# Industrial Unionism (Trautmann)

INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM
BY WILLIAM E. TRAUTMANN
CHICAGO CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY 1908
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PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
As the publishing house which issues this booklet is closely though unofficially related to the Socialist Party of America, a large majority of our two thousand stockholders being members of that party, a word of explanation regarding the relation of the party to Industrial Unionism may not be out of place.
The traditional policy of our party is to co-operate fraternally with all trade unions, and to take no sides in disputes between unions. But as Marxian students of social evolution, we recognize that capital concentration has made craft unions obsolete, and that the principle of industrial unionism must be adopted in the near future.
Believing that Socialist wage workers should understand this principle, we have obtained permission from William E. Trautmann to reprint the matter here presented, which appeared originally in the Industrial Workers' Bulletin. His address is Bush Temple, Chicago avenue and Clark street, Chicago.
Our publication of this booklet is not to be taken as an endorsement of any particular organization; our object is simply to put valuable information within the reach of as many workers as possible.
C. H. K.
INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM.
NEW METHODS AND NEW FORMS.
A portion of the workers, in ever-increasing numbers, recognize the fact that the working class and the employing class have nothing in common, and that the struggle must go on until all the toilers come together and take and hold that which they produce by their labor. As there is no harmony between exploiter and exploited, the former, by using the craft unions and their methods to their own advantage, could always hold their ground and remain the masters over the destinies of millions. The workers begin to see that they must not only prepare themselves to hold their own against the aggressions of their oppressors, but also destroy the fortifications behind which the enemy has entrenched himself in his possessions of land, mills, mines and factories. "What is of benefit to the employers must, self-evidently, be detrimental to the employes," is the logic of the everyday professor of the workshop. Organization he sees on the side of the enemy; masterfully arranged, systematically conducted; unscrupulous in the application of any method to hold their domain of power and to subdue the workers, On the same lines must the workers organize, and their fighting methods must be governed by only one consideration, ​how they can gain advantages over their Oppressors, and frustrate all efforts to disarm the workers by their manifold agencies.
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION.
Organization on right lines, and for the purposes outlined, must be so constituted that all distinctions between crafts are eliminated, although for technical details the grouping of workers must be so arranged that the factory, mine or mill at which wage earners are employed can be controlled for proper and well-directed action; either in the everyday conflicts or in the endeavors to achieve the final aim for which such labor organizations are brought into existence. "A chain is not stronger than its weakest link," and if the organized workers in any industry neglect to bring within the folds of their organization any portion of those exploited, they will thereby weaken the chances of accomplishing results, by which the progress of social development is usually measured. Organization being the essential thing, as it is in the craft union movement, though there it often results for the benefit of the capitalists, the organization which is to equip the workers with the best instruments of warfare must so be formed that every portion thereof forms a component, inseparable part of the whole body, depending in its actions on the movements of all others, so that every battalion and regiment ​is a component part of an army, and_ their movements and advances only a well-directed part of the program of the whole.
The industrial union, in contradistinction to the craft union, is that organization through which all its members in one industry, or in all industries, if necessary, can act as a unit and adopt such methods by which the power, the might and the commanding position of the wealth producers can be best exercised and demonstrated.
INDUSTRIAL UNION METHODS INTERNATIONAL.
Wherever the factory system of production is established, wherever a few, by reason of their control of all means of life, use their economic power to exact profits from the labor power, the limbs and lives of the proletarian class, there are evident the eruptions of pent-up discontent; at intervals, measured by the degree of power acquired through the various stages of the organizing process, great masses arise in one country or another, and from the convulsions vibrating through the universe the workers in other parts of the world, if, they follow events, learn of the efforts of others to throw off the burden and to uplift the class. "Anarchy, riot, mob rule," is the tale of woe given by the news agency of the ruling class; the capitalist class throughout the world, through their pliant tools, are watching every ​move of the proletarians, for fear that methods adopted successfully in the conflicts of one land may be copied in another; trembling because they would dread nothing more than to see the working class everywhere profit from the experience of all and thereby avoid the mistakes which doomed others in their struggles. But knowledge is power; and to know the fighting methods applied by Industrial Unionists in every land upon the globe also is one of the essential requisites of those who struggle and strive to attain the quickest and best results in the war of the workers against the shirkers.
