Chapter IX: Industrial Workers of the World in Action

Members of the I. W. W. and Socialists who advocate sabotage or get into trouble in one way or another, especially in strikes, are often put into prison for their revolutionary talk or their violent methods. The One Big Industrial Union and, of course, the Socialist Party then proclaim their innocence, collect funds for their defense, and urge all the working men of our country to strike in behalf of amnesty for "poor, persecuted, noble protagonists of the cause of labor jailed because freedom of speech and liberty of action are no longer tolerated by the government." Thus on page 409 of the February, 1918, edition of the "International Socialist Review," which was suppressed by the United States Government, we read:

"Socialists Demand Fair Trial for Indicted I. W. W.--In a
declaration adopted by its National Executive Committee the
Socialist Party calls for a fair and unprejudiced trial for the
indicted members of the Industrial Workers of the World. The demand
says:

"'The Socialist Party repeats its declaration of support of all
economic organizations of the working class and declares the
lynching, deportation, prosecution and persecution of the
Industrial Workers of the World is an attack upon every toiler in
America, and we now call attention to the fact that the charges of
incendiarism, the burning of crops and forests and of vicious
destruction of property, made by the public press against the I. W.
W., have been proven pure fabrications when put to legal test. The
Socialist Party has always extended its aid, material and moral, to
organized labor wherever and whenever it has been attacked by the
capitalist class, and this without reference to form of
organization or special policies; therefore we pledge our support
to the Industrial Workers of the World now facing trial in Chicago
and elsewhere, and demand for them a fair and unprejudiced trial
and urge our members to use every effort to assist the Industrial
Workers of the World by familiarizing the public with the real
facts, to overcome the falsehoods and misinformation with which
the capitalist press has poisoned and prejudiced the public mind
and judgment against these workers, who are now singled out for
destruction, just as other labor organizations and leaders have
been singled out for destruction by the same capitalist forces in
the past."

The Socialist Party, in pledging its support to the Industrial Workers of the World, pledges its support to a revolutionary organization like itself. "The One Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, page 4, under the caption, "The Red Tidal Wave," says:

"With great satisfaction we record the fact that the red
revolutionary wave is encircling the globe, sweeping away the last
remnants of feudal rubbish from the body social, and some of the
capitalistic. The world war acted like a vigorous laxative on the
stomach of the nations."

"The Rebel Worker," an I. W. W. paper of New York City, in its
issue of April 15, 1919, after printing the word, "Revolution" in
the heaviest type all the way across the paper, publishes an
article on the first page entitled "Terrible Days Ahead in the
United States."

"'The United States is in the grip of a bloody revolution!
Thousands of workers are slaughtered by machine guns in New York
City! Washington is on fire! Industry is at a standstill and
thousands of workers are starving! The government is using the most
brutal and repressive measures to put down the revolution!
Disorganization, crime, chaos, rape, murder and arson are the order
of the day--the inevitable results of social revolution!'

"The above is what we may expect to see on the front pages of what
few newspapers survive the upheaval. No one who has the interest of
the working class at heart wants to see such a revolution. But
whether those interested in the working class want to see such a
revolution or not, there are powerful forces in the United States
that are making for just such a catastrophe. The Industrial Workers
of the World has in the past and is now using all of its energies
to avert such a cataclysmic debacle. It is not yet too late to
avoid this terrible and sanguinary strife--provided that the I. W. W.
is allowed to carry out its program of organizing and educating the
workers for the purpose of taking control of, and operating
industry and giving to those who work the full social value of the
product of their labor."

"The New Solidarity," the Chicago organ of the I. W. W., in its
edition of April 19, 1919, publishes on the editorial page an
article entitled, "When We Are Ready," part of which is hereby
quoted:

"Frequently the question is asked how the proletariat is to know
when they are ready for the revolution, how it would be possible to
know a sufficient number were class conscious enough for the
revolutionary change. This question is asked with the idea that
there must be a periodical counting of noses, and that little or
nothing may be done except educate until an absolute majority has
been obtained....

"It matters not how many members of the working class do or do not
stand up to be counted for or against capitalism, just as soon as
the organized workers can overthrow that system of industry they
will do it and not wait to be counted....

"To wait for majorities at all times is to enervate and emasculate
the working class movement. To constantly attack, and attack for
the purpose of taking and administering industry for the workers by
action on the job and in the Union halls, is to strengthen and
encourage the workers in their task, and is the plan that must
ultimately win the age-long struggle against exploitation."

On September 5, 1917, the I. W. W. headquarters, 1001 West Madison street, Chicago, and the Socialist headquarters were raided by the United States authorities. On March 10, 1919, Solicitor General Lamar of the Post Office Department submitted a memorandum to the Senate propaganda committee stating that the I. W. W., anarchists, socialists and others were "perfecting an amalgamation with one object--the overthrow of the government of the United States by means of a bloody revolution and the establishment of a Bolshevik Republic." Mr. Lamar said his conclusion was based upon information contained in seized mail matter. Accompanying the memorandum were several hundred excerpts from the mail matter. The solicitor named the following organs, published in the interest of the I. W. W. or Bolshevist movements: "The New Solidarity," English, weekly, Chicago; "One Big Union," English, monthly, Chicago; "Industrial Unionist," English, weekly, Seattle; "California Defense Bulletin," English, weekly, San Francisco; "The Rebel Worker," English, bi-monthly, New York; "La Neuva Solidaridad," Spanish, weekly, Chicago; "Golos Truzenta," Russian, weekly, Chicago; "Il Nuovo Proletario," Italian, weekly, Chicago; "Nya Varlden," Swedish, weekly, Chicago; "Der Industrialer Arbiter," Jewish, weekly, Chicago; "Probuda," Bulgarian, weekly, Chicago; "A. Fels Badulas," Hungarian, weekly, Chicago. After referring to the excerpts from the seized mail matter, the solicitor general's memorandum said in part: "This propaganda is being conducted with such regularity that its magnitude can be measured by the bold and outspoken statements contained in these publications and the efforts made therein to inaugurate a nation-wide reign of terror and overthrow of the government.

