THE STRUCTURE OF A MILITANT UNION
With its "house-cleaning" job off its hands, the convention now
turned its attention to some of the specific problems of policy and
constructive work. The activities of the past fourteen months had
brought new and challenging questions to the fore. One of the most
important was the problem of the agricultural laborer. Attention
centered upon the farm laborers and the lumber workers. Most of the
industrialists agreed that the coöperation of the country workers--farm
laborers and lumbermen--and the city proletariat was absolutely
necessary for the success of revolutionary industrialism.
The agricultural elements of the working class [said one of the
delegates at the second convention] are going to be the last
and hardest to be organized into this economic organization,
and ... while we may have the wage slaves of the industrial
centers organized, when the crisis comes we will find [them]
... in an economic organization and bucking against a
combination of capitalists and agriculturists, and when that
time comes we will of necessity have to exercise our political
rights and overthrow that opposition.[262]
The I. W. W. had already made some headway among the lumber workers,
and it was in connection with this element that many believed it most
feasible to organize the farm laborers. Secretary Trautmann devoted two
solid pages of his report to the discussion of the relation of the
farm and forest workers with the city proletariat. He believed that
the failure of revolutionary movements was often due to the lack of
coöperation between these sections of the working class. He urged the
organization to follow among the farm laborers those methods which had
already been applied with some success in the lumber camps.
For this work of organizing the farm laborers [he said] we
must look for actual support to the thousands and hundreds
of thousands of wage-earners in the lumber camps of the
United States and Canada. No element is so faithful to the
principle, when once understood, as the hard-working pioneer
proletarians in the woods, nor a group of toilers who will
fight more vigorously ... than those who ... call themselves
"lumberjacks." Their relation with the farm laborers and the
... [seasonal] character of their employment should serve as
the key to open the field for the organizing of the farm wage
slaves. In the summer months most of the lumbermen work as farm
hands or in the saw-mills, and many a blacklisted mechanic from
industrial centers seeks as a last refuge from the master's
persecution employment as constantly shifting farm laborer and
lumberman. The Industrial Workers of the World have organized
and are organizing with astonishing success the lumbermen in
different parts of the country.... But ... their condition will
be jeopardized if the I. W. W. fails to organize the workers
in the fields in which they seek and secure employment during
the remainder of the year, that is mostly in agricultural
occupations, ... [and] ... to assure a successful protection of
farm laborers and lumbermen, it is absolutely necessary to get
the organizations so organized into direct touch through the
general administration of the I. W. W. with the organizations
of the Industrial Workers in the cities.[263]
An important change in the geographical distribution of propaganda and
organizing activities was that suggested to the convention by President
Sherman. He thought that these activities of the Industrial Workers of
the World should not be immediately spread indiscriminately over all
parts of the country, believing it to be most expedient to allow the
eastern section of the United States to lie fallow for a time, so to
speak. He recommended that
the greater part of the money expended for paid organizers be
devoted to the western States for the next six months, for the
following reasons: West of the Missouri River the industrial
conditions are in a far better state ... than they are in
the eastern States and organizing can be done there without
endangering turmoil in the way of lockouts and strikes.... We
must get a substantial organization in the West ... before we
will be prepared to make a general campaign in the East, as
in the eastern States the workers in many of the industries
are so poorly paid that a strike or lockout means starvation
if finance is not forthcoming.... Hence I feel the necessity
of first fortifying ourselves with a good Western membership
before exposing the organization to a general assault by the
employers of the East.[264]
This proposal was, however, not very favorably received by the
convention. The committee on reports of officers made, among others,
this recommendation, which received the endorsement of the convention:
We disagree with our President regarding organizing in the West
in preference to the East.... The committee believes that [the
fact] that conditions in the East are deplorable is the very
reason why organizing work is necessary in the East, that the
standard of living may be improved, thus accomplishing a more
uniform standard of working-class solidarity.[265]
The average member of the Industrial Workers of the World was
exceedingly sceptical of the value of undiluted representative
democracy for either a labor union or a political state. He suspected
that any official might, and probably would, be disloyal. He
realized how difficult it is for any organization which depends on
representatives to maintain a body of such representatives who really
represent. He knew how easy it is for a delegate to be "reached"--to
be influenced by one of a score of insidious forms of corruption. This
accounts for the stress laid by the Industrial Workers of the World
upon the referendum idea, from the very beginning of its existence. Let
the acts of delegates in convention be ratified by referendum vote.
