmann, Wm. E., "A brief history of the industrial union

manifesto," Industrial Union Bulletin, Dec. 14, 21, 1907, Aug.

22, 1908.
, " The Question of Might," Industrial Union Bulletin, Dec.

7, 1907.
Turner, Jno. Kenneth, ".Story of a ne\v labor union," Industrial

Union Bulletin, April 13, 1907. Reprinted as Industrial Union

Leaflet, no. 16.

1908 Bohn, Frank, " Mission and Functions of Industrial Unionism,"

Industrial Union Bulletin, May 2, 1908.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

411

1908 *DeLeon, Daniel, "The Intellectual Against the Worker" (being

extracts from DeLeon's protest against his own disbarment
from a seat in the Fourth Convention), Industrial Union
Bulletin, Oct. 10, 1908, pp. 1-2.

* St. John, V., "The Worker Against the Intellectual" (extracts

from St. John's reply to DeLeon and his argument for refus-
ing DeLeon a seat), (Fourth Convention), Industrial Union
Bulletin, Oct. 10, 1908, pp. 1-2.

1909 * Foote, E. J., " The Ethics of Industrial Unionism," Industrial

Union Bulletin, Feb. 20, 1909.

* Flynn, E. G., " The Free Speech Fight at Spokane," International

Socialist Review 10 : 483, December, 1909.

* Trautmann, Wm. E., " German Syndicalism," Industrial Union

Bulletin, March 6, 1909.

* Williams, B. H., " The Physical Force Fallacy," Industrial Union

Bulletin, February 20, 1909.

1910 * Flynn, E. G., "Latest News from Spokane," International So-

cialist Review, March, 1910, vol. x, pp. 828-34.

, " The Shame of Spokane," International Socialist Review,

January, 1910, vol. x, p. 610-619.

* Heslewood, F. W., "Barbarous Spokane," International Socialist

Review, February, 1910, 10 : 75-7 I 3-

Parks, Wade R., " Spokane Analyzed by the Light of Lester F.
Ward's ' Dynamic Sociology ' ", Weekly People, January 15,

1910, pp. 1-2. The author was Secretary of the Spokane local
of the I. W. W. before 1908. He charges " wholesale graft,
boodle," etc., in the I. W. W. in the Northwest.

* St. John, Vincent. " The Brotherhood of Capital and Labor :

its Effect on Labor," International Socialist Revieiv, Jan., 1910,
vol. x, pp. S87-593-

1911 Bohn, Frank, "Is the I. W. W. to Grow?" International Socialist

Review 12: 42-44, July, 1911.

* Ebert, Justus, " Modern Industrialism," series of articles running

in Solidarity, August 12, 1911 Nov. 4, 1911.

* Foster, W. Z., " Syndicalism in Germany," Industrial Worker,

September 14, 1911.

, " Un grand effort des industrialistes. La lutte pour la liberte

de parole a Spokane" (fitats-Unis). Vie Ouvritre, January,

1911, pp. 91-100.

* St. John, Vincent, " Fake industrial union versus real industrial

union," Industrial Worker, Apr. 6, 1911.

* Williams, B. H., "Sixth I. W. W. Convention," International

Socialist Review 12:300-2, Nov., 1911.

1912 Bohn, W. E.. " Development of the Industrial Workers of the

World," Survey 28: 220-5, May 4, 1912.

4 I2 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1912 Brooks, Jno. G., " The Shadow of Anarchy," " The Industrial
Workers of the World," Survey, April 6, 1912, vol. xxviii, no.
I, pp. 80-2. Reprinted from (Boston) Evening Transcript,
February 10, 1912.

Cannon, J. P., "The Seventh [1912] I. W. W. Convention," Inter-
national Socialist Review 13 : 424, Nov., 1912.

Duff, Hezekiah N., " The I. W. W.'s ; What They are and What
They are Trying to do," (illustrated), Square Deal 10: 297-310,
May, 1912. ( Intemperately conservative).

* Foster, W. Z., " Revolutionary Tactics," The Agitator, April 15,

1912, May i, 1912, May 15, June I, 15, and July i, 1912. (Com-
prehensive discussion by a syndicalist writer.)

, " Syndicalism in France," The Agitator, July 15, 1912 and

Aug. i, 1912.

Ghent, W. J., " The Devotees of Syndicalism," Miners' Magazine,
Aug. 29, 1912, p. 13. From the Social Democratic Herald.

* Haywood, W. D., "The Fighting I. W. W.," International So-

cialist Review, vol. xviii, pp. 246-7 September, 1912.

* Haywood, Wm. D., " Timber Workers and Timber Wolves,"

International Socialist Review 13 : 105-10 August, 1912. (The
strike of the Louisiana timber workers).

"The Industrial Workers of the World" (series of three
articles), The Evening Post (N. Y.), Nov. 2, 1912, Saturday
supplement, pp. i, 2; Nov. 9, Saturday supplement, pp. i, 3;
Nov. 16, Saturday supplement, p. 2. (Excellent general de-
scription and analysis).

" The I. W. W.,"- Miners' Magazine, Aug. i, 1912. Reprinted
from the Western Clarion.

" I. W. W. and Labor," The Protectionist, September, 1912,
308-10 From Boston Traveller.

" Inside Views on the I. W. W.'s," Toledo Union Leader,
June 14, 1912.

" Lawrence and the Industrial Workers of the World,"
Survey, vol. xxviii, no. i, April 6, 1912, pp. 79-80. (State-
ment in brief of the Lawrence Textile Workers' Strike Com-
mittee on March 24, the date on which it went out of exist-
ence. Its place was taken by a permanent body, Local 20,
National Industrial Textile Workers' Union, of the I. W. W.
The statement as it appears here is somewhat condensed )

Lenz, Hugo, " The ' menace ' of the I. W. W.," Labor Clarion
(San Francisco), February 16, 1912, also in Solidarity, Febru-
ary 24, 1912.

" Menace of the I. W. W.," Houston Labor Journal, No-
vember 2, 1912, p. i.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

413

1912 Randolph, H. S., " The I. W. W.," The Common Cause, vol. i,

no. 5, May, 1912, pp. 1-9.

"The Real Menace to Unionism," Labor Digest (monthly),
Minneapolis, Minn., April, 1812.

* Richter, H., " The I. W. W. : Retrospect and prospects," Indus-

trial Union News, Jan., 1912.
Rosebury, A., " Industrialism the bugbear of society. The I. W.

W. and its poverty of philosophy," Leather Workers Journal,

October, 1912, pp. 42-3.
" Rumored Split in the Ranks of the Workers of the World.

Rival Branches of the Organization in Chicago and Detroit

Apparently at Each Other's Throats," Square Deal 11:65-8,

August, 1912.

* Russell, Phillips, " The Strike at Little Falls," International

Socialist Review 13 : 455-6o, December, 1912.

Steffens, Lincoln, "The Labor Contract of the I. W. W.,"
Solidarity, April 6, 1912.

Stevens, F. B., " The I. W. W. A World Menace to Civilization,"
Brooklyn Eagle, Sunday, April 28, 1912, Magazine section,
pp. i, 2, illustrated.

" Syndicalism, sabotage, socialism and the Industrial Work-
ers of the World," Labor World (New York), December 28,
1912, p. 2.

Thompson, Chas. W., " The New Socialism that threatens the
social system" (illustrated), New York Times, Sunday,
March 17, 1912, pt. v., pp. i, 2. (Exaggerates the strength of
the I. W. W.).

* Thompson, J. P., " The Meaning of the Lawrence Strike,"

Solidarity, 'March 9, 1912.

* Tridon, Andre, " Syndicalism, ' sabotage ' and how they were

originated," Square Deal 10:407-14, June, 1912. "History of

the foreign industrial movement, which is developing start-

lingly in America."
" What the I. W. W. is history of the organization,"

Boiler Makers' Journal, August, 1912, 675-6; Toledo Union

Leader, April 19, 1912, p. i ; Union Leader, June 29, 1912, p. 7.
"Why the I. W. W. is Dangerous," Labor Clarion (San

Francisco), April 5, 1912.
Woehlke, W. V., " I. W. W.," Outlook, 101 : 531-6, July 6, 1912.

Reprinted in pamphlet form by the National Metal Trades

Association.

1913 Babson, R. W., "What of the I. W. W.'s? "Special letter Sep-

tember 16, 1913 reprinted in The Masses, December, 1913,
vol. v, no. 3, p. 20.

414

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1913 " Barren Record of the I. W. W. Movement," New York
Times "Annalist," September 22, 1913, p. 378.

Berkman, Alexander, " The [Eighth : 1913] I. W. W. Convention,"
Mother Earth, October, 1913.