"In classifying these statements, they are submitted in a major or
general class as follows: I. W. W., anarchistic,
radical-socialistic and socialist. It will be seen from these
excerpts and it is indeed significant that this is the first time
in the history of the so-called radical movement in the United
States that the radical elements have found a common cause
(Bolshevism) in which they can all unite. The I. W. W.,
anarchistic, socialists, radical and otherwise, in fact all
dissatisfied elements, particularly the foreign element, are
perfecting amalgamation with one object, and with one object in
view, namely, the overthrow of the government of the United States
by the means of a bloody revolution and the establishment of a
Bolshevik republic.

"The I. W. W. is perhaps most actively engaged in spreading this
propaganda and has at its command a large field force known as
recruiting agents, subscription agents, etc., who work unceasingly
in the furtherance of 'the cause!'

"This organization publishes at least five newspapers in the
English language and nine in foreign languages. This list comprises
only official papers of the organization and does not take into
account the large number of free lance papers published in the
interest of the above organization."

In the April 19, 1913, edition of "Solidarity," the eastern organ of the I. W. W., we are informed that "among other diseases common to all nations and particularly prevalent in the United States is respect for law and order." The same edition of the paper extends greetings to "all Rebels" from its new home in Cleveland.

During the 1913 Paterson strike, which was managed by the I. W. W., Quinlan, one of the leaders, declared on May 17th:

"Paterson is a dangerous place to live in just at this time, no
matter in what direction you are looking. The longer the strike
lasts, the stronger and more bitter and the madder the workers are
growing. Out of it all we want to build up an organization that
will be able to fight efficiently, and fight to win--to fight to
win, if necessary, by dying.

"And we are going to win this strike or Paterson will be wiped off
the map. If the strike is not won Paterson will be a howling
wilderness and a graveyard industrially, because the workers will
not stay there. We have had too long and bitter a fight to lay down
what we have gained so far. Heaven might fall and hell might break
loose, but the strike is going to be won."

Boyd, another speaker, is reported as saying on the same day:

"We are going to get what we want whether the courts want it or
not. We are going to call a general strike, if it is necessary, to
free our fellow-workers. We are going to cut off the lights in
Paterson, and tie up the street car system. We shall reduce the
city to a condition of absolute helplessness. We are going to
paralyze Paterson, and we are going to win in Paterson just as we
are going to win in New York City."

Robert Plunkett, said to be a former Cornell student, who was introduced as a "fellow-worker," urged the strikers and their sympathizers to use every means to free their leaders, even if Paterson had to "starve or go naked." He said that the lights would be put out in Paterson, and that the street cars would be tied up, so that Paterson would become a dead city.

Mohl, who also made his appearance at the silk mills strike in Paterson, declared on May 18, 1913:

"The American flag is pretty to look at. Its colors are
striking--red, white, and blue, with two or three twinkling stars
here and there, but it is not good to eat."

The I. W. W. is, of course, an atheistic and anti-religious organization. In the March 1, 1919, issue of "The One Big Union Monthly," page 40, we read under the caption, "Help Wanted, Male or Female:"

"Priest or Minister to show the One Big Union family why our
Solidarity Dogma is not superior to the ethical teachings of Jesus,
Buddha or Mohammed, also to demonstrate the inside of the religious
business, and where it is interwoven with Wall street."

"The Call," New York, May 3, 1919, in an editorial on "The Bomb Plot," which had just aroused the whole nation, said:

"The bomb and torch have not the slightest relation to any branch
of the organized labor movement in this country, and the editors
know it. Those who print such unfounded and slanderous insinuations
place themselves in the same class as the would-be-assassin."

This editorial was published the day after the following special dispatch was sent to "The New York Times:"

"Sioux City, Iowa, May 2.--'We will blow the whole town to hell if
you put Mayor Short out of office.' This was the threat on a
postcard addressed to E. J. Stanson, who is trying to secure the
recall of Mayor Short. The card was received today. It was signed
'I. W. W. Alliance for Short.' The police are rounding up all
suspicious characters, and those known to have a leaning toward the
Bolshevists of the I. W. W. Citizens are seeking to oust Short
because he welcomed delegates to a recent 'wobblies' convention
here."

In the latter part of the spring of 1919 the author of "The Red Conspiracy" obtained at the I. W. W. headquarters in Chicago a leaflet entitled, "To Colored Workingmen and Women!" Part of it is hereby quoted:

"To the black race, who, but recently, with the assistance of the
white men of the northern states, broke their chains of bondage and
ended chattel slavery, a prospect of further freedom, of Real
Freedom, should be most appealing.

"For it is a fact that the negro worker is no better off under the
freedom he has gained than the slavery from which he has escaped.
As chattel slaves we were the property of our masters, and as a
piece of valuable property our masters were considerate of us and
careful of our health and welfare. Today, as wage-workers, the boss
may work us to death at the hardest and most hazardous labor, at
the longest hours, at the lowest pay; we may quietly starve when
out of work and the boss loses nothing by it and has no interest in
us. To him the worker is but a machine for producing profits, and
when you, as a slave who sells himself to the master on the
installment plan, become old, or broken in health or strength or
should you be killed while at work, the master merely gets another
wage slave on the same terms.

"We who have worked in the south know that conditions in lumber and
turpentine camps, in the fields of cane, cotton and tobacco, in the
mills and mines of Dixie, are such that the workers suffer a more
miserable existence than ever prevailed among the chattel slaves
before the great Civil War....

