THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE
The third convention of the I. W. W. was in session in Chicago for
eight days beginning September 16, 1907. This was a much less turbulent
gathering than the one of the preceding year. DeLeon's chronicler says
that: "At the third convention of the I. W. W.... almost complete
harmony prevailed. The organization had so far recuperated from the
blow it had received the year before that several organizers were being
employed and many new locals had been formed."[305] He admits, however,
that there was some friction, explaining that the anarchistic element
"sounded the only note of discord." This, he says, was the "shadow cast
before by the pure and simple physical force craze that came into full
swing a year after."[306]
This, was a congress of the "proletarian rabble"--the DeLeon-St.
John-Trautmann faction. The Sherman faction was no longer in existence.
The DeLeonites looked upon the Shermanites as having been from the
first nothing more than "a bunch of grafting politicians and labor
fakirs." Leaders of the (Chicago) I. W. W. now speak of the 1906 and
the 1908 conventions as marking the sloughing-off of the Socialist
party politicians at the first, and the Socialist Labor party
politicians at the second, respectively. St. John says that at this
1907 convention "a slight effort was made to relegate the politician to
the rear."[307] The Shermanites seem to have had no really substantial
constituency at any time. However, it appears that this group did have
a convention in July, 1907. No proceedings or other documentary records
of this convention have been discovered by the writer. The _Miners'
Magazine_ remarked editorially that "The Sherman faction that held its
convention in July (1907) was but a burlesque, while the Trautmann
faction that held its convention in September was but a grim joke.
The treasury was empty, and both factions are confronted with debts
which cannot be met."[308] The Shermanite journal, _The Industrial
Worker_, which had been held by the Sherman group and circulated
from Joliet, Ill., appeared in July, 1907, and there seems to be no
evidence that any subsequent numbers were issued. Both Shermanites and
DeLeonites claimed control of the bulk of those I. W. W. local unions
which remained after the breaking away of the Western Federation.[309]
Sherman continued to present a brave and optimistic front at the time
of the fifteenth convention of the Western Federation. On June 3, 1907,
he wrote a letter to the convention urging the miners to re-affiliate
with the Industrial Workers of the World (_i. e._, the Shermanite
faction). If they would only agree to that, he declared, it would
"require not more than two months when the so-called revolutionary
movement will die of its own weight, as it is only existing at this
time under false pretenses...."[310]
Neither did the "proletarian rabble" have any very exalted notion of
the power of the "reactionaries."
The plain truth is [declared one of the alleged false
pretenders] that the Sherman-McCabe Slugging Company has at no
time since the [second I. W. W.] convention had the support of
more than 1,000 members--something less than 100 in New York,
100 in Chicago, and the rest (reactionary pure and simple
unions) lost in the distances between Ahern's saloon at the St.
Regis and Motherwell's saloon at Bingham's Canyon.
The Shermanites, however, claimed the Mining Department, and they
seem on the whole to have been justified, for the pro-Sherman or
"anti-proletarian" faction, so called, eventually dominated the
fifteenth convention of the Western Federation of Miners and made
what was already a virtual separation from the I. W. W. a formal and
complete divorce. The Shermanite organ, the (old) _Industrial Worker_,
in its issue for April, 1907, claimed that the "Mining Department of
the Industrial Workers of the World gained nearly 3,000 members during
the month of February" (p. 8). The Shermanites also claimed to have
chartered ten locals (outside the W. F. M.) in January.[311]
There were present at the first day's session of the September 1907,
convention fifty-one delegates representing sixty-five local unions,
and before the close of the convention there were 74 local unions
represented by 53 delegates having a total of 129 votes. Few delegates
had more than two or three votes. The Paterson (N. J.) delegation had
28 votes; George Speed, representing two locals, had twelve; B. H.
Williams, eleven and Daniel DeLeon, three. Contests were made on 26
of the delegates. Among the other delegates to this convention were
Rudolph Katz. E. J. Foote, Vincent St. John, F. W. Heslewood, Wm. E.
