ness of purpose, which many of its local organizations had experienced on account of their political alli

ances.

It was in 1906 that the American Federation of Labor reversed its policy and entered the field of what it calls practical politics in contradistinction to partizan politics. The policy first adopted was to induce one of the regular parties to nominate on a regular party ticket a member of the Federation as a representative to Congress. Efforts were made in every state to secure these nominations. From 1906 to 1910 ten "union card men were elected, owing political allegiance to either the Democratic or Republican Party as its candidate.

The Federation took the position that the allegiance of these representatives to their political parties would not interfere with their support of measures of interest to the Federation and organized labor generally. This policy was carried against a storm of Socialist opposition. In 1910 the Federation adopted the slogan, stand faithfully by our friends, oppose and defeat our enemies, whether they be candidates for President, for Congress or for other offices, whether executive, legislative or judicial."

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The opponents of such political action, others as well as the Socialists, within the Federation, claimed that the Federation's indorsement of the Presidential candidate for 1908 and its failure to carry the election, weakened the position of the trade unions in

their legitimate field of bargaining for terms of

employment.

The President of the Federation, in his message to the convention of 1912, said:

The American Federation of Labor is not partizan to any political party, but it is partizan to a principle-to achieve results in the interests of the great mass of the wage earners of our continent. It resents the attitude of those who seek to force the workers back into the condition and character of serfdom, and with equal insistence it refuses to postpone to the far future the advantages and benefits of a better life which we propose to secure them here and now.

Taking into consideration that which organized labor has already accomplished upon the economic, political, and legislative fields to bring light and life into the homes and workshops of the toiling masses, we are fully confident of greater success in the future. The spirit and humanitarianism cultivated and developed by the organized labor movement will find its full fruition in the material, social, and moral standards of our people, and will be crystallized in the written laws of our land and the unwritten laws of our daily lives. 2

It was in this tone that the President strained every effort to carry the delegates and to secure an enthusiastic support of the political policy and the political action of the officers of the Federation. The policy and the action were indorsed, but not unanimously.

This policy advocated by the Federation was opposed by the Socialist members of the Federation, who

took the position that labor as a class must control its political representatives through a political organization of its own as they controlled their representatives in their trade organizations. The Washington State Federation, chartered by the American Federation, at its convention of 1913, openly refuted the policy of its national organization of supporting candidates pledged to one of the regular parties. It resolved:

Whereas, the political parties now in control of our government are owned and controlled by our industrial

masters.

Whereas, the masters recognize the value of control of the state, and secure and maintain their control by electing members of their class to office, legislative, executive, and judicial.

Whereas, the statement that the interests of capital and labor are identical is absurdly false, and is intended to blind the workers to their own interests and to mislead them into giving support to interests diametrically opposed to their own;

Therefore be it Resolved, that we recommend to the workers that they vote for members of their own class to fill all legislative, executive, or judicial positions.

3

The Washington State Federation stands alone among the state organizations of the Federation in its revolutionary position and opposition to the more conservative and opportunistic policy.

The Industrial Workers of the World opposes all allegiance to political parties or indorsement of polit

ical action. Its theory of "Direct Action" is not necessarily a substitute for political action, as it is considered by many of its members, but it is the exclusive method of the organization.

CHAPTER XX

DIRECT ACTION

Is the antithesis of political action but not necessarily opposed to it-Comparative value as a labor weapon-Object of direct action-Present advocacy opportune.

DIRECT action is not necessarily opposed to political action, although the term originated in the desire to distinguish between organized labor's efforts to secure its objects by more direct methods than political representation.

It arose out of labor's disappointment in the efforts it had expended politically. Labor had found that its representatives sitting in state councils rife with the doctrines and influences of a capitalist society, gradually lost the point of view of those whom they were there to represent.

It found also that political action, delegating, as it does of necessity, all action to representatives, offered the mass of the workers little if any opportunity for experience or initiative in the solution of their own problems. Direct actionists claim that the object of the labor movement is to minimize the delegation of power and to increase the power of the mass of the workers, individually and collectively. The plaint of labor is, in fact, that one group