FOOTNOTES:
[596] E. Pouget, La confédération générale du travail (2nd ed.), p. 47.
[597] "As to my candidacy," Industrial Worker (II), Nov. 2, 1911.
[598] The Syndicalist (London), March, 1913.
[599] Vol. xiv, p. 394 (Jan., 1914).
[600] "An appeal for industrial solidarity." International Socialist Review, March, 1914, vol. xiv, p. 546.
[601] Ibid.
[602] "I. W. W. versus A. F. of L." The New Review, May, 1914. p. 283.
[603] "Impressions d'Amérique," La Vie Ouvrière (Paris), vol. v, pp. 722-723. "Je dis que c'est grand dommage et que cela peut préparer un désastre, que l'admirable ardeur combattive des industrialists actuellement groupés dans le I. W. W. ne s'exerce pas à l'intérieur de la Fédération Américaine du Travail." Ibid., p. 723. Cf. his pamphlet, Prepare 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).
[604] October 4, 1913. Editorial.
[605] Proceedings of the Eighth Convention of the I. W. W., September, 1913, p. 2. The distribution of voting power among the delegates depends, 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).
[606] Supra, p. 297.
[607] Covington Hall in The Voice of the People, Oct. 9, 1913, p. 2, col. 3.
[608] 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, 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.
[609] Caroline Nelson, "Economic socialism or State capitalist socialism, Which?" The Voice of the People, July 30, 1914, p. 4, col. 3.
[610] Proceedings, 8th I. W. W. convention, p. 81.
[611] Delegate Schrager, ibid., p. 71, col. 1.
[612] Ibid., p. 84, col. 1.
[613] Delegate Van Fleet, op. cit., p. 69.
[614] Ibid., p. 69 (Fellow-worker McEvoy).
[615] Ibid., p. 71.
[616] Ibid., p. 112.
[617] Ibid., p. 33. An unsuccessful effort had been made at the third convention in 1907 to abolish the initiation fee.
[618] Preamble and Constitution (1914), article vii.
[619] Proceedings, p. 117, col. 1.
[620] Ibid., p. 118, col. 1.
[621] Ben Reitman, "Impressions of the Chicago Convention." Mother Earth, October, 1913, vol. viii, p. 240.
[622] G. G. Soltes, "Convention Notes," Voice of the People, Oct. 23, 1913, p. 2, col. 3. The italics are not in the original.
[623] "The question of decentralization," p. 2.
[624] Report of Committee. Solidarity, Feb. 18, 1911, p. 2, col. 4.
[625] J. M. Foss in his report to the eighth convention, Proceedings, p. 37.
[626] Solidarity, Oct. 21, 1911, p. 2, col. 3.
[627] 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. 1.
[628] "The sixth I. W. W. convention," International Socialist Review, vol. xii, pp. 301-2, Nov., 1911.
[629] Ewald Koeltgen, "I. W. W. Convention" (8th, 1913), International Socialist Review, vol. xiv, p. 275, Nov., 1913. Professor Hoxie took the same general view that decentralization was the slogan of the western membership. "The Truth about the I. W. W.," Journal of Political Economy, Nov., 1913. vol. xxi, p. 788.
[630] Proceedings, Eighth Convention, p. 52.
[631] International Socialist Review, vol. xii, p. 44, July, 1911.
[632] Report of the Eighth Convention, Proceedings, p. 37, col. 1, 2.
[633] Report of the Eighth Convention, Proceedings, pp. 103-4.
[634] Ibid., p. 70.
[635] Ibid., p. 56, col. 2.
[636] Report to the Seventh Convention, Industrial Worker, Oct. 24, 1912, p. 6, col. 1.
[637] Onlooker, "The Question of Decentralization," Voice of the People, Oct. 9, 1913, p. 4, col. 2.
[638] Alexander Berkman, "The I. W. W. Convention," Mother Earth, Oct., 1913, vol. viii, pp. 233, 234.