Trautmann, M. P. Hagerty, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Mr. Katz was
elected temporary chairman.[312]
The organization was not prosperous at this time. It was weakened
and almost torn apart by the exhausting internal struggles it had
gone though in its two short years of life. It had lost its strongest
member--its main body, almost--the Western Federation of Miners, and
with the Sherman contingent a considerable number of individual members
in local unions even though the locals themselves retained their
affiliation. The writer has not seen any definite statement as to the
magnitude of the loss in locals and individuals due to the Shermanite
defection. The "proletarian rabble," however, claimed that "139 of the
local unions declared themselves in favor of all transactions of the
convention."[313] At this time, on the same authority, there were 358
locals "carried on the books," but only 181 in good standing.[314] On
a basis of locals in good standing the Shermanites took with them less
than twenty-five per cent of the locals in the organization, but if
we include all locals, the Shermanites must be allowed to have taken
with them sixty per cent of the I. W. W. locals. Further evidence of
serious decline is found in the very low proportion of I. W. W. local
unions which were represented by delegates at the third convention. If
we may accept Secretary Trautmann's statement[315] to the convention
that there were at the time about 200 local unions in the organization,
it appears that but slightly more than one-third of these locals were
represented at the convention. The "Wobblies" had very little to say at
this time about the membership of the organization. Indeed, there has
never at any time been much to say about it. In 1907 they were even
less aware of their own numerical strength than they usually are. They
knew, of course, that it was small and that it had dwindled much since
1905.
The leaders of the Western Federation of Miners followed the
proceedings with no friendly eye. J. M. O'Neil declared that "the
Trautmann faction does not dare disclose its membership...."[316]
He stated further that "a delegate upon the floor of the September
convention asked to know the membership of the organization, but he was
curtly told by the chairman of the convention to 'never mind counting
noses but [to] go home and organize.'"[317]
Official reports to the fifteenth convention of the Western Federation
of Miners held the preceding June, credited the I. W. W. with a
membership of 32,000, of which number 8,000 were delinquent.[318]
This estimate is presumably exclusive of the Western Federation.
Delegate F. W. Heslewood (W. F. M. and I. W. W., later a member of the
General Executive Board of the [Chicago] I. W. W.) who was one of the
so-called "wage-slave delegates" at the second I. W. W. convention,
tells the miners' convention that "in one local in the state of Oregon
there are over 3,000 members that travel the streets with red flags
and red neckties demanding the full product of their toil...."[319]
Professor Barnett puts the membership for 1907 at 6,700.[320] General
Secretary St. John places it at 5,931.[321] He estimated the membership
for 1905-6 as 23,219. Barnett's figures are: 1905, 14,300; 1906,
10,400.[322] These estimates vary widely, but this at least is evident:
there was a marked and progressive decline in membership during the
organization's first two years of existence.
During the twelve-month period ending September, 1907, one hundred and
eighteen locals were organized.[323] Reports published from time to
time in the _Miner's Magazine_[324] indicate that from the birth of
the organization to September 17, 1906, three hundred and ninety-four
locals had been organized. A total of 512 locals had, therefore, been
organized up to the convening of the third convention in September,
1907. As already noted, there were in the organization at that time
about 200 local unions. The necessary inference is that three out of
every four locals organized so far in the history of the I. W. W.
had either broken away from the organization or simply expired. This
condition has been characteristic of the I. W. W. in greater or less
degree throughout its brief career. The "turnover" of local unions as
well as of individual members has been immense and very irregular. No
continuous reports of the new locals chartered have appeared in the I.
W. W. press. Weekly reports appeared quite regularly in _The Industrial
Union Bulletin_ through the spring of 1907 and showed that four or
five new locals were being chartered each week during the three-months
period. There is no record of locals disbanded.
