San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-04-29
|.N.W. STRIKE
] FAILS As FEW
LEAVE JOBS
Long Feared "Wobblies"
Prove to Be Almost
Powerless.
LESS THAN 5000 OUT
Most of Those on
Strike Are
Aliens.
LESS THAN 5000 OUT
BY l. C. RYAN,


San Francisco, Cal, April 2s.-
The "Wobblies ". WIS, whose
boosted creed is that every man is
captain Of his own soul and whose
escutcheon is the wooden sabot and a
bedragged looking black cat, feared for
years as a menace to both labor and
industry, the length and breadth of
the Pacific coast, have struck at last,
and in the striking have shown them
selves just about as toothless as Old
Wallace, circusdom's untamable lion.
Today, the fourth since the red
cards" launched their general strike
against all lines of industry in five
Pacific coast states, among the de-
mands being one for clean bed sheets
at least once a week and the right
to eat at the same table with the
~boss," only two lines OF business have
been affected. One is the lumber pro-
ducing industry, wherein the wobblies
seek this weekly change of bed linen.
The other is shipping. Both are af-
fected so lightly that even the Wobblie
agitators admit that the strike is
dismal failure.
Out of 10000 workers, one-tenth Of
them real /. W. WIS and the other
10000 being persons whom they ex-
pected would join their strike through
H.. Il
ton, less than 5000 have walked
out" in the states of California, Ore
gon, Washington, Idaho and Nevada.
There is a strike of 1900 longshore-
men at Los Angeles, but it has no
connection with the l. w. W.
Mos. Are Aliens.
Not an unexpected outcome of the
attempted strike and its failure is the
Development that most of the 5000
~ per cent at least-are aliens and
III m9. cases of the uneducated type.
-As result business men and elD-
20. ers of labor who have long COLI
= ,.eGed themselves under the menace
g. the knights of sabotage, are sit
tx back today and laughing-laugh-
~. at themselves for having been
h;a=ed for the past dozen years.
..erc in San Francisco where the
NobhlicS expected TO make their most
suspicious showing and where all
ranks of workers had been urged to
Join actual, count shows that less than |
n hundred responded. In Seattle the |
strike is almost as negligible.
The only place that the ]. W. WIS |
have shown strength-and that is only |
an infinitely small part of what was
cxpected-is in isolated lumber camps |
in Northern California and Southern |
Oregon, Idaho, Washington and |
Nevada.
In so far as Pacific coast shipping |
is concerned. if there are two score |
]. W. W. card-bearers among several |
thousand deck hands, mess boys, fire |
men and other sea-faring workers, the |
general strike so far has failed to de- |
velop them. Since the general strike |
was launched last Wednesday morn |
ing, dozen big ocean-going carriers
have cleared from San Francisco with
out reporting single seaman as
striking. Also there have been only
two arrests of I. W. WIS along the
waterfront and in the entire city since
the general strike was called.
Nulc Tue strlhe OIL t0e NODDllpS
Is for the ostensible purpose of COM
polling the release of all "class, war
and political prisoners" they have
mixed in a galaxy of wage increase
demands which are intended to swing
the ranks of disconnected workers to
their cause. They demand a dollar an
hour for water front stevedores with
double pay for overtime. On ship
board and lumber camps. in addition
to clean bed sheets onct week. they
also demand workers be supplied with
such useful toilet adjuncts as tooth
brushes and soap. Because California
has a criminal syndicalism act. all I.
W. VS. are also urging a boycott
on any and all California food prod
ucts. The alien influence is indicated
by a demand that there be no reduc-
tons IN wages for foreigners working
on American ships at any time dur
ing voyage.
I'VE didn't expect very many to
Join this strike" declared one I'M
shaven and unshorn wobblie today
when asked the whereabouts of the
other 5000 who were to have Joined
in the coast-wide general walkout.
"This is just TO harrass and worry
the capitalists and to get few thou
sand more downtrodden workers TO
Join our ranks"