ORGANIZED SPONTANEOUS ACTION.
"It was certainly shocking!" What impudence of these workers in the electric power plants of Paris, part of which were even operated on the municipal ownership plan, to walk out in a body in 1907 without giving notice to the employing class! Indeed an appalling spectacle! All traffic stopped, all theaters, restaurants and amusement places dark; no lights in the streets; in fact, industrial life brought to a standstill. The threats that troops would be called out scoffed at by the strikers! The prefect and municipal authorities pleading in vain for harmony and arbitration! Frantic appeals to good citizenship and the sense of duty towards the general public of no avail! ​All the capitalist newspapers throughout the world were commenting on the apparent new features of the strike; the papers in the United States, with few exceptions, reminding editorially the good, law-abiding workers that such horrible things could not happen in America, where employers and employes argue and arbitrate, and enter into contracts during the life of which peaceful relations prevail! "France was at the brink of the revolution"—was the outcry, when the Paris Syndicalists (Industrial Unionists) gained every point that such spontaneous action had been invoked for; worse yet, when three days later the subway employes demanded redress for their long-standing grievances, these other workers who had been given everything they wanted prepared to walk out again to aid their fellow workers! That was, of course, revolution on a small scale. There was no contract to give the companies and the municipalities notice when the workers would be ready to submit demand for consideration; unaware of the fact that the Syndicalists in these plants had organized the power to back up their demands, the employers listened cunningly to the expressions of "wants and wishes" and promised consideration until they found that economic might was something they had to reckon with.
The engineers could not be pitted against the firemen, and neither be played against the other ​branches of workers in those industries; all made common cause, all shared in the achievements; all would have suffered in common hardships in case of prolongation of the conflict, and all were prepared to act as a united, well-drilled body when the interests of their fellow workers in a kindred institution had to be protected. But because they had given a drastic display of the fighting strength and power of their industrial organization, the capitalists in other industries knew that the workers were not playing "a bluff game of chance," and the strategical advantages gained could be still more fortified by the constant vigilance exercised and preparedness for any emergency, that would arise.
UNORGANIZED SPONTANEOUS ACTION.
"But," our critics will say, "this display of suddenly aroused unity can be observed every season among the thousands of clothing workers in the various big cities of North America. Thousands of downtrodden workers act together as if they had been preparing and organizing for a long while in anticipation of an impending conflict."
But there is a repetition at the beginning of every season, the same demands followed by the same claims of sweeping victories. The sweatshop system, according to proclamations, was time and again abolished as the condition ​of settlement of such strikes, yet with every recurring conflict there is the same outcry of scores of thousands against the appalling working conditions in these industries; every year the same conflagration—straw-fire like—and the same extinguishment. What is the cause?
ORGANIZATION ESSENTIAL FOR PERMANENT RESULTS.
It is evident that there is more required than a mere suspension of work, followed by apparently quick acquiescence of the employers, to hold and render permanent any achievements gained. In the cases cited last it is shown that the capitalists will quickly make concessions in order to have their institutions operated when it is most profitable; but they know well that there is no organization vigilantly guarding the advantages gained; they know that the organization temporarily established during such skirmishes is disbanded immediately with the termination of the struggle.
It is the collective power of the producers, permanently brought into action, which is feared and respected; suddenly aroused unity of action is effective because it presupposes the existence of a well-prepared and equipped organization. Failure to provide for permanent fighting bodies results inevitably in the loss of all gains made temporarily, as seen in the ever-recurring struggle of the workers in the clothing and other industries.