[639] Ben Reitman, "Impressions of the Chicago Convention," Mother Earth, October, 1913, vol. viii, pp. 241-242.
[640] Editorial, "Sensationalism vs. Organizing Ability," Solidarity, Aug. 23, 1913.
[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 Arizona, Nevada and Montana mining camps. In the Arizona-Montana territory the feeling on the side of the Federation is indicated by the following extract from a letter written to the twenty-first convention of that organization by a member in Jerome, Ariz.
We are very sorry [he writes] that we are unable to send a delegate to Denver, but we have the fight of our life here with 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 a 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.[641]
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 revolutionary. 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 have accomplished through Civic Federation methods. The process will doubtless continue, until the W. F. of M, becomes as completely the football of metalliferous mine owners as the United Mine Workers is of the coal barons."[642] 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.[643]
Article V, section 4. of the Federation's Constitution (1910 edition) stipulated that "no local union or unions of the W. F. M. shall enter into any signed contract or verbal agreement for any specified length of time with their employers." This clause was stricken out in 1912. The revised edition of the Constitution for that year expressed the new policy of the Federation (now the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers) in these terms: "Local unions or groups of local unions may enter into wage agreements for a specified time, providing such agreements have the approval of the Executive Board...."[644]
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. 1 (W. F. M.) was dynamited. The writer is not sufficiently familiar with the facts to tell this story in detail, or to express an opinion as to whether or to what extent the I. W, W. element in Butte was responsible for the dynamiting.
The friction between I. W. W. sympathizers and the management of the local W. F. M. union—Butte Miners' Union No. 1—was unquestionably a factor in the quarrel which culminated in the dynamiting outrage. There were certainly other factors. The local organization had been gradually dividing into two factors—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 administration 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."[645] At the last W. F. M. convention (1916), President 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.[646] 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 incident, 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 door and asked to be admitted to the meeting, and on being refused, 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."[647]
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 13th 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 Propaganda 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....[648]
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 seceders [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....[649]
Apparently nothing came of this in the way of an I. W. W. 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 Federation that the I. W. W. had deliberately attempted to disrupt 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.[650] He alleged that "there had been a conspiracy 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.,"[651] and that "publications edited by this direct-action, sabotage-howling coterie have lent their aid to this campaign...."[652] 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 referendum 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....[653] The time has come [he went on] when the labor and socialist press of America must hold up to the arc-light these professional 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.[654]
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...."[655] Another editorial in the same journal declares that the Federation is
unalterably opposed to their tactics and methods.... Industrial 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 violence, 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 Federation and the I. W. W. has really never succeeded in making inroads of any consequence among the United Mine Workers. Max Hayes, 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 quantity among the coal miners. In fact," he said, "we do not let them propagate their doctrines; at least, we try to prevent their ideas from becoming accepted by our people.... There is nothing constructive about their philosophy: it is all destructive."[656]
The Mine Workers' Union is perhaps the most constructively business-like, and certainly one of the most successful, unions in the world. Their hard-headed constructive work is most of all evidences in the business agreements which they negotiate with the operators at regular intervals.
To the I. W. W., agreements—particularly all time agreements—are in themselves evil. Consequently the friction between the world's smallest and most revolutionary industrial 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 dissension."[657]
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 propitious. 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....[658]
The most recent conflict between the I. W. W. and the Mine Workers was in the anthracite region around Scranton, 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 collieries 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 unsuccessful by that means, to drive them off by force.[659]
At about this time (1914) Eugene Debs, one of the founders of the I. W. W., was again urging the formation of a great revolutionary industrial union. He proposed to begin with the two big miners' unions—the Western Federation and the United Mine Workers—which organizations were to form the head and center of the new union.