Bethune, W. T., " The I. W. W. : Its 'Significance," The Mediator
6:16-20, July, 1913. ("Significance of the I. W. W. move-
ment is that it marks the breaking down of the popular belief
that man must look for some superior intelligence, some power
outside of himself, to decide for him ... his attitude towards
his fellowman.")

Boyle, James, " Fiendish aims and policies of the Industrial
Workers of the World" (Syndicalism and sabotage), Union
Reporter (Canton, Ohio), September, 1913, p. 4. Reprinted
from Labor World.

Brooks, J. G., " The real trouble with the Industrial Workers
of the World," Survey, October 25, 1913. Its defects lie in
its " atomistic view of industry and politics." Reprinted in
The Wooden Shoe, Nov. 8, 1913.

Bryan, J. W., " Seattle Riots," Congressional Record, vol. 1, 6oth
Cong., ist sess., pp. 2900, 2902, 2903, 4400, 4410, 4411, 4413,
5980-3 ; July 29, Sept. 6, 1913, Nov. 22, 1913.
, " The Seattle Riots," speech in House of Representatives,
July 28, 1913, Congressional Record, July 29, 1913, pp. 3252-
3257 63rd Cong., ist Sess., vol. 1, no. 73 (including reprints
of newspaper articles).

"The Constructive Program of the I. W. W." (editorial),
Solidarity, August 2, 1913.

Cooper, C. I., " Stogy makers and the I. W. W. in Pittsburgh,"
Survey, 31:214, November 29, 1913.

"Destruction the Avowed Purpose of the I. W. W." (edi-
torial). American Federationist, July, 1913.

* Doran, J. T., " Industrial unionism clearly explained to electrical

workers and incidentally to the rest of the working class,"
Solidarity, Sept. 6, 1913.

Dosch, Arno, "What the I. W. W. is," World's Work 26:406-20,
August, 1913.

* Downing, Mortimer, " The Case of the Hop Pickers," Inter-

national Socialist Review 14:210-13, October, 1913.
" Fallacies of the I. W. W.," Coast Seaman's Journal (San

Francisco), September 17, 1913, p. 2. Reprinted from Eureka

Labor News.
Fitch, J. A., " The I. W. W. an outlaw organization," Survey

30:355-62, June 7, 1913.

* Foster, W. Z., " Syndicalism in the United States," The Syndical-

ist, January, 1913.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1913 Fraina, Louis, " Syndicalism and Industrial Unionism," Inter-
national Socialist Review, July, 1913.

* Giovannitti, Arturo, "The Bum" (poem), The Masses, Janu-

ary, 1913.

, " Syndicalism The Creed of Force," Independent 76: 209-11,

October 30, 1913.

Gompers, Samuel, " Destruction the avowed purpose of the
I. W. W.," American Federationist 120, pp. 533-7, Washing-
ton, July, 1913.

, " The Industrial Workers of the World," The Mediator

5:5-9, September, 1912 reprinted from American Federation-
ist, July, 1913.

Hall, Henry N., " Two Wings of Labor's Big Army Warring
on Each Other," The World (New York), July 27, 1913, p. i,
editorial section. Illustrated. Full page feature article.
(A. F. of L. vs. I. W. W.).

* Haywood, W. D., "On the Paterson Picket Line," International

Socialist Review, June, 1913, vol. xiii, pp. 847-51.
Hoxie, R. F., "The Truth About the I. W. W.," Journal of

Political Economy, Nov., 1913, vol. xxi, pp. 785-97. Reprinted

in International Holders' Journal 50:6-13, January, 1914.
" Industrial W r ar," Locomotive Engineers' Monthly Journal,

August, 1913:702-3 (A criticism of the I. W. W.).
" The Industrial Workers of the World," Motorman and

Conductor (Detroit), August, 1913, pp. 4-5. (A criticism).
" The Industrial Workers of the World make confession,"

Square Deal 13:236-8, October, 1913. (Reprint of editorial

signed " L. C. R." " Sensationalism versus organizing ability,"

Solidarity, August 23, 1913).
"The Industrial Workers of the World and the New York

Waiters," (editorial), Square Deal, February, 1913,
"The I. W. W. An Inside View of its Methods," Industrial

World, Pittsburgh, December 22, 1913, pp. 1526-7. Copy of an

editorial in Solidarity.
" The I. W. W. ' machine ' and the Industrial Worker "

(Letters and statements in regard to the Heslewood-Smith

controversy and the management of the Industrial Worker)

The Social War, August 16, 1913.
"I. W. W. Strikes" (editorial), American Federationist,

August, 1913.

* Koeltgen, Ewald, " I. W. W. Convention " (September 13-27,

I 9 I 3), International Socialist Review (Chicago), November
1913, 275-6.
Levine, Louis, " Development of Syndicalism in the United States,"

41 6 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Political Science Quarterly, vol. xxviii, pp. 451-479 (September,
J 9I3). (An exceedingly good historical analysis).
1913 Lippmann, W., " The I. \V. VV. Insurrection or Revolution ? "
New Rernew, August, 1913.

Owen, Wm. C., " Economic revolution and the I. W. W.," The
Social War, September, 1913.

* Pease, Frank C., "The I. W. W. and Revolution," Forum
50:153-68, August, 1913. (Eulogy b' a member.)

Portenar, A. J., " The Perversion of the Ideal. A reply to -the
doctrine of syndicalism as advocated by the I. W. W.,"
International Holders' Journal, August, 1913, 635-8. Address
before the Sagamore Sociological Conference, Sagamore
Beach, Mass., July 2, 1913. (For a reply to Portenar's article,
see ibid., September, 1913, pp. 764-6).

Reitman, Ben. L., " Impressions of the Chicago Convention "
(Eighth I. W. W. Convention, 1913), Mother Earth, October,

"Reverses for the I. W. W.," Protectionist (Boston), October,
1913, PP- 437-9- 'Reprinted from the Boston Transcript.

* St. John, Vincent, " The economic argument for industrial

Unionism," International Socialist Review, September, 1908.
vol. 9: 172. Also in Solidarity, January 18, 1913.
" Some Comments on the I. W. W.," Typographical Journal,
February, 1913, pp. 149-50.

* Trautmann, Wm. E., " Free graft fights," New York Call,

May 2, 1913.

* Tridon, Andre, " Haywood," Netv Reznew i : 502-6, May, 1913.

- , " The New Unionism in Germany," Industrial Worker,
February 13, 1913.'

- , " Syndicalism : What It means," The International, January,
1913. Abridged reprint in Industrial Worker, January 23, 1913.

- , " The workers' only hope Direct action/' Independent
74 ' 79-83, January 9, 1913.

Tucker, Irwin St. J., "The Church and the I. W. W.," Churchman

(New York), August 30, 1913, pp. 278, 290. (Describes the

I. W. W. organization and explains how the church can reach

its members).
"The War Is On" [with the I. W. W.], Miners' Magazine,

September 4, 1913, p. 7.
Weston, E., " Some Principles of the I. W. W.," American

Employer, July, 1913.
Williams, B. H., " The constructive program of the I. W. W."

Editorial, Solidarity, June 7, 1913. Reprinted on pp. 12-20 of

The revolutionary I. W. W. by G. H. Perry.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1914 * Ashleigh, Chas., " The floater," International Socialist Review,

15 : 34-38, July, 1914.
*Debs, E. V., "A Plea for Solidarity," International Socialist

Review, March, 1914, 14 : 535-8.
Dueberg, Helmuth, " I. W. W.'s attempt to organize discontent,"

Los Angeles Times, August 16, 1914, pt. vi, p. 4.
Eastman, Max, " I. W. W. : The great American scapegoat," New

Review 2 1465-70, August, 1914.
*Ettor, Jos. J., "I. W. VV. versus A. F. of L.," New Review,

May, 1914, 2 : 275-85.

* Ettor, Jos. J. and Haywood, W. D., " What the I. W. W. intends

to do to the U. S. A.," The World (New York), June 14,
1914, sec. E, p. i. iReprinted in Solidarity, June 27, 1914.
Fraina, L. C., " Daniel DeLeon," New Review 2 : 390-99, July, 1914.

* Haywood, Win. D., "An Appeal for Industrial Solidarity,"

International Socialist Review 14:544-6, March, 1914.

, " Jaures and the General Strike," International Socialist

Review, September, 1914.

, "The Revolt at Butte," International Socialist Review,

August, 1914.

" Industrial Workers of the World : their French progeni-
tors," Steam Shovel Magazine, September, 1914, pp. 9-10.

" I. W. W.," Social Tidskrift, May, 1914, pp. 214-17.

"I. W. W. tactics" (editorial), International Molders'
Journal 50 : 652-3, August, 1914.

