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 themselves outside of the I. W. W., they held a conference in Paterson, N. J., and they decided they would [have] an organization 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, although they don't amount to much.[491]
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 published by the Detroit faction we are told that "the anarchist 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 up small employment agencies, and also advised the workers to 'strike at the ballot-box with an ax.'"[492]
When the doctrinaires held their 1915 convention (the "Eighth I. W. W. Convention") General Secretary Richter, 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 trumpets was going to show the workers how to get out of capitalism, 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.[493]
A few months before this, Richter remarked: "Many of the followers of the Saint [St. John] and 'Big Bill' [Haywood] are a sadder but wiser lot. Hundreds have already joined the Socialist [meaning the Detroit] I. W. W., and more are on the way."[494]
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 the class struggle and proclaiming the identity of interest between master and slave; we find the Socialist party of America ... 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....[495]
A sober explanation of the DeLeonites' position as compared with the American Federation of Labor and the "Bummery" was made by Rudolph Katz to the Commission on Industrial Relation. 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 conquest 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 position that we take [he concluded] is that if we have the majority, and the capitalists [and] officials who count the ballots ... refuse to count us in, well,—then there will be a scrap. But we are going to test the peaceful method first.[496]
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 desperate attempt" by the "Bummery" I. W. W. and the American Federation of Labor to crush out the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. The strike was directed, they say, by leaders of the United Garment Workers, the American Federation of Labor, and the Chicago I. W. W.[497]