The convention is the law-making body, but it is always subject to
the will of rank and file. All factions, even that one which plotted
disruption, united in lip service, at least, to the idea of the
referendum. Labor-union democracy must be made democratic by referendum
control. How much of all this referendum clamor was "sounding brass" is
indicated by some remarks made by Mr. DeLeon (who, of course, believed
in the referendum) at the second convention:
I think it is positively comical [he said] to see men who
stand convicted before this convention of having trampled on
the principles of this constitution ... who have refused the
referendum, men who suspended locals because they did not
submit to the men who lined up with those elements; I think it
is positively comical to have such elements come before this
convention and bow down to the referendum and salaam and kowtow
to the rank and file, or start off screeching like howling
dervishes--"referendum"![266]
The convention had to face the important fact that a very large
proportion of the human raw-material for I. W. W. propaganda were
foreigners, new to America and speaking alien tongues. From the very
first a very liberal policy in regard to the foreign element had
been adopted by the Industrial Workers of the World. Certainly they
could not consistently adopt a narrow policy here and draw the color
line it they intended really to become an all-inclusive democratic
organization. It will be remembered that protest against discrimination
against the negro by craft unions was voiced by William D. Haywood at
the very opening of the first convention.[267] At the second convention
this liberal attitude was maintained in regard to all foreign elements.
Moreover, in the work of organizing the immigrants it was proposed to
go still further and take the aggressive.
This convention [said Secretary Trautmann] should instruct
the incoming Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the
World to immediately find the necessary agencies in Europe,
so that immigrants to this country, before leaving, will be
already furnished with all the information necessary, and be
enlightened as to the real conditions in the United States,
and an appeal should be made to them to immediately join the
existing organizations of the Industrial Workers of the World
immediately after they accept employment in any industry. The
literature of the Industrial Workers of the World should be
distributed in different languages in the various emigration
ports in Europe, and central bureaus be established by the
Industrial Workers of the World in American harbors, and be
opened to the immigrants, and information should be furnished
them [as to] how they could ... participate in the struggles of
organized labor....[268]
Requests were made at the convention for literature in many foreign
languages--Macedonian, Jewish, Italian, Slavonian, Spanish, etc.--on
behalf of these and others. Foreign-language publications and pamphlets
were issued and foreign-language branches of the local unions had been
established and continued to be extended in scope after the second
convention. The Italian Socialist Federation asked for the services
of an Italian organizer, and one was provided. An Italian paper,
_Il Proletario_, had been appearing for a short time as an official
organ of the Industrial Workers of the World, and its publication was
continued under the supervision of the General Executive Board.[269]
Furthermore, the structure and scheme of organization in the local
unions was modified to suit the requirements of a polyglot membership.
A motion was proposed and carried
to allow wage-earners of a given nationality to form unions
of their own in the respective industries in which they are
employed and where there are not enough to form unions of that
kind, the parent unions shall allow the [non-English-speaking]
members ... to have branch meetings for educational
purposes.[270]
It is worthy of note that sex lines were ignored quite as completely as
race lines. Perhaps the organization leaned backwards a little in the
policy of special inducements to women and "juniors"--indicated in the
resolution carried "to remit for female members, ten cents per member
per month to the union, the same to apply to juniors."[271]
The character of the unit group--the local union--as being preëminently
industrial in nature, was emphatically reaffirmed and more fully
defined than ever before.
... the smallest unit of an industrial union [says Secretary
Trautmann] comprises the employees in one industrial plant,
whether large or small. Likewise should all the employees
of industrial corporations, no matter where ... employed,
be members in that respective department of wage-earners,
if already organized. Taking for illustration the Mining
Department, it should embrace within its folds not only the
metalliferous, the coal and the salt miners, all the employees
in the oil and gas fields, and the various plants connected
with that industry, but also the employees in oil and gas
refineries, the teamsters and distributors of oil, and any
other mining products in the large or small industrial centers.
They should belong to the same department in which the workers
in the mines, or in the oil fields, are organized.[272]
There was some agitation in New York City in the summer of 1906 to
organize that section on a basis of one local union to each industry,
with each local divided into sub-branches as the needs and extent
of its constituency might require. These latter sub-branches were,
moreover, to have no direct connection with the General Organization.