INDUSTRIAL IRRITATION-STRIKE.
What an army of workers, if well organized on right lines and trained in the adoption of more effective methods, can accomplish was best demonstrated in the many irritation-strikes, notably so in Odessa and Lodz, Russia; but also frequently in the United States. In Lodz the textile workers, organized without distinction of crafts, ceased to work in the big factories of Poznansky's, Scheibler's and Geier's first, and they were followed immediately by the thousands of comrades in hundreds of other factories in the Pietrikow district. Approximately 80,000 workers could successfully carry on the conflict for many weeks without any visible means to support the strikers.
At a given hour, on a fixed day, all workers would suspend work Suddenly, stay out for a week and see the manufacturers make all kinds of preparations to break the strike, even with the aid of troops subjected to their orders by consent of the government authorities. And as spontaneously as the workers ceased to work they would return to their posts after a week or ten days' suspension; acting as if nothing at all had happened. The manufacturers, thinking that all trouble had blown over, would start to run the factories full blast, to make up for time lost, until again, at a moment's notice, every soul would walk out again, only to re​peat these methods over and over again until the manufacturing was demoralized, the factories crippled, and irritation of the employers enhanced by the fear that such a well-trained body of workers might exercise their power in other directions also.
Of course, such methods and tactics cannot be used effectively where the capitalists can induce a portion of the workers to stay at work, by offering them a contract or improved conditions; so also is a thorough knowledge of the general industrial conditions required. Only when the factory owners have large orders on hand do they fear the constant interruption of operations; yet where workers are well organized for such action, notably in the metal industries in different countries, they have forced the manufacturers to employ the same number of workers during periods of market declines; that is, the lay-off of all in proper rotation was enforced, so that at even reduced earnings the workers did not swell the reserve army of unemployed and were able to maintain what they had gained in the conflicts during busy periods.
IRRITATION STRIKES IN AMERICA.
In Granite City, Illinois, and vicinity thousands of workers are employed in the big steel and iron works.
Comparatively few mechanics are organized in their respective craft unions, but the large ​bulk, consisting mostly of Roumanians and Hungarians, were not permitted to become members of any union, although many of them had been organized in their native land. When their working conditions became unbearable, the companies' officials soon heard of rumblings; and hastened to protect themselves by inducing a few native-born wage workers to organize into a federal labor union; they signed a contract granting a small increase in wages and a nine-hour workday. They thought that by these concessions to a comparatively few the latter, would help to keep the other thousands in subjection. But the propaganda for industrial unionism also reached thousands of workers not organized.
One morning in summer 1906 there were standing at the gates of the big mills thousands of workers; but few only who could converse in English. When the whistles blew for the starting up not a soul would move; asked by the company officials what they wanted, one shout was given in response: "No work, if not $2.00 pay!" The mechanics could not start to work without these thousands of helpers. No committees, no arbitration offers. "Either $2.00 pay or no work." That was all. The company got police protection to disperse the masses, but suddenly, after two hours of idleness in the plants, the big throng poured into the mills to resume work.
​A victory for the corporation; the workers were defeated!
Next morning the same thousands stood at the gates, murmuring their demand: "Two dollars or no work." Again the amazed officials looked for help; but as suddenly did the workers again start up the mills.
Three days in succession the same spectacle! Finally the corporations realized that they had to deal with an organized mass, and they immediately got busy ordering the employment bureaus to secure strike-breakers. The worker's anticipated this move; and again one morning the officials were surprised to see all these men walk to their posts when the whistle blew. Several days thus passed; there was no need for strike-breakers; orders for them were canceled; the company thought the strikers were again defeated.
A week passed and again thousands stood at the factory gates, shouting aloud their demands: "Two dollars.per day, eight hours' work." The bosses were stunned; again they saw the crowd resume operations the same day, after a few hours' suspension; and the same methods were repeated next day. This was enough for the companies. No contract was signed, no union recognized; but the power of such well-conducted action and organized effort had to be recognized; and the men went to work next day with all demands acceded to.
