Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-07-28
THE i. w. W. MENACE

The whole I. W. w. movement is essentially and
avowedly a warfare against industry and thrift and a
conspiracy to break the peace.
Men who labor for wages in any occupation have
an unauestioned right, legal and moral, to associate
themselves together for the purpose Of lettering their
condition in every legitimate way. They have a right to
bring to bear the influence Of their combined numbers
in order to obtain wages that are fair and reasonable.
and working conditions such as are consistent with civ
ilized living. Because these rights are inherent and UNI
questioned many persons are misled into a sympathetic
attitude toward the I. w. W. because that organization
is an association of persons who, whether actual laborers
or not, pose as such, and because it is constantly engag-
ed in disputes with employers over wages and related
subjects. Criticism is met with the assertion that the
laboring men are merely seeking to obtain their own,
and that statement often passes without close inspection.
There is no relation between the I. W. W. and the
efforts Of bona ftde workers to obtain just treatment
from their employers. The trade unions do perform a
function Of that character. Sometimes their action is
censurable, but at any rate, all Of the trade unions are
organized on a basis in which the right Of the individu-
al to possess his own property in peace, and the obliga-
ton of the citizen to obey the laws are clearly recog-
nized.
The /. W. W. recognizes none of these things. The
acts Of lawlessness which are committed by its members
are not merely the independent acts Of lawless and ire
sponsible individuals. They are in perfect harmony with
the declared policy Of the society, which teaches that the
employer has no rights that the employe is bound to re-
spect, and that sabotage is to be pursued by the employe
in order to obtain what he desires.
As is usual, individuals who did not come into per-
sonal contact with this society and its work have been
inclined to look upon it with indifference. And when acts
Of lawlessness were committed against large business
concerns there has been a too ready assumption that the
big fellows were getting about what they deserved. So
the evil has grown. It has spread until Its evidences
are brought closer to most Of us. We have 1t in the in
dustrial centers Of the East, in the mining districts Of
Arizona, Colorado and Montana, in the lumber woods OF
Minnesota, and in the grain states north to North Dako-
ia. It is a menace against the very life Of the nation,
for there is no line Of activity against which its hateful
activities are not likely to be exerted.
It is an evil with which there can be no temporiz-
ing. It cannot be removed by removing the injustices
under which the laboring man lives, for the society is
primarily not q society of laboring men. but OF lawbreak-
ers. and its purpose is not to obtain his dues for the la
boring man. but TO- obtain for the man who will not la
Dor the substance Of him who does. With such an or
ganizauon there can be no compromise. Every honest
man in the country is interested in having this abomina-
ton destroyed. A timid, hating, temporizing attitude
toward it will be suicidal.