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Author: 
 
 De Leon, Daniel 
 
 Title: 
 
 Industrial unionism 
 
 Place: 
 
 [New York] 
 
 Date: 
 
 1918 
 
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 D267 
 
 D34 
 
 De Leon, Daniel, 1852-1914. 
 
 Industrial unionism. Also, Industrial 
 xmionism, an address delivered at New York, 
 Dec. 10, 1905, by Eugene V. Debs. jNew Yorkj 
 New York labor news co., 1918. 
 
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 THE UBRARIES 
 
 Graduate 
 SCHOOL OF BUSINESS 
 Library 
 
Industrial Unionism 
 
 by 
 
 DANIFl. !)h Li:^.ON 
 
 ALSO 
 
 ■4 
 
 Industrial Unionism 
 
 An ad d^livorcd at Grand Central Palace, New York, 
 
 Suitday. December 10, 1905. 
 
 By 
 
 F\ (;knk V dkbs 
 
 Stenographically reported by ♦^he 
 
 V/ilic Tvoewritir,g fo., 
 
 N- V VcxK Ci:y. M. Y. 
 
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 19IK 
 
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 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM 
 
 By 
 V ;: DANIEL DE LEON. 
 
 \^:i 
 
 • • • 
 
 
 •• • 
 
 • • • 
 
 • • • 
 
I . 
 
 I. 
 
 In these days, when the term 'industrial Unionism" is 
 being played with fast and loose — ^when, in some quarters, 
 partly out of conviction, partly for revenue, "striking at the 
 ballot-box with an ax," theft, even murder, "sabotage," in 
 short, is preached in its name ; — when, at the National Coun- 
 cils of the A. F. of L. lip-service is rendered to it as a cloak 
 under which to justify its practical denial by the advocacy 
 and justification of scabbery, as was done at Rochester, at 
 the 1912 convention, by the Socialist Party man and Inter- 
 national Typographical delegate Max Hayes; when notoriety- 
 seekers strut in and thereby bedrabble its fair feathers ; when 
 the bourgeois press, partly succumbing to the yellow streak 
 that not a memiber thereof is wholly free from, partly in the 
 interest of that confusion in which capitalist intellectuality 
 sees the ultimate sheet-anchor of Class Rule, promotes, with 
 lurid reports, "essays" and editorials, a popular misconcep- 
 tion of the term ; — at this season it is timely that the Social- 
 ist Labor Party, the organization which, more than any 
 other, contributed in raising and finally planting, in 1905, 
 the principle and the structure of Industrialism, reassert 
 what Industrial Unionism is, re-state the problem and its im- 
 port. 
 
 Capitalism is the last expression of Class Rule. The eco- 
 nomic foundation of Class Rule is the private ownership of 
 the necessaries for production. The social structure, or garb, 
 of Class Rule is the Political State — that social structure in 
 which Government is an organ separate and apart from pro- 
 duction, with no vital function other than the maintenance 
 of the supremacy of the ruling class. 
 
 The overthrow of Class Rule means the overthrow of the 
 
2 INDUSTBIAL UNIONISM 
 
 political State, and its substitution with the Industrial Social 
 Order, under which the necessaries for production are collec- 
 tively owned and operated by and for the people. 
 
 Goals determine methods. The goal of social evolution 
 being the final overthrow of Class Eule, its methods must 
 nt the goal. 
 
 As in nature, where optical illusions abound, and stand in 
 the way of progress until cleared, so in society. 
 
 The fact of economic despotism by the ruling class raises, 
 with some, t^e illusion that the economic organization and 
 activity ^of the despotized workjing class is all-sufficient to 
 remove the ills complained of. 
 
 «,Jv!'%l*''* ""Lp^!!*^^^ despotism by the ruling class raises, 
 with others the illusion that the political organization and 
 activity of the despotized working class is aU-sufficient to 
 brmg about redress. 
 
 The one-legged conclusion regarding economic organiza- 
 ton and activity fatedly abuts, in ihe end, in pure and sim- 
 ple bombism as exemplified in the A. F. of L., despite its 
 Cmc Federation and Militia of Christ affiliations, L well 
 as by the Anarcho-Syndicalist so-called Chicago I W W — 
 m Bakoumnism, in short, against which the genius of Marx 
 struggled and warned. * 
 
 The one-legged conclusion regarding political organization 
 and actmiy, as fatedly abuts, in the end, in pure and simple 
 ballotism as already numerously and lamentablv exemplified 
 in ihe Socialist Party,-likewise struggled ^and warned 
 against by Marx as "parliamentary idiocy'' 
 
 Industrial Unionism, free from optical 'illusions, is clear 
 
 npon the goal--the substitution of ihe political State with 
 
 the Industnal Government. Clearness of vision renders In- 
 
 flrlc^j'^'T^'^ '"^'"''^ ^°*^ ^ ^e Anarchist self-deceit 
 
 nh.-pf fw""^ ^^^T^'^'^/' '^"^^^^ ^g^^«^ ^th ^1 the mis- 
 chief that flows therefrom, and to the politician's ^'parlia- 
 
 S'cS Ruk ^ ^ ^^ *^ legislation for the overtlirow 
 
 The Industrial Union grasps the principle: "J^o Govern- 
 ment no organization; no organization, no co-operative la- 
 bor, no co-operative labor, no abundance for all ^thout ar- 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM 
 
 8 
 
 duous toil, hence, no Freedom." — Hence, the Industrial Un- 
 ion aims at a democratically centralized Government, accom- 
 panied by the democratically requisite "local self-rule.". 
 
 The Industrial Union grasps the principle of the political 
 State— -central and local authorities disconnected from pro- 
 ductive activity; and it grasps the requirements of the Gov- 
 ernment of Freedom — the central and local administrative 
 authorities of the productive capabilities of the people. 
 
 The Industrial Union hearkens to the command of social 
 evolution to cast the nation, and, with the nation, its gov- 
 ernment, in a mold different from the mold in which Class 
 Rule casts nations and existing governments. While Class 
 jRule caste the nation, and, with the nation, its government, 
 in the mold of territory. Industrial Unionism casts the na- 
 tion in the mold of useful occupations, and transforms the 
 nation's government into the representations from these. Ac- 
 cordingly, Industrial Unionism organizes the useful occupa- 
 tions of the land into the constituencies of Future Society. 
 
 In performing this all-embracing function, Industrial 
 Unionism, the legitimate offspring of civilization comes 
 equipped with all the experience of the Age. 
 
 Without indulging in the delusion that ite progress will 
 be a "dress parade" ; and, knowing that ite program carries 
 in ite folds that acute stage of all evolutionary process known 
 as Revolution, the Industrial Union connects with the 
 achievemente of the Revolutionary Fathers of the country, 
 the first to frame a Constitution that denies the perpetuity 
 of their own social system, and that, by ite amendment clause, 
 legalizes Revolution. Connecting with that great achieve- 
 ment of the American Revolution ; fully aware that the Rev- 
 olution which it is big with being one that concerns the 
 masses and that needs the masses for ite execution, 
 excludes the bare idea of conspiracy, and imperatively 
 commands an open and above-board agitetional, edu- 
 cational, and organizing activity; finally ite path 
 lighted by the beacon tenet of Marx that none but the bona 
 fide Union can set on foot the true political party of Labor; 
 — Industrial Unionism bends its efforts to unite the working 
 class upon the political oa well as the industrial field,— on 
 
« INDUSTRIAL UNIOlHaiC 
 
 the industrial field because, without the integrally organized 
 Union of the working class, the revolutionary act is impos- 
 sible; on the political field, because on none other can be 
 proclaimed the revolutionary purpose, without consciousness 
 of which the Union is a rope of sand. 
 
 Industrial Unionism is the Socialist Republic in the maJc- 
 ing; and the goal once reached, the Industrial Union is the 
 Socialist Republic in operation. 
 