​Such was the impression of these demonstrations of working class solidarity that even the craft unionists conceived the superiority of such methods; and the lodges of the Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers even voted in favor of joining an organization that had conducted such a conflict with such new and startling methods, and so instructed their delegate to the national convention held at Cincinnati in 1906.
That the lieutenants of the capitalist succeeded later in dividing these workers in no way alters the fact that Such methods could only be effectively applied because of the compactness of the organization and the Self-imposed discipline of the great mass of workers.
THE THEORY OF SUCH STRIKES.
The thory advanced by the craft unionists for their particular methods applied in strikes and lockouts is that the leaving and staying out of the workshops until the union's demands are acceded to, or a sort of compromise made, curtails the opportunities of the capitalists to exploit labor for profit,
But the employers, knowing the weakness of the craft unions and their methods, are always prepared, and they have, when necessary, enough workers available to continue the operation of the establishments. In long-drawn-out conflicts the workers alone pay the costs of ​conflict; "slave-bleeding," the term used by industrial unionists, implies that the resources of the striking craft unionists are exhausted by such protracted strikes; and they are then at the mercy of the employers of labor.
The theory of the industrial unionist is that the heavy burden of the class conflict should fall as much as possible upon the manufacturers, and all methods of warfare should be governed accordingly.
The industrial unionist, as demonstrated in hundreds of cases, recognizes the fact that by leaving the workshop the same is absolutely left in control of the employer, and he is at liberty to engage new hands if he cares to. The industrial unionist may leave the factory, mill or mine, and return to work, only apparently defeated, when he realizes that the points contended for cannot be gained at the initial move; yet, by maintaining the organization, can be ready at any time to institute well-directed actions at times and places selected by the working class organizations when chances for success are more promising.
CONTRACT GIVEN UNDER DURESS NOT BINDING.
"But the manufacturers may impose their terms before allowing the resumption of work, and demand as a condition of reinstatement that all workers sign papers containing the ultimatum of the employer, such as renunciation ​of any kind of organization, reduced wages, etc. Failure to comply with such terms would mean a continuation of the strike, or lockout, and by the working place being closed against the obstinate rebels they would have no opportunity to apply such fighting methods as are here portrayed."
The industrial unionist, however, holds that there can be no agreement with the employers of labor which the workers have to consider sacred and inviolable.
The worker, if he agrees to the terms of a contract insisted upon by an employer as condition of employment, does so under duress; he is neither legally nor morally bound to respect such an agreement as a sacred pact; moreover, such contracts are used, as shown in this treatise, as instruments to keep the workers divided; the benefit of a contract is always on the side of the employer.
Industrial unionists will therefore sign any pledge, and renounce even their organization if necessary, at times when they are not well prepared to give battle, or when market conditions render it advisable to lay low; but they will do just the reverse of what they had to agree to under duress, when occasion arises to gain advantages for the workers.
The big gun and steel works of Krupp's in Essen, for instance, made employment in the various factories conditional upon the signing ​of the so-called "Reverse," in which the worker would agree not to join any industrial union (revolutionary union) or encourage the propaganda for the principles of industrial unionism. All workers were advised by their committees to sign anything the employers wanted, but do anyway whatever was best for the protection of their interests as workers.
The result was not only in those mills, but in hundreds of others, that the employers, although having the pledge of every: employe not to belong to any industrial union, see themselves confronted by powerful economic organizations of workers, and although they do not recognize the unions in any collective bargain agreement, yet they cannot help but reckon with the power and might of that collective agency of the workers—they know now that such militant bodies are indestructible.
RECOGNITION OF UNION BY THE WORKERS.
