THE BANKRUPTCY OF "LAW AND ORDER"
The facts in this case speak pretty well for themselves. To draw
conclusions at length would be an impertinence. He who runs may read the
signs of decay of Capitalism, the crumbling of a social system based
upon the slavery and degradation of the vast majority of mankind. And
from the lips of the prosecution counsel--the Voice of the State--we
have the open and frank acknowledgement of the bankruptcy of law and
order, the failure of government as it is now administered.
It is no part of this work to attack The Law. The Law is august,
majestic in its impartial findings and the equality of its judgements,
always however with due allowance for those subtle distinctions so
incomprehensible to the masses which exist between high finance,
kleptomania and theft. The Law strips no one of his possessions; under
its beneficent reign the rich retain their wealth and the poor keep
their poverty. Founded on dogma and moulded by tradition, The Law stands
as a mighty monument to Justice. It is ever in this way that we show our
respect and reverence for the dead. Being an outgrowth of precedent it
gains added sanctity with each fresh proof of antiquity, differing in
this regard from automobiles, eggs, women, hats, the six best sellers,
and the commoner things of life. Surrounded by mysticism, surcharged
with the language of the dead, and sustained by force, who is there
would have the temerity to question the sanctity of The Law?
It remained for Attorneys Black and Cooley--and not for the outcast
industrial unionists, socialists or anarchists--to charge that The Law
is a bankrupt institution, and it was for the citizen-deputies--and not
for the despised workers--to prove the truth of the indictment. Truly
Society moves in a mysterious way its blunders to reform!
With the true logic of the counting-house Cooley admitted that the mill
owners had formed a mob to protect themselves from the rabble, they had
pursued illegal methods to prevent the breaking of The Law, they had
jailed men in order to preserve Liberty, they had even blacklisted union
men in order to give to every man the right to work where, when and for
whom he pleased. There is no escaping such logic if one owns property.
Of course those who possess no property are the natural enemies of
property, and law being based upon property, they are defiers of The
Law, and Society being upheld only by observance of The Law, they are
the foes of Society. It is not best to kill them in too large numbers
for they are useful in doing the work of the world, but they must be
kept in fear and trembling of The Law and made to respect it as sacred
and inviolable, even if we do not. So argued Black and Cooley.
But the whine of Black, the snarl of Cooley, the moody silence of
Veitch, alike served as a confession that "law and order" was a failure.
The plea of the State was that all law is the creature of property and
when the power of the law proves inadequate in its function of
protecting the accumulations of wealth the possessors of property are
justified in supplementing The Law with such additional physical or
brute force as they can muster, or in casting aside The Law altogether,
as it suits their convenience. To the workers The Law must remain sacred
while to the leisure class Property is the thing to worship, for however
much robbery is to be condemned, the proceeds of robbery are always to
be respected.
Their further contention was that the streets are for traffic, for
maintaining commerce, in other words to aid in the gathering of property
and to enhance the property values already cleared. Out of the
graciousness of their hearts the business men and employers allow the
pedestrians to use the streets incidental to the purchase of goods or to
journey to and from their tasks in the factories, mines, mills and
workshops. That the streets might be used for social, religious,
political or educational purposes does not enter their calculations,
their ledgers carry no place for such entries on the profit side. Free
speech is tolerated at times provided nothing of importance is said.
Two trials were going on in the court room at the same time; that of
Thomas H. Tracy and the I. W. W. before a property-qualified jury, and
that of the existing system of law enforcement before the great jury of
the working class. And just as surely as was the verdict that of
acquittal for Tracy and his union, was there a most decided judgment of
Guilty upon "law and order." For Tracy was not freed by the law but by
the common sense of the jury who refused to consider him guilty and
viewed him as a class rather than as an individual. Under the existing
conspiracy laws he might well have been considered technically guilty.
But "law and order" technically and otherwise was proven guilty, and the
charge that Capitalism is guilty of first degree murder, and a host of
other crimes, was clearly proven.
Why? Why all the brutality depicted herein? Why?
The answer is that we are living in an insane social system in which
money ranks higher than manhood.
To be more specific the outrages at Everett had their roots in the
belief that the men who labor, and especially the migratory and the
unskilled element, form an inferior caste or class to those who exploit
them. The dominant class viewed any attempt to claim even the same civil
rights as an assault upon their supremacy and integrity,--this to them
being synonymous with social order and civilization. This is always more
evident where a single industry dominates, as evidenced by the
occurrences at Ludlow, in the coal district, Mesaba in the iron ore
section, and Bisbee where copper is the main product. Everett
controlled by the lumber interests clinches the argument.
A community dominated by an industry, impelled by a desire for high
profits; or under the spell of fear or passion, whether justified or
not, cannot be restrained by law from a summary satisfaction of its
desires or a quieting of its apprehensions. Before such a condition the
fabric of local government crumbles and lynch law is substituted for the
more orderly processes designed to attain the same end. The Everett
outrages were no example of the rough and ready justice of primitive
communities. The outlaws were in full possession of local government,
legislative, judicial, and executive, yet they fell back upon brute
force and personal violence and attempted to protect the lumber trust
profits by tactics of terrorism.