 Accordingly, the Industrial Union is, at once, the batter- 
 ing ram with which to pound down the foriress of capital- 
 iam, and the successor of the capitalist social structure itself. 
 
 n. 
 
 Industrialism is a trefoil that constitutes one leaf ; it is a 
 term that embraces three domains, closely interdependent, 
 and all three requisite to the whole. The three domams are 
 Fortn, Tactics and Goal. The Goal is the substitution of the 
 industrial for the political government; another term for the 
 Socialist Republic; the Tactics are the unification of the use- 
 ful labor of the land on the political as well as the economic 
 field; the Form concerns the structure of the organization. 
 Each of the three domains covers an extensive field, being 
 the gathered experience of the Labor or Socialist Movement 
 It is next to impossible to handle property any of the three 
 departments without touching the others. Unavoidably they 
 closely dovetail with one another. 
 
 THE MATTER OF FORM. 
 
 In the matter of Form or Structure Industrialism is a 
 physical crystallization of the sociologic principle that the 
 proletariat is one. From the fundamental principle of the 
 oneness of interests of the proletariat arises the ideal to be 
 obtained— their solidarity; and that shatters all structures 
 reared upon the theory of Craft Sovereignty. It shatters that 
 theory as completely as, upon the political field. State Sover- 
 eignty was shattered in the country. It does so for parity of 
 reasoning. Whatever the state lines, the separate states are 
 but fractions of the whole nation. Whatever the craft lines, 
 the separate crafts are but fractions of the whole Proletariat. 
 Consequently, however different the nature of the occupa- 
 tion, the work done, and the conditions of work, the useful 
 labor of the land is one nation, hence, must be organized as 
 CT" vn*'on. 
 
• INDUSTBIAL UNIONISM 
 
 The industrialist principle of one union, on the same 
 ground as one nation, excludes, as a matter of course, the jel- 
 ly-fish conception of oneness. The oneness of the high struc- 
 ture of the human being is a different oneness from that of 
 the lower jelly-fish. As the structure of the human being 
 implies parts and co-ordination of parts, so does the struc- 
 ture of Industrialism, a concept bom of the higher develop- 
 ment of modern society, imply divisions and subdivisions. 
 The field upon v^rhich Industrialism operates warrauts the 
 parallel with a modem army. One though an army is, it has 
 its separate divisions and subdivisions. These are also im- 
 perative to the Industrialist Army— it also has and must 
 have companies, battalions, regiments, brigades, divisions. 
 
 HOW INDUSTRIALISM ORGANIZES. 
 
 The impariant question then arises. What fact traces the 
 Imes that axe to mark these several parts from one another? 
 What the line of demarcation is among the several parts of 
 the Industrialist Army is determined by the facts in produc- 
 tion. The central principles in the determination flow from 
 the facts that dictate the form, or structure, of the corps des- 
 ignated as the "Local Industrial Union," and correctly so 
 designated, seeing that, although the "Local Industrial Un- 
 ion'' does not comprise the whole organization, but is only a 
 part thereof, nevertheless its stmcture typifies Industrialism. 
 
 Does the same fact, which traces the line between one Lo- 
 cal Industrial Union and another in one locality, also trace 
 the line between the "Trade and Shop Branches"? It does 
 not. The fact that traces the line between one Local Indus- 
 feial Union and another in one locality, and the fact that 
 determines tiie boundaries of the component factors of tiie 
 Local Industrial Union, are different. What facts are these ? 
 The answer to this question answers the question. How does 
 Industrialism organize? 
 
 The fact that traces the external boundary lines of the Lo- 
 cal Industrial Union is the output. 
 
 Here are two illustrations— one, the printing shop, a con- 
 cern which turns out an actual product, printed matter; the 
 other, the trolley line, a concem which does not turn' out 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM 7 
 
 any actual product, but fills that necessary and supplemen- 
 tary function in production which consists in transportation. 
 In each instance the output — ^printed matter in one case, 
 transportation in the other — draws the boundary lines of the 
 respective Local Industrial Union. 
 
 OUTPUT DETERMINES. 
 
 In the instance of the printing shop, the output being 
 printed matter, all the wage workers, whatever their special- 
 ized occupation may be, are, in that locality, engaged in the 
 same industry. Being so engaged, they belong in one print- 
 ers' Local Industrial Union. 
 
 In the instance of the trolley line, the output being trans- 
 portation, all the wage workers, whatever their specialized 
 occupation may be, are in that locality engaged in the same 
 industry. Being so engaged, they belong in one, in a trac- 
 tion Local Industrial Union. 
 
 Before proceeding to the internal construction of the Lo- 
 cal Industrial Union, an objection that has been raised 
 against the external construction of the Local Industrial Un- 
 ion, must be here considered. 
 
 Compositors, proofreaders, etc., are frequently found em- 
 ployed in other than establishments the output of which is 
 printed matter; they are found employed in some large tex- 
 tile concerns, they are found employed in electrical, in hotel, 
 in railroad, and other establishments. In the traction indus- 
 try there are electricians, firemen, etc. At the same time, 
 electricians and firemen are found employed in other than 
 establishments the output of which is transportation; thc.v 
 are found at work in hotels, in foundries, in big office build- 
 ings. And so all along the line. There hardly is an estab- 
 lishment, yielding a certain output, which does not employ 
 occupations that contribute to some other output in some 
 other establishment. 
 
 This fact has been seized by A. F. of L. craft unionism as 
 a proof positive of the "absurdity" of Industrialism. "Think 
 of it," these gentlemen have said and even written, "one 
 time a compositor is a 'printer,' another time he is a 'textile 
 worker,' in another place he is an 'electrician,' in another 
 
s 
 
 IXDUSTuIAL UNIOXISM 
 
 place he is a 'restaurant worker/ in a fifth place he is a 
 *railroader'; as to electricians and firemen, in one instance 
 they are 'traction workers,' in another *hotel and restaurant 
 workers/ in a third they are 'foundrymen/ in a fourth *ele- 
 Tator and janitormen' ! How lau<rhable !'' And much is the 
 mirth these gentry have indulged in on that score. 
 CRAFT VANITY HARMFUL. 
 For one thing, the foundation for the seeming absurdity 
 is *'Craft Vanity,''—^ sentiment, which traced to its source, 
 18 a denial of the oneness of proletarian interests. For an- 
 other thing, the only alternative to the "absurdity of Indus- 
 triahgm" is the tragedy of "Craft Sovereignty." * The first 
 objection superficial thinkers may be disposed to dismiss as 
 ^theoretical." Some reasoners will be less prone to sneer at 
 a "theory." In this matter, however, the theory can be left 
 aside. Its practical manifestation is "Craft Sovereignty," 
 and the practical manifestations of that should be shocTan^ 
 mough to shock the laughter out of the most mirthful Crafit 
 Unionist— provided, of course, he is not a labor lieutenant of 
 the capitalist class. 
 
 What the practical manifestations of "Craft Sovereignty" 
 are have often enough been on view in A. F. of L. strikes, 
 when one craft on strike in an industn- would be left in the 
 lurch by another craft in the same industry, which makes 
 the A. F. of L. a veritable craft scabbing affair. Such things 
 are only carried further at the A. F. of L. conventions where 
 whole bunches of delegates denounce one another as scabs. 
 Such a spectacle places the practical issue, or alternative, 
 squarely— cither Industrialism, despite its incidental and very 
 limited "laughableness/' or Craft Unionism, despite its per- 
 manent and chronically corstitutional scabbery— in other 
 words, either a little and far-fetched amuse merit, or a mass 
 of actual tragedy.. Industrialism— that form of economic 
 organization that capitnlist development dictates— dictates 
 the output as the controllinsr fact which traces the external 
 line of demarcation for the Local Industrial Union. 
 