Lewis, Howard T., "The I. W. W.," (an historical sketch), The
Mediator 6:21-30, February, 1914.

McGregor, J., " Wreckers of peace Industrial Workers of the
World are railroad strike advocates ail over the World.
An illustration of the fact from New Zealand." Labor World
(Pittsburgh) 22, no. 14, pp. 4, 13, February 12, 1914.

* Quinlan, Patrick L., " The Paterson Strike and After," New

Review 2 : 26-33, January, 1914.

* St. John, Vincent, " The working class and war," International

Socialist Review, August, 1914, 15: 117-18.

Somerville, H., " Successors to socialism," Catholic World
99: i73-8o, May, 1914 (I. W. W.).

United States Congress, House of Representatives, "Riots in
Seattle, Wash., in (July), 1913 between Industrial Workers
of the World and United States soldiers and sailors." Speech
of William E. Humphrey, of Wash., in House, Sept. 3, 1914.
(In Congressional Record of Sept. 4, vol. 1, no. 105, pp. 4679-
4693. Includes newspaper clippings on the subject.)

Woehlke, W. V., " Porterhouse heaven and the hobo," Technical
World, August, 1914, vol. xxi, pp. 808-18.

418 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1914 " Work and the police mortal foes of the I. W. W.," New York

Tribune, April 12, 1914, Sunday, Part V, special feature section
full page article, illustrated.

1915 Fitch, J. A., " Baiting the I. W. W.," Survey 33 : 634-5, March

6, ipiS.

"I. W. W. Beaten in Dominion" [of Canada]. (Descrip-
tion of I. W. W. activities in British Columbia). Special
correspondence of the Los Angeles Times, Sunday, June 6,
19*5, Pt. vi, p. 3, columns I, 2, 3.

Katz, Rudolph, " With DeLeon Since '89," serially in Weekly
People, March 20, 1915 to Jan. 29, 1916.

* Williams, B. H., "The trend toward industrial fieedom." In a

symposium on " What is Americanism ? " American Journal
of Sociology, vol. xx, pp. 626-8, March, 1915. IReprinted in
St. John's /. W. W., Its history, structure and methods, pp.
30-32.

1916 Babson, R. W., " The I. W. W.'s Latest Move " (in Minnesota and

Michigan, etc.), in Babson's Reports on- Economic Co-
operative Movements (confidential bulletin of the Cooperation
Service Nos. 1-59, Wellesley Hills, Mass.), Aug., 1916 (Labor
forecast).

Bindley, Barbara, " Helen Keller would be I. W. W.'s Joan of
Arc.," New York Tribune, January 16, 1916, sec. v, p. 5.

* Dodd, J. Stephen, " The forerunner of industrial democracy,"

Solidarity, Dec. 30, 1916. (The industrial union, as embodied
in the I. W. W., is the author's forerunner.)

* Nef , W. T., "Job Control in the Harvest Fields," International

Socialist Review, September, 1916, vol. xvii, pp. 140-3.

* Smith, Walker C, "The Voyage of the Verona," International

Socialist Review 17:340-6, December, 1916. (The "riot" at
Everett, Wash.).

* Woodruff, Abner E., " The Evolution of Industrial Democracy,"

Solidarity, Nov. 4, 11, 18, 25 and Dec. 2, 9, 1916. (Also
published in pamphlet form.)

1917 "America's cancer sore the I. W. W.," Los Angeles Times^

Dec. 9, 1917, pp. 4, 18 (magazine supplement).

* Ashleigh, Charles, "Everett, November Fifth" (poem), Inter-

national Socialist Review, February, 1917, vol. xvii, p. 479.
Ashurst, H. F., "The I. W. W. menace" (speech in U. S. Senate,
Aug. 17, 1917) Congr. Record, vol. Iv (no. 113), p. 6687.

* Baldazzi, Jno., " Ethics of Revolutionary Syndicalism," Solidar-

ity, January 27, 1917, p. 3.

Colby, E., "The Industrial Workers of the World," Bellman,
22 : 233-5, Mar. 3, 1917.-

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1917 Coleman, B. S., "The I. W. W. and the law; ... the result of
Everett's Bloody Sunday" (illus.), Sunset Magazine, vol.
xxxix, pp. 3, 5, 68-70 (July, 1917).

Crawford, A., "The spectre of industrial unionism" (illus.),
International Socialist Review, vol. xviii, pp. 80-83 (Aug., 1917).

* Doree, E. F., "Ham stringing the sugar hogs," International

Socialist Review, xvii, 615-17, April, 1917 (Sugar workers'

strike).
" Enemy within our midst, The," Gateway, vol. xxix, pp. 13-16

(Dec., 1917).
Fraina, Louis C, " The I. W. W. trial," The Class Struggle,

vol. i, no. 4, pp. 1-5 (Nov.-Dec., 1917).
" From the I. W. W. Indictments," International Socialist

Review, vol. xviii, pp. 271-277 (Nov.-Dec., 1917). (Contains

comprehensive excerpts from the indictments brought by the

U. S. Government in Sept., 1917.)

[I. W. W. activities in the Pacific Northwest, 1917]. Re-
marks in the U. S. iSenate, Aug. u, 1917. Congr. Record,

vol. Iv, pp. 6533-6534.
"The I. W. W.[s] as prison reformers," Survey, vol. xxxvii,

pp. 461-462 (Jan. 20, 1917).
" I. W. W. raids and others," New Republic, vol. xii, pp.

175-177.
" The iron heel in Australia," International Socialist Review,

vol. xvji, no. 8, pp. 473-475-
Johnson, Albert, "The preaching of treason and the breeding of

sedition must stop," Congressional Record, vol. Iv, no. 145,

p. 8037. (Speech on the I. W. W. and the war in the U. S.

House of Representatives, June 25, 1917).
" Lay Australian arson plot to I. W. W.," New York Times,

Apr. 14, 1917, p. 6, cols. 1-3.

* MacdonaW, J., "From Butte to Bisbee" (illus.), International

Socialist Review, vol. xviii, pp. 69-71 (Aug., 1917). (The
I. W. W. in the copper camps.)

Merz, <C, " Tying up western lumber," New Republic, vol. xii,
pp. 242-244 (Sept. 29, 1917).

Myers, H. L. (U. S. iSenator from Montana). (Speech on the
I. W. W. with special reference to the Butte copper-mining
situation), U. S. Senate, Aug. 23, 1917. Congr. Record, vol. Iv,.
no. 118, pp. 6869-6871.

" Organization or anarchy," New Republic, vol. xi, pp. 320-
322 (July 21, 1917).

Parker, C. H., "The I. W. W.," Atlantic Monthly, vol. 120, pp.
651-662 (Nov., 1917). (An extremely good psychological in-
terpretation of the I. W. W. movement and personnel.)

420

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1917 " Patriotism in the Middle West," The Masses, g : 19-21

(June, 1917). (The militia raid on the I. W. W. hall in

Kansas City, Mar. 27, 1917.)
" The tenth annual I. W. W. convention," International

Socialist Review, vol. xvii, pp. 406-409 (Jan., 1917).
" What Haywood says of the I. W. W.," Survey, vol. xxxviii,

pp. 429-430 (Aug. ii, 1917)-
Woehlke, Walter V., " The I. W. W. and the G9lden Rule : Why

Everett [Wash.] used the club and gun on the Red Apostles

of direct action," Sunset Magazine, vol. xxxviii, pp. 16-18,

62-65 (February, 191 7) .

1918 Blythe, Samuel G., " Our imported troubles and trouble makers,"

Saturday Evening Post, May 11, 1918. (The I, W. W. and

the war.)
Browne, L. A., "Bolshevism in America," Forum, 59:703-17,

June, 1918.
Bruere, Robert W., " Copper camp patriotism," (The I. W. W.

and the war. The Bisbee deportations). The Nation, vol.

106, pp. 202-3, 235-6 (Feb. 21 and 28, 1918).

, " Following the trail of the I. W. W.," "A first-hand investi-
gation into labor troubles of the West." Series of articles on

conditions in mining, lumbering and agriculture, The New

York Evening Post, Nov. 14, 17, 24; Dec. I, 8, 12, 15, 1917;

Feb. 13, 16, 23; Mar. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; Apr. 6, 13, 20, 1918.
, " The Industrial Workers of the World " an interpretation,

Harper's Magazine, July, 1918 (pp. 250-257).
Callender, Harold, " The truth about the I. W. W.," International

Socialist Review, vol. xviii, no. 7, pp. 33 2 -342 (Jan. 1918).
"Colonel Disque and the I. W. W.," New Republic, vol. xiv,

pp. 284-285 (April 6, 1918). (The I. W. W. in the lumber

industry of the Northwest.)
*Debs, E. V., "The I. W. W. bogey," International Socialist

Review, vol. xviii, pp. 395-396 (Feb., 1918).
Easley, Ralph M., "Survey of I. W. W. activities during the

war," New York Times, July 7, 1918, sec. iii, p. 3. cols. 1-6.
" Defensive propaganda for accused leaders answered . . ."