It is for similar reasons that the industrial unionists care little whether the employers of labor recognize a union or not, as long as the workers show that they have the might organized, and intelligently directed in the conflicts with the enemy. A period of comparative rest is only utilized to strengthen the weak points; and to prepare for more effective methods it is sufficient if other workers recognize the power and the efficacy of an organization so to seek ​protection through it. Such recognition is not delusive and allows an exact measuring of the fighting abilities of a union of workers, and assures absolute reliance in times of conflicts on every one who is a member of the organization. The closed shop, that is the control of every worker in a given workshop, is not established with the permission of the employer, but is the result of the propaganda and methods applied by the industrial. unionists, who, by having an "open union" for everybody who toils, can establish in reality a closed shop by the collective action and voluntary co-operation of all employed and exploited.
With such an organization and such methods it would be indeed a waste of energy if wage earners would prolong a strike or provoke a lockout on account of the employer's refusal to recognize the union.
In the big Portland, Oregon strike, conducted by the Industrial Workers of the World in 1907, the primary object of the suspension was attained, that is, an increased standard of wages for all workers in the saw and lumber mills; that being accomplished, it was not necessary to continue the fight, as it was realized that all those who had secured these improvements would voluntarily help to maintain an organization, which, by its methods, had attained with the least of sacrifice for the strikers all that they had been contending for when the strike was inaugurated.
OBEDIENCE TO RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS.
"Employes are warned to strictly obey instructions and observe the rules. The company will not be responsible for any accident resulting from disobedience of these orders."
This notice or a similar one is served on every employe when given a job, on printed cards adorning the walls of factories, mills, mines or in the railway service. But these orders are merely pretexts. It is entirely in conflict with the labor-saving system of modern production, especially so in the railway service, to expect an "obedience to orders." Railroads, for instance, are reducing the employes to the lowest possible number, and only the absolutely indispensable precautionary measures are employed for the maintenance of the road and the rolling stock.
In any railway system operated for the exaction of the highest possible profit the fighting method of "Passive Action," applied by the workers, must necessarily result in complete demoralization of the complex system; the execution of laws and regulations in their minutest details must paralyze all systems, ordinarily kept in operation only because of the utter neglect of all measures provided for the protection of limb and life of passengers and workers.
The utter absurdity of such regulations in modern railway service cannot be better illus​trated than by proving the facts occurring every day that a rigid enforcement of them results in chaotic and paralyzed suspense of any systematic service, while neglect and violation assures a systematized, well-regulated service in passenger and freight traffic, although at the risk of life and limb of the railway workers.
But suppose a worker is crippled in performance of his duties, although he was forced to disobey rules? The court is called upon to settle his claim. Judges, of course, can only be guided by the letter of the laws and regulations, and they will always ask a railroader who may be on trial for causing a railroad accident; or suing for damages for injuries sustained while in service, whether he had strictly carried out instructions; and a verdict will always be rendered against the worker when it is shown that he had been "derelict in obeying orders."
The idea of "respecting the laws and obeying all rules in the most minute detail" gave the impetus to the inauguration of a method which has been termed "the passive resistance strike," or, in brief, "Passive Action."
THE OPERATION OF PASSIVE RESISTANCE IN RAILWAY SERVICE.
The "Passive Resistance" strike consists in every man remaining at work, but giving the most punctilious obedience to all the rules of ​the road. No train is started till every passenger is safe off the car platforms, the speed limit is scrupulously observed, even when behind time, no signals are disregarded; in short, all the rules framed by the company with the intention that they should be continually violated in practice, are rigidly lived up to by the men during such a passive strike.
According to rules, no car when switched, shall run faster than it can be followed by the switchman, nor is the latter allowed to jump on the car or engine while they are in motion, or the rule providing that switch trains shall not exceed a speed of six miles an hour. The strict obedience of these rules results in the detention of freight trains; it takes three times as long as under the usual time required to make up a train; traffic consequently becomes demoralized.