"The only problem, then, which the colored worker should consider,
as a worker, is the problem of organizing with other workingmen in
the labor organization that best expresses the interest of the
whole working class against the slavery and oppression of the whole
capitalist class. Such an organization is the I. W. W., the
Industrial Workers of the World."

"The One Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, page 6, publishes an article entitled, "The Chinese and the I. W. W.":

"The Chinese workers in this country have discovered the I. W.
W....

"Long enough have workers been divided along colored lines. The
old, old misunderstanding created by our masters is fading away as
we mutually discover that we are all condemned to slavery if
divided, and that freedom is ours if we unite. The accessions of
Chinese workers to our ranks fills us with great joy. May they also
succeed in soon carrying the gospel of Working Class Solidarity and
Industrial Organization to their native country. That hope takes
the sadness out of the news of their possible deportation."

"I. W. W. Songs," a Red booklet published at the Chicago headquarters, has already met with such popularity among the "Wobblies" that fourteen editions have been published. Several songs, showing the spirit of the Reds, are given here:

The Preacher and the Slave
By Joe Hill
(Tune: "Sweet Bye and Bye")

Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:

_Chorus_

You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

And the starvation army they play,
And they sing and they clap and they pray.
Till they get all your coin on the drum,
Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum:

Holy Rollers and jumpers come out,
And they holler, they jump and they shout.
"Give your money to Jesus," they say,
"He will cure all diseases to-day."

If you fight hard for children and wife--
Try to get something good in this life--
You're a sinner and bad man, they tell,
When you die you will sure go to hell.

Workingmen of all countries, unite,
Side by side we for freedom will fight;
When the world and its wealth we have gained
To the grafters we'll sing this refrain:

_Last Chorus_

You will eat, bye and bye,
When you've learned how to cook and to fry,
Chop some wood, 'twill do you good,
And you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye.

Tie 'Em Up!

(Words and music by G. G. Allen)

We have no fight with brothers of the old A. F. of L.,
But we ask you use your reason with the facts we have to tell.
Your craft is but protection for a form of property,
The skill that you are losing, don't you see.
Improvements on machinery take your tool and skill away,
And you'll be among the common slaves upon some fateful day.
Now the things of which we're talking we are mighty sure about.--
So what's the use to strike the way you can't win out?

_Chorus_

Tie 'em up! Tie 'em up! That's the way to win.
Don't notify the bosses till hostilities begin.
Don't furnish chance for gunmen, scabs and all their like;
What you need is One Big Union and the One Big Strike.

Why do you make agreements that divide you when you fight
And let the bosses bluff you with the contract's "sacred right?"
Why stay at work when other crafts are battling with the foe,
You all must stick together, don't you know.
The day when you begin to see the classes waging war
You can join the biggest tie-up that was ever known before.
When the strikes all o'er the country are united into one,
Then the workers' One Big Union all the wheels shall run.

Walking on the Grass

(Tune: "The Wearing of the Green")

In this blessed land of freedom where King Mammon wears the crown,
There are many ways illegal now to hold the people down.
When the dudes of state militia are slow to come to time,
The law upholding Pinkertons are gathered from the slime.
There are wisely framed injunctions that you must not leave your job,
And a peaceable assemblage is declared to be a mob,
And Congress passed a measure framed by some consummate ass,
So they are clubbing men and women just for walking on the grass.

In this year of slow starvation, when a fellow looks for work,
The chances are a cop will grab his collar with a jerk;
He will run him in for vagrancy, he is branded as a tramp,
And all the well-to-do will shout: "It serves him right, the scamp!"
So we let the ruling class maintain the dignity of law,
When the court decides against us we are filled with wholesome awe,
But we cannot stand the outrage without a little sauce
When they're clubbing men and women just for walking on the grass.

The papers said the union men were all but anarchist,
So the job trust promised work for all who wouldn't enlist;
But the next day when the hungry horde surrounded city hall,
He hedged and said he didn't promise anything at all.
So the powers that be are acting very queer to say the least--
They should go and read their Bible and all about Belshazzar's feast,
And when mene tekel at length shall come to pass,
They'll stop clubbing men and women just for walking on the grass.

Although the I. W. W. does not yet officially constitute a part of the Socialist organization, still very many of its members are most active Socialists. Indeed, it may be said that the I. W. W. is related to the Socialist Party quite as closely as a child is to its mother, for not only does the I. W. W. owe its origin to the followers of Karl Marx, but they are its directors and leaders, and have assisted and encouraged it in not a few of its principal strikes, notably at Lawrence, Mass., and Paterson, N. J.

Though we readily concede that quite a number of Socialists are individually antagonistic to the I. W. W., still they are opposed to it not because the I. W. W. differs in essential principles from the Socialist Party or even because this unfriendly minority of Socialists would oppose violent methods, if such were considered expedient, but because the "Yellow" Socialists prefer political action which is made light of by the I. W. W. direct actionists who are looked upon as enemies, for they seem to be doing harm to the Socialist political propaganda. In verification of this, an excellent proof is furnished by no less an authority than John Spargo, then a Socialist, and a most prolific writer, whose opposition to the Syndicalists and to the direct actionists of the Socialist Party was a well established fact even before the publication of his book, "Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism and Socialism." On page 172 of this work he writes:

"If the class to which I belong could be set free from exploitation
by violation of laws made by the master class, by open rebellion,
by seizing the property of the rich, by setting the torch to a few
buildings, or by the summary execution of a few members of the
possessing class, I hope that the courage to share in the work
would be mine."