Based on brochure written by T. E. Harre who, the editors

state, " has made a careful survey of the activities of the

International [sic] Workers of the World since the outbreak

of the war/'
" Great Labor Trial Astounding Verdict," The Labor Defender,

vol. i, no. 14, pp. 3-6 (Sept. i, 1918).
Green, W. ,R., " I. W. W. organization," Congressional Record,

vol. Ivi, pp. 6799-6800 (May 9, 1918).

BIBLIOGRAPHY 42I

1918 Hartman, F. H., " The I. W. W." a scapegoat," The Radical

Review, July, 1918.
"The I. W. W. as an agent of pan-Germanism," World's Work,

vol. xxxvi, pp. 581-2 (Oct., 1918).

[The I. W. W. in the lumber industry of the northwest].
Remarks of various members of the U. S. Senate, Mar. 21,
1918. Congr. Record, vol. Ivi, no. 82, pp. 4095-4101.

* Keller, Helen, "In behalf of the I. W. W.," The Liberator,

March, 1918.

King, William H., (U. S. Senator from Utah), [The I. W. W.],
Congressional Record, vol. Ivi, pp. 6565-6566 (May 6, 1918).

Landis, K. M. [Address to the jury in the case of Wm. D. Hay-
wood v. The United States of America, August 17, 1918].
Defense News Bulletin, Aug. 24, 1918, pp. 3-4.

" Misconceptions of the I. W. W.," Labor Defender, Dec. i, 1918,
pp. 4-5. Published also as a leaflet.

* Phillips, Jack, " Speaking of the Department of Justice," Inter-

national Socialist Review, vol. xviii, pp. 406-407 (February,

1918) . (On the U. S. Government indictments of the I. W. W.)
Reed, John, "The social revolution in court" (illus. by Art

Young), Liberator, September, 1918, pp. 20-28. Reprinted in

Cal. Defence Bulletin, Nov. 4, 1918.
iSherman, Lawrence Y. (U. S. Senator from Illinois), [The I. W.

W. and the war], Congressional Record, vol. Ivi, pp. 8742-

8745 (June 20, 1918).

Speech in the United States Senate, June 20, 1918.
" Spruce and the I. W. W.," Neiv Republic, vol. xiv, pp. 99-

100 (Feb. 23, 1918).
"Telling it to Wilson," Labor Defender, vol. i, no. 16, pp. 4-5, n

(Oct. 15, 1918) ; reprinted in The Liberator, November, 1918,

pp. 43, 47. Also reprinted in The Nation under the title:

"Is civil liberty dead?".
Reprint of a memorandum on the Federal Government

and the I. W. W. sent to President Wilson by the National

Civil Liberties Bureau.

* Thompson, Jas. P., " Industrial unionism : what it is," Inter-

national Socialist Review, vol. xviii, pp. 366-73 (Jan., 1918).

A reprint- of his testimony before the U. S. Commission on

Industrial Relations.
"Tulsa, November 9th" (story of deportation of I. W. W.s

from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Nov. 9, 1917. The sworn statement

of the secretary of the Tulsa local of the I. W. W.) The

Liberator, vol. i, pp. 15-17 (April, 1918).
Walsh, John T., " The I. W. W. trial," The Labor Defender, vol.

i, no. 12, pp. 3-5 (July 30, 1918).

422 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1918 Walsh, Thomas J. (United States Senator from Montana), [The

Industrial Workers of the World], Congressional Record,
vol. Ivi, pp. 6566-6569 (May 6, 1918).

Excerpts from I. W. W. papers and pamphlets.

Warren, W. H., " Treason by the wholesale ; an expose of I. W.
W. methods," Oregon Voter, vol. xii, pp. 310-311 (Mar. 9, 1918).

" What has been proved at the I. W. W. trial. Review of evi-
dence introduced at Chicago . . . ," New York Times, Aug.
4, 1918, sec. iv, p. 4, cols. 1-6.

" This article, in which is presented a concise statement
of what the trial has brought to light, was written by an
observer, acting under official auspices, having access to all the
records and sources of information."

"What shall be done with the I. W. W.?" Seattle Municipal
News, vol. vii, pp. 1-2 (May 4, 1918).

Wolff, W. A., "The northwestern front," Collier's Weekly, Apr.
20, 1918. (The I. W. W., the lumber industry and the war.)

Yarros, Victor S., " The I. W. W. trial," Nation, Aug. 31, 1918,
vol. 107, pp. 220-223.

, "The story of the I. W. W. trial": I. "The atmosphere of

the trial," Survey, Aug. 31, 1918; II. "The case for the prose-
cution," Survey, Sept. 7, 1918; III. " The nature and pith of
the defense," Survey, Sept. 14, 1918. Vol. xl, pp. 603-604,
630-632, 660-663.

Young, Arthur, "The social revolution in court," The Liberator,
September, 1918, pp. 20-28 (illus.).
The Chicago I. W. W. trial.

1919 Carleton, Frank T., " Pedagogy and syndicalism," The Public,

February 8, 1919, vol. xxii, pp. 133-134.

On the I. W. W. after the war.

"The future and the I. W. W.", by a Washington official. The
Public, February 8, 1919, vol. xxii, pp. 134-136.

The I. W. W. and the lumber industry.

" 01' rags and bottles," The Nation, January 25, 1919, vol. cviii,
pp. 114-116.

An account of the I. W. W. trial at Sacramento, California,
by The Nation's special correspondent.
Parsons, Geoffrey, " Wichita's way with a wave of I. W. W.

Bolshevism," New York Tribune, March 2, 1919, sec. vii, p. 3.
. Sterling, Jean, " The silent defense in Sacramento," The Liberator,
February, 1919. pp. 15-17.
The Sacramento conspiracy case.

INDEX

Aberdeen, S. D., free-speech fight,
264.

Agreements, 86, 101, 115, 198, 319,
323-324, 371 ; constitutional amend-
ment on, 330.

Agricultural workers. Fide Farm
laborers.

Agricultural Workers Organization,

335, 337, 339-

American Federation of Labor, 35,
54, 66, 108, 114, 118, 123, 129, 186,
210, 215, 249-251, 276, 297, 301-303,
318-319, 325, 334, 337, 370-372; on
the I. W. W., 65; locals repre-
sented at ist I. W. W. convention,
71-72; I. W. W. criticism of, 83-89 ;
friction with I. W. W. in strikes,
116-117, 204-205; at Goldfield,
Nev., 191-192, 195; and I. W. W.
at Lawrence, Mass., 287.

American Labor Union. 44, 54, 58,
70, 71, 74-75, 90, 102, 122, 132, 153;
compared with I. W. W., 45 ; prin-
ciples of, 46 ; weakness in 1905, 54.

American Railway Union, 40, 54.

Anarchism, 251, 279, 296, 308, 314.

Anarchists, 109, 314; at ist I. W. W.
convention, 78; at 3rd convention,
178.

Anti-militarism. Vide Militarism
and War.

Arizona, " sabotage " law vetoed by
the Governor, 345.

Arizona District Industrial Council
of the I. W. W., 163.

Association of United Workers of
America. Vide Socialist Labor
party.

Augustine, Paul, 151.

Australia, the I. W. W. in, 280, 340-
343; Unlawful Associations Act.
280, 341-342.

Autonomy, craft, 63, 97, 101. Vide
also Decentralization.
B

Baltimore I. W. W. cigar makers,
245, 247; Amalgamated Clothing
Workers and the I. W. W., 250-
251-

Barnes, J. M., 147.

Berger, Victor, 140; on sabotage,
279.

Berkman, Alexander, 316.

Bohn. Frank, 62, 95, 103, 314.

Bolsheviki, 372-373.

" Boring from within " policy, the,
60, 65-66, 81-82, 89, 104, 118; Jan-
uary (1005) Conference on, 66-
67; attitude of Socialist party, 82;
vs. "dual unionism," 297-302; re-
sults of policy in England, 300.
Vide also Dual Unionism.

Bowman, Guy, 300.

Brewery Workmen of the U. S., Na-
tional Union of the United. 38, 55,
58, 61, 72, 215.

Bridgeport, Conn., strike of tube
mill workers, 203-204, 214.

British Labor party and the I. W.
W., on workers' control in indus-
try, 12-13.

Brooks, J. G., American syndicalism,
27.

Brussels, International Labor and
Socialist Congress (1911), 251.