 THE TOOL THE DECIDING FACTOR. 
 What, now, determines the internal lines of demarcation 
 for the Local Industrial Union? As the fact in prndvrfwn 
 
 ' INDUSTKIAL UNIONISM \) 
 
 that traces the boundary line of the Local Industrial Union 
 is the output, the correlated fact in production^ which traces 
 the boundary lines between the component factors of the Lo- 
 cal Industrial Union, that is, the Trade and Shop Branches, 
 is the tooL 
 
 From all that precedes it fellows that the Local Industrial 
 Union is a unit composed of a variety of occupations. 
 
 The component parts of the Local Industrial Union are 
 the Trade and Shop Branches. These Branches consist of 
 workers engaged in specific work; within each Branch be- 
 long all and only those engaged in such specific work. What 
 characterizes their work in each instance? The tool used by 
 each. 
 
 Sticking to the two illustrations— the printing industry 
 and the traction industry — used before, all the workers who 
 in one locality contribute to the output printed matter be- 
 long in one Local Industrial Union. The specific occupation 
 of all these workers is, however, not the same. Some are 
 compositors, others stereotypers, still others editors, etc. The 
 specific work in each instance is different, requiring specific 
 consideration. Each specific occupation requires its own or- 
 ganization — Branch. The tool used by the individual in his 
 specific work determines the boundaries of his Branch, and 
 the Branch to which he belongs — the workers whose tool is 
 the type-case or machine belong in a compositors' Branch; 
 the workers whose tool is the stereotyping apparatus, in a 
 stereotypers' Branch; the workers whose tool is the pen be- 
 long in a writers' or editorial Branch; and so forth. Like- 
 wise with the traction industry. Different being the specific 
 occupations of the workers who jointly contribute to the out- 
 put transportation, each specific occupation has its own 
 specific business, requiring a specific Branch — the workers 
 whose tool is the motor belong in a motormen's Branch; 
 those whose tool is the machinery in the power-house belong 
 in a power Branch; and so forth. All the Trade and Shop 
 Branches of each Local Industrial Union, being properly 
 connected by respective representative bodies, constitute the 
 local unit of Industrialism. With the Trade and Shop 
 
10 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM 
 
 Branches there is order within the Local Industrial Union; 
 without them there would be bedlam. 
 
 For the completion of this sketch in the descending line 
 of organization there remains one organism to consider — 
 the "Recruiting'' or "Mixed Local/' This organism is purely 
 transitory. Its members are transient. So long as there are 
 not enough workers in any one specific occupation to or- 
 ganize a Traxie and Shop Branch the worker is temporarily 
 housed in a Recruiting Local, from which he is transferred 
 to a Trade and Shop Branch of his industry, just as soon as 
 there are enough of such workers to constitute such a Branch. 
 
 IN A NUTSHELL. 
 
 How does Industrialism organize? 
 
 From the sketch rapidly traced above the answer is, in the 
 ascending line: 
 
 Ist By gathering into and keeping in '"Recruiting Lo- 
 cals" the individual workers of whose specific occupation 
 there may not as yet be enough to organize a "Trade and 
 Shop Branch"; 
 
 2nd. By gathering into '"Trade and Shop Branches" all 
 the workers who use the identical tool. 
 
 3rd. By gathering into "I.ocal Industrial Unions" all the 
 several "Trade and Shop Branches" whose combined work 
 furnishes a given output. There can be no "TiOcal Industrial 
 Union" without at least two "Trade and Shop Branches." 
 
 These are the first three stages. The further stages in 
 the ascending line,— Industrial Councils, National Industri- 
 al Unions, and Industrial Departments— are obvious. Their 
 structure, hence the method of their organization, flows 
 from the structure and reason for the structure of the '"Lo- 
 cal Industrial Union." 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM 
 
 By EUGENE V. DEBS. 
 
 (Chairman Rozelle: — I have the pleasure now to introduce 
 to you one whom you all know, Eugene V. Debs.) 
 
 There is inspiration in your greeting and my heart opens 
 wide to receive it. I have come a thousand miles to join 
 with you in fanning the flames of the proletarian revolution. 
 (Applause). 
 
 Your presence here makes this a vitalizing atmosphere for 
 a labor agitator. I can feel my stature increasing, and this 
 means that you are growing, for all my strength is drawn 
 from you, and without you 1 am nothing. 
 
 In capitalist society you are the lower class; the capital- 
 ists are the upper class — because they are on your backs; 
 if they were not on your backs, they could not be above 
 you. (Applause and laughter). 
 
 Standing in your presence, I can see in your gleaming 
 eyes and in your glowing faces the vanguard ; I can hear the 
 tramp, I can feel the thrill of the social revolution. The 
 working class are waking up. (A voice, "you bet"). They 
 are beginning to understand that their economic interests 
 are identical, that they must unite and act together econom- 
 ically and politically and in every other way; that ©nly by 
 united action can they overthrow the capitalist system and 
 emancipate themselves from wage-slavery. (Applause). 
 
 I have said that in capitalist society the working class 
 are the lower class; they have always been the lower class. 
 In the ancient world for thousands of years they were abject 
 slaves; in the Middle Ages, serfs; in modem times, wage- 
 workers; to become free men in socialism is the next inevit- 
 able phase in our civilization. (Applause). The working 
 class have struggled through all the various phases of their 
 development, and they are to-day engaged in the last stage 
 of the animal struggle for existence; and when the present 
 revolution has run its course, the working class will stand 
 forth the sovereigns of this earth. 
 
 In capitalist society the working man is not, in fact, a 
 man at all; as a wage-worker, he is simply merchandise; 
 he is bought in the open market the same as hair, hides, 
 salt, or any other form of merchandise. The very termin- 
 
PAGINATION BEGINS AGAIN 
 
 9 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 ology of the capitalist system proves that he is not a m^xi 
 in any sense of that term. 
 
 When the capitalist needs you as a working man to oper- 
 ate his machine, he does not advertise, he does not call for 
 men, but for '*hands"; and when you see a placard posted 
 "Fifty hands wanted," you stop on the instant; you kno^ 
 ihat that means YOU, and you take a bee-line for the 
 bureau of employment to offer yourself, in evidence of the 
 fact that you are a '*hand." When the capitalist adver- 
 tises for hands, that is what he wants. He would be in- 
 sulted if you were to call him a "hand." He has his capi- 
 talist politician tell you, when your vote is wanted, that 
 you ought to be very proud of your hands because they are 
 homy; and if that is true, he ought to be ashamed of his. 
 (Laughter and applause). 
 
 What is your status in society to-day? You are a humaa 
 being, a wage-worker. Here you stand just as you were 
 created, and you have two hands that represent your labor 
 power; but you do not work and why not? — For this simple 
 reason, that you have no tools with which to work; you 
 cannot compete against the machinery of the capitalist with 
 your bare hands; you cannot work unless you have access to 
 it, and you can only secure access to it by selling your labor 
 power, that is to say your energy, your vitality, your life 
 itself, to the capitalist who owns the tool with which yon 
 work, and without which you are idle and suffer all of the 
 ills that idleness entails. 
 
 In the evolution of capitalism, society has been divided 
 mainly into two economic classes: a relatively small class 
 of capitalists who own tools in the form of great machines 
 they did not make and cannot use, and a great body of many 
 millions of workers who did make these tools and who do 
 use them, and whose very lives depend upon them, yet 
 who do not own them; and these millions of wage-workers, 
 producers of wealth, are forced into the labor market, in 
 competition with each other, disposing of their labor power 
 to the capitalist class, in consideration of just enough of 
 what they produce to keep them in working order. They 
 are exploited of the greater share of what their labor pro- 
 duces, so that while, upon the one hand, they can produc* 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 9 
 
 in great abundance, upon the other, they can consume but 
 that share of the product that their meagre wage will buy; 
 and every now and then it follows that they have pro- 
 duced more than can be consumed in the present system, 
 and then they are displaced by the very products of their 
 own labor; the mills and shops and mines and quarries in 
 which they are employed, close down, the tools are locked 
 up and they are locked out, and they find themselves idle 
 and helpless in the shadow of the very abundance their 
 labor has created. There is no hope for them in this sys- 
 tem. They are beginning to realize this fact, and so they 
 are beginning to organize themselves; they are no longer 
 relying upon some one else to emancipate them, but they 
 are making up their minds to depend upon themselves and 
 to organize for their own emancipation. 
 
