The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-06-24

leads the workers into a cul de sac whence and whither they may save themselves neither they nor the Moses whom they have deputized to lead them, can tell. But when the workers know where they are go- ing; for what purpose, definite and specific they are organized, there is no such thing as defeat. They can. not be suppressed by the loss of a strike here or a strike there.
 Their progress will not depend upon a per capita tax, nor upon their suc- cess in the levying of assessments. Their progress will depend upon their own acts and their own deter mination-limited only by that and bound to win. As we see it now, the workers can achieve but very little except economic conditions are favorable. Activity in the min ing as in other industries wins more strikes than all the organizations which the A. F. of L. has nested since it began clucking chickens. The actual control of the job da- bends upon the organization of the unskilled. They are the key to sl- tuation. If they gre not organized and in the unions, there is very lir tie hope that coterie of industrial aristocrats can achieve anything.
 In no industry more truly is this realized than in the mining indus try. Now they break in a miner iu very short time. The railroad tuE- nel that uses machine drills has been making them by the score these many years. Mining is open to all and it can have no part in any method of organization that does not accept all and organize all upon the lines of the class struggle. Men with ideas of craft organization il their heads can help but little in winning a miners strike. It is the jobless man that wins it, and it is with them that tho the miners as with other industrial workers must make common cause. The rag-chew~ ing about the personal leadership is raw bunk. But that it should be re-vivified shows where we have been sledding these many years
 When an organization commits errors, makes mistakes and feels the consequences, and then turns round and dumps the responsibility upon one man, it is coming mighty near being a joke-and a joke without very sweet humor at that.
 When the Western Federation CT Miners was at it's best it wcs led by Mover just as effectively as it was led by him at it's worst. He can take no credit either way. But that does not aid the rank and file in shirking responsibility. Their responsibility is clear and definite and unmistak- able. They authorized the with drawal from the Industrial Workers of the World; they countenanced the re-affiliation with the A. F. of L. They did everything in order that has been done and they know it.
 Knowing it they ought therefore to rectify the error. With craft union ideas fighting whether the nozzle men will put the cap on the hose or the brass filters shall func- ton in that capacity, they have mo- thing in common. They have eith Y to pull the rest of the crafts up to their industrial standard or wallow in the mess of non-industrialism with them. There is no golden mean. They have been trying the golden mean for five years, and they have now reached the unfortu- nate period of tight rope walking when they blame their collapse on leaders. They themselves wobbled and they themselves fell.
 The mere fact that they do this, shows the best argument in the world why they should change their tactics.