In August, 1907, the International Socialist and Labor Congress met
at Stuttgart. Both factors of the I. W. W. were represented: the
Sherman faction by Hugo Pick and the DeLeon-St. John faction by Fred
Heslewood. The latter group in its suspiciously optimistic report
claimed that, "... starting out with only 2,000 members in 1905, the
Western Federation of Miners not included, the organization has now 362
industrial unions and branches organized in 37 States and 3 Provinces
of Canada ... [and] embraces now 28,000 militant workers...."[325]
The Congress devoted considerable attention to the problem of
labor organization. The discussion of this problem centered almost
exclusively upon two topics: (1) the relations between the political
party and the trade union, and (2) the defects of the craft union. The
I. W. W., through its representatives, was actively interested in both
of these matters. Its sustained opposition to the craft type of union
is characteristically displayed in the report[326] which the Socialist
Labor party presented to the Congress. It was evidently written by
DeLeon and it may be taken fairly to represent the attitude of the I.
W. W. One paragraph of this report, which puts very comprehensively the
Industrialist's indictment of the old-line union, reads:
The trades-union field [in America] was found by the political
movement of socialism to be preëmpted by what is called
craft or pure and simple unionism. This system of unionism
organizes the crafts, not simply as units but as autonomous
and sovereign bodies. The fundamental error of this system
of economic organization was soon found to be desirable by
the capitalist class. The craft union rendered all economic
movement fruitless. If indeed the wages in these unions were
ever found higher than among the unorganized, the price that
the union paid for such higher wages was to divide the
working class hopelessly. In the first place, the craft union
deliberately excluded the majority of the members of the trade
from participation, by means of apprenticeship regulations,
high dues, high initiation fees and other devices. In the
second place, each of these craft unions, in turn, could earn
its Judas pence only by allying itself with the employer each
time that some other craft was at war with the employing class.
It is superfluous to enumerate the long catalogue of deliberate
acts of treason to the working class at home and abroad, and
the shocking corruption that such style of unionism was bound
to breed. Suffice it to say, as proof, that these craft unions
are found amalgamated with an organization of capitalists,
known as the "Civic Federation," the purpose of which is to
establish "harmonious relations between labor and capital."
These craft unions are mainly organized in the American
Federation of Labor.[327]
During the discussion of the relations between the political
parties and the trade unions a heated argument took place between
representatives of the I. W. W. (DeLeon faction) and of the Socialist
party.[328] The Socialist party delegation made a long report in
which the I. W. W. was referred to in no complimentary terms. F. W.
Heslewood, representing the I. W. W.,[329] retorted that the report was
"a tissue of lies and misrepresentations concerning the Industrial
Workers of the World in America."[330] He went on to indicate the I. W.
W. conceptions of the Socialist party of America in these terms:
This vote-catching machine of which the previous speaker from
America (A. M. Simons) is so proud, will stoop to anything and
_go to any length to secure votes_. They have defended a lot
of scab unions of the A. F. of L. in California, have endorsed
resolutions condemning the Japanese and asking for their
exclusion from America, although we find that the Japanese,
with very little education in revolutionary unionism, make
better union men than the sacred contract scab of the A. F. of
L.
At the other end of the continent, in New York, they place
their candidates on the same ticket as Randolph Hearst, a
Democrat, a trust-buster of the Roosevelt type. I have in my
hand here a card ... asking the workers to vote for "Hearst
and Hillquit." "Hearst and Hillquit" for good government?
"Hearst and Hillquit" for socialism? No. "Hearst and Hillquit"
for votes! Hillquit, the "revolutionist," one of the leading
stars at this congress, the chief representative of this
vote-catching machine: Hillquit, who has fed you on lies
concerning the Industrial Workers of the World. If this is the
way to get socialism, I hope that such a damnable brand will
never be ushered in in my time. What bearing has this criminal
work on our grand old slogan, "Workers of the world unite"?
In America we have two kinds of unions, one is known as the
American Federation of Labor and the other is the Industrial
Workers of the World. One has a million and a half members
and the other has over 70,000 members including the Western
Federation of Miners, that is 40,000 miners and 30,000 directly
chartered members from the headquarters of the Industrial
Workers. The larger one is called by the capitalist masters
and their agents, "The bulwark of Capitalist Society," and the
chiefs at the head of this scab arrangement were classed by
Mark Hanna as his "able lieutenants," and that is what they
are.[331]
DeLeon and Heslewood endeavored to put through a resolution in
condemnation of the general position of neutrality taken by Socialist
parties in their relation with labor organizations. They believed that
a Socialist party should definitely endorse radical or socialistic
trade unions and officially frown upon all reactionary unions, and
especially condemn and discourage reaction wherever it might appear
among labor organizations. "Neutrality towards trade unions," reads
their resolution, "is equivalent to neutrality toward the machinations
of the capitalist class."[332]
The resolutions on this subject which were finally adopted by the
congress were much less militant in tone than the I. W. W. statement.