 Too long have the workers of the world waited for some 
 Moses to lead them out of bondage. He has not come; he 
 never will come. I would not lead you out if I could; for 
 if you could be led out, you could be led back again. (Ap- 
 plause). I would have you make up your minds that there 
 is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves. You do not 
 need tJhe capitalist. He could not exist an instant without 
 you. You would just begin to live without him. (Laughter 
 and prolonged applause). You do everything and he has 
 everything; and some of you imagine that if it were not 
 for him you would have no work. As a matter of fact, he 
 does not employ you at all; you employ him to take from 
 you what you produce, and he faithfully sticks to his task. 
 If you can stand it, he* can; and if yon don't change this 
 relation, I am sure he won't. You make the automobile, he 
 rides in it. If it were not for you, he would walk ; and if 
 it were not for him, you would ride. 
 
 The capitalist politician tells you on occasion that yon 
 are the salt of the earth ; and if you are, you had better begin 
 by salting down the capitalist class. 
 
 The revolutionary movement of the working class will 
 date from the year 1905, from the organization of the IN- 
 DUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD. (Prolonged 
 applause). Economic solidarity is to-day the supreme need 
 of the working class. The old form of unionism has long 
 
■^ma 
 
 * INDUSTUIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 since fulfilled its mission and outlived its usefulness, and 
 the hour has struck for a change. 
 
 The old unionism is organized upon the basis of the 
 identity of interests of the capitalist and working classes. It 
 spends its time and energy trying to harmonize these two es- 
 sentially antagonistic classes ; and so this unionism has at its 
 head a harmonizing board called the Civic Federation. This 
 federation consists of three parts; a part representing the 
 capitalist class; a part supposed to represent the working 
 class and still another part that is said to represent the 
 public." The capitalists are represented by that great union 
 labor champion, August Belmont. (laughter and hisses). 
 1 he working class is represented by Samuel Gompers, the 
 president of the American Federation of Labor (hisses and 
 c^r sick him/') and the public, by Grover Cleveland. 
 (Laughter). 
 
 Car you imagine a fox and goose peace congress? Just 
 fancy uch a meeting, the goose lifting its wings in benedic- 
 tion, c.jd the fox whispering "Let us prey." 
 
 The C?ivic Federation has been organized for the one 
 purpose of prolonging the age-long sleep of the working class. 
 I heir supreme purpose is to keep you from waking up. (A 
 voice: "They can't do it.") 6 H l 
 
 The Industrial Workers has been organized for an opposite 
 purpose, and its representatives come in your presence to 
 tell you that there can be no peace between you, the work- 
 mg class, and the capitalist class who exploit vou of what 
 .you produce; that as workers, you have economic interests 
 apart from and opposed to their interests, and that you 
 must organize by and for yourselves; and that if you are 
 intelligent enough to understand these interests, you will 
 sever your relations with the old unions in which you are 
 divided and sub-divided, and join the Industrial Workers, 
 in which all are organized and united upon the basis of the 
 class struggle. (Applause). 
 
 The Industrial Workers is organized, not to conciliate, but 
 to fight the capitalist class. We have no object in conceal- 
 msr any part of our mission; we would have it perfectly 
 understood. We deny that there is anything in common be- 
 tween workmgmen and capitalists. We insist that working- 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 men must organize to get rid of capitalists and make them- 
 selves the masters of the tools with which they work, freely 
 employ themselves, secure to themselves all they produce, 
 4Uid enjoy to the full the fruit of their labors. (Applause). 
 
 The old union movement is not only organized upon the 
 l)asi8 of the identity of interests of the exploited and ex- 
 ploiting classes, but it divides instead of uniting the workers, 
 and there are thousands of unions, more or less in conflict, 
 used against one another; and so long as these countless 
 unions occupy the field, there will be no substantial unity of 
 the working class. (Applause). 
 
 And here let me say that the most zeaious supporter of 
 the old union is the capitalist himself. August Belmont, 
 president of the Civic Federation, takes special pride in de- 
 claring himself a "union man" (laughter) ; but he does not 
 mean by that that he is an Industrial Worker, that is not 
 the kind of a union he means. He means the impotent old 
 union that Mr. Gompers and Mr. Mitchell lead, the kind that 
 keeps the working class divided so that the capitalist system 
 may be perpetuated indefinitely. 
 
 For thirty years I have been connected with the organized 
 labor movement. I have long since been made to realize that 
 the pure and simple union can do nothing for the working 
 class ; I have had some experience and know whereof I speak. 
 
 The craft union seeks to establish its own petty supremacy. 
 Craft division is fatal to class unity. To organize along 
 craft lines means to divide the working class and make it 
 the prey of the capitalist class. The working class can only 
 l)e unionized efficiently along class lines; and so the In- 
 dustrial Workers has been organized, not to isolate the crafts 
 but to unite the whole working class. (Applause). 
 
 The working class has had considerable experience during 
 the past few years. In every conflict between labor and cap- 
 ital, labor has been defeated. Take the leading strikes in 
 their order, and you will find that, without a single excep- 
 tion, the organized workers have been defeated, and thousands 
 upon thousands of them have lost their jobs, and many of 
 them have become "scabs." Is there not something wrong 
 with a unionism in which the workers are always worsted? 
 
INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 Let me review hurriedly some of this history of the past few 
 years. 
 
 I have seen the conductors on the Chicago, Burlington. 
 & Quincy Railroad, organized in a craft union, take the 
 places of the striking union locomotive engineers on the same 
 system. | 
 
 I have seen the employes of, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas I 
 Railway, organized in their several craft unions, stand by 
 the corporation as a unit, totally wiping out the union teleg- 
 raphers, thirteen hundred of them losing their jobs. 
 
 I have seen these same craft unions, just a little while 
 ago, on the Northern Pacific and Great Northern systems — 
 I have seen them unite with the corporation to crush out 
 the telegraphers' union, and defeat the strikers, their own 
 co-unionists and fellow employes. 
 
 Just a few weeks ago, in the city of Chicago, the switch- 
 men on the Grand Trunk went out on strike. AH their fel- 
 low unionists remained at work and faithfully served the 
 corporation until the switchmen were defeated, and now those 
 union switchmen are scattered about looking for jobs. 
 
 Til' machinists were rocently on strike in Chicago. They 
 went nt in a hy^\' undt r the direcHon of their craft union. 
 Tho^ fellow unionists all roma'Tictl at work until the ma- 
 s were conipl'^toly defeated and now their organization 
 
 C'l 
 
 t,:. 
 
 Hi '■ city is r^n i]\c verge of collapse. 
 
 • re has been a ceaseless repetition cd this form of 
 80^' ' \<r of one craft union upon another until the working 
 n^ f his eyes are open, is bounrl to see that this kind of 
 ui sm is a curse and not a benefit to the working class. 
 
 1 American Federation of Labor does not learn by ex- 
 perier'ce. They recently held their annual convention, and 
 they passed the same old stereotyped resolutions; they are 
 goinjx to petition Congress to restrict the power of the courts ; 
 that is to say, they are goinsr to once more petition a capi- 
 talist Congress to restrict the power of capitalist courts. 
 That is as if a flock of sheep were to petition a lot of wolves 
 to extract their own fangs. They have passed these resolu- 
 tions over and over again. They have been totally fruitless 
 and they will continue to be. 
 
 What good came to the working class from this conven- 
 
 INDUBTEIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 
 tion? Put your finger upon a single thing they did that 
 will be of any real benefit to the workers of the country ! 
 
