The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-08-24


the only one, it seemed to them, offer
ing any medium of collective bargain
ing. There has been in the woods
no general organization moving along
A. F. of L. lines for them to join.
The l. w. w. seemed to fill their
needs. The logger is a different
person than he used to be. He for
merely came to town semi-occasional-
ly and blew his money in a day or a
week and returned to camp, sullen
and broke but forced to work if he
wanted to work. 1t is different now.
He comes to town with money in
his pocket. In the l. W. w. hall
he finds the social contact he used
to find in the soloon, without its
supplying influence. He meets his
fellows, sober and clear eyed; it is
clearing house of information for
him; he is attracted by the immedi
ate program of betterment held out
before him; he does not analyze
the tenets and tactics of the |. w. W.,
sees only the industrial program held
out and is caught by the appeal to
his sense of class loyalty, the zone
big union" idea; the slogan zone for
all and all for one" He is told
that the policy of the American Fed
GRAFTON of Labor to compromise, con-
fer, negotiate, is all wrong and gets
him nowhere and such exhibitions as
we have just witnessed of stubborn
ness on the part of the employers
seems to prove in his mind the l. w.
w. theory. l found but small per-
centage of the |. w. w. to whom |
talked-and they were men actually
workers in the industry who had
gone out on strike-knew anything
about the |. w. w. constitution, had
the faintest idea concerning the in
siduous, un-American teachings and
PHILOSOPHERS of that organization.
The problem is to make of that
eighty per cent good American work
men, turning them back into the in
dustry with sense of loyalty to
the government and a realization of
their relation as industrial workers
to the successful prosecution Of the
war. This is a struggle for su-
premacy in the timber industry be-
tween two organizations, each having
in part the same industrial demands
but as wide apart as the poles in
policy and method of operation and
sense of duty to country on the part
of all citizens. On hand stands
the American Federation of Labor to
which our organizations belong. We
believe absolutely in negotiation, me-
diation and Cancellation; in making
contracts with employers and hold
ing them sacred during their life. On
the other hand stands the |. w. W.,
repudiating all those methods, scott
ing at trade agreements, frankly wag-
ing war on the capitalist system.
The vast body of men don't reason
very deep fundamentally in the school
of economics, they want immediate,
material betterment of their working
and living surroundings. The or
ganiZation that can produce the goods
is the organization that appeals to
them. If it were possible for us
to enter an agreement with the en-
ployers in the lumber industry COW
ering working conditions for a period
of time, provide some sort of ma
chinery by which grievances and dis
putes as they arose might be taken
up and adjusted without any stoppage
of industry, the |. w. W. movement
in this section would disappear like
morning mist. The |. w. W. leader
could not hold the men in that case
AS it is the l. W. w. philosophy gains
ground every day because this failure
to come to an agreement bears out
the |. w. W. contention in the minds
Ol Tie WOIhSIS' IL 10 1Olly W Ceiin
about breaking up the |. w. w. by
force as it is now being considered
unless the government can prove the
organization to be seditious and car
deal with it as an organization al
its source. l say this because it il
next to impossible to fasten any crime
upon them by which they can legally
|; be held. They may intimidate men
it cannot be proven; they may threat
en- to destroy crops and slow up pro
duction generally, it cannot be prov
en-. In our four-day hearings o.
which | have spoken, we examined
sixty-five witnesses. We had be
fore US l. W. W., strikers not mem
, bers of that organization, employer
: in the. timber industry, union officials
city and county officials, fruit ant
( grain growers. Not single prov