The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-03-07
OPEN MEETING
DRAWS CROWD
HUNDREDS OF MILL WORK
ERS HEAR INTERNATIONAL
PRESIDENT BROWN SPEAK
ON ORGANIZATION.

! i've 10 SIX nundred men employed IN
the mills of Everett gathered in Lib
erty hall last Sunday afternoon to
listen to the speakers tell the aims
and objects of the new organization
of timber workers. Pres. Brown, of
the Shingle Weavers, Saw Mill Work
ers and Woodsmen, was at his best
and for nearly an hour held the close
attention of his audience He sketch
ed briefly the history of the shingle
weavers union which forms the nee
leus of the new organization and told
the plans for the future formed at the
last convention in Portland, Ore. If
the close attention paid and enthusi-
asm shown by the audience be any
criterion to go by, the mill workers
of Everett are ripe for unionism.
President Brown made it very plain
that his organization has but little in
common with the Industrial Workers
of the World. He attacked their fun
damental plan of organization, i. e.,
Capitalization of power in the hands
of a few officers and compared it with
the plan of government of his own
international which invests power and
authority in the officers only by will
of the rank and file. The initiative
and referendum is used on all matters,
whether amending the constitution,
electing officers or calling a strike.
/ He asserted that the international
union would hold tenaciously to the
right to strike but would use it only
as last resort after all efforts at an
amicable settlement of differences had
failed. The trade agreement plan un-
der which conditions of labor were
fixed for a definite period and all diff
ferences arising during its life were
settled by arbitration, was vigorously
defended by the speaker. That it was
the settled policy of the labor move
ment of America was shown by ref
erence to several aggressive interna-
tionals affiliated with the A F. of L.
An opportunity was given at the
close of his address to ask questions
and advantage was taken Of the op-
portunity by several present A few
of the questions were evidently asked
for information but by far the larger
part of them came from members of
the I. w. w. who were present for no
other purpose than to "show the
speaker up" In that endeavor they
were not successful as Brown had no
difficulty in tying them into a knot.
One questioner who was persistent
was finally asked pointblank if he
favored the movement on the part of
the shingle weavers to organize the
timber workers into one solid body
and was forced to reply that he did
not. q thought not, said Pres. Brown.
Bro. Brown stated that he very
much regretted having to lock horns
with any body of men banded to.
gether to better their conditions OF
labor but when such a body of men
tried to wreck an organization that
had a dozen years of fighting in its
history and tried to block the efforts
of that organization to extend its
sphere of activity among the unor-
ganized in its own industry, only cow
ards or the feeble-minded would re-
fuse to fight back
/ That the big crowd was not in sym
pathy with the l. w. w men present
was evident when, upon the invita-
tion by Chairman Folsom for all who
We're in sympathy with the movement
of the shingle weavers to stand up,
practically the entire audience stood.
While the shingle weavers are radi-
cal, their radicalism is mixed with
common horse sense. They have no
intention of plunging the community
in industrial turmoil. They do not
intend to strike tomorrow nor next
week nor next month. Their own ex-
perience has taught them that organi-
zation and education are the first in
gradients of sane unionism Strikes
are spectacular but they are often as
disastrous as they are spectacular.
Not in Everett alone but through
out the state the spirit of organiza-
ton is rampant among the timber
workers, both in the mills and in the
camps. If it is necessary for men in
every profession and in every branch
of business to organize, it is much
more necessary for men who have
nothing but their labor power to or
ganize for mutual protection. The
public is rapidly coming to under
stand that conditions such as prevail
in our steel mills, and woolen mills
and logging camps can breed nothing
but disaster to our national life. The
bone and sinew of America must ever
be its working class and IL that class
be oppressed and enslaved, kept down
to condition of life which gives only
bare existence, and that grudgingly,
the nation must eventually pay the
price. There must be re-adjustment
of industry. THAT industry that can
mot exist save upon the bent backs
and broken bones OF workingmen,
Of