Insofar as the law can be wielded for their immediate purpose a
capitalistic mob, such as these at Everett, will clothe their violence
in the form of ostensible legal process, yet often the letter and the
spirit of their own class-influenced laws will be ruthlessly thrust
aside. They want law and order, efficacious, impartial, august, in the
eyes of the general citizenry, but they want exemption of their class
from the rule of the law on certain occasions. Strongly would they deny
that all law is class law, made, interpreted and administered in behalf
of a privileged property-owning class, yet the facts bear out this
contention.
The conception of impersonal and impartial legalism has been generally
accepted along with traditional moral opinion and the naive belief in
the excellence of competitive, individualistic, and unrestrained
business. But this historical case has proven, as nothing else could
prove, that these bonds are relaxing and the faith and formulas
underlying the whole legal establishment are the subject of attack by an
increasingly large and uncompromising army of dissenters.
From the developments of the Everett situation one can sense the rising
tide of industrial solidarity. It was the unity of the workers that won
the great case. It will be the unity of Labor that will win the world
for the workers, just as the embryonic democracy of the toilers in its
blind groupings has already cracked the shell of the industrial
autocracy of the present day.
At present we are at the parting of the ways. There is not sufficient
faith in the Law to hold the dying wage system together and there is not
a sufficiently clear conception of the solidaric ideal of a new society
to bind the rebellious elements to a definite program. So chaos reigns
in society and events like those at Everett may be expected to arise
until the struggle of the exploited takes on a more constructive form
and develops the necessary power to overthrow capitalism and all its
attendant institutions.
Industrial unionism is the only hope of the disinherited and
dispossessed proletariat. It is the voice of the future. It spells at
once Evolution and Revolution. Its assured success means an end to
classes and class rule and the rearing of a race of free individuals.
The strength of the workers is in industry. Every worker, man, woman or
child, has economic power. The control of industry means the control of
the world.
He who strives to bring the workers closer together so that their
allied forces in an industrial organization may overthrow the wage
system and rear in its place an Industrial Republic in which slavery
will be unknown and where joy will form the mainspring of human
activity, pays the highest homage to those who, in order that the spirit
of Liberty might not perish from the land, gave their lives at Everett,
Washington, on Sunday, November 5th, 1917:
FELIX BARAN,
HUGO GERLOT,
GUSTAV JOHNSON,
JOHN LOONEY,
ABRAHAM RABINOWITZ.
FINISH
* * * * *
SONGS
Of The Workers
The Latest
I. W. W. SONG BOOK
General Defense Edition
Contains sixty-four pages of satirical, humorous and inspiring songs of
labor. Parodies on the well known popular airs. Wherever the English
language is spoken, there will be found countless numbers of workers
singing these real rebel songs.
[Illustration]
PRICES
Single Copies Ten Cents
$5.00 a Hundred
Address
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1001 W. Madison St., Chicago, Ill.
* * * * *
I. W. W. LITERATURE
I. W. W. Publishing Bureau
1001 W. Madison St., Chicago
Pamphlets at 10c Each, or 3.50 Per Hundred
I. W. W. History, Structure & Methods (St. John), revised
Industrial Unionism, the Road to Freedom (Ettor)
The Evolution of Industrial Democracy (Woodruff)
One Big Union, The Greatest Thing on Earth
Advancing Proletariat (Woodruff)
Patriotism and the Worker (Herve)
Onward Sweep of the Machine Process (Hanson)
Red Down (Harrison George)
Is Freedom Dead?
Pamphlets at 10c Each, or $5.00 Per Hundred
The I. W. W. Song Book.
The General Strike (Haywood); also containing "The Last War."
Proletarian and Petit Bourgeois (Lewis)
The General Secretary's Report of the Tenth Convention
Hotel, Restaurant and Domestic Workers (L. S. Chumley)
Revolutionary Writings (Kelly Cole)
Books at Various Prices
The New Unionism (Tridon), 35c per copy 100 $25.00
Opening Statement of G. F. Vanderveer, 25c 100 20.00
Cloath Bound, 50c per copy 100 35.00
Testimony of William D. Haywood Before
the Industrial Relations Commission, 15c 100 10.00
Trial of New Society (Ebert), 50c per copy 100 35.00
Proceedings 10th Convention, 50c per copy 100 35.00
The Everett Massacre, Cloath Bound, $1.00 100 75.00
Indictment, 25c per copy 100 20.00
I. W. W. Leaflets
I. W. W. Industrial Unionism (St. John), 5c
per copy 100 $1.00
High Cost of Living (Dougherty), 5c per copy 100 1.00
Metal and Machinery Workers (leaflet) 100 .25
To Colored Working Men and Women 100 .30
Songs and Music by Joe Hill
25c copy; 5 for $1.00; 10 or more, 15c each.
Workers of the World, Awaken!
The Rebel Girl.
Don't Take My Papa Away from Me.