A car inspector, if carrying out instructions in the "most minute details," can use considerable more time for careful inspection, and he can throw out for repairs many a car that would have made several runs more under ordinary conditions, although in "violation of rules." If a car inspector finds defects on cars in a through-going train in a change station, he can cause, "in strict obedience to rules and laws," a new arrangement of the train, unloading of goods and transfer of passengers, and when the regular working hours of the ​working crew have expired a change of shifts becomes necessary. If no other crew is there, the first refuses to work overtime. An embarrassing delay of trains may thus be caused, congestion of traffic increases and becomes more complicated and demoralized the longer these rules are obeyed in practice. Finally, the switches cannot be used because trains are crowded in from all directions. Other trains are compelled to lay over at small stations, as signals show continually a blocked road. No wonder that one government official exclaimed: "If the railroaders would continue to obey the rules by the letter for only. two weeks, we would be in the turmoil of a revolution proper."
But the railroad workers may not desire to bring about a suspension of industrial activity altogether; not yet. During the Austrian strike in 1907 they forced all North Bohemian coal mines to close down, because coal could not be transported; but it was not the intention to win the battle at the expense of other workers, when not absolutely needed. So they agreed not to block trains carrying workingmen to and from their working places; milk trains and others carrying foodstuffs and provisions to industrial centers were given "clear road" "in violation of the rules."
It is a known fact that the railroaders in Italy won twice their "passive strikes"; so also in Switzerland, and the last "passive strike" ​in Austria terminated with a complete attainment of the ends. this strike had been inaugurated for.
PASSIVE RESISTANCE ORIGIN.
Where did this remarkable method of "passive resistance" originate? In 1887 an accident occurred on an Austrial railway. In moving freight trains it happened that a railway employe was caught between the cars and he was badly mutilated. The high officials disciplined the station master, and they pointed to the fact that such accidents could not happen if all rules and regulations were strictly enforced. Forthwith a telegraph order was dispatehed to all station masters to enforce most rigidly all regulations provided for by law. Non-compliance with the mandates of the high officials meant immediate discharge. For many days and nights the masters of the crossroad stations and their subordinates were on the lookout to see that not one of the rules was violated, The consequences were startling. Three days after the issuance of that order the important station where the accident had happened was so blockaded with passenger trains, switch engines and freight cars that all traffic from all directions was practically suspended. All station masters could prove when called upon to give an account of this chaos that they had just obeyed the instructions and ​made all employes observe them. The workers immediately realized the importance of such measures, and thus the station masters and the higher officials unconsciously became the inventors of what is termed "Passive Action."
Subsequently the officials of that road, as energetically as they had issued the orders, countermanded them, and work went on normally again; that is, without regard to regulations and rules.
SABOTAGE.
The industrial unionists everywhere recognize the fact that employers of labor are unscrupulously contesting every point of vantage that the workers seek to gain. When forced to strike the latter find that the strong auxiliaries of the capitalists are brought into play; police, gendarmery, militia and troops, injunctions and imprisonment are weapons all at the command of the capitalist class. So the organized resistance within the place of employment is not confined to passive action as described above; inferior goods are turned out by silent understanding of all workers in one shop or plant; time is taken up with getting tools prepared, and repair work attended to; in Harvey, Ill., where contractors of railway construction work announced a reduction of 50 cents per day for the Italian workers, the latter, having learned enough of the principles of industrial unionism, ​decided at once to cut the shovels half an inch, and work with these cut shovels, which they did; and, with the protestation, "Short pay, short shovels," they forced the contractors to restore the former wages. These and similar methods are known under the compound name "Sabotage."
On the same lines was the eight-hour movement conducted in France in 1907. The workers in the different industries where industrial organizations had been formed would quit their jobs after a day's shift of eight hours, and resume work every morning, only to quit every, day after eight hours' work was done; thus forcing ultimately a large percentage of employers to grant the eight-hour day as a universal workday for all workers in the plants or industries where these passive-action methods had been resorted to.
GENERAL STRIKE DEMONSTRATIONS.