The prevailing resolution read in part as follows:
To enfranchise the proletariat completely from the bonds of
intellectual, political and economic serfdom, the political
and the economic struggle are alike necessary. If the activity
of the Socialist party is exercised more particularly in the
domain of the political struggle of the proletariat, that
of the unions displays itself in the domain of the economic
struggle of the workers. The unions and the party have
therefore an equally important task to perform in the struggle
for proletarian emancipation. Each of the two organizations has
its distinct domain defined by its nature, and within whose
borders it should enjoy independent control of its line of
action. But there is an ever-widening domain in the proletarian
struggle of the classes in which they can only reap advantages
by concerted action and by coöperation between the party and
the trade unions.[333]
Further along in the same resolution the Congress declared that the
unions could not fully perform their duty in the struggle for the
emancipation of the workers unless "a thoroughly socialist spirit
inspires their policy" and that it was the duty of the party and
the unions to render each other "moral support."[334] The editor of
the official organ, however, looked upon these resolutions as being
very favorable to the I. W. W., which he declared had forced the
Congress to "a recognition of the paramount importance of the economic
organization, with the result that the Congress itself stands almost on
I. W. W. ground."[335]
The 1907 convention was a gathering of the DeLeon-Trautmann-St. John
faction. At the fourth convention the first hyphen was to be smashed,
but in 1907 both links held firmly. The general tone was one of
harmony. An attempt was made, however, to reëstablish the office of
President. After a long debate on a resolution to this effect the
proposition was defeated. It was decided, however, to establish the
office of General Organizer, the incumbent of which was expected also
to act as Assistant General Secretary.
The original preamble of 1905 had weathered the second convention
without being modified. The first lines of the second paragraph read:
"Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all the
toilers come together _on the political_ as well as on the industrial
field...." A motion was made at the third convention to strike out the
words italicized. It was defeated by vote of 113 to 15.[336]
The "political clause" of the preamble was the subject of extended
discussion.[337] At this time all efforts to alter the preamble were
unsuccessful. The debate was significant, however, in foreshadowing
the much more serious struggle which was to take place a year later
when the I. W. W. was literally split in two over the question of
the retention or the elimination of the "political clause." Daniel
DeLeon was a member of the Committee on Constitution and made a long
speech in opposition to the motion to eliminate from the preamble all
reference to the "political field," declaring that "the position of the
I. W. W. is that when the day [_der Tag_ of the socialists, the day of
the Revolution] shall come it shall itself project its own political
party."[338] DeLeon was supported in his position by George Speed, who
later became a member of the General Executive Board of the so-called
anti-political--or Chicago--faction and who has been prominent in the
activities of the I. W. W. on the Pacific Coast.[339] Delegate E. J.
Foote took the same stand and made a cogent argument for retaining the
political clause.
[The word] "political" [he said] does have a meaning....
The point is raised that the working class will not have a
"government." With that I might agree, but they will have an
industrial administration ... and that administration must be
political in the sense that it is controlled by the ballot on
the inside of your own organization.[340]
The constitution committee presented a resolution declaring that "the
I. W. W. seeks its political expression only in its own industrial
administration." This is vague, and it may have been made designedly
so. It might have been brought in to appease those who feared that the
I. W. W. would be made the tail to some political party kite.[341]
FOOTNOTES:
[305] Rudolph Katz, "With DeLeon since '89," _Weekly People_, Nov. 20,
1915, p. 2, col. 1.
[306] _Ibid. Cf._ also _infra_, ch. ix.
[307] _The I. W. W., History, Structure and Methods_ (1917 ed.), p. 7.
[308] November 14, 1907, p. 8, col. 2.
