The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1913-09-26
The |. W. WIS In
Other Countries
They Use Any Means to Coerce,
an Employer to Comply With
Demands

themselves Industrial Workers
of the World" The name sounds
innocent enough, but the activi-
ties of these so-called workers
make them menace to society.
The l. w. w. is not essentially
a labor union, but a sort of po-
litical party. It is an offshot of
the socialist party, but is now
afflicted with it. The socialists
at their last national convention
repudiated the l. w. w. and read
Bill Haywood, the notorious l.
w. w. leader, out of the party.
unlike the socialists, the l. w. W,s
do mot confine themselves to the
peaceful propaganda of their
doctrines. They will use any
means, arson, or even murder, to
coerce an employer to comply
with their demands. The Me-
Manuses practiced what the I. w.
WIS preach.
The syndicalists of France and
the I. w. WIS belong to the
same class. The syndicalists strike
only when it is certain that a
strike will succeed. When they
find that a strike will not be sue
cessful they resort to intimida-
ton and violence, and practice
what is known as sabotage. In
Nantes, France, they destroyed
the looms in the silk mills by
throwing their sabots-wooden
shoes-into them, whence the
origin of the word, sabotage.
Consider the significance of this
In a factory an employe who be-
longs to the 1. w. w. will loosen
a nut Of bolt and the machinery
will seemingly accidentally fly
to pieces. On railroad such an
employe may fail to turn a
switch or give the proper signal
ard a wreck is the result. That
is what sagotage has come to
mean. Ard it is done in such a
way that the criminal is rarely
detected.
An employer is almost power
less to deal with situation like
this. He pays these men for
working and while they receive
wages from him they insidid-
ouslv ruin him. Pretending loyal
ty, they are his deadly enemies
and knife him in tn the back.
In many instances in France en-
ployers of labor have been literal
ly between the devil and the
deep sea. To accede to the de-
malds of the syndicalists has
meant bankruptcy, and not to
comply has also meant ruin
And many have been ruined.
The fact that the 1. w. w. 8 do
not confine themselves to the in
dustrial centers of the east,
but have even attempted
to organize transient farm
laborers in this State,
shows how extensive their cam
paign is. They appeal to the
class prejudice of the ignorant
foreign laborer, inflame his pass
ions by a recital of the supposed
wrongs that society has done him
and ineite him to violence.
Like the socialists, the l., w. w
employ the specious argument
that labor produces all wealth.
Like the socialists, they also ad-
vocate the government owner
ship of all productive wealth,
but the socialists are opposed to
violence-the /. w. w. advocate
anything that is expedient. They
assert that the end justifies the
means-even though the means
are murder ard arson. In certain
factory centers Of the east they
have caused vertiable rein Of
terror.
They deride the constitution and
call our flag a dirty rag. But
when they are arrested they i'm
mediately clamor for the protec-
ton guaranteed by that constitu-
ton and symbolzed by that flag.
The fact that thousands of
workers have been induced to
join the /. w. w. is q cause for
public concern. The only way to
combat a social disease like the
/. w. w. is by educating the
masses. More. enlightenment Is
needed. The boys and girls who
are to become the future work
ers should be taught more econo.
mics and political science. And
lie the imnig grafton of . horde Of
} lilliterate foreig gners = 70 be per-