Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-02
BY LINCOLN STEFFENS.

mats the question which DOtherS those
men and the owners Of the mills. They
have in the councils of the strikers spies
who report that the worst form of the
lighting Is to follow a compromise. When
the workers have returned to their looms
sabotage may begin. The men, women
and children are being enrolled and or
ganized now. After that, it is said, they
are to be taught how to spoil goods in
the making and to mangle machinery.
And there you have. the true reason why
it has been SO difficult to deal with this
strike.
The labor leaders have not been ready
to settle, and the employers are afraid
frank P. sibley, the correspondent of
the Boston Globe, put it straight in one
of his dispatches.
1.-THE mill men dread the end of the
strike and the starting Of the mills" he
the officials of the American Wooden Com
pany took him through wool mill. He
pointed out" Mr.. Sibley wrote, 1.-The bas-
kets of various worsteds which are made
into cloth and explained that II one kind
got mixed with another cloth might re-
suit which would cainkle up like crepe.
And it is impossible to guard against
the mixing, which would be the easiest
thing in the world for malicious opera
tor to do.
"It is not only emery dust in the oil
boxes we fear.'' the official said. There
are q thousand ways in which mills anu
machinery are at the mercy OF the WORK
ers. The owners know this. and they are
lying awake nights in their worry over
sabotage
Origin of Sabotage.
Sabotage is the French word for
way labor has found to make war be-
tween battles; to fight more fiercely and
more safely while at work than on strike.
Tradition has it that French worker IN
a rage one day threw his wooden shoe
(sabot) into some machinery and when
picked up with the shoe suggestion to
destroy property and spoil goods as q
policy. It spread like a disease In France
and in Austria. The Scotch have the
thing and phrase OF their own ior , IL;
workers did not take to 1t generally. out
they know It, They name 1t passive re-
sistance'' And the spirit that prompts
1t is here.
We had it in Los Angeles. Direct ac-
ton is one manifestation Of the hate
which resorts to sabotage. The sticks
of dynamite thrown back of the Times
building were, in sense. Developments
of the wooden shoe The trials prepar-
ing at Indianapolis are dealing with it.
The eighty-seven or 40 bridges and
buildings blown up around the country
were destroyed as a policy. And what
the mill men dread at Lawrence Is the
passive resistance which their agents
tell them the strikers are contemplating
after the active resistance OF the
strike is settled
In other words. this textile workers
strike is but another manifestation Of a
serious general, national condition which
should be generally understood and seri-
ously met; not piecemeal; not at hap
hazard; here and there. now and then:
but by the general. national policy And
the aim OF that policy should be to seek
trouble. Repression isn't enough. That
was the old way. There was a strike
somewhere. We fought it out or starved
it out, or We settled it. The mill own
ers here are fighting 1t out. and they are
not afraid to fight. you understand. But
they are afraid to settle. as you see: they
are afraid that it won't stay settled.
New Kind of Strike.
Its a new kind of STRIKE" said one
of the Boston men who are trying to
settle It,
.'It isn't new" said William D. Hay
wood, who is in command of the strike
ITS neither the first of its kind. nor,
he added, in his gruff, contradictory way,
will 1t be the last
And he went on to recall the great
strikes I'm the mines out west, where he
and the Industrial Workers Of the World
come FROM Which is the point that the
Boston man appreciated when he and his
strike-settlers showed that they under
stood the difference between this and
other strikes, and why 1t was so hard to
deal with.
This is an I. w. w. strike. It's q west
ern strike in the east: a strike conducted
In New England by western miners. who
/ at nd th0
spirit employed by them in Colorado.
Idaho and Nevada, improved. IL you
please, or corrected by their experience
there and by the radical PHILOSOPHERS from
not westerners. Of course: they are not
even Americans. They are as mixed a
lot of foreigners as You could md any
where in America. They are innocent.
the way, are talking now OF exporting
them again gradually and bringing in
French Canadians Why? II isn't the
| foreigners that are making the trouble.
These poor. ignorant. innocent foreign
workers are led by Americans
| Insurgent Labor Movement.
The /. w W., which Is conducting this
strike. is an international organization
/ now, but IL was started out west and Is
spreading with the rapid growth OF what
may be called the insurgent labor move
ment against conservative labor and cap
| ital. 1t is a rival of the American Fed.
GRAFTON OF Labor. 1t Is revolutionary in
| character. Its stated purpose Is, not
merely to Increase wages. but to abolish
the whole wage system: not to close
shops, but to open them: not to make COL
| lective bargains with capital. but to I'M
dermine and finally destroy what 1t calls
capitalism; and. finally. not TO organize
| the workers by crafts. but industrially,
/ hA f0pAf0nars
taught to say. ''all In one big uniou.''
All l. W. w. strikes. therefore, have
| purposes beyond those expressed In the
| demands made by the employees upon
example, went on strike to protest
/ against the reduction Of their pay when
4 the state law reduced their hours from
1 ffty-six to flfty-two. After they were
/ out. the I. w. w. taught them to ask
4 other things: IL per cent increase in
u wages. the abandonment OF the premium