[309] The fifteenth convention of the W. F. M. (June, 1907) may be
considered as marking its final separation from the I. W. W.; the
connection had been only nominal after the Second I. W. W. Convention
in October, 1906. As already stated (supra, p. 151) the Federation was
formally _suspended_ from the I. W. W. for non-payment of dues, in
January, 1907.
[310] _Proceedings, Fifteenth Convention, W. F. M._, pp. 232-3.
[311] _Industrial Worker_, February, 1907.
[312] _Proceedings_, p. 1.
[313] _Industrial Workers of the World Bulletin No. 2_, October, 1907.
[314] _Ibid._
[315] _Official Report [No. 1], Third I. W. W. Convention_, p. 2, col.
3.
[316] Editorial, _Miners' Magazine_, Nov. 14, 1907, p. 8, col. 2.
[317] _Ibid._
[318] _Proceedings, Fifteenth Convention, W. F. M._, p. 614.
[319] _Ibid._
[320] "Membership of American Trade Unions," _Quarterly Journal of
Economics_; vol. xxx (Aug., 1916), p. 846.
[321] _Private Correspondence_, Feb. 1, 1915.
[322] _Loc. cit._, p. 846.
[323] Report of Secretary-Treasurer to Third Convention, _Industrial
Union Bulletin_, September 14, 1907, p. 7, col. 1.
[324] Especially in the issues from February 22, 1906, on.
[325] _Compte Rendu_, VIIe Congrès Socialiste Internationale
(Brussels, 1908), p. 60.
[326] _Cf._ also _Industrial Union Bulletin_, Aug. 10, 1907, p. 3, col.
3, p. 4, col. 5. The report further stated that I. W. W. literature was
then being printed in seven different languages and that the official
organ--the _Industrial Union Bulletin_--had attained a circulation of
7,000 paid copies. (_Ibid._, p. 4, col. 5.)
[327] (Translated from the French of the report.) _L'Internationale
ouvrière et socialiste. Rapports soumis au Congrès ... de Stuttgart_,
18-24, aout, 1907 ... ed. française (Brussels, 1907), v. 1, pp. 61-62.
[328] "Les rapports entre les partis politiques et les syndicats
professionels," _Compte rendu analytique_ (Stuttgart Congress, 1907)
_publié par le Secretariat du Bureau Socialiste International_
(Brussels, 1908), pp. 184-215.
[329] Unless it is otherwise specifically indicated, the letters "I.
W. W." will be used in this chapter in reference to the DeLeon-St.
John-Trautmann faction. After the 1908 convention these letters will be
understood to refer to the St. John-Trautmann faction, _viz._, to the
(Chicago) I. W. W. of today.
[330] Speech before the Congress on "The relations between trade unions
and the political party," _Industrial Union Bulletin_, September 14,
1907, p. 1, col. 5.
[331] _Loc. cit._
[332] Delegate Heslewood's report on the Stuttgart Congress to the
Third I. W. W. Convention, _Industrial Union Bulletin_, Sept. 28, 1907,
p. 1, col. 6.
[333] Translated from the French. La résolution relative aux "Rapports
entre les partis et les syndicats," _Compte Rendu Analytique, Congrès
socialiste internationale, Stuttgart, 1907_ (Brussels, 1908), p. 424.
This resolution was reaffirmed at the Copenhagen Congress in 1910.
_Compte Rendu Analytique_ (Ghent, 1911), p. 476.
[334] _Compte Rendu Analytique_, Stuttgart Congress (Brussels, 1908),
p. 477.
[335] _Industrial Union Bulletin_, November 9, 1907, p. 2, col. 1.
[336] R. Katz. "With DeLeon since '89," _Weekly People_, Nov. 27, 1915,
p. 2, col. 6. See also, _Proceedings, Third Convention_ (Official
Report No. 3, p. 5).
[337] _Proceedings, Third I. W. W. Convention_ (Official Report No. 3,
_passim_.)
[338] _Ibid._, p. 5, col. 3.
[339] _Proceedings, Third Convention_ (Official Report No. 3, p. 3,
col. 5).
[340] _Proceedings, Third Convention_, loc. cit., p. 2, col. 1.
[341] _Ibid._, p. 1, col. 5.