Spargo, in "Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism and Socialism," admits that the Socialists have continually and consistently given aid to the Industrial Workers of the World in their strikes. Yet notwithstanding this active support, many persons have been led to believe that the Socialists have repudiated the I. W. W. This incorrect opinion may be due to the fact that the Socialist Party did not endorse the I. W. W. at its 1912 National Convention, or else to the fact that William D. Haywood was subsequently removed by a referendum from the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party. But the 1912 Indianapolis Convention of the Socialist Party did not repudiate the Industrial Workers of the World. The representatives of the party only declared for a neutrality between this organization and the American Federation of Labor, and would in all probability have endorsed the I. W. W. and repudiated the American Federation of Labor if the Socialists had not nursed a hope of getting control of the latter organization and turning it into an industrial union similar to that of the Industrial Workers of the World.

That the Socialist Party by no means repudiated the I. W. W., but on the contrary was still on the most friendly terms with it after the 1912 Convention, is evident from several facts. "The Call," May 17, 1912, affirms that the Convention decided for neutrality in affairs of unions.

In the "Appeal to Reason," May 25, 1912, we read: "So after long weeks of discussion in the press, after days of apprehensions and fencing for advantage, the labor organization committee brought forth a unanimous report, which after a few speeches, all expressing the spirit of solidarity, was adopted without a dissenting vote. It was a compromise resolution. Each side declares itself completely satisfied with it. Each declares that it expresses its sentiments."

William D. Haywood, who perhaps more than any other person had the interests of the I. W. W. at heart, declared, according to "The Call," May 17, 1912, that with the adoption of this declaration concerning the neutrality of the party towards the two rival labor unions he felt that he could go to the 8,000,000 workers of the nation and carry to them the message of Socialism. "This," he continues, "is the greatest step that has yet been taken by the Socialist Party."

Although Haywood was for the time being removed from the National Executive Committee of the party, charged with favoring direct action rather than political action, he was never expelled from the party--which yet boasted so much of the constitutional clause adopted at the 1912 National Convention demanding that any member who opposes political action, or advocates crime, sabotage, or other methods of violence as a weapon of the working class, to aid in its emancipation, shall be expelled from membership in the party.

"The New Unionism," page 119, points out some of the "merits" of the I. W. W., in comparison made with the Socialist Party, against which it was somewhat offended by the anti-sabotage and anti-direct action plank adopted at the 1912 National Convention:

"There are vote-getters and politicians who waste their time coming
into a community where ninety per cent. of the men have no vote,
where the women are disfranchised 100 per cent., and where the boys
and girls under age, of course, are not enfranchised. Still they
will speak to these people about the power of the ballot, and they
never mention a thing about the power of the general strike. They
seem to lack the foresight, the penetration to interpret political
power. They seem to lack the understanding that the broadest
interpretation of political power comes through the industrial
organization; that the industrial organization is capable not only
of the general strike, but prevents the capitalists from
disfranchising the worker; it gives the vote to women, it
re-enfranchises the black man and places the ballot in the hands of
every boy and girl employed in a shop, makes them eligible to take
part in the general strike, makes them eligible to legislate for
themselves where they are most interested in changing conditions,
namely, in the place where they work."

Again we read, on page 122 of "The New Unionism":

"The politicians in the Socialist Party, who want offices in the
government, fight the I. W. W. because we have no place in our
ranks for them, and if our idea prevails, it will crowd them out
and destroy their influence as 'saviors of the working class.'
These politicians cater for votes to the middle class--to business
men, farm owners and other small labor skinners--while the I. W. W.
appeals only to wage-workers, and allows none but actual
wage-workers to join our ranks. The Socialists can never get a
majority of votes for a working class programme (if they had such a
programme) because the majority of voters are middle class, since
about ten million male wage-workers are disfranchised (being
foreigners or floaters without long enough residence in one place
to have votes). But the wage-workers are a big majority of the
whole people, and produce nearly all wealth, so when they organize
as the I. W. W. proposes, the working class will control the
country, and with similar organizations in other countries will
control the world. Foreigners, women, children and other non-voters
at elections, have equal rights in the union, and take part in its
activities, regardless of nationality, age, sex, or any other
consideration except that they are wage-workers with common
interests in opposition to those of the employers."

It may come as a surprise to the reader to hear that at the 1917 St. Louis Convention of the Socialist Party the anti-sabotage and anti-direct action plank of the Constitution was dropped. The "International Socialist Review," May, 1917, page 669, commenting on the removal of the clause, says:

"It has served its purpose, which was to guillotine and drive out
most of the revolutionary workers from the party. The Constitution
committee recommended that it be striken out by unanimous consent
without going on the minutes or records. Ruthenberg opposed. He
insisted that it be struck out and the minutes show the record of
the action. It was carried almost unanimously."

Further on we read in the same issue of "The International Socialist Review":

"An industrial union plank to be inserted in the platform was defeated by a vote of 63 to 61. Had it been offered as a resolution it would have gone through by a big majority." Though most of the Convention favored the I. W. W., evidently a small majority feared to put the Socialist Party on record.

In 1918 and 1919 the Socialist Party grew more and more friendly to the I. W. W. At present they seem to have fallen in love with each other. The American Federation of Labor is held in greatest contempt by the Socialist press, while the I. W. W. is lauded to the skies. Its meetings are advertised, sympathy and aid are extended to its imprisoned officials and everything is being done to help it along.

Eugene V. Debs has all along been the sincere friend of the I. W. W. In the February, 1918, issue of the "International Socialist Review," page 395, he says:

"Every plutocrat, every profiteering pirate, every food vulture,
every exploiter of labor, every robber and oppressor of the poor,
every hog under a silk tile, every vampire in human form will tell
you that the A. F. of L. under Gompers is a great and patriotic
organization and that the I. W. W. under Haywood is a gang of
traitors in the pay of the bloody Kaiser.