This plan was opposed at the convention. It was in conflict with the
policy of centralization which characterized the earlier stages of I.
W. W. development. It was emphatically condemned by President Sherman
as a violation of the constitution. He asserted that it centered the
"power of the whole industry in the hands of the members of one local
union."[273]
Centralization was wanted--but it was _national_ (or international)
centralization, not district centralization. A provision had been made
the year before for what were called "mixed locals" which were to
include workers in various industries, but only so to include them
temporarily; it being understood that so soon as a sufficient number
of the workers in any particular industry came into the locality to
warrant their organization into a union that all members of the mixed
local who belonged to that industry should immediately withdraw from
the "mixed" and join the "pure" industrial union. It was, of course,
assumed that no one should join a mixed local or remain in a mixed
local when a union of his industry existed in that locality. The
privilege of membership in the mixed locals had already been very much
abused. In numerous instances it was found that members continued as
members of the mixed local, even after their particular industrial
union had been organized, or even maintained membership in both the
mixed and the industrial body at the same time. This double membership
was not only of no value--it was usually positively disastrous. It
made confusion and brought on factional fights between "mixed" and
industrial bodies,[274] and resulted in a double, and consequently
inflated, membership representation at the annual conventions. After an
extended discussion of the seemingly unmixed evils of mixed "locals,"
the convention passed a resolution defining their functions. "The mixed
local," runs the resolution, "is not to be a permanent institution
in the I. W. W. It is merely the propaganda [body] that will build
up an industrial union for the future. It is a recruiting station
[only]."[275]
Important subdivisions of the organization were the Industrial
Councils. These had been constitutionally defined as "central bodies
composed of seven or more local unions in two or more industries."[276]
Such central bodies had been organized during the first year in New
York, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Paterson, N. J., and Flat River,
Mo., and were, according to Secretary Trautmann, "in process of
formation in Cleveland, Seattle, and Toronto, Canada."[277] Steps had
also been taken toward the formation of the Arizona (state) District
Industrial Council. These bodies had a definite future rôle as well as
an immediate function mapped out for them. Here is given some little
conception of the anticipated _modus operandi_ of one part of the
coöperative machinery of a future industrial society--of which the
Industrial Workers of the World is proposing to be the framework. The
work of the industrial councils, present and future, is explained by
Wm. E. Trautmann as follows:
If it is the final object of the Industrial Workers of
the World to prepare the government for the coöperative
commonwealth, then likewise should provisions be made to
organize the agency, through which the administration of
cities and rural districts [can] be conducted. The Industrial
Council should, therefore, be organized for that purpose, and
the territory to be covered by such organization should be
determined by the central administration.... While the future
functions of such councils will consist in the administration
of the industries by the chosen representatives of the various
industrial unions, their present-day duties should be to
direct the propaganda, the organizing work, the education
through central agencies, the direction of strikes, and other
means of warfare between the workers and the shirkers, and
the supervision of organizers; in fact, all such functions as
will yield better results, if carried out by a collective
direction, should come within the jurisdiction sphere of such
councils.[278]
The original constitution had provided for thirteen international
industrial departments, which could be organized in any industry so
soon as it contained ten locals with a membership of not less than
3,000 members.[279] The reaction against the departmental idea at the
second convention was sufficiently strong to carry an amendment to
the constitution making the prerequisite to departmental organization
in any industry "ten locals with a membership of not less than 10,000
members." This change was partly the result of a general feeling that
the departmental system was not as practicable as had been at first
believed. Moreover, it was believed that, so long as departments could
be organized on the basis of a membership of only 3,000, departmental
autonomy would be an absolute farce, and simply resolve itself into
local union or locality domination. The defenders of the departmental
idea rightly insisted that that idea be given a fair chance to work
itself out. Another group--industrial unionists who laid great stress
on the local industrial union as _the_ division which should first
of all be possessed of complete autonomy--felt that this change
was a change in their favor in so far as it made the attainment of
the departmental status more difficult and the existing number of
departments actually less. The departments, thought DeLeon,
must be in the nature of the states of the United States and
... there should be no less and no more autonomy, and for the
same reason that this government of the United States is not
a government of the states but a government of the people,
for the same reason the government of this I. W. W. is not a
government of departments, it is a government of the rank and
file.[280]
The Universal Label, provided for in Article IV., Section 10, of the
original constitution, had not given entire satisfaction. In fact,
a number of the delegates wished to abolish the label altogether.
