unions alike to defeat "the strike that stands for the solidarity of labor." W. E. Trautmann thus illustrates the grounds of hostility to trade union policies in concrete cases which best tell the story.

"The meat wagon drivers of Chicago were organized in 1902. They made demands for better pay and shorter hours. Unchecked by any outside influence they walked out on strike. They had the support of all other workers in the packing houses. They won. But before they resumed work the big packing firms insisted that they enter into a contract. They did. In that contract the teamsters agreed not to engage in any sympathetic strike with other employes in the plants or stockyards. Not only this, but the drivers also decided to split their union into three. They then had the 'Bone and Shaving Teamsters,' the 'Packing House Teamsters,' and the 'Meat Delivery Drivers.'

"Encouraged by the victory of the teamsters, the other workers in the packing houses then started to organize. But they were carefully advised not to organize into one body, or at the best into one National Trades Union. They had to be divided up, so that the employers could exterminate them all whenever opportunity presented itself.

"Now observe how the dividing-up process worked. The teamsters were members of the 'International Union of Teamsters.' The engineers were connected with the 'International Union of Steam Engineers.' The firemen, oilers, ashwheelers were organized in the 'Brotherhood of Stationary Firemen.' Carpenters employed in the stockyards permanently had to join the 'Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.' The

pipe and steam fitters were members of another 'National Union.' The sausage makers, the packers, the canning department workers, the beef butchers, the cattle butchers, the hog butchers, the bone shavers, etc., each craft group had a separate union. Each union had different rules, all of them not permitting any infringements on them by others. Many of the unions had contracts with the employers. These contracts expired at different dates. Most of the contracts contained the clause of "no support to others when engaged in a controversy with the stockyard companies."" 1

1

The directory of unions of Chicago shows in 1903, a total of fifty-six different unions in the packing houses, divided up still more in fourteen different national trades unions of the American Federation of Labor.

To relieve this source of trouble, the I. W. W. ask that this collective labor in the meat industry band together into one common union that may act as a unit against employers and "labor fakirs" alike.

In this history of disrupting antagonisms, we watch again the fall of the Knights of Labor. Even the Western Federation of Miners soon refused to pay dues and dropped out to set up again their own local autonomy, thus telling their young offspring that the miners' interests are at least for the present by no means identical with the new and loosely affiliated mass called I. W. W.

Of no less significance is the appearance of another schism, already wider and deeper in Europe, "The True I. W. W." This is the "reformist," "anti

1As this goes to press the I. W. W. in New York City attack in the same spirit the "agreements" in the garment makers strike.

violence," and "more moderate" group with headquarters in Detroit. It now sends out its own literature, most of which bears the impress and emphasis of the "Socialist Labor Party," a small but fighting antagonist of the "Socialist Party." 1

The older body of the I. W. W. assures us that this offshoot is "an insignificant faction" which has "made nothing but mistakes and will continue the same occupation." The last Convention (the seventh, 1912), in Chicago, has been reported at length by a derisive member of the smaller but "True I. W. W." He entitles his report the "Bummery Congress" of the "So-called I. W. W." In the Congress itself pride was expressed that, in spite of great growth in the organization, the two enemies, "opportunism” and "respectability," were effectually excluded. Every man of them was "red" to the heart, "to a man they rejected the moral and ethical teaching of the existing order." They rejoice that negro representatives have been taken into the brotherhood and that soon "the whistle will blow for the day when the boss will have to go to work.” At the same time we read in their report that, "The McNamara brothers, deserted and repudiated by those for whom they fought and by the cowardly politicians who sought to make political

1 The differences between the larger and smaller organizations are clearly stated in a pamphlet by A. Rosenthal entitled, "The Differences between the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party; also between Socialism, Anarchism, and Anti Political Industrialism." Printed at 134 Watkins St., Brooklyn, N. Y.

2 This literature, together with their organ, The Industrial Union, may be had from the General Secretary, H. Richter, P. O. Box 651, Detroit, Michigan.

capital from their arrest, were not forgotten. When the Secretary Mr. St. John read a stirring message of greeting to them, recognizing them as fighters in the cause of labor and hoping for their early release, it was met with "a shout of approval from the delegates." There is but one thing to be made out of this message. It is not its distinction that it expresses human sympathy with men in distress. Knowing perfectly well what work the McNamaras had done, they are here greeted for what they have done for "the cause of labor.” Is all that black destruction of life and property really in the "cause of labor"? Yet this, according to the report, "was met with a shout of approval from the delegates."

It is much milder, but still not pleasant reading, that we are to substitute the "General Strike" and the squally passions of public assemblies for court procedure. We read:

The appearance of Bill Haywood Friday morning was the signal for an ovation. In a short address he gave hearty approval to the General Strike proclamation issued by the convention for September 30, and assured the delegates that it would be responded to by a sufficient number of workers in the east to accomplish the release of Ettor and Giovanitti.

In the same tone a French syndicalist reporter now in this country compares the Ettor trial with that of the Haymarket anarchists adding, "Then Haywood gave the authorities a strong warning. A date was set at once for their trial. When it became evident that the world would witness a repetition of the Haymarket incident, another warning reached the court, Ettor and Giovanitti were freed." 1

1 The Independent, Jan. 9, 1913, p. 79.

VIII

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

FOR our own country, it has considerable significance that the newer immigrant is everywhere conspicuous in the I. W. W. The older American leadership has to consider him in all its tactics. That so many of these new-comers are without votes is no mean asset for revolutionary propaganda.

In the language of English suffragettes, "Because we have no votes, we must choose other means to gain our ends," is an argument I have heard used with the same effect, as the lack of funds in French trade unions is thought to be good reason for direct action. They can neither afford nor wait results of slow and indirect activity.

Of the same nature as a characteristic is the youth of the membership. The groups I saw in the West bore this stamp so unmistakably as to suggest bodies of students at the end of a rather jolly picnic. The word "bum" usually applied to them in that region does not fit them. There are plenty of older men, as there are men with every appearance of being "down and out"-with trousers chewed off at the heels, after the manner of tramps, but in face and bearing they are far from "bums."

In one of the speeches the young were addressed as "best material," because they could stand the wear and tear of racking journeys. They were free from