"Which of these, think you, Mr. Wage-Slave, is your friend and the
friend of your class?....

"The war within the war and beyond the war in which the I. W. W. is
fighting--the war of the workers of all countries against the
exploiters of all countries--is our war, the war of humanity
against its oppressors and despoilers, the holiest war ever waged
since the race began."

"The Call," New York, April 19, 1919, published at the top of its editorial page, "Debs' Daily Message from Moundsville Prison:"

"Though Jailed, He Speaketh.

"The clear voice of the awakened and dauntless few cannot be
silenced. The new unionism is being heard. In trumpet tones it
rings out its revolutionary shibboleth to all the workers of the
earth: 'Our interests are identical--let us combine industrially
and politically, assert our united power, achieve our freedom,
enjoy the fruit of our labor, rid society of parasitism, abolish
poverty and civilize the world!'....

"There can be no peace until the working class is triumphant in
this struggle and the wage system is forever wiped from the earth."

In the May Day issue of "The Call," May 1, 1919, there is a very long article on Debs' Imprisonment by David Karsner, staff correspondent. He tells us that on the afternoon of April 28 he sat talking with Debs in his little room in the prison hospital at Moundsville, West Virginia, and that the many-times presidential candidate of the Socialist Party among other things said, when told of an intended visit by Karsner to the Leavenworth Federal prison to see William D. Haywood and the other 93 I. W. W. prisoners:

"I want you to take my love to Bill Haywood and all the other boys
you see out there. We all stand shoulder to shoulder together."

The staff correspondent then goes on to say:

"The reference of Debs to Haywood and the I. W. W. brought vividly
to my mind the little scene enacted between 'Gene' and 'Big Bill'
in the corridor of Judge Landis' courtroom in Chicago last August
during the I. W. W. trial.

"'You and the boys are making a great and noble fight,' said Debs
to Haywood at that time, patting the cheek of Big Bill. 'You are a
born champion of the underdog.' Haywood clasped Debs' in his own
great palm and said affectionately, 'You are the champion of the
underdog, Gene, and you always will be.' There was something
thrilling and inspiring in witnessing this friendly and comradely
felicitation between two noble men, both of whom have never
retreated one jot from their ideas of emancipation of the working
class.

"I recalled as I saw him this afternoon that seven years ago, or at
the time of the Indianapolis Convention of the Socialist party,
Debs pleaded for unity of the movement. He refused to be stampeded
into any position that would compromise the noble work that
confronted himself and the Socialist Party. Debs has always been
for industrial unionism. His speeches and writings are filled with
the spirit of organization and solidarity on the industrial field
as well as on the political. But above everything else he has
warned his fellow Socialists and industrialists that the thing to
do is to keep united, to solidify their economic and political
strength to the end that when our day comes we shall be ready to
enjoy the fruits of our victory."

"The One Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, pages 14, 19 and 21, gives us some very interesting information about the I. W. W. attitude toward Bolshevism and the two extreme groups of the Socialists:

"We have long predicted the revolutionary cyclone that is now
sweeping over the world, even though few people cared to believe
us. We asked them to prepare for it by building up the framework of
the new society within the shell of the old, in other words to see
to it that we had the new house ready to move into, before we
dynamited the old one....

"Personally we are convinced that Russia will never again return to
the old order. The workers have control and they will not let go of
it. As the days go by, they will gradually organize production and
distribution on the lines of industrial unionism, as Lenine assures
us, and that will be their salvation.

"The plight of the Russian people is a warning to other peoples to
immediately start building the new society, by building industrial
unions right now, before the structure of the old society topples
over. Industrial unions are the only social apparatus that will
make abolishment of wage slavery possible....

"The Bolshevik Revolution has emphasized this sad fact. Socialism
in Russia, facing for the first time in Socialist history, the
problem of inaugurating a working class state, found itself
paralyzed by the existence of a parliamentary form of Democracy.
The Revolution was at stake. In order to destroy capitalism it was
necessary to destroy parliamentary Democracy, and Lenine destroyed
it. In its place he reared a new form of Democracy--the
Dictatorship of the Proletariat, which is Socialism.

"And yet, so misled is the thinking of our European Socialists that
in the very presence of a living, accomplished Socialist
commonwealth, they hastened to repudiate it because it was not
'Democratic.' Plekhanov betrayed it. Kautsky reviled it. Albert
Thomas called upon the capitalists of France to send their soldiers
there and crush it. Mr. Walling, Mr. Spargo and Mr. Russell
baptized themselves into a 'Socialist' crusade to destroy
Socialism. Could idiocy be more abject?

"The alternative is presented, to choose between Socialism or
Democracy. Or perhaps it would be better to put it--between
industrial Democracy and parliamentary Democracy. And our pitiable
Spargos, duped by a stale phrase, abandon their Socialism because
it is not 'Democratic.'

"In America, it is this same issue of Democracy which has long been
the dividing line between the Socialist Party and the I. W. W. Like
the Bolshevists of Russia, the I. W. W. have championed Democracy
but we have refused to allow the capitalist thinkers to define it
for us. We have practiced Democracy in our organization and we have
sublimated it into the most perfect of Democratic organizations.
But always, it has been a Democracy only of proletarians. We have
built the framework of a new society which says that those shall
not vote who do not work. And this, indeed, is Socialism.

"But the political Socialists have feared to draw this distinction.
They have not built themselves upon the proletarian rock. Into
their ranks they have admitted, not only the butcher, the baker and
the candle-stick maker, but also the lawyer, the doctor, the
merchant, the sky pilot, yes, and even the capitalists--known as
millionaire Socialists. Out of such a medley, a medley philosophy
was sprouted. Democracy, to the political Socialists, could not be
rigidly proletarian, because the political Socialists, themselves,
were not proletarians. And their ideals paled into evasion and
compromise.