This demand grew out of the misuse of the label itself. Many locals
suffered it to get into the hands of employers, others coöperated with
their employers in its use. Now coöperation with employers in any way
whatever is in absolute violation of the spirit and letter of the I. W.
W. law. Hence the label was looked upon by many as something of a very
compromising nature. It came near being entirely abolished, but finally
it was decided that the label be retained, but used only in strict
accord with the provisions of "Resolution A," which reveals the rôle of
the red (revolutionary) label as opposed to that of the orthodox ("pure
and simple") trade-union label. The resolution reads:
Whereas, the universal label of our union has been productive
of both good results, such as the general advertising of
our name and the graphic presentation of the unity and
comprehensive character of the I. W. W. to the minds of the
proletariat; and of evil results, such as the advertising
of merchandise, the fostering of a tendency towards the
coöperation of the classes, the general confusion of the minds
of working men in regard to the nature of the class struggle,
and in its failure to explain its own significance as to just
what or how much of the work on a product was done by I. W. W.
men; and,
Whereas, It should be our endeavor to retain every weapon that
is efficient for the proletariat and against the capitalists;
be it, therefore,
Resolved, That, in an endeavor to eliminate the evils and
continue the good effects of our first year's experiment, we
retain the universal label; and be it
Resolved, That the use of the universal label shall never be
delegated to employers, but shall be vested entirely in our
organization; and be it further
Resolved, That except on stickers, circulars and literature
presenting the merits of the I. W. W., and emanating from the
general offices of the I. W. W., the universal label shall be
retained only as evidence of work done by I. W. W. men; and be
it further
Resolved, That when the label is so printed, it shall be done
by the authority of our union without the intervention of any
employer; and be it further
Resolved, That when our universal label is placed upon a
commodity as evidence of work done by our men, it shall be
accompanied by an inscription underneath the label stating
what the work is that our men have done, giving the name of
the industrial department to which they belong and the number
or numbers of their local unions, and that the universal label
shall never be printed as evidence of work performed without
this inscription; and be it further
Resolved, That the universal label shall be of a uniform
crimson color and always the same in design.[281]
It has been stated that experience with, and the deposition of,
President Sherman resulted in the abolition of the office of General
President. No doubt the Sherman controversy was the principal
predisposing cause, but it is very probable that there would have been
some agitation for the abolition of that office even if there had
not been a single charge against Sherman as President. A good many
were a little shy of the name "President"--it savored of the present
political state! Others thought it involved too great concentration of
power in the hands of one individual. These latter were the sponsors
of the "rank and file" and the forerunners of those who later figured
as "decentralizers" in the controversy concerning centralization in
the Industrial Workers of the World.[282] "The people who direct the
Industrial Workers of the World," said Delegate Reid, "are the rank
and file.... In a multitude of counsellors there is wisdom, and wisdom
is not in the brain of one man to direct this institution."[283]
Furthermore, as DeLeon pointed out, "the President is mainly,
essentially and exclusively an organizer, a general organizer with
a high-sounding title and wages and expenses to match...."[284] The
committee appointed to report on the advisability of retaining the
office of President reported that it came to its negative conclusion
"on the assumption that there was not a man in this convention strong
enough or capable enough to assume the office of President."[285]
The efforts of the industrial abolitionists did not end with the
attempt to abolish the departments and the universal label, and the
successful abolition of the office of General President. Many less
important matters were put under the ban. It was decreed that "all
rituals, signs, grips and passwords, borrowed from pure and simpledom,
be abolished," and that the use of all terms of salutation of the
more orthodox sort, such as "brother" and "comrade" be abolished
and the term "fellow-worker" be used on all occasions.[286] Of more
material consequence to those concerned was the reduction made in
the salaries of the national officers. The salaries of the General
Secretary-Treasurer (now the national head of the organization), and
Assistant General Secretary-Treasurer were reduced from one hundred
and twenty-five dollars per month, to one hundred dollars.[287] The
committee making the recommendation felt that former salary was a sum
of absurdly bourgeois magnitude!