 You have had some experience here in New York. You. 
 have plenty of unionism here, such as it is, yet there is not 
 a city in the country in which the workers are less organized 
 than they are here in New York. It was in March last thai 
 you had here an exhibition of pure and simple unionism. 
 You saw about six thousand craft union men go out on strike,. 
 and you saw their fellow unionists remain at work loyally 
 until all the strikers were defeated and sacrificed. Here you 
 have an object lesson that is well calculated to set you think- 
 ing, and this is all I can hope to do by coming here, set you 
 thinking, and for yourselves; for when you begin to think, 
 you will soon begin to act for yourselves. You will then 
 sever your relations with capitalist unions and capitalist 
 parties (applause), and you will begin the real work of or- 
 ganizing your class, and that is what we of the Industrial 
 Workers have engaged to do. We have a new mission. That 
 mission is not merely the amelioration of the condition of 
 the working class, but the complete emancipation of that 
 class from slavery. (Applause). 
 
 The Industrial Workers is going to do all for the working- 
 class that can be done in the capitalist system, but while 
 it is engaged in doing that, its revolutionary eye will be 
 fixed upon the goal ; and there will be a great difference be- 
 tween a strike of revolutionary workers and a strike of ig- 
 norant trade unionists who but vaguely understand what they 
 want and do not know how to get that (Applause). 
 
 The Industrial Workers is less than six months old, and 
 already has a round hundred thousand of dues-paying mem- 
 bers. (Applause). This splendid achievement has no par- 
 allel in the annals of organized labor. From every direction. 
 come the applications for charters and for organizers, and 
 when the delegates of this revolutionary economic organiza- 
 tion meet in the city of Chicago, next year, it will be the 
 greatest convention that ever met in the United States m the 
 interest of the working class. (Apnlause). 
 
 This organization has a world-wide mission ; it makes its. 
 iippeal directly to the working class. It asks no favors from 
 capitalists. 
 
8 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 9 
 
 No organization of working men has ever been so flagrant- 
 ly misTepresented by the capitalist press as has been the In- 
 dustrial Workers of the World ; every delegate to the Chicago 
 convention will bear testimony to this fact; and this is as it 
 ■should be; the capitalist press is the mouthpiece of the cap- 
 italist class, and the very fact that the capitalist press is the 
 organ, virtually, of the American Federation of Labor, is in 
 itself sufficient to open the eyes of the working class. 
 
 If the American Federation of Labor were not in alliance 
 with the capitalist class, the capitalist press would not pour 
 its fulsome eulogy upon it 
 
 This press has not one friendly word for the Industrial 
 Workers, not one, and we do not expect it to have. These 
 papers of the plutocrats know us and we know them (ap- 
 plause) ; between us there is no misunderstanding. 
 
 The workers of the country (the intelligent ones at least) 
 Tcadily see the difference between revolutionary and reaction- 
 ary unionism, and that is why thy are deserting the old and 
 joining the new ; that is why the Industrial Workers is build- 
 ing up so rapidly; that is why there is such a widespread 
 demand for organizers and for literature and for all other 
 means of building up this class-conscious economic organiza- 
 tion. (Applause). 
 
 As I have said, the Industrial Workers begin by declaring 
 that there is nothing in common between capitalists and 
 w^age-workers. 
 
 The capitalists own the tools they do not use, and the 
 workers use the tools they do not own. 
 
 The capitalists, who own the tools that the working class 
 use appropriate to themselves what the working class produce, 
 and this accounts for the fact that a few capitalists become 
 fabulously rich while the toiling millions remain in poverty, 
 ignorance and dependence. 
 
 Let me make this point perfectly clear for the benefit of 
 ihose who have not thought it out for themselves. Andrew 
 Carnegie is a type of the capitalist class. He owns the tools 
 ^th which steel is produced. These tools are used by many 
 thousands of working men. Andrew Carnegie, who owns 
 ihepe tools, has absolutely nothing: to do with the production 
 of steel. He may be in Scotland, or where he will, the pro- 
 
 duction of steel goes forward just the same. His mills at 
 Pittsburg, Duquesne and Homestead, where these tools are 
 located, are thronged with thousands of tool-less wage-work- 
 ers, who work day and night, in winter's cold and summer's 
 heat, who endure all the privations and make all the sacri- 
 fices of health and limb and life, producing thousands upon 
 thousands of tons of steel, yet not having an interest, even 
 the slightest, in the product. Carnegie, who owns the tools, 
 appropriates the product, and the workers, in exchange for 
 their labor power, receive a wage that serves to keep them in 
 producing order; and the more industrious they are, and the 
 more they produce, the worse they are off; for the sooner 
 they have produced more than* Carnegie can get rid of in the 
 markets, then the tool houses are shut down and the workers 
 are locked out in the cold. 
 
 This is a beautiful arrangement for Mr. Carnegie; he 
 does not want a change, and so he is in favor of the Civic 
 Federation, and a leading member of it; and he is doing 
 what he can to induce you to think that this ideal relation 
 ought to be maintained forever. 
 
 Now, what is true of steel production is true of every other 
 department of industrial activity ; you belong to the millions 
 who have no tools, who cannot work without selling your 
 labor power, and when you sell that, you have got to deliver 
 it in person ; you cannot send it to the mill, you have got 
 to carry it there ; you are inseparable from your labor power. 
 
 You have got to go to the mill at 7 in the morning and 
 work until 6 in the evening, producing, not for yourself, 
 but for the capitalist who owns the tools you made and use,, 
 and without which you are almost as helpless as if you had 
 no arms. 
 
 This fundamental fact in modern industry you must rec- 
 ognize, and you must organize upon the basis of this fact; 
 you must appeal to your class to join the union that is the 
 true expression of your economic interests, and this union 
 must be large enough to embrace you all, and such is the In- 
 dustrial Workers of the World. 
 
 Every man and every woman who works for wages is 
 eligible to membership. 
 
 Organized into various departments, when you join yon 
 
10 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 become a member of the department that represents your 
 'Craft, or occupation, whatever it may be; and when you have 
 « grievance, your department has supervision of it; and if 
 jou fail to adjust it in that department, you are not limited 
 to your craft alone for support, but, if necessary, all the 
 jorkers in all other departments will unite solidly in your 
 defense to the very last. (Applause). 
 
 41. i// P^^^ "? "^"^^^ industry. The workers, under 
 the old form of unionism, are parceled out to a score or more 
 of unions. Craft division incites craft jealousy and so they 
 are more or less in conflict with each other, and the em- 
 ployer constructively takes advantage of this fact, and that 
 18 why he favors pure and simple unionism. 
 
 It were better for the workers who wear craft fetters if 
 they were not organized at all, for then they could and would 
 spontaneously ^ out on strike together; but they cannot do 
 this in craft unionism, for certain crafts bind themselves up 
 in craft agreements, and after they have done this, they are 
 at the mercy of the capitalist; and when their fellow union- 
 
 itl L^rJl ^^^"^ ^^^ ^^^' *^^y «^^^ ^^^ ^e^ convenient 
 excuse that they cannot help them, that they must preserve 
 
 the sanctity of the contract they have made with the emplcver. 
 
 This so^alled contract is regarded as of vastly more im- 
 
 the^sdves "" ^^^' *^^ ""^"^ ^'""^ ""^ ^^ workingmen 
 
 ^o^\t """"i* ^°*f^^ that certain departments shall so at- 
 tach themselves to the capitalist employers. We purpose 
 
 JZl " ^•^'^f^'\'" ^' "^S«"^^^^' «"^ i^ there isTnv 
 agreement. It will embrace them all; and if there is anV 
 
 Tiolation of the agreement, in the case of a single emplove, 
 
 ]t at once becomes the concern of all. (Applause). That 
 
 IS unionism industrial unionism, in which all of the workers, 
 
 totally regardless of occupation, are united compactly within 
 
 the one organization, so that at all times they can act io^ 
 
 t1, J-""! w'^'i^''^^'^^ '"• ^t '' ^I^^ this basis that the 
 Industrial Workers of the World is organized. It is in 
 this spirit and with this object in view that it makes its ap- 
 peal to the working class. 
 