"Again, the I. W. W. being proletarian, spurned a parliamentary
action which would have drawn it together with the exploiting
class. It realized, before Spargo took that fatal dodge, that, from
parliamentary Socialism to parliamentary Democracy it was but a
step. Hence we spurned politics and parliamentarism, and
substituted a Democracy, grouped around unions, and not around
parliaments.

"But the political Socialists, immersed in parliamentary hack work,
stifled the Socialist concept of Democracy by recognizing and
participating in the capitalist form of Democracy. Entering the
parliaments, they dreamed that they could transform these
parliaments into Socialist republics. Only too soon they discovered
that the parliaments had transformed them into 'Democratic'
apologists. Like a poisoning strain, parliamentarism spread out
over Socialism. And so, when Socialism came at last in Russia,
without the aid of the foolish parliaments, deluded Socialists
cried that Bolshevism was not Socialism."

The year 1919 witnessed a very marked drawing together, in the United States and throughout the world, of I. W. W.'ism, or Syndicalism, and all the bodies of radical, revolutionary Socialism. The Moscow Bolshevists gave a great "boost" to the I. W. W. principle of industrial unionism by endorsing it and declaring that Russia was being reorganized economically along similar lines. Bolshevism in Russia, in fact, has had the help and counsel of I. W. W. experts from the United States, and I. W. W. leaders in America have naturally been elated. John Sandgren wrote in "The New Solidarity," April 12, 1919:

"The immortal gains of Bolshevism for humanity lie on the political
field. When it comes to economic reconstruction, the Bolsheviks are
going to find that it cannot be made from the top through laws and
regulations. Any attempt to make the people the real owners of the
means of production and distribution must start with the industrial
organization of the workers themselves as outlined in the I. W. W.
program. In the meantime, let us hope that Bolshevism will sweep
victoriously over all such parts of the world where it still has a
mission to perform. After that, begins the I. W. W. period in human
history."

The April 1, 1919, issue of "The One Big Union Monthly," published the Russian Communist Party call and invitation to the Moscow Conference [see Chapter III for a copy of this document], remarking that "as to the general demand for the overthrow of Capitalism, the dis-establishment of private ownership and making the working-class the rulers of the world, there is apt to be little if any dissension." However, noting that "the I. W. W. of this and other countries" had been invited to the conference, it declared that "we have no reason to get excited over the invitation," since, "with the exception of the I. W. W., there is hardly any of the thirty-nine invited bodies who seriously endorse industrial unionism as the basis of a new society.... The proposed communist conference would consequently be a congress of radical political Socialists to consider the question of discontinuing the use of the ballot and adopting the methods used by the Russian communists in the past in overthrowing capitalist society." The I. W. W. world-scheme is then outlined:

"The I. W. W. has given up all thought of using the machinery of
the present state for its purposes. It proposes to create an
entirely new machinery of administration in which not even a
particle of the old shall enter as a constituent part. We propose
to re-group all mankind on industrial lines in industrial
organizations which we hope will make superfluous and crowd out the
political groupings which constitute the state. We propose to make
the unit of industry, the place of work, the shop, the mill, the
field, the ship, the basis of our new social organization. These
units will combine in two different manners. From a purely
industrial standpoint, they will unite with other units into large
industrial unions, calculated to embrace the whole world, each and
every one of them. For the purpose of local administration, we
propose that the local industrial units shall form a district
industrial council or local administrative body to take care of
local affairs. As we propose to order all branches of human
activity along these lines and include them in a world scheme of
industrial co-operation, we must conclude that our program,
although fundamentally aiming at the same thing as the program of
the Communist Party, somewhat differs from the program proposed as
a basis of unity."

An editorial in the same issue on "Soviet Government in the U. S." says:

"The papers have informed us that the police and the secret service
have unearthed a gigantic plot among the Socialists of this country
to gather up all the radical elements with a view to establishing a
Soviet government in this country.... We do not deny that this
agitation is useful, for it stirs people to thought and excites
contradiction, ... but when that is said, we have said all the good
we can about it....

"The Russians made their revolution not because they had Soviets,
but because the people willed it.... The I. W. W. has at least on
paper an institution corresponding to the Soviet, namely, the
District Industrial Council, ... a local representative body of the
various industrial unions in each locality. So far, it lacks all
practical significance because we are not numerous enough, but
whenever there is to be a radical change in this country, the
change will have to be made through these councils locally. They
will take over the functions which were taken over by the Soviets
in Russia."

Another editorial in the same issue treats of the overtures of the Left Wing Socialists:

"Of late we have noticed an ever-increasing tendency to hush us up
in the name of unity. We are being told not to show up political
Socialism; we are told not to attack Anarchism. We are asked to be
more lenient toward the A. F. of L. [American Federation of Labor.]
We mustn't touch on church and religion....

"It appears that political Socialists, anarchists and other labor
elements feel that the bottom has fallen out of their programs and
they want us to keep quiet about it, and as a reward we will secure
their friendly services. The I. W. W. is not willing to enter into
any such bargain."

Another editorial gives further light on the "boring in" process begun by theoretical Socialists with an itch for revolution--paper soldiers anxious to get a-straddle of the great strike-conducting war-horse of I. W. W.'ism and ride into "the dictatorship of the proletariat." This is thus dealt with:

"There is a large element in this country who want a radical change
if not a revolution. This element would like to see the change made
to suit them with the smallest possible cost to themselves.

"The most insistent agitators belong to the upper-class radicals,
and their object seems to be to stir the working masses into some
sort of revolutionary activity, not clearly defined. It seems they
built great hopes on the participation of the I. W. W. They know we
are a compact mass of industrial workers, able to manipulate such
great affairs as the general strikes in Seattle and Butte, the
strike of the silk workers, the strike on the Mesaba Range, and so
on, and we are just what they need for their purpose.