Budapest, International Labor Con-
gress, on admission of I. W. W.
delegate, 271-273.

Bulletins of the Industrial Workers
of the World, 146.

" Bummery," the, 220, 369.

Butte, Mont., controversy between
I. W. W. and A. F. of L, 319 et
seq.; dynamiting of the Miners'
Union Hall, 310-320; "reds" vs.
" yellows " at, 320-322.

423

424

INDEX

Butte Miners' Union, 105.
C

California, I. W. W. attitude toward
Japanese in, 208-209.

Carpenters and Joiners, United
Brotherhood of, ban on member-
ship in I. W. W., 118.

Casey, Thos. B., 202.

Centralization. Vide Decentraliza-
tion.

Challaye, F., quoted, 232.

Chambers, T., 202.

Chartists, compared with I. W. W.,
27.

Chase, C. H., 230.

Chicago, 111., window washers' strike,
123; Industrial Council of the I.
W. W., 163.

Chicago conspiracy case. 345 ; the
indictment, 7; verdict and sen-
tences imposed, 8.

Chicago faction of the I. W. W.,
compared with the Detroit wing,
220, 234, 250; and the Detroit
wing, 247-240; and the Baltimore
clothing workers, 250-251 ; condi-
tion after 1908 split, 258; Pre-
amble to Constitution, 349-350;
membership statistics, 352-357.
Vide also Industrial Workers of
the World.

Cincinnati, Ohio, marble workers'
strike, 123; Industrial Council of
the I. W. W., 163.

Cleveland, Ohio, stogie workers'
strike, 123.

Cloth Cap and Hat Makers, United,
forbid members to join I. W. W.,
118.

Clothing Workers, Amalgamated,
and the I. W. W. in Baltimore,
250-251.

Coates. D. C., 79.

Cole, Thos., 228.

Cole, T. J., 176.

Collective bargaining. Vide Agree-
ments.

Confederation General du Travail,
36, 47-48, 109. 272-274. 297, 299,
326 ; compared with I. W. W.. 274.

Constitution, 102, no, 176, 236, 271.
306 ; departmental and other sub-
divisions, 98, 134. 164-165; locals,
99; officers provided for, 99; Gen-

eral Executive Board, 100; mixed
locals, 162; industrial councils,
163 ; initiative and referendum,
308, 329-330; agreements, 330;
Preamble to, 349-351. Vide also
Structure and Preamble.

Contracts. Vide Agreements.

Control of industry by workers, I.
W. W. emphasis upon idea of, 12;
present unfitness of I. W. W. for,
13; policy of W. F. M. on, 43*

Conventions of the I. W. W., con-
stituent convention (1905), or-
ganizations represented at, 68-69,
74; types of unions represented,
70; method of representation, 72-
73; distribution of power in, 74-
75 ; doctrinal types at, 76-79 ; reso-
lutions, 91-92.

Conventions of the I. W. W., 2nd
(1906), 129, 136, 176-177; contro-
versy at, 136 et seq.; 3rd (1007),
178-182, 188, 210-211; number of
locals represented. 180-181 ; efforts
to modify Preamble, 188-189; 4th
(1908), 212, 218, 221-228; dele-
gates at, 221 ; officers elected, 228;
5th (1910), 265; 6th (1911), 265,
271; 7th (1912), 275, 293, 296;
8th (1913), 303; 9th (1914), 325-
330; ioth (1916), 335-336, 338-339,
347 ; pre-convention conference of
the "Proletarian Rabble" (1906),
U7-I39; Sherman faction (1907),
179.

Conventions of the (Detroit) I. W.
W., "rump" convention of 1008,
228-230; "sixth I. W. W. conven-
tion" (1913), 243-244; -"eighth I.
W. W. convention" (1915), 244,
249, 253.

Cooperation, resolution on, 91.

Craft unionism. I. W. W. criticism
of, 62-63, 84-89, 184-185; Gompers
on. oo; I. W. W. compromises
with, 118-119.

Craft unions, political activity of,
93-06; prohibit members joining
I. W. W., 118.

Crawford, C. E.. 253.

Creel. George. 262.

Criminal syndicalism laws, 280, 344-
346; held constitutional, 346;
South Dakota. 345-346; Minne-
sota, 379-380; Idaho, 381-382;

INDEX

425

Montana, 382-384. Vide also Un-
lawful Associations Act.

Darrow, Clarence S., 172.

Debs, Eugene V., 73, 79-80, 325;
activity in launching I. W. W., 58;
on agreements, 86 ; on " boring
from within," 89; on Daniel De-
Leon, 239; on political action,
252-253.

Decentralization, 161, 167, 271, 295-
296, 303-316; Eastern compared
with Western I. W. W., 296. Vide
also Autonomy.

DeLeon, Daniel, 65-66. 75, 79-82, 103,
141, 143, 147-148, 151-152, 164, 167,

178, 180, 187, 211, 220-221, 224,

235-236; on revolutionary union-
ism, 48, 51 ; on agreements, 86; on
"pure and simple" unions, 88;
on " boring from within," 89 ; on
political action, 93-94, 168; work
at 1st convention, 105 ; on the
referendum, 158; unseated at 4th
convention. 222-223 ; influence on
I. W. W. 238-240; personal char-
acter, 238-240.

DeLeonism, 104-105, 140, 227.

Democratic government, I. W. W.
attitude toward, 158.

Denver, Colo., free-speech fight, 262.

Departments of the I. W. W., In-
dustrial. Vide Structure and Con-
stitution.

Detroit faction of the I. W. W., 227,
234; compared with Chicago fac-
tion, 220, 234 et seq.; local unions
adhering to. 230-231, 243; claims
to be "the real I. W. W.," 237-
238; membership, 242-243, 352-
357; 1913 convention, 243-244;
1915 convention, 244, 249; indus-
trial character of membership,
244 ; strikes, 245-247 ; and the Chi-
cago faction, 247-249, 253; Debs
on, 252 ; Preamble to Constitution,
350-351- Vide also Industrial
Workers of the World.

Direct action, 53, 250, 252-253, 276
et seq., 284, 290, 294, 315, 327; at
Goldfield, 195; DeLeon and St.
John on, 236; definitions of, 276-
277. Vide also Sabotage and Vio-
lence.

Doctrine, types of at first conven-
tion, 77-79.

Dual membership. Vide Member-
ship.

Dual unionism, 114, 117; vs. "bor-
ing from within," 297-302. Vide
also Boring from within.

Dynamite planting at Lawrence,
Mass., 286.

Eastern and Western locals, com-
pared, 233-234, 296, 311-314-

Ebert, Justus, 40, 224-225.

Edwards, A. S., 176, 220.

Efficiency, in conduct of business of
local unions, 328.

Employers, attitude of, toward I. W.
W., 9-13; use of sentiment of pa-
triotism in dealing with labor, 10.

Engineers, Amalgamated Society of,
secedes from I. W. W., 121-122;
part of the I. W. W. Metals and
Machinery Dept., 122.

England, the I. W. W. in, 340.

Enlistment, alleged hindering of, by
I. W. W., 7. Vide also Espionage
act, Militarism, War.

Espionage act, indictment of I. W.
W.s under ; Chicago case. 7-8,
345 ; Sacramento case, 280.

Estes, Geo., 57.

Ethics, proletarian, 261, 291-293.

Ettor, J. J., 228, 284-285, 287-288,
289; quoted, 294; on dual union-
ism, 301-302.

Eureka, Calif., strikes at, 203, 259.

Everett, Wash., free-speech fight
264, 337-

Farberg, Lillian, 140.

Farm Laborers, 155-156; organiza-
tion of, 156, 335; strike at Water-
ville, Wash.. 259; strike at North
Yamhill, Ore., 268-269. Vide also
Agricultural Workers Organiza-
tion.

Federal Mediation Commission.
Vide President's Mediation Com-
mission.

Finances, 153-154 207, 211; central
defence fund, 115; of the Trans-
portation .Department, 132; dis-
counts to " dual unions," 153.

426

INDEX

Fischer, E., 176.

Flat River, Mo., Industrial Council

of the I. W. W., 163.
Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley, 181, 221,

308.

Foote, E, J., 168, 180, 202.
Force. Vide Violence.
Foreign relations, of the I. W. W.,

91-92.
Foreigners, 159-160, 289, 335; I. W.

W. and the, 208-209.
Foremen, in the I. W. W., 204.
Forerunners of the I. W. W., 27-

56, 348.