The question of political action[288] was thoroughly ventilated once
more. The more revolutionary group of industrialists renewed their
fight to have the clause "until all the toilers come together on the
political as well as the industrial field" cleansed from the taint of
politics by the striking out of the words "political as well as." The
motion involving this change was emphatically opposed by the spokesman
of the Socialist Labor party faction. Daniel DeLeon and Hermann
Richter both spoke against the motion. Mr. Richter, later the General
Secretary-Treasurer of the Detroit (S. L. P.) faction of the Industrial
Workers of the World, believed that "if a man takes the obligation as
a member of this organization there is a duty upon that member to be
active at all times, and especially on election day, in behalf of his
class and of himself as a member thereof."[289]
Neither side was wholly successful. By way of compromise it was
finally agreed that the clause containing the rather distasteful word
"political" should stand unaltered, but that an additional clause
should be appended at the end of the Preamble. This new clause reads:
"Therefore, without endorsing or desiring the endorsement of any
political party, we unite under the following constitution."[290]
Political action was still recognized and no less emphatically endorsed
than before,[291] but all political activities would now be subject to
very definite constitutional restrictions as to the relations between
the Industrial Workers of the World and the political parties.
It would seem that, if politics was to be discounted in the preamble,
the discussion of that subject in the local union should surely be
subject to restriction if not absolute taboo. This was President
Sherman's attitude. He thought
that literature bearing on any complexion of a political nature
should be barred from any economic industrial meeting, and
that all organizers [of] ... the Industrial Workers of the
World shall enforce such principles.... Your president does not
hesitate to say that, in his belief, if the Industrial Workers
of the World is not kept clear from all political agitation
for the next few years to come ... it will be impossible to
build up an industrial organization....[292]
The convention did not agree with him. No doubt this was partly due
to the fact that the majority of the delegates could not persuade
themselves to tolerate any suggestion (be it ever so wise a one)
made by President Sherman. Moreover, it must have been realized that
such a prohibition of political literature or political discussion
could really never be enforced; that on the contrary it would even
_stimulate_ such discussion. However this may be, the committee on good
and welfare submitted under this head the recommendation that "in local
unions at least ten minutes be given to the discussion of economic and
political questions at each meeting." This resolution was endorsed by
the convention.[293]
The famous Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone case occupied much of the
attention of the second convention. At the time of the convention these
three men (of whom the two former were members and officers of the
Western Federation of Miners--then the Mining Department of the I. W.
W.) were imprisoned in the Ada County jail at Boise, Idaho, charged
with the murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg of that state. This great
labor case, culminating in 1907 in the trial and acquittal of the three
men, makes up one of the most interesting and dramatic chapters in the
annals of the labor movement. It was an event which deeply concerned
the Industrial Workers of the World, and was a really potent factor
in shaping the subsequent history of that organization. The story of
the judicial deportation of these three men had of course become
known to the world long before the 1906 convention of the I. W. W.,
but none the less a brief recital of the event and the part taken by
the I. W. W. therein was incorporated in President Sherman's report
to the convention. Some excerpts from this report are here quoted. It
should be remembered that, at the time of the deportation and trial of
these officials of the Western Federation of Miners, that organization
was a part of the Industrial Workers of the World, and that (with the
exception of Pettibone) these men were, at least formally, I. W. W.
men, though they were referred to almost constantly as officials of the
Western Federation of Miners.
It pains me to report [said President Sherman] that on
Saturday evening, February 17th,[294] Brother Charles H.
Moyer, President of the Department of Mining; Brother William
D. Haywood, Secretary of the Department of Mining; and Geo.
A. Pettibone, ex-member of the Western Federation of Miners,
were kidnapped by officers of the state of Idaho and, on the
same date, at 11:30 o'clock P. M., were forcibly placed on a
special train and taken from the state of Colorado and placed
in jail in the state of Idaho, charged with murder. This was
done without giving the accused brothers an opportunity for a
defense or hearing. They were arrested at night and were given
no opportunity to notify their families, friends or legal
advisers of their condition.[295]
The Industrial Workers of the World was among the first to come to the
defense of the indicted men. The General Office in Chicago immediately
sent out thousands of circular letters throughout the country asking
for contributions; large amounts were turned over to the Special
Defense Fund from the General Defense Fund of the I. W.
