The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-24

wv AUo tUhaottt0 VuOlNCt0 W ANC
World, has Issued a statement re-
garding the election and referendum
ballot now In the field for action
by the membership. The statement
Is as follows:
To the members of the l. w. W.:
Fellow Workers:
We have before us the referendum
ballot submitted by the general adj
ministration appointed by the six
teenth general convention for the cleo
ton of a general secretary-treasurer,
perhaps other officers. and decision on
proposed constitutional changes and
other matters.
On the 25th day Of the convention,
the following were nominated for gen.
eral secretary-treasurer: Ed Delaney,
Is votes; ]. I. Turner, IL votes; Ar
thur Coleman, 10 votes; James P.
Thompson, 10 votes; Joe Doyle, 6
votes, and Charles Selleman, 1 vote.
The convention took special vote to
break the tie between Coleman and
Thompson and gave third place to
Coleman.
The constitution Of the I. W. W.
states: Cart. III, Sec. 3-a) 1.-THE Cen
eral Secretary-T Treasurer, the Assist
ant Secretary, and the General Organ
izer shall be nominated from
the floor Of the convention and the
three candidates for each respective
office receiving the largest number of
votes in the convention shall be sub
mitted to the general membership Of
the organization for election; the one
receiving the greatest number Of votes
for each respective Office to be declar-
ed elected"
Why Only Two?
In spite of this, the referendum bal
lot carries the names of Turner and
Coleman alone, and there has been no
announcement that the other nomi-
nees have declined, or why they did
so. There seems to be some mystery
about this, which may be solved by
the suggestion that those who made
up the ballot did not want the vote
split between two supposed friends of
Rowan as against one supposed enc
my of Rowan.
The Red International af1liation
committee does not endorse either
Turner or Coleman, because it knows
only by rumor what they stand for.
But we call upon each one of them
to declare himself in a public, signed
statement, just where he stands in
the struggle over principles which the
last convention did not settle. or even
put into form so that the membership
could settle.
Candidates Must Speak Up.
The entire membership has right
to know how each candidate stands;
~ For or against the 'injunction-
ites"; (2) For an l. w. w. based on
the revolutionary class struggle or for
non-revolutionary job union; go
For hall-cat, anarchist decentraliza-
ton or democraticc Capitalization
based on job committees; ca For
building the l. w. w. by organization
of the 100000 unorganized, or by
Withdrawing revolutionary workers
from and splitting up existing unions;
90 For or against afiiliation to the Red
International of Labor Unions, and
why; go Will they act legally but
with resolution against the split
movement developing in California
and the northwest; Cd Will they en-
force obedience to the order of gen
eral administration by the Industrial
Worker or take it over; (S) VIII they
open organization papers which ac-
tually reach the members to discus
sion on policies or will they continue
the present censorship?
When the candidates have taken
stand on these vital subjects, and on
the important questions now on refer
endum, the members will not have to
vote blindly and take grab-bag
chances.
Could "Politicians" Do Worse7
There. are rs questions besides cleo
tons on the ballot Nearly all the
tedious decisions are left to the refer
endum, tho only ten per cent of the
membership votes on referendum, and
most of the real workers are away
on jobs. This shows the need of bas-
ing the unions on job committees.
Further, the complicated nature Of
this ballot makes it almost impossible
for anyone not student of constitu-
tional crossword puzzles to tell just
what will happen in case any given
question is carried. The I. w. w.
scorns using the ballot'-then issues
one as big as bundle stiffs blanket.
Just as an example Of what may
happen, we take the attempt to change
from the present form OF the G e. r.
back to the old form composed Of
Representatives elected by the unions.
AT present, the G. e. b. is composed
OF the general organizer and the chair
men OF the general Organization com.
mittees of the various unions. as
adopted at the 1923 convention and IN