It 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 program 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.[660]
"The consolidated miners and the reunited I. W. W.," he said, "would draw to themselves all the trade unions with industrial tendencies, and thus would the reactionary federation of craft unions [A. F. of L.] be transformed from both within and without, into a revolutionary industrial organization."[661] In the same article Debs advocated a reunion of the Socialist and Socialist Labor parties, and William 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 possible."[662]
The ninth I. W. W. convention, which met in Chicago, Sept. 21, 1914, as not an important one. It was in session less than a week and there were not more than twenty-five delegates present.[663] 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 27th, seventeen. No stenographic report of the proceedings—indeed, no complete report of any kind whatsoever—has ever been issued. A very brief account was printed in Solidarity, which emphasized the fact that all the delegates were "typical specimens of the working class rank and file, with some contempt for empty theorizing and a marked preference for action."[664] 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 new 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 organization 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. have more influence than similar groups in this country.[665]
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 employment at the time of the convention. "... the I. W. W. has no apologies to offer," says Solidarity, "for the smallness 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."[666]
According to the account appearing in the I. W. W. press, it was the understanding of the convention
that [unemployed] parades to City Halls, 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.[667]
At the same time the delegates decided to take definite steps toward organizing the unemployed. According to the Chicago papers, Haywood had said: "Millions have been appropriated 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."[668] At a later session (on September 24) 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.[669] 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 conducting 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 show that they were beginning to realize that financial and membership records cannot be kept by the futurist or impressionistic 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 Omaha Bee (Nov. 24, 1916) says that the local "secretary-treasurer of the Industrial Workers of the World 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 Vincent 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...."[670]
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 Democracy 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 relationship 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.[671]
Only two constitutional amendments of importance were passed at the ninth convention. One was a further development 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.
(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 Industrial 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.[672]
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 specifically defines the kinds of agreements 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 corporation of employers, binding the members to any of the following 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.[673]
These two years of unprecedented field activity were naturally 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.[674]
Never since that time has it reached that point nor had it previously, unless we include the W. F. M. in the membership for 1905. There was also during both years a net increase 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 organized in largest numbers in the lumber, textile, and metal and machinery industries. Thirty were "mixed" locals.[675]
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.[676]
| Industry | Organized | Disbanded |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural | 1 | 2 |
| Amusement | 1 | ... |
| Automobile | 1 | 1 |
| Bakery | 4 | 1 |
| Brass | 1 | ... |
| Brewery and distillery | 1 | ... |
| Brick, tile and terra cotta | 1 | 2 |
| Building construction | 13 | 2 |
| Building employees | 1 | 2 |
| Button | 2 | 2 |
| Clerks, butchers and delivery | 2 | 1 |
| Confectionery and fruits | 2 | 1 |
| Car | ... | 1 |
| Coal miners | 3 | 2 |
| Construction (general) | 4 | 2 |
| Corn products | ... | 1 |
| Department store | 1 | 1 |
| Domestic service | 1 | 1 |
| Electrical | 1 | 1 |
| Fishermen | ... | 1 |
| Furniture | 2 | ... |
| Glass | 1 | 1 |
| Hotel and restaurant | 2 | 3 |
| Laborers, general | 2 | 3 |
| Leather | 2 | 2 |
| Light and power plant | 1 | ... |
| Lumber | 41 | ... |
| Marine transport | 3 | ... |
| Match | 1 | 1 |
| Metal and machinery | 18 | 10 |
| Miners | 1 | ... |
| Mixed locals | 30 | 19 |
| Musical and theatrical | 1 | ... |
| Oilcloth | ... | 1 |
| Oil workers | 3 | 1 |
| Packing house | 1 | 3 |
| Paper mills | ... | 1 |
| Piano and instruments | 4 | ... |
| Plaster composition | 1 | ... |
| Pottery | 1 | 1 |
| Printing plant | 1 | 1 |
| Propaganda League | 1 | 2 |
| Public service | 10 | 2 |
| Railroad construction | 5 | 4 |
| Railroad employees | 5 | 5 |
| Reed, willow, and rattan | 4 | 1 |
| Rubber | 3 | 3 |
| Ship construction | 1 | ... |
| Steel | 5 | 4 |
| Street car | 2 | ... |
| Sugar plant | 2 | 2 |
| Textile | 32 | ... |
| Tobacco | 6 | 3 |
| Transport | 1 | 2 |
| Watch and clock | ... | 1 |
| Wood | 3 | .. |
| 236 | 100 |
The membership declined considerably in 1913 and 1914, since which time it appears to have increased slightly. Conservative estimates fix it at about 15,000 in 1913, 11,000 in 1914, and 15,000 in 1915.[677] The author has not yet been able 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. 1) 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 membership of 25,000 on which no per-capita tax has been paid to the General Organization," and credits the organization (for 1913) with a "nominal non-dues-paying enrolment of from 50,000 to 60,000." He came to the conclusion "that 100,000 or more men have had I. W. W. dues cards in their possession during the past five years."[678] 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 members.' 'You're a liar, Hoxie,' replied St. John, 'we have 14,310.'"[679] Levine gives an estimate (doubtless furnished by the general office of the I. W. W.) which is unquestionably much too high. He puts the membership for August, 1913, at 70,000, distributed as follows: textile industry, 40,000; lumber industry, 15,000; railroad construction, 10,000; metal and machinery industry, 1,000; and miscellaneous, 4,000.[680] 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) Less than 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.[681]
The years 1914 and 1915 were marked by a definite slump in the fortunes of the I. W. W. followed in 1916 by a noticeable increase of activity. St. John says that the decrease in membership during these years was most marked in the following industries: "lumber, railroad construction, building, packing house, amusement workers and the public service industries."[682] A possible exception to this general inactivity is the National Industrial Union of Marine Transport Workers of the I. W. W., which affiliated with the I. W. W. in April, 1913, and has since made some progress.[683] St. John informed the United States Commission on Industrial Relations that the cause of this falling-off was the industrial depression. He said that "the membership on the Pacific Coast from one end of it to the other, seventy-five per cent of them, have been out of work in the last year and have not paid any dues."[684] 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 destructive 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.[685]
In the latter part of 1915 and in 1916 came a revival of I. W. W. activity. The most energetic group of all has been the Agricultural Workers' Organization or the "A. W. O." (organized 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 workers. At the tenth convention "the A. W. O. held the center of the stage, being represented by seven delegates with 36 votes each."[686] 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 presented 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 mendicants 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 district 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 organization. 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 pilfered from nearby farms, wash their clothes, bathe, and not infrequently 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....
All methods of handling the situation have proven unavailing.... 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 congregating, 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.[687]
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 convention, both indicate a possible development of internal discord sufficient to divide the I. W. W. into eastern and western wings. Mr. Roger W. Babson in one of his recent confidential labor reports suggests another way in which a shifting 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."[688]
A correspondent in the Weekly People says that one delegate at the tenth I. W. W. convention declared that there was very likely to be a split in the organization and intimated that, in such an event, the Agricultural Workers' Organization would be the chief factor in bringing it about.[689] The same writer continues:
The A. W. O.... 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.[690]
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.[691] There were in attendance about 25 delegates, including three members of the General Executive Board and the General Secretary. The delegates were almost entirely from the East and Middle West, only one coming from the Pacific Coast.[692] The editor of Solidarity, commenting upon the charter 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 constitutional and other changes as would make for greater efficiency in the work of the organization," and he approvingly quotes one delegate as exclaiming, "The I. W. W. is passing out of the purely propaganda stage and is entering the stage of constructive organization."[693]
The most recent official report says that the organization now (January 1, 1917) "consists of six industrial unions: Marine Transport Workers, Metal and Machinery Workers, Agricultural Workers (A. W. O.), Iron Miners, Lumber Workers, and Railway Workers, having fifty branches and 200 unions in other industries, together with 100 recruiting unions directly united with the general organization."[694] The paid-up membership is put at 60,000 on January 1st, 1917, up to which date it is claimed that an aggregate of 300,000 membership cards had been issued since 1905.[695] The bulk of the present membership is distributed among the following industries: textile, steel, lumber, mining, farming, railroad construction, and marine transportation. Except in the textile industries, the majority of these workers are migratory unskilled laborers.[696]
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 facts of the situation. The announcements from the Chicago headquarters make reference to four foreign jurisdictions, viz.: its British, New Zealand, Australian and South African "administrations." It is unlikely that the "British 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[697] 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 several 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 hall has been raided periodically as a matter of principle, our literature, our papers, pictures, and press have all been confiscated; our members and speakers have been arrested and charged with almost every crime on the calendar; the authorities are making unscrupulous, bitter and frantic attempts to stifle the propaganda of the I. W. W.[698]
