Whatever may be the merits or demerits of philosophic anarchism, it is unquestionable that the anarchist—the naïve anarchist, at any rate—is an unmitigated nuisance. Perhaps 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 "responsibilities, financial, moral and physical, must be met and not shirked."[632] The Board was more specific farther on in its report:
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 industrial 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 conditions continue, the I. W. W. will die of dry rot.[633]
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."[634] 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...."[635]
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 intelligent membership...."[636]
A writer who favored the decentralists says that their defeat was due very largely to their "crudity and inexperience." "Possessed of a red-hot issue, they failed," he said, "to make good with it" partly "because of their unfamiliarity with the principles of decentralization."[637] 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 apparently sight was lost of the fact that no organization of independent and self-reliant workers is thinkable without complete 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 revolution by [passing] the resolution that the publications of the I. W. W. should come under the supervision of the General Executive 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 energies to stem the tide of conservatism and faint-heartedness in the I. W. W. organization.[638]
In a very interesting article Ben Reitman, another anarchist, 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: