New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1918-07-31
A CLEAR STATEMENT OF FACTS.

We should be just to the humblest
of our fellow-citizens. One class OF
citizens who have been the butt of
ridicule and contempt are the I. w. WIS.
The dailes started the abuse and mis-
representation and most ofthe country
editors followed suit, feeling that they
would hardly show they were striped
. in the right brand Of patriotism and
loyalty unless they also handed 1.-The
I. W. WIS few digs and jabs and they
did. They knew nothing about the
I. w. WIS and know absolutely nothing
about the conditions that produced the
Independent Worker Of the World.
Probably nothing better has been said
on the subject than short statement
written by Carlton H. Parker, Professor
of Economics and Dean Of the School
= of Business Administration at the I'm
iversity of Washington, a few weeks be-
fore his death last spring. 1t will be
remembered that DR.. Parker had been
one of those chiefly responsible for a
satisfactory settlement between. the tim
Der workers of the Northwest engaged
in spruce production and the War De-
partment, and he was over-working as
a representative of the War Department
:, in adjusting labor troubles when he
caught pneumonia and died. With a
knowledge of the I. w. w. and Of the
industrial situation from which it sprang
gained by years of painstaking investiga-
ton, first as student and later as the
first Secretary of the California State
Housing and immigration Commission,
DR.. Parker wrote:
"The I. w. W. is a symptom OF a
distressing industrial status. For the
moment the relation of it's activities to
our war preparation has befogged its
economic origins, but all purposeful
thinking about even the I. w. WIS at
titude toward the war must begin with
a full and careful consideration of these
origins.
AT some later and less hysterical date
the I. w. w. phenomenon will be dis
passionately dissected in somewhat the
following way:
"Q) There were in 1910 in the United
States some 10,400,000 unskilled male
workers. Of these some 100000 NOV
ed, by discharge or quitting, so regularly
from one work town to another that they
could be called migratory labor. Be-
cause of this unstable migratory life
this labor class lost the conventional
relationship to women and child life,
lost it's voting franchise, lost it's habit
of common comfort or dignity, and
gradually became consciously a social
class with fewer legal or social rights
than are conventionally ascribed to
Americans. The cost of this experience
was aggravated by the ability and habi-
tuation of this migratory class to read
about and appreciate the higher social
and economic life enjoyed by the Amer
lean middle class. -. ...s "
"(2) The unskilled labor class it.
, self experienced a life not markedly
more satisfying than the migratories
One fourth of the adult fathers of theil
families earned less than $500 a year
one-half earned less than $500. The
minimum cost of decent living for q
, family was approximately $500. I'm
employment, restitution and uncared-
for sickness was monotonous familiarity
: to them. ~
"3) The to-be-expected revolt agains1
this social condition was conditioned
3 and colored by the disillusionmen
e touching justice and industrial dem
ocracy and the personal and intimate
: indignities and suffering experienced
r by the. migratories. The revolt-organ
4 ization of the migratories, called the !
n W. w., failing most naturally to live VI
Y to the elevated legal and contract-re
: speeding standards of the more comfort
n able trade-union world, was visited b.
i severe middle-class censure and lega
persecution.
t = ''This sketch is fairly complete, an
y within current facts. No one doubt
e the full propriety Of the Government
n in suppressing ruthlessly any interference
n! by the /. W. w. with the war prepare
d ton. All patriots should Just. as We
$ hemently protest against the suppressio
$ of the normal economic protestractis
n tiles of the I. W.. w. There will b
e. neither permanent peace nor prosperit
It in our country until, the revolt-basis {
IS the wv w. is removed. And sunt
e that lis done, the I. wv !. w. remains .
y unfortunately valuable sympt OF !.
e diseased. Industrial 81 III. q. y !.