 Then, again, the revolutionary economic organization has 
 % new and important function which has never once hpon 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 11 
 
 thought of in the old union, for the simple reason that the 
 old union intends that the wage system shall endure forever. 
 
 The Industrial Workers declares that the workers must 
 make themselves the masters of the tools with which they 
 work; and so a very important function of this new union 
 is to teach the workers, or, rather, have them teach them- 
 selves the necessity of fitting themselves to take charge of 
 the industries in which they are employed when they are 
 wrested, as they will be, from their capitalist masters. (Ap- 
 plause). 
 
 So when you join the Industrial Workers you feel the thrill 
 of a new aspiration; you are no longer a blind, dumb wage- 
 slave. You begin to understand your true and vital relation 
 to your fellow-workers. In the Industrial Workers you are 
 co-related to all other workers in the plant, and thus you 
 develop the embryonic structure of the co-operative com- 
 monwealth. (Applause). 
 
 The old unionism would have you contented. We Indus- 
 trial Workers are doing what we can to increase your dis- 
 content. We would have you rise in revolt against wage- 
 slavery. The working man who is contented to-day is truly 
 a pitiable object. (Applause). 
 
 Victor Hugo once said: "Think of a smile in chains," — 
 that is a working man who, under the influence of the Civic 
 Federation, is satisfied with his lot; he is glad he has a 
 master, has some one to serve; for, in his ignorance, he 
 imagines that he is dependent upon the master. 
 
 The Industrial Workers is appealing to the working class 
 to develop their latent powers and above all, their capacity 
 for clear thinking. 
 
 You are a working man and you have a brain and if you 
 do not use it in your own interests, you are guilty of high 
 trecson to your manhood. (Applause). 
 
 It is for the very reason that you do not use your brain 
 in your interests that you are compelled to deform your 
 body in the interests of your master. 
 
 I have already said that the capitalist is on your back; 
 he furnishes the mouth, you the hands; he consumes, you 
 produce. That is why be runs largely to stomach and von 
 to hands. ^ Laughter >. 
 
12 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 13 
 
 U 
 
 I would not be a capitalist; I would be a man; you can* 
 not be both ai the same time. (Applause). 
 
 "he capitalist exists by exploitation, lives out of the labor^ 
 tliitL is to say the life, of the working man; consumes him^ 
 an<i his code of morals and standard of ethics justify it and 
 th proves that capitalism is cannibalism. (Applause). 
 
 - man, honest, just, high-minded, would scorn to live out 
 of i lie sweat and sorrow of his fellow man — by preying upon 
 his weaker brother. 
 
 We propose to destroy the capitalist and save the man. 
 (Applause). We want a system in which the worker shall 
 get what he produces and the capitalist shall produce what 
 he gets. (Applause). That is a square deal. 
 
 The prevailing lack of unity implies the lack of class con- 
 sciousness. The workers do not yet understand that they 
 are <mgaged in a class struggle, that they must unite their 
 cla^s and get on the right side of that struggle economically, 
 politically and in every other way— (applause), strike to- 
 gether, vote together and, if necessary, fight together. (Pro- 
 longed applause). 
 
 The capitalist and the leader of the pure and simple union 
 do what they can to wipe out the class lines; they do not want 
 you to recognize the class struggle ; they contrive to keep you 
 divided, and as long as you are divided, you will remain 
 where you are, robbed and helpless. 
 
 When you unite and act together, the world is youra. 
 (Prolonged applause). 
 
 The fabled Samson, shorn of his locks, the secret of his 
 power, was the sport and prey of the pygmies that tormented 
 him. The modern working class, shorn of their tools, the 
 secret of their power, are at the mercy of a small class who 
 exploit them of what they produce and then hold them in 
 contempt because of their slavery. 
 
 No master ever had the slightest respect for his slave any 
 more than any slave ever had the least real love for his master. 
 
 Between these two classes there is an irrepressible conflict, 
 and we Industrial Workers are pointing it out that vou may 
 see it, that you may get on the right side of it, that you may 
 get together and emancipate yourselves from every form of 
 servitude. — * 
 
 r. 
 
 It can be done in no other way ; but a bit of sober reason- 
 ing will convince you workers of this fact. 
 
 It is so simple that a child can see it. Why can't you? 
 You can if you will think for yourselves and see for your- 
 selves. But you will not do this if you were taught in the 
 old union school ; you will still look to someone else to lead 
 that you may follow ; for you are trained to follow the blind 
 leaders of the blind. You have been betrayed over and over 
 again ,and there will be no change until you make up your 
 minds to think and see and act for yourselves. 
 
 I would not have you blindly walk into the Industrial 
 Workers; if I had sufficient influence or power to draw you 
 into it, I would not do it. I would have you stay where you 
 are until you can see your way clear to join it of your own 
 accord. It is your organization; it is composed of your class; 
 it is committed to the interests of your class; it is going to 
 fight for your class, for your whole class, and continue the 
 fight until your class is emancipated. (Applause). 
 
 There is a great deal of opposition to this organization. 
 The whole capitalist class and all their labor lieutenants are 
 against it (applause) ; and there is an army of them, and all 
 their names are on the pay-roll and expense account. They 
 all hold salaried positions, and are looking out for themseNes. 
 
 When the working class unite, there will be a lot of jobless 
 labor leaders. (Applause). 
 
 In many of these craft unions they have it so arranged that 
 the rank and file do not count for any more than if they were 
 so many sheep. In the railroad organizations, for instance, 
 if the whole membership vote to go out on strike, they can- 
 not budge without the official sanction of the Grand Chief. 
 His word outweighs that of the entire membership. In the 
 light of this extraordinary fact, is it strange that the work- 
 ers are often betrayed? Is it strange that they continue at 
 the mercy of their exploiters? 
 
 Haven't they had quite enough of this? Isn't it time 
 for them to take an inventory of their own resources? 
 
 If you are a working man, suppose you look yourself over, 
 just once ; take an invoice of your mental stock and see what 
 you have. Do not accent my word; do not depend upon 
 anybody but yourself. Think it out for yourself ; and if vou 
 
if if i 
 
 14 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 do, I am quite certain that you wiU join the organization that 
 represents your class (applause) ; the organization that ha« 
 room for all your class ; the organization that appeals to you 
 to develop your own brain, to rely upon yourself and be a 
 man among men. And that is what the working class have 
 to do, cultivate self-reliance and think and act for them- 
 selves; and that IS what they are stimulated to do in the In- 
 dustrial Workers. 
 
 We have great hope and abiding faith for we know that 
 each day will bring us increasing numbers, influence and 
 power; and this notwithstanding all the opposition that can 
 be arrayed against us. 
 
 We know that the principles of the Industrial Workers 
 are right and that its ultimate triumph is assured beyond 
 the question of a doubt; and if you believe in its conquerin«f 
 mission, then we ask you to be true enough to yourselv^ 
 and your class to join it; and when vou join it you will have 
 a rluty to perform and that duty wilfbe to go out among the 
 ^ u-ganized and bring them into the ranks and help in this 
 at work of education and organization, without which the 
 rkmg class is doomed to continued ignorance and slavery. 
 arJ Marx the profound economic philosopher, who will 
 ^Tiownm future as the great emancipator, uttered the in- 
 inng shibboleth a half century ago: '^orkingmen of all 
 untries unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains: 
 •u have a world to gain." 
 
