Small wonder it is that this “outlaw” organization receives the contempt and anathemas of conventional, respectable people, who have been taught that everything that makes civilization better than barbarism, is due to the genius and greatness and goodness of a few men, who in turn were but the instruments of Providence. The I. W. W. tells its members to stop bowing the head and the knee to great men and even to God, and to assert the right and power that is theirs, and to depend on themselves alone for the establishment of a new system of industry.
Sound and staid business, political and religious leaders are deeply concerned with what seems to be the trend of thought and action on the part of the “lower” classes. This trend appears to be decidedly in the direction of the very principles and methods of the I. W. W. The “better” class of people believe chaos and anarchy will result if the principles and practices of the I. W. W. predominate; the I. W.W. believe they will always be oppressed, and matters go from bad to worse, if our method of doing business is not fundamentally changed. They believe so fully in the justice of their cause that they willingly accept the scorn, the contempt, the inhuman treatment inflicted on them in jail and out, that is meted out mercilessly for their uncompromising speech and attitude.
This bitter feeling of the “best” people toward the I. W. W., and the dogged persistence of the I. W. W. in their revolutionary tactics, constitute the most acute phase of what the Socialists call the class struggle. This class war will continue till one side or the other is victorious. One reason that the whole matter is so generally misunderstood is that nearly all the newspapers distort and suppress most of the news concerning the activity of the I. W. W.
Mr. Fitch’s article radiates light rather than heat.
A. E. House.
Spokane, Wash.
RIGHT IDEAS ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
To the Editor:
I have read the various contributions to your symposium on the work before the new Commission on Industrial Relations. In my opinion it is the duty of the employer to provide the necessary safeguards and protection for his employes, such for instance as good light and air, sanitary surroundings, protection against fire and other dangers, reasonable hours of labor, adequate wages, no child labor, facilities for education and self-improvement, healthful living quarters, opportunity for recreation, etc. These and other advantages should be supplied under all circumstances, and there should be co-operation and good feeling between employer and workingman. It seems to me quite probable that the better results which would thus be obtained through the greater efficiency of the employes would more than compensate the employer for any extra outlays which he may have to make to provide such protection, so that in the end it would cost him nothing. The hearty co-operation and friendly spirit which would thus be engendered between the employer and his workingmen would be apt to prevent strikes and other troubles and would decidedly be to the interest of both employer and employe. Any excuse that a manufacturer or other employer of labor might make that if he had to provide this protection to his employes he could not make his business pay seems to me similar to the excuse of one who contemplates putting up a building but says he cannot afford to make the necessary expenditures to provide for the safety of those who will occupy it because with such extra cost the income from the building would not be sufficient to pay a good interest. If he cannot make it pay he should of course not undertake it, but under all circumstances he must build safely. In the same way an employer should see that his employes and workmen receive the necessary protection and he should provide for their absolute safety and do the right thing by them all the time.
Adolph Lewisohn.