Some idea of the nature and seriousness of that propaganda may be had from the meagre reports which have reached this country. A writer in the Sunset Magazine[699] says that the striking coal miners
had Australia at their mercy.... In vain did the government plead with the strikers for coal to start troop and wheat ships.... As a last resort, the leaders ... were arrested.... The Industrial Workers of the World, the militant aggressive organization whose doctrine of a general rebellion 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 was 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.[700] These charges involved, in Sydney, according to this report, treason, and wholesale arson 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 10th. 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 endeavored to intimidate and overawe Parliament."[701]
Their anti-war campaign at last became so obnoxious to the government that the House of Representatives, in December, 1916, passed a statute, called "The Unlawful Associations 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. speakers and hold them for the duration of the war.[702]
The Australian Unlawful Associations Act[703] is to "continue 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 declared to be unlawful associations, namely: (a) the association known as the Industrial Workers of the World; and (b) any association which, by its constitution or propaganda, 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 contributes 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 political I. W. W. and a non-political I. W. W. In that country, however, the political group (counterpart of the Detroit 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 constitution 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."[704] Four of the six clauses of the preamble are almost identical in phrasing 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 industrial 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 determine working conditions.[705]
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[706] which the newspapers declared was aimed at the I. W. W. The State laws referred to are quite generally understood 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 property, 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 injury, 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 or pursue such purpose or professed purpose, or shall so teach, advocate, advise or defend....[707]
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 fine 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 anything to, such an organization, or (c) publishes or distributes any publication whatever which defends the use of "physical force, violence of physical injury to person or property ... as a means of accomplishing any governmental, 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.[708]
So-called "criminal syndicalism" or sabotage laws have been enacted by the States of California,[709] Idaho,[710] Michigan,[711] Minnesota,[712] North Dakota,[713] Montana,[714] South Dakota,[715] and Nebraska.[716] In the State of Washington a "syndicalism bill," and in Arizona a "sabotage" law, were passed by the State legislatures in 1918 but were vetoed by the governor in each case.[717] The "criminal syndicalism" laws of Minnesota, Idaho and Montana are reprinted in Appendix X. The South Dakota statute 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, economic, industrial or political ends." It declares such advocacy 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 (1) advocates or "suggests" such doctrines, (2) publishes, circulates or has in his (or her) possession 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 assembles with any group or organization which advocates or suggests such a doctrine, or (4) permits in any room or building 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 syndicalism" statutes referred to in these pages that of South Dakota inflicts the heaviest penalties. The Minnesota law has recently come into the courts[718] and the State Supreme Court, in a decision rendered April 19, 1918, held it to be constitutional.[719]
The I. W. W. does not lack constructive ideas. The trouble has been always that those ideas have not been applied very extensively. They have remained merely a part 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 excessive propaganda activity—critical and non-constructive, if not destructive ... and very little constructive activity.[720] 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 hundred and thirty-five recruiting and industrial unions (not including five [foreign] "national administrations") and has a membership of 85,000.[721] This latter figure probably included delinquent members, and in any case is almost certainly much exaggerated. The same statement applies to the figure given for local unions. But even on such a generous assumption, the figures in columns 7 and 11 of Table A (Appendix IV) show, first, that there have been more than 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 situation is much worse. Conservative estimates of the active membership in 1915 put it at 15,000, distributed among 150 local unions.[722] 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 comparison 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 enrolled 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. In 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 organization. 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 constructive, probably, but only its complete annihilation can put a period to its propaganda work.