 You workers are the only class essential to society; aH 
 
 hers can be spared, but without vou society would ^rish. 
 
 ou produce the wealth, you support government, you create 
 
 m ^i^^^ civilization. You ought to be, cai be and 
 
 >llbe the masters of the earth. (Great applause). 
 
 oK i/i- "^ Z""^- ^^ ^eP^n^ent upon a capitalist? Why 
 
 V \^ this capitalist own a tool he cannot use? And why 
 
 pnould not you own the tool you have to use ^ 
 
 ma^IT ?i^ '"^ T'^ "^^^^ **^^* ^^^'^^ everywhere has been 
 made by t he working class, and is set and kept in operation 
 
 nLloLT ""^ ""^T' ^°^ ]^J^^ ^^"^^^ ^^«^« <^^ ^ake and 
 operate this marveloijs wealth-producins: machinery, they can 
 also develop the intelligence to make themselves the misters 
 Of this machinery (applause), and operate it not to turn out 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 15 
 
 millionaires, but to produce wealth in abundance for them- 
 selves. 
 
 You cannot afford to be contented with your lot ; you have 
 a brain to develop and a manhood to sustain. You ought 
 to have some aspiration to be free. 
 
 Suppose you do have a job, and that you can get enough 
 to eat and clothes enough to cover your body, and a place to 
 sleep; you but exist upon the animal plane; your very life 
 is suspended by a slender thread ; you don't know what hour 
 a machine may be invented to displace you, or you may 
 offend your economic master, and your job is gone. You go 
 to work early in the morning and you work all day; you go 
 to your lodging at night, tired; you throw your exhausted 
 body upon a bed of straw to recuperate enough to go back 
 to the factory and repeat the same dull operation the next 
 day, and the next, and so on and on to the dreary end; and 
 in some respects you are not so well off as was the chattel 
 slave. He had no fear of losing his job ; he was not black- 
 listed; he had food and clothing and shelter; and now and 
 then, seized with a desire for freedom, he tried to run away 
 from his master. You do not try to run away from yours. 
 He doesn't have to hire a policeman to keep an eye on you. 
 When you run, it is in the opposite direction, when the 
 bell rings or the whistle blows. 
 
 You are as much subject to the command of the capitalist 
 as if you were his property under the law. You have got 
 to go to his factory because you have got to work; he is 
 the master of your job, and you cannot work without his 
 consent, and he only gives this on condition that you sur- 
 render to him all you produce except what is necessary to 
 keep you in running order. 
 
 The machine you work with has to be oiled; you have to 
 be fed; the wage is your lubricant, it keeps you in working 
 order, and so you toil and sweat and groan and reproduce 
 yourself in the form of labor power, and then you pass away 
 like a silk worm that spins its task and dies. 
 
 That is your lot in the capitalist system and you have no 
 right to aspire to rise above the dead level of wage-slavery. 
 
 It is true that one in ten thousand may escape from his 
 rlasw? and become a millionaire; he is the rare exception that 
 
16 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 17 
 
 If 
 
 ek«r.S%^ ^^' wage-workers remain in the working 
 class and they never can become anything else in the capi- 
 talist system. They produce and perish, ^d their explX 
 bones mingle with the dust. e^pioiiea 
 
 h«S/!7.{^ ^f^V^ * P^^' industrial paralysis, and 
 hundreds of thousands of workers are flung into the st^te • 
 no work, no wages ; and so they throng the highways in search 
 of employment that cannot be found ; they become va^ 
 tramps outcaste, criminals. It is in this way that the Cn 
 
 sy^?em Xr*''' ^^ *^"* ^T S^^^uates in the capitalist 
 system, all the way from petty larceny to homicide. 
 
 or wv f ^ ^'^^T^ ""^^ P^°^"^^ *^e wealth haye little 
 
 ™ Sfm*' '^r/'\ '^' .^^''^ '' widespread ignorance 
 among them; mdustnal and social conditions prevail that 
 defy all language properly to describe. The working claL 
 
 ren m enforced competition with one another, in all of the 
 eirclmg hours of the day and night, for the sale'of their labor 
 power, and m the severity of the competition the wage inks 
 gradually until it touches the point of Vubsistence. ^ 
 ^i^A A^^^}^^"""^ *^*° ^^^ "^i"io°8 of women are en- 
 M-i^f il^^^^ ^^ i"^"^^°°« «^ ^^ild^en, and the number 
 of chid laborers is steadily increasing, for in this system 
 profit IS important, while life has no vake. It is not a%ue^ 
 tion of male labor, or female labor, or child labor; it is simplv 
 a question of cheap labor without reference to th^ eV^t Zn 
 
 he' ZZZl Sro^M^- "^"r '' ^"P^^y^^ '- preference'to 
 1.1^ ^v ^! ^\'\^ '° preference to the woman; and so we 
 have millions of children, who, in their early, tend^ y^a^ 
 
 ttiX *^VPi'/^"°^' ^' ^* «^^^J> ^hen they ought 
 
 ^d en W 'fr]'^\*' ^^"^ ^l'^ ^^^^^ ^ ^^'^ wholesome f!od 
 Z.f^Tl ^^^ ateiosphere they are forced into the in- 
 
 i^\rt }• '°'^v^*f monBi^Ts and become as living cogs 
 in the revolving wheels. They are literally fed to industry 
 ^produce profite. They are dwarfed and' deformed, men! 
 ;telly, morally and physically; they have no chance in life- 
 ttey are the victims of the industrial system that the Indus' 
 teal Workers is organized to abolish, in the interest, not 
 
 only of the working class, but in the higher interest of all 
 humanity. ( Applause ) . 
 
 If there is a crime that should bring to the callous cheek 
 of capitalist society the crimson of shame, it is the unspeak- 
 able crime of child slavery ; the millions of babes that fester 
 in the sweat shops, are the slaves of the wheel, and cry out 
 in their agony, but are not heard in the din and roar of our 
 industrial infernalism. 
 
 Take that great army of workers, called coal miners, or- 
 ganized in a craft union that does nothing for them; that 
 seeks to make them contented with their lot. These miners 
 are at the very foundation of industry and without their labor 
 every wheel would cease to revolve as if by the decree of some 
 industrial Jehovah. (Applause). There are 600,000 of 
 these slaves whose labor makes possible the firesides of the 
 world, while their own loved ones shiver in the cold. I know 
 something of the conditions under which they toil and despair 
 and perish. I have taken time enough to descend to the 
 depths of these pits, that Dante never saw, or he might have 
 improved upon his masterpiece. I have stood over these 
 slaves and I have heard the echo of their picks, which sounded 
 te me like muffled drums throbbing funeral marches to the 
 grave, and I have said to myself, in the capitalist system, 
 these wretches are simply following their own hearses to the 
 potter's field. In all of the horizon of the future there is 
 no star that sheds a ray of hope for them. 
 
 Then I have followed them from the depths of these black 
 holes, over to the edge of the camp, not to the home, they 
 have no home ; but to a hut that is owned by the corporation 
 that owns them, and here I have seen the wife,— Victor 
 Hugo once said that the wife of a slave is not a wife at all ; 
 she is simply a female that gives birth to young— I have seen 
 this wife standing in the doorway, after trying all day lon^ 
 to make a ten-cent piece do the service of a half-dollar, and 
 she was ill-humored; this could not be otherwise, for love 
 and abject poverty do not dwell beneath the same roof. Here 
 there is no paper upon the wall and no carpet upon the floor; 
 there is not a picture to appeal to the eye; there is no statute 
 to challenge the soul, no strain of inspiring music to touch 
 and quicken what Lincoln called the better angels of human 
 
18 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 19 
 
 ! f 
 
 ^^ L^ ^l^ *¥/® 'f haggard poverty and want. And in 
 this ateosphere the children of the future are bein^ reared 
 many thousands of them, under conditions that make it mor- 
 aUy certain that they wiU become paupers, or criminals, or 
 
 Man is the product, the expression of his enyironment 
 Show me a majestic tree that towers aloft, that challenges 
 the a^iration of man, or a beautiful rose-bud that, under 
 ^e influence of sunshine and shower, bursts into bloom and 
 fills the common air with its fragrance; these are possible 
 only because the soil and climate are adapted to their growth 
 and culture Transfer this flower from the sunlight wid the 
 atmosphere to a cellar filled with noxious gases, and it withers 
 and dies The same law applies to human beings ; the indus- 
 tnai soil and the social climate must be adapted to the de- 
 velopment of men and women, and then society will cease 
 producing (cry of "down with capitalism") the multiplied 
 thousands of deformities that to-day are a rebuke to our 
 much vaunted civilization, and, above aU, an impeachment 
 of the capitalist system. (Applause). 
 