W., and finally a total of $10,982.51 was raised. This, labor's common
extremity, did actually, though but temporarily, achieve that miracle
(to appear later in San Diego and Lawrence) of I. W. W.'s, Socialists,
Socialist Laborites, Anarchists, and "Pure and Simplers,"[296]
even, coöperating in a common activity. The I. W. W. was the first
to organize protest meetings, and secured the services of Clarence
S. Darrow for the legal defense. The slogan "Shall our brothers be
murdered?" was reiterated on every hand and made the watchword of the
defense.
The situation was still a desperate one at the time of the 1906
convention. The men were still held in jail awaiting trial. It seems to
have been the general belief that they were to be "railroaded" to the
penitentiary or the gallows, and the conduct of the prosecution as well
as the postponement of the trial, all tended to strengthen that belief.
The delegates at the convention decided to turn fifty per cent of the
per-capita tax of the Mining Department into the Moyer-Haywood Defense
Fund. Some of the delegates undoubtedly exaggerated the influence of
the I. W. W. in the Moyer-Haywood affair. Thus William E. Trautmann
asserted on the floor of the convention that
Money and the best legal talent would not have been able to
save the lives of Charles H. Moyer, William D. Haywood, Geo. A.
Pettibone and Vincent St. John;[297] their dead bodies would
... bear testimony to the outrages perpetrated by the class
controlling the resources of this land, and all institutions of
oppression, were it not for the vigilance of the few.... men
of the I. W. W., who, facing all the calumnies of the public
press ... threw their lives into the scale in order to raise
the issue. We must prevent the judicial murder.[298]
The jailing of Haywood, especially, one of the most aggressive and
influential organizers of the I. W. W., deeply affected the members
of that body and really subtracted much from their strength. It was
generally felt among laboring men and women that Moyer and Haywood
were jailed because they were members of the Industrial Workers of the
World, or because they were Socialists. A letter written by Haywood
in the Ada County jail on the day that the second convention opened
in Chicago indicates the active interest he continued to take in the
organization even during his imprisonment. It is here given in part:
ADA COUNTY JAIL,
BOISE, IDAHO, SEPT. 17, 1906.
TO THE OFFICERS AND DELEGATES OF THE SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION
OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD.
_Comrades and Fellow Workers_:
While you have been in convention today, I have devoted the
hours to a careful review of the proceedings of the initial
convention of the I. W. W. and of the conference that issued
the Manifesto leading up to the formation of the organization
which has ... rekindled the smouldering fire of ambition and
hope in the breasts of the working class of this continent....
[Quoting here from his own letter to the fourteenth convention
of the Western Federation of Miners] organized industrially,
united politically, labor will assume grace and dignity, horny
hand and busy brain will be the badge of distinction and honor,
all humanity will be free from bondage, a fraternal brotherhood
imbued with the spirit of independence and freedom, tempered
with the sentiment of justice and love of order; such will be
... the goal [and] aspiration of the Industrial Workers of the
World.[299]
The message was received with boundless enthusiasm. It stimulated all
to more determined efforts in behalf of the accused. It doubtless
had some share in influencing the minds of that group amongst the
delegates, who were inclined to favor the general-strike idea. At any
rate, they now urged that that idea be applied in the Moyer, Haywood
and Pettibone case. They succeeded in having this resolution presented
to the convention:
Resolved, That it is the sense of this convention that in the
event of a new delay in the trial of our brothers, Moyer,
Haywood, and Pettibone, or in the event of an unjust sentence
in their case, the national headquarters of the I. W. W. shall
immediately proceed to call a general strike and use every
possible means and all the funds at its command in order to
warrant the working class to resist and overcome the violence
of the masters.[300]
A resolution of this sort would, if it had been presented under similar
circumstances, to, say, the 1914 convention of the Industrial Workers
of the World, very probably be quite unanimously endorsed, but the
I. W. W. of 1906 rejected the proposal. This does not mean that the
general-strike principle had not taken root in the I. W. W. at all.
It had. Witness the following excerpt from the recommendation of the
Committee on the Reports of Officers:
We disagree with our President regarding the general strike
and contend that a general lockout of the capitalist class is
the method by which ... to emancipate our class. We believe
that the general strike be employed temporarily, as a means
to wring concessions from the capitalist class from time to
time. The committee believes that a protracted general strike
would be no less than an insane act on the part of the working
class.[301]
Although the Moyer-Haywood trial and the final acquittal[302] of
the accused men made the I. W. W. somewhat more commonly known and
understood among the working class throughout the country, it was on
the whole nothing less than a calamity for that organization. The I.