Forest and Lumber Workers, Na-
tional Industrial Union of, 293,

303, 339-

Foss, J. M., 310, 311, 315.
Foster, William Z., 271, 273; on

dual unionism, 297-301.
Francis, A. J., 230.
Free speech, 262; I. W. W. tactics,

263 ; George Creel on, 262.
Free-speech fights, 260-264, 281 ;

routine of, 260; I. W. W. policy

in, 261, 295 ; Fresno, Calif., 263 ;

San Diego, Calif., 263; Paterson,

N. J., 264; Everett, Wash.. 264,

337; attitude of local authorities,

264; list of, 365.
French syndicalism, 272; influence

on American movement, 53, 231 ;

the I. W. W. and, 272-274.
Fresno, Calif., free-speech fight,

263, 269.

Gaines, H. L., 228.

Garment workers. United, 250.

Gas works laborers, strike of, in
Southern California, 269.

General Executive Board, 100-101,
295, 305-307, 309, 311, 3i5-

General Organizer, 305-306; office
of, established, 188.

General Secretary-Treasurer, 306.

General strike, 87, 174-175, 287-288;
resolution at constituent conven-
tion, 91 ; and the Moyer, Hay-
wood and Pettibpne case, 174.

Geographical location, influence of,
on I. W. W. personnel, 206; and
the decentralization controversy,
304-30*;, 311-314.

German syndicalist movement, 299.

Gilbert, Joseph, 93.

Giovanmtti, Arturo, 287-288

Glanz, William, 230.

Golden, John, 284.

Goldfield, Nev., hotel and restaur-
ant workers' strike, 123; miners'
strike, 123; I. W. W. at. 191-203;
Mine Operators' Association, 192-
198; mine workers vs. town work-
ers, 191-194; report of Federal
investigating commission, 196-198;
alleged crimes of the I. W. W. at,
199; results of I. W. W. activities
at, 200-201.

Goldman. Emma, on direct action,
276.

Gompers, Samuel, 79, 90, 116, 273,
370; on 1st I. W. W. convention,
106.

Goodwin, R. C, 98.

Hagerty, " Father " T. J., 58, 62, 79.

Haggerty, M. P., 181.

Hall. Covington, 294.

Hall, W. L., 57, 60.

Havel, Hippolyte, 275.

Haymarket riots, 39; influence on
syndicalist and I. W. W. move-
ments, 40

Haywood, William D., 15, 61-62, 73,
75, 76, 79-8o, 115, 142, 171-1/5, 28.
246, 272, 284-285, 287, 327; and
Western Federation of Miners,
42, 216-217; on the American
Federation of Labor, 83 ; on the
" union scab," 85-86 ; on the un-
skilled, 87; on organizing for-
eigners, 159; and the Socialist
party, 280; on dual unionism, 301.

Herve, G., on sabotage, 277.

Heslewnod, F. W., 144. 180, 182,
184-185, 187, 206, 226; quoted,
202, 210.

Hillquit, Morris, 147, 186.

Idaho, criminal syndicalism act, 280,

345, 381-382.

Industrial Brotherhood, the, 38^
Industrial Councils, 98; functions,

163.
Industrial Departments, 131 et seq.;

original thirteen, 96-97.

INDEX

427

Industrial Union News, 230.

Industrial Union Bulletin, 146, 211,
229, 269.

Industrial Unionism, 99, 108-109,
119-120, 161-167; vs. craft union-
ism, 62-63 ; and mass unionism,
202; Moyer on, 215-216; St. John
and DeLeon on, 235.

Industrial Unions of the I. W. W.
Vide National Industrial Unions.

Industrial Worker, The, 146, 229,
249. 269-270, 279, 310-311.

Industrial Worker, The. (organ of
the Sherman faction), 146, 179-
180.

Industrial Workers clubs, at ist I.
W. W. convention, 70.

Industrial Workers of the World,
American origin of, 53 ; constit-
uent convention, 57; pre-conven-
tion conference (1004), 57-58;
January conference (1905), 60-62;
Industrial Union Manifesto (of
IQOS), 62-64; on the American
Federation of Labor, 65; admin-
istration, 101 ; craft character of
locals, 118; secession movements
in, 120-122, 219-220; accused of
stockmarket manipulation, 199;
attitude of Western membership
to political parties, 231-232; De-
troit and Chicago factions com-
pared, 231, 250, 252, 257; Debs
proposes union of two factions,
253; compared with Confedera-
tion General du Travail, 274; pro-
letarian ethics of, 261, 291-292;
and Western Federation of Min-
ers, 318-323; at Butte, Mont, 319-
.322; and United Mine Workers,
3 2 3-325; in other countries, 339-
340; in Australia, 340-343; "Na-
tional Administrations," 347 ; con-
structive elements, 338, 347-348;
chart of organization, 351; mem-
bership statistics, 352-357; list of
locals, 358-363; songs, 368-378.

Industrialists, 227; vs. parliamen-
tarians at 4th convention, 224.

Initiative and referendum, 307-308,
312, 329-330; in politics and in-
dustry on Pacific Slope, 312-313.

Intellectuals, 265.

International, the; modern revolu-
tionary unionism and, 36; prin-
ciples of, 37.

International Workingmen's Asso-
ciation, 35-36; and Socialist Labor
party, 46.

International Working Peoples As-
sociation, 35-36.

Iron Miners' Industrial Union of
the I. W. W., 339.

January Conference. Vide Indus-
trial Workers of the World.

Japanese in California, attitude of
I. W. W. toward, 208-209.

Job control, at Goldfield, 200-201.

Jones, " Mother " Mary, 60, 62, 73.

" Jungle kitchens," in Western
locals, 313, 336-337.

Jurisdiction disputes, 176.

Kalispell, Mont., strike at, 259.
Katz, Rudolph, 44, 180-181, 211, 215,

220, 222, 229, 250.
Kelly, Harry, 274-275.
Kern. E. J., 236.
Kiehn, Charles, 102.
Kirkpatrick, Charles, 100.
Kirwan, James, 140.
Knights of Labor, 109; founded, 30;

principles of, 31; structure, 32-33;

compared with I. W. W., 32; and

politics, 33 ; and sabotage, 34.
Koeltgen, Ewald, 263. 313-314.

Label, the I. W. W. Vide Universal
label.

" Labor lieutenants," 87-88.

Labor organizations, relations with
political parties, 126-129.

Lagardelle, Hubert, 272- on direct
action 276.

Lake Charles, La., lumber workers'
strike, 123.

Lancaster, Pa , silk workers' strike,
203.

Land policy. 294.

Lawrence, Mass., strike of French
branch of I. W. W. textile work-
ers (1908), 214; strike of 1912,
282-293.

Leaders, I. W. W. attitude toward,
79; at the ist I. W. W. conven-
tion, 79-81. Vide also Rank and
file.

428

INDEX

Leather Workers, United Brother-
hood of, forbids members to join
I. W. W., 1 1 8.

Ledermann, Max, 221.

Lessig, Adolph, 246-247.

Little, F. H., 328.

Local autonomy. Vide Decentral-
ization.

Local unions of the I. W. W., 98,
134, 160-161, 230-231 ; character
of, 99; craft character of some,
119; number of, 131, 180-181, 183-
184, 207, 242-243, 259, 266-267, 270,
303* 33J-332; discussion of poli-
tics in, 169-170; turnover of, 183,
207, 331-332, 347-348; reasons for
disbanding. 213, 243-244, 271, 364;
shifting of allegiance after 1908
convention. 230; Baltimore cigar
makers, 245 ; industrial distribu-
tion, 259, 270, 363 ; representation
at conventions, 326; efficiency in,
328; referendum to, 329-330; list
of, 358-363. Vide also Mixed
locals.

Lumber industry, I. W. W. in, 210.
Vide also Forest and Lumber
Workers' National Industrial
Union.

Lumber workers, strikes, 259.

McCabe, Frank, 100.

McClure, R., 230.

MacDonald, Daniel, 120.

Machinists, International Associa-
tion of, ban on members joining
I. W. W., 118.

MacNamara case, the I. W. W. and,
275-276; call for a general strike,

275-
Mahoney, Charles E., 176, 21?;

quoted, 192, 194.
Maichele, A., 176.
Manifesto. Industrial Union. Vide

Industrial Workers of the World.
"Manifesto of Socialist Industrial

Unionism, 254.
Mann, Tom, on sabotage, 277, 297,

300; on dual unionism, 301-302.
Marble, Colo., quarry workers'

strike, 214.

Marine Transport Workers, Na-
tional Industrial Union of, 303,

334-335, 339-

Marx, Karl, quoted, 232.

Mass unionism, at Goldfield, Nev. r
191-192, 202.

Master in Chancery, on controversy
at 2nd convention, 140, 145, 149.

Mechanics, strike of, in Philadel-
phia, 247.

