The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1920-02-13
Talking Il Over With
The Miners.
Mulberry, Kansas l-2l-la20
Editor Toiler Dear Comrade

Mulberry, Kansas l-2l 1920 !.
Editor Toiler Dear Comrade
There are thousands of good conscious
workers that still believe that we eal
yet save our selves through the trade
nnion and the ballot and it is hard
TO convince them other wise and about
all we can do is to keep the facts
continually before them. The part
the toiler is playing is helping things
along, there is not A single man or
woman who can take the events Of
the last 4 years and show where the
trade union has made one bit of pro- :
eress, where ever there has been q
clash between the trade union and cap
italism the union has come cut de-
feated
We unionists have built M On auto
cracy among our selves I have rc
ference to the official class among
the trade unions. We have separated
lthc officials from the workers and
+ they have become separate class by
them selves to such an extent that
IF a corporation wants to start a
strike-proof shop all they have to do
is to organize under the trade union
system and they have it. If it 30
happens that there is a strike the
official class faction Of the union will
defeat tho strike or so cripple the
proposition that the settlement that
s made is worse than defeat: just
look the field over and see if / am
not right in my deductions Look at
the moye the railroad men made and
sec what the settlement did to them,
then take the great coal strike and
see whot the official a1tocracy did.
call them autocrats because they acted
without authority from the rank ami
file they settled our strike on their
own self appointed authority.
| Then there is the great steel strike
| from coast to coast and after months
of suffering and harship they were
sent back in defeat just as the miners
were and I think the answer is plain
= they were organized under tho
trade union system.
J, How, want to 90 on record riga!
here as SAYING that all of you that
want to get any place besides tho
poor house and serfdom worse than
you have. Better get off that old sys-
tenn and get your union reorganized
and revolutionized and get organized
under industrial unionism. Then anil
then only can you expect to win. For
instance, had we been organized indus
trialy when we miners came out Of
our prisons and demanded Justice at
the hands of our despoilers we would
Il have won in a walk. -
We eoxM have tieri up- 5v6zy Is
i dustry in the q. 8.
Suppose we had one big union In
stead Of the old rotten, moth eaten
prehistoric American Federation of La.
Dor when the steel men came out,
what do you think would have hap.
reneds can tell YOU, we would havs
pulled the string and tied the entire
country up and it would not havo
taken 4 or S months either, we miners
, had the situation at our mercy and
could have won in walk If we had
bad had men with nerve at our head
but we did not, so we lost merely be.
cause we were not on the right track
J tall you brothers we must get down
to brass tacks and organize industrially
, and depend on our economic power to
win and don It let any bone head con.
, vince you that you can better your
:. condition by merely voting for it.
It is simply idiotic to think so. Jnat
look the situation over and be con-.
vineed. Wisconsin elected congress
man, did thev get him seated9 think
not. New York elected 5 assembly
men, did they get their seats, Look
it M and see if they did, and so it
goes. forget the ballot game and
play game you can win at.
You can win through your eco.
nomic power and industrial yrgau;zs-
tion and the Communist Labor party is
ready to coach sou how to start any
time you are really to act, that is
our mission in rhis world SO awake
+ and let us organize for victory. other.
o wise You 90 to slavery, take your
{ sheica
Yours truly
:. ]. L. CREvISTON