W. W. did not even get publicity out of the Moyer-Haywood case. The
Western Federation got all the advertising. It was a well-established
labor organization with an eventful--almost a lurid--history. Its early
activities were more or less related to the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone
affair and the general public very naturally thought of the Western
Federation when they thought of the Haywood deportation. The I. W.
W. was not popularly associated with the Boise trial at all. The
organization was obliged almost completely to suspend its vital work
of organizing to raise funds for the defense. But this was not the
most serious result. The Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone deportation was
unquestionably one of the causes operating to split off the Western
Federation of Miners. The imprisonment of Haywood certainty weakened
that element in the Western Federation which backed the I. W. W.
and strengthened the hands of those who were opposed to continued
incorporation with it. This, combined with the deposition of President
Sherman, which yet further weakened the forces of the Miners who
supported the I. W. W., finally gave the I. W. W. knockers in the
Western Federation the upper hand. The result was, first a decision by
referendum vote of the Western Federation of Miners not to pay dues
to either the Shermanite or the anti-Shermanite factions in the I. W.
W., and second, the formal withdrawal of the Mining Department and the
reëstablishment of an independent Western Federation of Miners in the
summer of 1907.[303]
Several other matters of relatively lesser import were given some
attention. Even the difficulty of jurisdictional conflict, the bugbear
of the craft union, was known and struggled with in a labor body
supposed to be jurisdiction-controversy proof. It was so ideally,
but the compromises it was obliged to make with the craft form of
union naturally made trouble. Slight changes were made in the system
of dues; the preamble and constitution were both somewhat improved
in diction and altered in a few other minor details, but they both
remained fundamentally as worked out in the first convention, except
for the abolition of the presidential office. The following officers
were elected for the succeeding year: William E. Trautmann (to succeed
himself as) General Secretary-Treasurer, and Messrs. Vincent St.
John, A. Maichele, T. J. Cole, C. E. Mahoney and E. Fischer, members
of the General Executive Board, and Mr. A. S. Edwards, Editor of the
_Industrial Union Bulletin_. It was decided that the conventions be
held the third Monday in September instead of the first Monday in May,
and in Chicago unless otherwise specified. The convention adjourned on
Oct. 3, 1906.
The prevalent opinion at the time, and since, among the craft-unionists
of the American Federation and among the party Socialists--in fact,
among all those whose radicalism is comparatively conservative--was
that this second convention marked the beginning of the end of the I.
W. W., or at least that the loss of the Mining Department (probably the
organization's most conservative element) was an almost irreparable
loss. "That the I. W. W. received its death blow at Chicago and will
gradually disintegrate" is a fact, according to Max Hayes, "that no
careful observer of labor affairs will attempt to dispute."[304] But
the I. W. W. continued to exist, and finally to do more than exist,
in spite of the upheaval of 1906. It is indeed doubtful if the losses
of that year were unmixed calamities. Though they did deprive the
organization of its most reputable, best financed, and most respectable
elements, their loss tended to give sharp definition and emphatic
impulse toward a more revolutionary policy. This policy was now to
be applied and tested among those forming the lower stratum of the
proletarian mass--the unskilled and migratory workers. This clear-cut
definition of policy and its point of application might never have
been possible if the complete working-class hierarchy--from lumberjack
to locomotive engineer--had been preserved. The I. W. W. became after
1906, and still more after 1908, an organization of the unskilled and
very conspicuously of the migratory and frequently jobless unskilled.
FOOTNOTES:
[262] _Proceedings_, p. 309.
[263] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), pp. 65-6.
[264] Report of the General President, _Proceedings, Second I. W. W.
Convention_ (1906), pp. 45-6.
[265] _Ibid._, p. 423.
[266] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 252.
[267] _Cf. supra_, p. 84. Also, _Proceedings, First I. W. W.
Convention_ (1905), p. 1
[268] Report of the Secretary-Treasurer, _Proceedings, Second I. W. W.
Convention_ (1906), p. 68. There was no action taken by the convention
on Trautmann's suggestion that European propaganda agencies be
established.