"For this reason we have met with an unusual amount of courtesy and
consideration of late, but we are sorry to say that we do not
consider it disinterested. If these revolutionists were sincere in
their friendship for us, they would throw everything aside and help
us build up industrial unionism, but that is exactly what they are
not doing to any considerable extent. Their activities are directed
on aims that are strange and foreign to us. Some of their adherents
in overalls are getting into our ranks because they work in the
industries we have organized or because our recruiting unions are
open to them, and their activity is frequently annoying to us, as
it has little or nothing to do with the industrial organization of
the workers."

The same issue contains an article by a Left Winger, I. E. Ferguson, a "Little Corporal" ready to step to the front of I. W. W.'ism and lead it to glory. He complains:

"The attempt to 'hog the market' of propagandizing the Russian
Revolution in the United States for the I. W. W. is leading to
excesses which ought to be checked right now, else these excesses
will accomplish injury to the American Socialist movement. This
does not mean to repudiate the claims of the I. W. W. to any
extent, but to controvert the negative proposition that all of the
American revolutionary socialist movement is and necessarily must
be within the folds of the I. W. W....

"The I. W. W. is the livest thing in the American Socialist
movement, therefore, truly, the Greatest Thing On Earth for the
American working class. But ... when the same organization carries
on the business of unionism and the business of revolution at the
same time, it is more than likely, when it becomes overburdened, to
throw overboard the more remote job in favor of the more immediate
one. Revolution is a political proposition, or, if you please,
anti-political. Its direct task is the overthrow of the capitalist
state, the bulwark of capitalist industrialism. There is no
question in the world but that the I. W. W. form of labor
organization is the most powerful possible weapon for the overthrow
of the capitalist state, because of its adaptability to great mass
protests and mass movements of the proletariat. But only an
organization with the sole aim of revolution can take the
responsibility for leadership in this fight."

Granting some truth in the above argument, it is not probable that a great practical organization like the I. W. W., which _does_ things, and very rough things, will invite theorists, non-working drones, to come in and take charge of it. Nor is it willing to be borrowed, and diverted into an engine to run toy revolutions. This is the substance of the reply to Ferguson made by Harold Lord Varney in the same magazine. We quote its pith:

"Like the Left Wingers of the Socialist Party; like the editors and
the writers of the Revolutionary Age and the Class Struggle; like
the Eastmans, the Nearings and the Frainas of our American
movement, my critic is obsessed with Russia. To him, the
Bolshevists and their mass action revolutions are like dazzling,
fiery suns which blind and obscure all rivals....

"As proletarians, I. W. W.'s rejoiced at the Lenine triumph. As
proletarians, we have unwaveringly supported the Bolshevist regime
in all our propaganda. Those of our members who happened to be in
Russia when the October Revolution came (and there were thousands
of them) were all found in the Bolshevist army. Bill Shatoff,
Volodarsky, Martoff, Kornuk and others who have been leaders in the
Bolshevist army were all old members of the I. W. W. In brief,
then, were we in Russia, all I. W. W.'s would be Bolsheviki. But
from this it does not necessarily follow that in America the I. W.
W. must turn Bolshevist also....

"Mr. Ferguson's proposition is that after all these years of
struggle we should now discard this One Big Union goal and unite
with political Socialists to create an American Bolsheviki. And in
that proposal he demonstrates the impractical artlessness of the
Left Winger. The I. W. W. is a Socialist who is a materialist. The
Left Winger is a Socialist who is an ideologist. The I. W. W. seeks
for verities and for concrete, ponderable power. The Left Winger
follows the intoxicating dreams of his own imagination....

"Of course, the I. W. W. wants unity. But we will have no unity
with any who are not willing to accept the proletarian conception
of Socialism. We will have no unity with any who do not belong to
our class. And we will have no unity with any who flinch at the
'radicalism' of our program....

"The I. W. W. is not anti-political. Its members are free to be
members of the Socialist Party and thousands of us, the writer
included, do carry Socialist cards....

"The social revolution is not a thing of theories. It is merely the
final act of working-class organization. It is the historic mission
of the working class to mount to supreme power. They do this, not
by debating nor by marching in the street; they do this by the slow
process of organization. In their union halls, the workers learn
class consciousness. In their union halls, the workers learn
self-government. In their union halls, the workers are disciplined
and solidified for the 'final conflict.' Every strike is a
revolution in miniature. Every gain which organized workers make,
by a conscious act of their own, weakens capitalism and is
revolutionary. In short, the union movement is the schoolhouse of
the new society....

"Mr. Ferguson is not correct in asserting that the I. W. W. does
not have 'the sole aim of revolution.' In our Preamble, he will
find the boldest revolutionary utterance which has ever been
penned.... Even were we silent in revolutionary words, our very
form of organization and mode of action stamp us as revolutionists.
We are organized against capital. We are an army that is ever
battling....

"The real I. W. W. is not to be read in books of the intellectuals.
It does not flash in phrases. It is written in the hearts of strong
silent men. It can be read in the ineffable tales of anguish which
ring from the prisons of the land. It can be read in the tragic
sacrifices of the Littles, the Joe Hills, the Barans, the Looneys,
the Jonsons, the Rabinowitzes, the Gerlots, the Jack Whytes whom
destiny has claimed from among us. Its chapters have been penned,
not with words, but with the living dramas of Spokane and San
Diego, Lawrence and Paterson, McKee's Rocks, Everett and Mesaba
Range."

This is indeed the spirit of the most dangerous organization of devoted fanatics in the world today, and if our present order of society hopes to survive its steady, unrelenting assault, it must take into its hands the weapons of truth and justice.