Membership, 181-182, 339, 352-357 ^
restricted to " wage workers," 91 ;
statistics of, 108, 129-131. 145, 180-
184, 207, 213, 242, 267, 331-335;
dual membership, 118; in specified
industries, 268, 334, 339, 354-3555
in Lawrence textile industry, 284.
290; exaggerations of, 333-334;
compared with that of A. F. of
L., 334; instability of, 347-348.

Mesaba Range, strike of iron min-
ers, 337.

Metal and Machinery Workers' In-
dustrial Union, 339.

Metal Workers, United, 71-72, 74,
76, loo, 102, 121-122; and A. F. of
L., 54; part of Metal and Machin-
ery Department of L W. W.. 122.

Migratory laborers, in I. W. W.
membership, 339.

" Militant minority," the, 306, 308-
309, 326.

Militarism, 7; resolution at ist I.
W. W. convention, 92 ; resolution
against war (1914), 329. Vide
also War.

Miller, Francis, 228.

Mine Workers of America, the
United. 38-39, 54. 70, 72, 115, 208,
305, 319. 323-325; at ist I. W. W.
convention, 71.

Miners' Magazine, 176.

Mining industry, I. W. W. in, 191-

2OI, 2O7-2O8, 2IO.

Minnesota, criminal syndicalism

act, 280, 345-346. 379-38o; held

constitutional, 346.
Missoula. Mont, free-speech fight,

263.

" Mr. Block," 370.
Mixed locals, 162. 305, 313-314.
Montana, criminal syndicalism act,

280, 345, 382-384.
Most, Johann. 36.
Moyer, Charles H.. 43, 60, 62, 76,

319, 322; quoted. 215-216.
Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone

case, 170-175; effect of. on I. W.

W., 175.

INDEX

429

Musical Union, International, in
Public Service Department of I.
W. W., 133-

Myrtle, Frank. 202.

" National Administrations " of the

I. W. W., 347-

National Civic Federation, 63.
National Convention, the, 305, 307-

308.
National Industrial Unions, 131, 134,

339-

National Labor Union, 30 ; and the
Socialist Labor party, 46.

National Trades Union, 30.

Nebraska, criminal syndicalism law,
345-346.

Negroes, A. F. of L. and I. W. W.
on organization of, 84, 208.

Nelson, Caroline, 347.

New Castle, Pa., strike at, 259; free-
speech fight, 263.^

New Jersey (Socialist Unity Confer-
ence. Fide Socialist Unity Con-
ference.

New York City, I. W. W. Indus-
trial Council in, 163.

Nilsson, B. E., 308.

North Dakota, criminal syndicalism
law, 345-346.

North Yamhill, Ore., strike of farm
laborers at, 268-269.

Oakland. Calif., alleged attempt of
I. W. W. to break up Socialist
local, 280.

Old Forge, Pa., free-speech fight,
264.

Olson, John, 314.

O'Neill, J. M., 61-62, 139-140, 182,

322-323-

Oregon, I. W. W. in, 182.
Organization, I. W. W. policy in

work of, 210; chart of I. W. W.,

35i.
"Overalls Brigade, the," 221-224, 233.

Pacific Coast, free-speech fights on

the, 260 et seq.
Pacific Coast District Organization,

310-312.

Panic of 1907, effect on I. W. W.,
201, 203, 211, 215.

Parliamentarism, 225, 232, 251.

Parliamentarians, vs. " straight in-
dustrialists " at 4th convention,
224.

Passive resistance, 285-286.

Paterson, N. J., I. W. W. Industrial
Council of, 163; silk workers'
strike, 203; piano workers' strike,
203 ; Rump convention of the De-
Leonites, 228-230, 248 ; free-speech
fight, 264.

Paterson-Passaic, N. J., friction be-
tween the two I.W.W.s, 246.

Patriotism, made use of by employ-
ers in labor struggles, 10; as a
free-speech fight issue 261 ; and
the I. W. W., 292.

Per capita tax, 310; (Detroit wing),
229.

Per diem resolution at 1906 conven-
tion, 142-143.

Philadelphia, mechanics' strike, 247.

Pick, Hugo, 183.

Politics, 168-169, 178, 186-187, 189-
190, 212, 236, 252. 266, 302; atti-
tude of Western Federation of
Miners toward, 42; discussion of,
in locals, 169-170; trade unions
and, 89, 226; political action and
affiliation, 92 ; discussion of, at
Stuttgart Congress, 184 ; I. W. W.
in Nevada, 201-202; discussion at
4th convention, 218-228, 231-237;
Debs on, 252.

Portland, Ore., strike of saw mill
workers, 203, 205-206, 215.

Pouget, fimile. 272.

Powderly, T. V., quoted, 31, 33, 34-

Preamble, 92, 168-169, 188-189, 244,
349-35 1; political clause. 93-96,
J S3, J 89, 212, 221, 224-228, 231-
237; elimination of political
clause, 226-227. Fide also Con-
stitution.

President, of the I. W. W., 188, 305.;
powers of, 101 ; attack on presi-
dency, 138-139; abolition of the
office, 143.

President's Mediation Commission,
quoted, 10.

Press, attitude of the. to I. W. W.,
107 ; I. W. W. press, 269.

Preston, M. R., 197.
; Prince Rupert, B. C., strike at, 257.

430

INDEX

Progressives, attitude of, toward I.

W. W., ii.
" Proletarian rabble, the," pre-con-

vention conference of (1906), 137-

139-

Proletario, 11, 160.
Providence. R. I., strike of window

cleaners, 269.
" Pure and simple " unions. Vide

Craft unions.
Public officials, attitude of, toward

I. W. W., 10.
Public opinion and the I. W; W., 8,

107.

Railway Employees, United Broth-
erhood of, 54, 61, 74, loo, 102;
Transportation Department of I.
W. W., 132.

Railway Workers Industrial Union,
of the I. W. W., 339.

Rank and file, the, doctrine of, 79,
167; rule of, 307.

Recruiting Unions, 339.

Referendum, emphasis on by I. W.
W., 158. Vide also Initiative and
Referendum.

Reitman, Ben, on the 8th I. W. W.
convention, 316-317.

Religion and the I. W. W., 292.

Representation, proportional, 326.

Respectability, I. W. W. contempt
for, 296.

Revolutionary unionism, in Eng-
land, 29; Owen's "General Union
of the Productive Classes," 29;
Grand National Consolidated
Trades Union, the, 29.

Richter, Hermann, 15, 105, 168, 228,
230, 237, 249, 253-254.

Riordan, John, 100, 137.

Ritual, abolition of, in I. W. W.
meetings, 167.

Ryan. Albert, 217-218.

Sacramento, Calif., I. W. W. con-
spiracy case, of 1918, 280.

Sabotage, 13, 34, 53, 250, 252-254.
277 et seq.. 284, 315, 328, 341 ; at-
titude of DeLeon and St. John on,
236; definitions of. 277-278; So-
cialist party sabotage clause (Art.

II, sec. 6), 278-280. Vide also
Direct action, Violence.
St. John, Vincent, 15, 73. 76, 77, 130,
136-137, 142, 144, 151-152, 172, 176.
178, i 80, 182, 221, 223, 228, 235-
236, 266-267, 271, 291, 333-334. 335 ;
m the Western Federation of
Miners, 42; quoted, 58, 192, 193,

194, 20O-20I, 203, 205, 213, 217-218,

247-248; on DeLeonism. 149; on
free-speech fights, 260-261.

St. Louis, I. W. W. Industrial Coun-
cil in, 163.

Salaries of I. W. W. officials, 168.

San Diego, Calif., free-speech fight,
263-264; report of Commissioner
Weinstock, 264.

San Francisco, Calif., ladies' tailors'
strike, 247.

Scab. Vide "Union scab."

Schenectady, N. Y., electrical work-
ers' strike, 203; syndicalist strike
tactics at. 204.

Scranton, Pa., I. W. W. and United
Mine Workers at, 324,

Secession movements in I. W. W.,.
310-312.

Shenango, Pa., strike at, 259.

Shenkan, I., 119.

Sherman, Charles O., 58. 62, 79, 87,
100, 125. 137, 143, 148, 150, 161,
169, 171, 175, 179; charges against,
139-140; his defense, 141, 151; de-
cision of Master in Chancery,
145 ; Western organizing in pref-
erence to Eastern, 157.

Silva, Tony, 197.

Simons, A. M., 62-63, 73, 79, 9 1 , 95,
103 ; quoted, 65-66, 81 ; on polit-
ical action, 93.

Skowhegan, Me., strike of textile
workers, 203, 214.

Smith, Clarence, 57, 79; quoted, 58,

Smith, J. W., 202.

" Soap boxers," 338.

Social Democratic party. Vide So-
cialist party.

