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. Here is a traitor to his class."... We recognize in the S. T. & L. A. the economic arm of the S. L. P. and its indispensable adjunct in its conflict between the working class and the capitalist class.[145]
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...."[146] 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 expectation that through that process, through some mystic alchemy, the ballot will terminate capitalism and the socialist commonwealth will rise like a fairy out of the ballot-box.[147]
The manifesto was very specific in proposing a purely 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 understands 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 compromise with capitalism, there will probably issue a political organization strong in numbers, but stronger in principle, because raised by the revolutionary spirit high above "mere vote-getting subterfuge."[148]
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 coöperative commonwealth, then it is doomed to a short and sickening life.[149]
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 connection 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 direct-actionist wing, non-political, and with a new and expurgated edition of the preamble, and a DeLeonite or doctrinaire wing, pro-political—another Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance—with the same old preamble and the same old political clause.[150]
The constitution provided a highly centralized scheme of administration involving a mixed hierarchy of power. 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 administrative purposes. In the original report of the constitution 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: