The Parker post., 1917-07-14

bitterness toward their former en-
ployers.
Uukept Agitators Control.
1T is a study in psychology, rath
er than in economics. There is no
commanding leader. The situation
has been controlled by group of
half dozen rather unkept sort of men,
gathered in a lodging house room,
| full of zeal in their propaganda, pos
sibly sincere, frank to state that
their aim is the tearing down of all
property rights and the substitution
| of condition where the meanest and
! least schooled yokel shall have the
same voice and the same wage as
the gentlest bred cholar or the
most skillful artisan. They seem to
care little for their own demands,
which call for miners wage only
| Is cents day above the rate now
| paid on the basis of 80 cent copper,
! for no reduction of wage when cop
per falls and for variety Of rather
minor internal regulations.
"They cast aside as immaterial any
consideration Df the war that threat
ems the very life of the nation whose
protection they have claimed, casual
| ly referring to it as Wall Streets
fight While it is possible that the
nationwide agitation is fostered and
even financed by traitorOus or alien
| influences it is hardly likely that the
| local representatives have any direct
| knowledge of such condition, or even
| Interest IN it. They are happy in
their day of leadership and in it's
| opportunities to exchange the soap
| box for the ample forum of a city
park, so generously provided by
money that mainly came from the
corporations whose industry they
seek to destroy.
They are orators-nO doubt of it.
| But their patter is that of the usual
run of soap box agitators, full of ref
erences to the grinding of the peo-
| pie by the bloated monOpOlies that
are sucking the life blood of labor
! Bisbee has been as we'll fed upon that
sort of thing lately as most western
communities, but the shirt-sleeved
and suspendered apostles have a con-
stant audience of faithful disciples.
Call Themselves "Wobblies."
''The strikers are to be divided
about equally into two classes-those
| who wanted to strike and those who
did not A proportion of the willing
cutters alerady were members of the
| |. w. W., who rather rejoice in their
self-given appellation of 'Wobblies'
They are of the type from which
| comes the tramp. Most of them are
of recent arrival, put at work as
'muckers,' with little reference to
qualifications underground, for the
mining companies have needed all
| the men they could secure to fill the.
maws of the immense furnaces to be
| fed in the smelter town Of Douglas.
In the mining parlance, these men
are known as 'f1oaters' or 'ten-day'
miners. Here it happens that very
large percentage are aliens. Very
generally they are not voters, fact
due partially to their itinearancy.
Very much in evidence among them
are individuals plainly lacking in
education, thrift or ambition, who
look forward to the golden days when
by law all men shall be declared
equal in earning value and in social
standing. 1t is a common enough
type.
| 1T is the same old l. W. W. that
was driven from San Diego by it's
business men a few years ago; that
raided the hop fields of northern
California and that lately used force
in the invasion of Everett, Wash;
that occasionally captures railroad
freight trains; that establishes 'mul-
ligan' camps by the roadside, but
never establishes homes"