Social Democratic Workmen's party,

47-

Socialist Labor party, 54, 78, 109,
141, 149, 151, 168, 211, 220, 224,
231, 246. 248. 250-251 ; organized,
38, 46; Haymarket riot and, 40;
compared with Socialist party, 47;
and Socialist Trade and Labor

INDEX

431

Alliance, 50, 81 ; attitude toward
"pure and simple" unions, 88;
on unions in politics, 94; at sec-
ond I. W. W. convention, 151-
152; tenets, 220, 240-241.

Socialist party, 44, 78, 109. 186, 250,
251, 287; and the Western Fed-
eration of Miners, 42; and Amer-
ican Labor union, 45; compared
with Socialist Labor party, 47;
and I. W. W., 64, 127, 231, 276,
279-280; on "boring from within,"
82; on the controversy of 1906,
148-149; report to Stuttgart Con-
gress on I. W. W., 185; and
sabotage, 278-280; Haywood re-
called from Executive Committee,
280.

Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance,
45-46, 54-55, 74, 76, 78, So, 102-
103, 105, 109, 127, 148, 153, 225,
245 ; organized, 47 ; and Socialist
Labor party, 48, 81 ; and Knights
of Labor, 49 ; character of, 49 et
seq.; composition and member-
ship, 51-52; at ist I. W. W. con-
vention, 75; on "pure and simple"
unions, 88.

Socialist Unity Conference, New
Jersey, 125-129; resolutions, 128;
on the I. W. W., 128-129.

Somers, Mont., strike at, 259.

Songs of the I. W. W., 368-378.

Sorel. Georges, 272.

South Africa, I. W. W. in, 340.

South Dakota, criminal syndicalism
law, 345-346.

Sovereigns of Industry, 37.

Speed, George, no, 180, 208.

Stogie makers, 116.

Spokane, Wash., free-speech fight,
263, 280.

Strikes, 122-124. 203-206, 259, 268-
269, 281-283, 337; at Goldfield,
Nev., 191-201 ; I. W. W. tactics,
124-125, 204-206, 209-210, 295; I.
W. W. failure to hold ground
after strikes, 214; of Detroit fac-
tion, 245-247; effect of, on mem-
bership, 259; Lawrence, Mass.,
282-291; Mesaba Range. 337; list
of, 366-367. Vide also General
Strike.

Structure, 98, 134, 160-167, 202, 339,
351 ; original 13 Departments, 96-

97; Industrial Councils, 98-99,
163; local unions, 99; National
Industrial Unions, 131, 134; In-
dustrial Departments, 164; office
of General President, 166-167; St.
John and DeLeon on. 235; Re-
cruiting Unions, 339.

Stuttgart Socialist Congress (1907),
147, 183; report of Hillquit and
Barnes on the I. W. W., 148;
relation between parties and
unions, 184; resolution on polit-
ical action, 187-188.

Syndicalist Educational League, 274-
275-

Syndicalist League of North Amer-
ica, 274.

Tacoma, Wash., smeltermen's strike,
203-204.

Tactics, organizing, 117; "boring
from within," 118, 297; strike,
124-125, 204, 205-206, 286; organ-
izing in East and West, 157; dual
unionism, 297-302.

Tailors, ladies', strike of, in San
Francisco, 247.

Textile industry, I. W. W. in, 214,
348; membership in, 284.

Textile workers' strikes. Paterson-
Passaic, N. J., 246; Mystic, Conn.,
247; Lawrence, Mass., 282-293.

Textile Workers' National Indus-
trial Union, 265, 293, 303.

Thompson, James P., 79.

Timber Workers, Brotherhood of,
265, 293.

Tonopah, Nev.. miners' strike, 123,
203-204.

Tonopah Sun, 192.

Trade agreements. Vide Agree-
ments.

Trade unions. Vide Craft unions.

Trainer, C. E., 230.

Trautmann, William E., 49, 57, 61,
79, 87, 98, 100, 119, 124, 129, 137,
140, 144, 146, 150-152, 163, 172,
176, 180, 219-220, 223. 259, 266,
293; quoted, 53, 207-208, 228; on
organizing farm laborers, 228.

Trenton, N. J., silk workers' strike,
123.

Turner, John Kenneth, quoted, 205-
206.

432

INDEX

Unemployment, 327, 335.

" Union scab, the," 85, 287, 374-375.

Unionism, objects of, from I. W. W.
standpoint, 84-85.

United Labor League, 70.

United States Government, inter-
vention at Goldfield, Nev., 196;
report of Pres. Roosevelt's Com-
mission. 196-198.

United States Senate, "anti-sabot-
age " bill, 344-345.

Universal label, the, 165-166.

Unlawful Associations Act of Aus-
tralia, 280, 341-343-

Unskilled labor, 66, 118. i?7, 289,
339; Knights of Labor and, 33-

Untermann, Ernest, 279.

Utah State Federation of Labor, 7.

Vienna, International Socialist Con-
gress (1914), report of Socialist
Labor party on Chicago I. W. W.,
238, 246.

Violence, 249, 251-252, 262, 276-279,
336, 341 ; DeLeon on use of, 93-
94; at Lawrence, 284-287, 290.
Vide also Sabotage and Direct
action.

Voting, attitude of Detroit faction
on, 252.

Wages, increases in, at Goldfield,

200.
Walla Walla, Wash., free-speech

fight, 263.

Walsh, J. H., 221-222.
War, 340-346 ; resolution against,

329. Vide also Militarism and

War of 1914-1918.
War of 1914-1918, and the I. W. W.,

7-8, 280, 329, 340-346.
Washington (State), "syndicalism

bill," vetoed by Governor, 345.
Waterville, Wash., strike of farm

laborers at, 259.

Weekly People, 211.

Weinstock, Harris, report on San
Diego free-speech fight, 264.

Wenatchee, Wash., free-speech fight,
263.

Western Federation of Miners, 53-
54, 55, 60, 70, 74-75, 100, 102, 113,
130, 132, 145, 150, 152, 170. 175,
180-182, 203, 216-217, 318-323, 325 ;
organized, 40; and American Fed-
eration of Labor, 40-41, 215, 318-
319; strike activities, 41-42; and
Socialist party, 42; and the state,
55-56; importance in early I. W.
W. history, !O4riO5; secession
from I. W. W., 122, 147, 149-151,
176, 179; at Goldfield, 191-201; on
agreements, 198, 319; Haywood
and, 216-217; and I. W. W. at
Butte, Mont., 319-322.

Western I.W.W.s, 231-232, 233;
compared with Eastern members.
233-234. 296, 311-314.

Western Labor Union, 41. 53, 127;
organized, 43.

" Wheel of Fortune, the," 79.

Whitehead. Thomas, 228.

Williams, B. H., 180, 312.

Window cleaners, strike of, at Provi-
dence. R. I., 269.

" Wobblies," origin of name. 57.

Women, I. W. W. attitude toward
organization of. 160.

Wooden Shoe. The, sabotage slo-
gans, 277-278.

Woods, Arthur, on free speech, 262.

Workers, Industrial Union of Aus-
tralia, 343.

Workers' International Industrial
Union, 215, 220, 235, 242, 253-254;
membership, 242.

Workmen's party. Vide Socialist
Labor party.

Youngstown, Ohio, strike of sheet
metal workers, 203-204.

VITA

PAUL FREDERICK BRISSENDEN was born in Benzonia,
Michigan, in 1885. He received the A.B. degree from the
University of Denver in 1908. During the academic year
1911-12 he was a student in the Graduate School of the
University of California, from which institution he received
the degree of A.M. in 1912. During the academic year
1914-15 he was University Fellow in Economics at Colum-
bia University.

At California he studied under Professors Carl C. Plehn,
Wesley C. Mitchell and John Graham Brooks, and attended
the economics seminar conducted by Professor A. C. Miller.
At Columbia he studied psychology under Professor John
Dewey, sociology under Professor F. H. Giddings, and
economics under Professors E. R. A. Seligman, H. R. Sea-
ger, W. C. Mitchell, V. G. Simkhovitch and J. B. Clark,
and attended the seminars in political economy and finance
conducted by Professors Seligman and Seager.

From January, 1910, to June, 1911, he was instructor in
economics and sociology at Pacific College and, during the
academic year 1913-14, Assistant in Economics at the Uni-
versity of California. During the summer of 1914 he was
Special Agent of the United States Commission on Indus-
trial Relations. Since July, 1915, he has been on the staff
of the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

He is the author of : The Launching of the Industrial
Workers of the World, (A.M. thesis), University of Cali-
fornia Publications in Economics, vol. 4, no. i, (Berkeley:
1913) ; The Employment System of the Lake Carriers'
Association, Bulletin 235 of the United States Bureau
of Labor Statistics, (Washington: Government Printing
Office: 1918).

433

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