We have given these quotations to show clearly both the difference and the bond of union between the I. W. W.'s and the other brands of Socialists. A Left Winger sums it up concisely ("The Communist," August 23, 1919): "The syndicalist and the Socialist have this in common: That they both strive for the reduction of the state to zero and the 'building of a new society within the shell of the old.' The fundamental difference between the two is that the syndicalist naively strives to build the new society while the capitalist class controls the coercive power, and the Socialist aims to destroy that power first and then begin the 'building' process."

But I. W. W.'ism is the more logical, and, in conditions like those in the United States, much the more dangerous, because it is _revolution going on_ every day of the year, holding what it gets, be it much or little. Moreover, since I. W. W.'ism will not give up its position, Socialism in America has adopted the industrial unionism creed. This now is the backbone of all the recent Socialist platforms, including that of the Socialist Party of America. Even with the Left Winger's buoyant faith in a speedy overturn of the United States, he now sees that the One Big Union is the necessary steam-roller to accomplish it, and for months he has been at work, "boring from within," to get the forces of American labor industrially organized for revolutionary action. In short, there has been a general following of the advice which "Truth," Left Wing organ in the Northwest, gave in its issue of May 23, 1919, as its answer to the above-quoted challenge of Varney to Ferguson:

"The Left Wing represents the revolutionary portion of the
Socialist Party in opposition to the opportunism of the Right Wing.
Therefore we must, in order to make the Socialist Party a
revolutionary expression of the working class, join hands with the
Left Wing....

"The I. W. W. represents the revolutionary section of the working
class in opposition to the opportunism of Gompers et al. Therefore
we must, in order to make working class organizations
revolutionary, join hands with the I. W. W.

"The resolutions and the manifestoes of the Left Wing are
revolutionary expressions. But action counts for more than words.
If all Left Wingers are sincere they will join in the I. W. W. and
endeavor to make the I. W. W. the dominant working-class
organization throughout the country. The times demand that we must
make ready to enforce our demands. No pious resolutions will bring
us freedom. Only POWER through organization on the job will bring
us freedom. True it is that we have to resort to mass action. But
the basis of our mass action must be organization on the job. The
I. W. W. represents the highest form of industrial organization and
therefore merits our support. So we trust that ALL Left Wingers
will join with the I. W. W. This is not the time to indulge in
hair-splitting. If you are enraptured by what has taken place in
Russia, do your share here in America."

This appeared in May, 1919. Six months later we open the December, 1919, "One Big Union Monthly" and read:

"We need hardly repeat the now well known facts that the workers of
western Canada and of Australia have in mass adopted our principles
in the course of this year. Close upon these significant events
came the news that the three fragments into which the Socialist
Party was split endorsed industrial unionism, while two of them
rather outspokenly favored the I. W. W.

"Later we were able to state that the increase in our own
membership in the course of the 12 months, September 1, 1918, to
September 1, 1919, was about 50,000. Now we are able to inform our
readers that the growth of the last three months has been
unprecedented. Lumber workers, miners, construction workers, marine
transport workers and many other unions report many thousands of
new members. We are getting a footing in fields that we have never
been able to touch before, such as the printing industry and
building construction. Carpenters and painters are joining us by
the thousand. On November 9th delegates of eight independent unions
in different industries, representing something like 250,000
workers, met in New York City and took the first steps for an
affiliation with the I. W. W.--in spite of jails and persecution.
And let us not forget that the Negro workers of the U. S. are
organizing on the basis of our program.

"But the influence of our principles is not limited to the
English-speaking people in America and Australia. Other races and
countries are enthusiastically taking up our program and proudly
announcing that they are with the I. W. W. Thus in Mexico our
movement has taken form and been laid out on a national basis. In
South America, where the labor movement always has been in
sympathy with us, the workers are going one step further and have
started organizing as an I. W. W. In Buenos Ayres there is already
an organization of 2,800 marine transport workers in such an
organization.

"Furthermore it is to be noted that practically all the old trade
unions on this continent prove to be honey-combed with friends of
the I. W. W.

"Over in Europe it is the same story. The rebuilding of production
and distribution in Russia is said to be largely based on our
principles. At last report there were about 3,500,000 industrial
workers organized in industrial unions for the carrying on of
production and distribution. The Russian people are taking
possession of the industries through their industrial unions.

"In Italy 'The Italian Syndicalist Union,' 300,000 strong, is
forging ahead along the same lines as the I. W. W. In Spain our
adherents are to be numbered by the hundreds of thousands. In
France the proposition has recently been made in the organ of the
Communist Party, 'L'Internationale Communiste,' to start
reorganizing the French working class on our program, in opposition
to the C. G. T. [Confédération Générale du Travail, or French
Confederation of Labor]. In England there is a separate
organization of the I. W. W. that is advancing rapidly, while the
influence on the old trade unions is very noticeable in their
changed attitude of late toward 'direct action.' ...

"But the biggest surprise of the year we received from Germany. At
least two separate calls have been issued by the German workers to
organize exactly as the I. W. W. The recently formed 'Freie
Arbeiter Union' is also a federation of industrial unions that
endorse our principles. And, finally, from distant, unknown Greece
we are receiving news that the One Big Union is the aim of all the
organized workers of that country."

Several very important facts have been proven in this and the preceding chapter: first, that the Industrial Workers of the World is a revolutionary organization in the strictest sense and has for its object the overthrow of the United States Government; secondly, that, like the Socialist Party, it is constantly seeking to stir up trouble whenever it can do so; thirdly, that it respects neither morality nor the law and appeals to the basest passions in man; and, finally, that all sections of the Socialist Party are on the strictest terms of friendship with it and are giving it full support.