The General Strike as a means to demonstrate the power of organized discontent is an excellent method, if carried on on the principle that the workers should not necessarily abandon for any length of time their places of employment. A general strike, presupposes that the propaganda for redress of actual wrongs perpetrated by the capitalists and their agencies has aroused sufficient wage earners to join in a compact, demonstrative movement, the cli​max of which is reached in a general suspension of work by all workers in a given district or land. General Strikes, if carried on for the attaining of a given, stated object, have usually been successful; not so much was the mass demonstration as such so feared by the capitalists, but the manner and method with which such general suspensions had been conducted. After the general strike of railroaders and other workers in Italy in 1904, a general strike inaugurated for the purpose of forcing the government to prevent the interference of armed gendarmes in the conflicts between the workers and capitalists, it was Premier Minister Giolitti voicing in all capitalist newspapers the opinions of the oppressors, who expressed their amazement in the words that "not so much the spontaneous action of hundred-thousands in ceasing work was menacing and appalling, but the order and promptness with which an organized return to work was arranged and carried out." It was the organization alone and its methods that commanded respect; once demonstrated, the effects are felt and make themselves manifest long thereafter; and repetitions disastrous to capitalist rulership are feared in proportion as the workers profit by experience and keep their organizations intact as fighting bodies.
But a general suspension of work for any indefinite time by the proletariat as the final action in the struggle against capitalist control ​of industries will be superfluous if it is to be an organized effort, for in such an event the working class will be sufficiently trained to carry the fight into the place where the workers are exploited.
It will be noted, when reviewing the methods applied by industrial unionists, that there is a remarkable tendency to shift the scene of conflicts from the domain outside of the factory doors to the place of employment, within that boundary line called private property. This tendency manifests itself stronger with every passing day; we can observe, for instance, that workers in big institutions remain at their machines they usually tend, and while all wheels turn in usual speed, the hands that made their revolutions profitable refuse to function; not one but all in concert, when they have grievances thus to have them adjusted.
It is evident that these tendencies are only the result of the changes in the industrial situation, the workers realize that it is well-nigh impossible to wage a guerilla warfare against concentrated capitalist institutions, in which they are defeated piecemeal at every venture. These. tendencies will ultimately lead to the last test of strength between the two classes.
THE LAST LOCKOUT.
It will be might by which in the last instance the question of right will be decided. It will be the might of the organized proletariat that will determine whether the producers shall have the right of full enjoyment of the proceeds of their labor. That might, properly and ingeniously directed, will not exercise itself in bloody skirmishes upon the streets and barricades; not in conspiracies and diplomatic parleys; it will line up in battle array with the dominating class of to-day in the places where wealth is produced and workers are exploited, in the factories, mills and mines and upon the land. The improved methods applied by the industrial unionists indicate that they are endeavoring to transplant the field of conflict, and there is a growing tendency not to surrender the control of the huge fabric of production by leaving the workshop and staying out in long-drawn-out strikes, but to keep the hand on the throttle of the engine of production. Irritation, passive-action strikes, sabotage and other methods adapted to this growing tendency are examples of working class solidarity, properly prepared and organized, and working class intelligence correctly, intelligently and ingeniously directed.
Learning from the past experience, and learning fast, too, the workers begin to see that the last conflict for supremacy and complete and ​permanent control of the means of life, and instruments of production and distribution will not be started by the workers leaving the places where they create wealth, but by staying as an organized body and taking possession through such methods as will be necessary to apply in order to settle for all times the ownership of the vast resources of wealth. The producers being organized industrially and politically to carry on and continue production, but for the universal enjoyment of all products by all who create wealth, will not abandon that field, and surrender the control to those who claim to be the owners; the last act in this conflict will be the turning out of the exploiters, and the raising of the banner of Industrial Freedom over the workshops of the world in a free society of men and women—that is in the Industrial Commonwealth.
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CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY (Co-operative) Chicago
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1908, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1940, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 83 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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