"There is no need, no excuse for Socialism. But there is sore need of Social Reform."-Kane. A new factor is at work in American industrial affairs. Out of the West an organization has come that threatens to overthrow all national institutions. There have been associations of labor before, but never one like this. Never before have we been called upon to solve a problem that frankly defied solution. Never before have we been brought face to face with a proposition so openly revolutionary that nothing less than the complete surrender of the principle of private ownership of the manufacturing establishments can satisfy its demands. Yet, this is the condition that confronts America to-day. This is the issue that has been raised by the Industrial Workers of the World. The insistence is not upon a just reward to labor but the complete possession of all the machinery of production. It is war-war to the death!-The Editors. HE strike of the textile workers, at T Lawrence, Mass., will workers at bered for many reasons, but chiefly for the fact that it afforded the Industrial Workers of the World an opportunity to bring its propaganda prominently before the people of the United States. Not that the Industrial Workers of the World is a new organization. Its history began in 1905, when a company of the more radical labor leaders assembled in Chicago to form an alliance that should stand for something more than the mere protection of the worker-that should, in fact, insist upon the abolition of the wage system by bringing about the socialization of all industries. Since 1905, the name of this organization, or the abbreviation of I. W. W., by which it has come to be more familiarly known, has appeared with more or less frequency in the daily press. Just what the name implied, however— just what the society stood for—was a matter to which the average American citizen gave but little thought. Indeed, it was generally supposed that the Industrial Workers of the World was little more than a rival of the American Federation of Labor; instituted along slightly different lines, perhaps, and designed to appeal to a different class of workers, but in reality possessing a similar purpose. It was the Lawrence strike that opened the eyes of the people to the fact that the nation stood face to face with an organization that bore not the smallest resemblence to the A. F. of L., but was, on the contrary, operating upon a plan the success of which depended upon the overthrow of all American institutions and the establishment of a new social system. A. F. of L. vs. I. W. W. The American Federation of Labor is a patriotic organization, the Industrial Workers of the World is frankly the exponent of anti-patriotism. The A. F. of L. respects the American flag and supports the militia; the I. W. W. substitutes the red flag of revolt for the stars and stripes and holds up to opprobrium all who affiliate with military organizations. The A. F. of L. has sought to harmonize the interests of capital and labor, its only demands being that the worker shall be justly treated and that he shall receive a "fair day's wage for a fair day's work," but the I. W. W. insists that capital and labor can have no mutual interests and that the bitter antagonism existing between them must continue until labor has driven capital from the field and has seized all the machinery of production. In a In a few words, whereas the A. F. of L. represents a constructive movement that stands for conciliation and arbitration, the I. W. W. is admittedly a destructive agency, content with nothing short of actual revolution. That I have not taken too serious a view of the situation is shown by the editor of The Survey in the April number: a On all sides people are asking: Is this new thing in the industrial world, which from now on must be taken into account? Are we to see another serious, perhaps successful, attempt to organize labor by whole industrial groups instead of by trades? Are we to expect that instead of playing the game respectably, or else frankly breaking out into lawless riot which we know well enough how to deal with, the laborers are to listen to a subtle anarchistic philosophy which challenges the fundamental idea of law and order, inculcating such strange doctrines as those of "direct action," "sabotage," "syndicalism,” “the general strike," and "violence"? Yes, frankly, we think such an attempt to create "one big union," rather than many local trade unions, is in progress. New Forms of Violence. We think that our whole current morality as to the sacredness of property and even of life is involved in it. We think that eloquent appeals to the solidarity of "labor" as having nothing whatever in common with the rest of society will be made in the name of this new movement, and that the ideas of this revolutionary socialism are likely to be proclaimed with increasing boldness and vigor. The "violence" which is the corner stone of this doctrine may not take the form of dynamiting. Changing a bill of lading or neglecting to oil a machine or misplacing a switch have been its more favorable forms in Europe, and the "general strike," undertaken not to secure the redress of some specific grievance, or an increased share in some increasing product, but rather as one more skirmish which, whether it succeeds or fails, will inevitably bring nearer the decisive battle in which the existing industrial order is to be overthrown-this general strike may be regarded as its most complete expression in action. We shall hear more of the general strike, and of the theory of violence on which it is based. Four in center, reading from left: Charles Rothfischer of Chicago, I. W. W. organizer; James P. Thompson general organizer; Willam D. Haywood, I. W. W. leader; Frank P. Domo, local strike leader. -not by progressive methods of education-but by the extremely simple program of forcing the capitalist out of the industrial field by a series of successive demands for an increased share of the profits. It is here-at the first expression of definite principles-that the I. W. W. parts company with the American Federation of Labor and other labor the death. It intends to tear down the whole social structure and build it anew." To understand the exact position of the I. W. W. toward the existing social system one need but read the preamble to the constitution of the organization, a document said to have been largely the work of Thomas J. Hagerty, an ex-priest: Here war is declared in no uncertain terms: "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people, and the few who make up the employing class have all the good things. of life. An Inevitable Warfare. "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, and take and hold that which they produce by their labor through an economic organization of the working class, without affiliation with any political party. "We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trades unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trades unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trades unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. "Instead of the conservative motto, 'A fair day's wages for a fair day's work,' we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, 'Abolition of the wage system.' "It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for the everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old. "Knowing, therefore, that such an organization is absolutely necessary for our emancipation, we unite under the following constitution." Impossible as the I. W. W. scheme may seem at first thought, its dangerous qualities begin to make themselves felt the more carefully the plan is examined. Certainly all that is needed is enough men of one mind, and the project becomes thoroughly practical. The impracticability of the movement depends upon the spirit of fair play in the heart of the worker. He does not have to be told that there is a point beyond which wages cannot go that there is a point at which profit must cease for the employer-and the sensible American worker may be depended upon to oppose any propaganda that tends to produce industrial chaos. That is the reason why there is so general an opinion among labor leaders that "Big Bill" Haywood is not justified in counting upon the working classes to aid him in bringing about the social revolution. An Appeal to Ignorance. At present, however, Haywood's appeal is not to the safe and sane American worker but to the previously-unorganized laborer who has been in this country but a comparatively short time. and who knows little of the spirit of American institutions. To him the promise of constantly increasing pay is most enticing, for, in most cases, he needs it sorely. Unfortunately, he does not see the fallacy of the theory that promises that each "raise" shall be duplicated again and again. He is too ignorant of economic conditions to realize into what a chaotic state a continuance of the I. W. W. policy would bring the country, and it is this inability to realize to what |