 What is true of the miners is true in a greater or less de- 
 
 ^^ '? *LT^^^®^® ^ ^^^ ^^^^^ departments of industrial 
 activity. This system has about fulfilled its historic mis- 
 
 "^? i^P^i? ^""V ^^^ *^®'"® ^^® *^^ unerring signs of change 
 and the time has come for the organization of the working 
 class to pave the way for this change. Education and or- 
 ganization of the working class for the social revolution 
 (applause) that is to lift the workers from the depths of 
 slavery and elevate them to an exalted plane of equality and 
 fraternity. (Applause). ^ ^ 
 
 At the beginning of industrial society men worked with 
 hand tools; a boy could learn a trade, make himself the 
 master of the simple tools with which he worked, and emplov 
 himself and enjoy what he produced ; but that simple tool of 
 a century ago has become a mammoth social instrument ; in 
 a word, that tool has been socialized. Not onlv this, but pro- 
 duction has been socialized. As small a commodity as a pin 
 ^^ *,P?^' ^^ * ^^^^^ involves for its production all of the 
 social labor of the land ; but this evolution is not yet com- 
 plete; the fool hp<: benn socialized, production hns been soci.il- 
 
 ized, and now ownership must also be socialized; in other 
 words, those great social instruments that are used in modem 
 industry for the production of wealth, those great social 
 agencies that are socially made and socially used, must also 
 be socially owned. (Applause). 
 
 The Industrial Workers is the only economic organization 
 that makes this declaration, that states this fact and is or- 
 ganized upon this foundation, that the workers must own 
 their tools and employ themselves. This involves a revolu- 
 tion, and this means the end of the capitalist system, and 
 the rearing of a working class republic (prolonged applause), 
 the first real republic the world has ever known ; and it is 
 coming just as certainly as I stand in your presence. 
 
 You can hasten it, or you can retard it, but you cannot 
 prevent it. 
 
 This the working class can achieve, and if you are in that 
 class and you do not believe it, it is because of your ignorance, 
 it is because you got your education in the school of pure and 
 simple unionism, or in a capitalist political party. This the 
 working class can achieve and all that is required is that the 
 working class shall be educated, that they shall unite, that 
 they shall act together. 
 
 The capitalist politician and the labor lieutenant have al- 
 ways contrived to keep the working class divided, upon the 
 economic field and upon the political field; and the workers 
 have made no progress, and never will until they desert those 
 false leaders and unite beneath the revolutionary standard of 
 the Industrial Workers of the World. (Applause). 
 
 The capitalists have the mills and the tools and the dol- 
 lars, but you are an overwhelming majorit\^; you have the 
 men, you have the votes. There are not enough of them to 
 continue this system an instant ; it can only be continued bv 
 your consent and with your approval, and to the extent that 
 you give it you are responsible for your slavery; and if you 
 have your eyes opened, if you understand where you properly 
 belong, it is still a fortunate thing for you that you cannot 
 do anything for yourself until you have opened the eves of 
 those that are yet in darkness. (Applause). 
 
 Now, there are many workers who have had their eyes 
 opened and they are giving their time and energy to the revo- 
 
20 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 and an energy unkiown in the cirdes of union,! T ^ 
 ^onths from this night you will S that the fis a ve'^^ 
 formidable organization of Industrial Worked in New Vo^ 
 
 act now and for yourself- Jr^TTt LI ^ .1' ^^* ^^^ 
 
 i^L^ 1^ '™P'7 monumental of the ienorance of vo«r 
 ? r TTSe"whilftr '''^^ «"•* *" b«^- teTu?at:'thC 
 of contim?t,tw t^'crslTdli^^^^ ""!! *^^- ^"^^^ 
 
 e^Stheta ]Lt of-rTanZ'd- *^'^' ^ ^^ ^^^ 
 
 Camp Fri "* '' '' ^^'^'^S qmck-step marches t<; 
 
 Stand erect ! Lift your bowed form from the earth i Th« 
 dust has long «,ough borne the impress of your taeJs 
 
 ligW ZSas^ 'h ,'r " ^'' '^"" you'castSe sun- 
 
 con^tioif^Sd th^enS'iot'Lr;' ^**^ '^^ »^°" y-' 
 quences of your ite° ^ ' ^""^ " '"""' *« ''""^ 
 
 wo5:«liiS^ TndC w''- . ^1!'^ ^* *° h'^^ the 
 eion/you ail tun'd 'to ,S thT iX^iS ^or^: ^11 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM. 
 
 «1 
 
 come a missionary in the field of industrial unionism. You 
 will then feel the ecstacy of a new-born aspiration. You will 
 do your very best. You will wear the badge of the Indus- 
 trial Workers, and you will wear it with pride and joy. 
 
 The very contempt that it invites will be a compliment 
 to you; in truth, a tribute to your manhood. 
 
 Go out into the field and bring in the rest of the workers, 
 that they may be fully equipped for their great mission. We 
 will wrest what we can, step by step, from the capitalists, but 
 with our eye fixed upon the goal; we will press forward, keep- 
 ing step together with the inspiring music of the new eman- 
 cipation ; and when we have enough of this kind of organiza- 
 tion, as Brother De Leon said so happily the other day (ap- 
 plause), when we are lined up in battle array, and the cap- 
 italists try to lock us out, we will turn the tables on the 
 gentlemen and lock them out. (Applause). 
 
 We can run the mills without them but they cannot run 
 them without us. (Applause). 
 
 It is a very important thing to develop the economic power 
 to have a sound economic organization. This has been the 
 mherent weakness in the labor movement of the United 
 States. We need, and sorely need, a revolutionary economic 
 organization. We must develop this kind of strength ; it is 
 the kind that we will have occasion to use in due time, and 
 it 18 the kind that will not fail us when the crisis comes. So 
 we shall organize and continue to organize the political field • 
 and 1 am of those that believe that the day is near at hand 
 when we shall have one great revolutionary economic organ- 
 ization of the working class and one g^reat revolutionary 
 political party of the working class. (Cheers and prolonged 
 app ause). Then will proceed with increased impetus the 
 work of education and organization that will culminate in 
 emancipation. 
 
 This great body will sweep into power and seize the reins 
 of government ; take possession of industry in the name of 
 the working class and it can be easily done. All that will 
 be required will be to transfer the title from the parasites 
 to the producers; and then the working class, in control of 
 
 ^Iru"^' '^'" T.'*^*^ '* ^'^'' *^^ ^^"^^* 0^ all. The work dav 
 will be reduced m proportion to the progress of invention 
 
M'^ 
 
 JNI>; .Mi;i \,. UNION 
 
 n8M. 
 
 'i^'i^:'m^:^lt\^t^'^ « chance to work, „u.. 
 
 i» l.is work m d work witMoT^Tl 1 *'"«"?•■«=« himself 
 •>o t,. only badgrtf'^ltC;^''*?^,;^.^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 will becwne a tt-mplo of science ThnLL?' ''•"'?«'" 
 !->-^, and all \..»,Liy diseXalled '"'"" •■''^'' *'" '«• 
 
 redlteTrof'thrut": rnTxr^r''^ <«w''--) ; «... 
 
 irreat historic miss n men ,n "'^ ^""^ ^''"'"'='' *«^ 
 lands and enjov X vi^on Tt T'T ?"" *«"' "'« high- 
 
 triumph of Freedom and CiWMzation ""•'''^"''''"f '" ">,• 
 applause). '-ivuization. (Long, eontinue.1 
 
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