[269] _Bulletin of the Industrial Workers of the World, No. 4_, Dec, 1,
1906.
[270] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 110.
[271] _Ibid._
[272] Report of General Secretary-Treasurer, _Proceedings, Second I. W.
W. Convention_ (1906), p. 61.
[273] Report of the General President, _ibid._, p. 46.
[274] _Cf._, _e. g._, the case of the Tinners and Platers of
Youngstown, Ohio, as reported, by Delegate Lundy, _Proceedings, Second
I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 277.
[275] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 287. The
following clause was added to the constitution: "Mixed locals. No
member of a trade that is organized in his locality is qualified for
admission into a mixed local in the same locality, and no member of a
mixed local can remain a member of the same after his trade has been
organized in that locality." _Ibid._, p. 276. For the discussion of the
"mixed local" problem, _cf. ibid._, pp. 276-288.
[276] _I. W. W. Constitution_ (1905), art. i, sec. 2 (b), _cf. supra_,
p, 98.
[277] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 60.
[278] Report of the General Secretary-Treasurer, _Proceedings, Second
I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 62.
[279] _Constitution_ (1905), art. i, sec. 2 (a) and art. vii, sec. 4,
_cf. supra_, p. 96.
[280] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 330. Tridon
makes this statement concerning departmentalism in 1906: "This system
soon appeared impracticable and as the purely industrialist view was
beginning to dominate the membership, it was more and more definitely
recognized that the New Unionism should organize from below upward. In
other words, the local industrial union, not the department, was to
be the basis of organization." (_The New Unionism_, p. 100.) By 1917
the departments had practically vanished from the working structure
of the I. W. W. This is shown graphically in the chart diagram of the
organization's present structure in Appendix iii.
[281] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 463. In
September, 1906, the I. W. W. label had been registered in all but
three of the states of the Union. _Ibid._, p. 45.
[282] _Vide infra_, ch. xiii.
[283] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 231.
[284] _Ibid._, p. 225.
[285] _Ibid._ The amendment abolishing the presidential office was
adopted by a vote of 354-1/2 to 253, _ibid._, p. 246.
[286] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), pp. 567, 420.
[287] _Ibid._, p. 471.
[288] A recognition of a wider meaning in the term "political action"
is evidenced in Delegate Foote's statement that "Every action of every
individual in ... organized society is a political action, whether
it be as you say on the industrial [political] or on the economic
field.... The action of the Industrial Workers of the World as a
so-called economic organization is a political action in an organized
society." _Ibid._, p. 311.
[289] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 309.
[290] For discussion of the change in the preamble and on political
action in general, _cf. ibid._, pp. 305-313. The amended preamble
is printed in full in the _Proceedings_, p. 614, and in a pamphlet
entitled, _Industrial Workers of the World--Preamble and Constitution_,
published by the Detroit faction. _Cf._, also, appendix ii.
[291] Spargo to the contrary notwithstanding. He writes: "At the second
convention, September, 1906, the preamble was amended and all emphasis
on the need for political action omitted." _Syndicalism, Socialism and
Industrial Unionism_, p. 208.
[292] Report of the General President, _Proceedings, Second I. W. W.
Convention_ (1906), pp. 44-45.
[293] _Ibid._, p. 573.
[294] This should be the 19th.
[295] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 47.
[296] A term applied to members of and believers in what Samuel Gompers
has called the "pure and simple trade union"--the conventional type
of unionist who will have nothing to do with radicalism and accepts
implicitly the capitalistic régime.
[297] Vincent St. John, who had been organizing for the I. W. W in the
Coeur d'Alene district of Idaho, was arrested at about the same time.
[298] In his report to the convention, _Proceedings, Second I. W. W.
Convention_ (1906), pp. 70-1.
[299] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 41.
[300] _Ibid._, p. 411.
[301] _Proceedings, Second I. W. W. Convention_ (1906), p. 422.
[302] Haywood was acquitted July 28, 1907.
[303] _The Miners' Magazine_ continued to bear the I. W. W. label on
its title page until August 1, 1907. As explained elsewhere, the two
organizations were virtually divorced as early as January, 1907. _Cf.
supra_, p. 151.
[304] "The World of Labor," _International Socialist Review_, vol. vii,
pp. 31-2.