“I never was low like the hobo crew,
Though I’ve begged my bread on many a day,
But I always worked when they asked me to,
To pay for a meal or a bed in the hay.”
There has never been any great success in the attempts to organize the vagabond workers. The membership in the I. W. W. and similar organizations rises or declines so rapidly that it is almost impossible to quote any figures that are dependable. Professor Parker reported the results of a careful study made in California in 1915 and which showed that there were at that time 4,500 affiliated members in that state. The membership fluctuates, however, because when trouble arises in any industry in the West the membership in the I. W. W. always doubles or trebles. In one strike in Washington the organization claimed membership of 3,000, but there were about 7,000 on strike. The organization of these workers and the explosive quality of their teachings form a real menace to society. The philosophy of the I. W. W. is expressed in the words of one of the leaders who explained that according to their code there is no such thing as right or wrong. He said, “We know what people mean when they discuss these questions but they have no significance in our lives. The only principle that we acknowledge is the principle of expediency. It is better not to break windows because it will get us into trouble with the authorities, but the abstract principle of breaking windows and destroying property being wrong makes no appeal to us whatever.” The man who gave utterance to this statement was formerly a Presbyterian minister. He was in charge of a church in a steel city and his contact with the workers gained for him a clear understanding of the poverty and despair that grow out of their conditions. This vision and the sight of the people on the other side of the social gulf, who were living most recklessly in the midst of their luxuries, led him to become one of the leading radicals in the labor world. The philosophy of the I. W. W., and the power of this organization are increasing just in proportion as we fail to correct the abuses that now destroy the lives of men.
Causes. In this country we have made little effort to prevent the consequences which are certain to follow the operation of the law of supply and demand. We have acted upon the theory that all we need to do is to allow natural law to have a chance for its operation. Individualism is praised as being the means of saving the worker. The result is that there is a shockingly large amount of labor turn-over each year—that is, each job has two or three men working on it. We have presented to us also the spectacle of thousands of men who form an army of migratory laborers. In one part of the United States there will be a labor shortage and in another there will be a shortage of work to be done.
If we would know what makes the tramp and the vagabond we must become acquainted with some man who tramps the highway with his pack on his back. His wife and his children were left years ago in some Eastern city when he went out West to find a job. The job which he secured did not keep him long enough for him to become a resident or even to feel settled in the community. The place in which he slept and lived was a bunk-house, dirty, filthy, and filled with vermin; and the food he had to eat was of such poor quality and so wretchedly cooked that he would not have eaten it at all except that he was almost famished and it was all that he could get.
The communities in which this wanderer of the road finds himself have always been against him. The children in the homes are told that if they are not good the tramps will get them. He looks upon the law as being framed especially to cause him inconvenience, and the officers of the law are his special enemies. The only places that are open to him are the saloons, the low dives, and the cheap rooming house. The work he does pays him fairly good wages for a short period; but when he is paid off, with the money in his pocket, there is nothing for him to do but to get drunk, and this he proceeds to do; nor does he sober up until every cent is gone. Then he turns to another job if he can find one. Of course, if he would save his money and try to live a decent life he might be able to get on. But as the pastor of a church in southern Washington said: “Down in my parish, which is in the woods, I have in the winter-time about 1,500 men to look after. They are a rough, hard set who have been gathered together through the employment agencies in Seattle and Tacoma. They believe in nothing and in no one. They are made victims of every possible tyranny. All that they have is their job, and their roll of blankets. The bunk-houses in which they live are so bad that a self-respecting dog would not stay in them. The food they eat is absolutely rotten. They are treated like cattle, with the exception that a valuable steer will receive greater protection, for it is not as easy to get another good working steer as it is to get another hobo to take the place of the worker that is lost. When these drifters are paid off the forces that ruin men get hold of them immediately, and for the next few days they spend their time carousing and getting drunk. The lumber companies in our community are making money fast, but they are destroying men, and scattering dynamite all over the Northwest that threatens to explode in a social upheaval that will shake the whole western part of the United States.” These are the words of a sober-minded Presbyterian pastor and one who has no sympathy for dangerous social doctrines. He is simply speaking out of his heart and from his experience.
In another district one of the officials of a mining company said in his annual report: “This last year was one of unprecedented success. We were able to work continuously and with little difficulty because we had at all times an average of three men available for each job. This gave us workers always ready to our hand.” As was said before, the war changed this situation very largely, and for the time being the old causes which operated to increase the number of the unemployed have been removed. There is more work than possibly can be done, and every worker has his job cut out for him. In a letter I have just received the writer says, “The war offers the right-minded people of America the greatest opportunity in history. We can correct ancient wrongs and right old abuses if we will only put our minds to this task.” But there are certain considerations that must be taken into account if we would remove the causes which make for unemployment and discontent that accompany it. The community’s responsibility for the man out of work does not end with securing a job for him, nor with the regularizing of industry, nor in supporting labor exchanges. We are all creatures of circumstances and influenced strongly by our environment. Therefore, every community ought to provide adequate means for recreation, and decent places where men and women can gather under wholesome conditions.
The casual workers are the true servants of humanity.
A Man and His Job. One of the slogans of the French Revolution was “The right to work.” Man has a proprietary right in his job and it is the only property that most men possess; when he loses it he is losing everything. Some years ago the Idaho legislature passed a law which guarantees to every citizen resident in the state for six months, ninety days public work a year at ninety per cent. of the usual wage if married or having a dependent, and seventy-five per cent. of the usual wage if he is single. Industry has never been organized so as to include the best interests of the worker. There are hundreds of thousands more workers needed in the good years than in the bad years. In every business special calls arise for more workers to be used for a few weeks or a few days at a time. The reserves of labor necessary to meet these seasonal or casual demands can be reduced to a minimum, providing that industry is regularized. As it is, the individual worker suffers in the machine, or system, that he has helped to create. The modern plan of organization provides for managers, superintendents, foremen, clerks, and skilled men—all dependent for their position upon the group of unskilled men or semi-skilled workers at the bottom.
It is obvious that we cannot legislate so that lumber can be taken out of the forests all the year round, nor can the casual workers—farm laborers, fruit-, and hop-pickers and others—have continual employment. What we can do, however, is to mobilize the labor forces of the country with the same care and ability that we have mobilized our national army. Through a chain of labor exchanges extending throughout the whole nation we can bring the man and the job together. When the lumber employees in the woods of Washington finish with their season they could be brought down into California to work on the farms and in the fields; and then farther down as the fruit ripens, following on straight through the state. In the autumn they could be brought back again to take their places in the woods.