Up to the beginning of the strike [says the Federal report just quoted] there was little or no effective organization among the employees, taken as a whole. A few of the skilled crafts, composed principally of English-speaking workers, had their own separate organizations, but the 10 crafts thus organized had at the time of the strike only approximately 2,500 members. The Industrial Workers of the World had also some years before this established an organization in Lawrence. At the beginning of the strike they claimed a membership of approximately 1,000. They had at different times names on their rolls in excess of this number, but it is estimated by active members of the organization that at the beginning of January, 1912, there were not more than 300 paid-up members on the rolls of the Industrial Workers.[563]
This statement of the situation is borne out by Mr. John Golden's testimony before the House Committee on Rules. He said that when the strike broke out, "according to the official books of the Industrial Workers of the World, they had 287 members."[564]
During the period of the strike there were many violent demonstrations and numerous acts of violence on the part of deputies, police, and militiamen, as well as on the part of the strikers. Early in the strike, Joseph J. Ettor and Wm. D. Haywood, both I. W. W. officials, came to Lawrence and thereafter figured prominently in the conduct of the strike, preaching "solidarity," "passive resistance," "direct action," and "sabotage" as means to victory. The daily press reports of the strike greatly exaggerated the violence of the strikers and almost uniformly neglected to mention acts of violence on the other side. In the I. W. W. press the situation was reversed, and the lawlessness of the constituted authorities greatly overdrawn. A writer who is, at any rate, not sympathetic with the I. W. W. describes the strike activities. He says that shortly after five o'clock (a.m., January 29, 1912), when it was still dark, an attack was made upon the street-cars, during which the trolleys were pulled off the feed-wire, the windows smashed with chunks of ice, the motormen and conductors driven off, and the passengers in some cases not allowed to leave the cars, and in others, pulled from the cars and thrown into the streets.[565] And while conferences were still going on, according to the same authority, the leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World
made a determined effort, by violence and intimidation of various sorts to prevent those wishing to resume work from reaching the mills. The endless chain system of picketing was put into force, and women ... who did not work in the mills, along with "strong arm" men, were pressed into service. Women were assaulted by men, and pepper thrown in the eyes of operatives and police officers. Early in the morning powerful men followed, threatened, and seized girls on their way to the mills, twisting their wrists, snatching their luncheons, and terrorizing them generally. During the night strangers visited the homes of the workers and threatened to cut their throats if they persisted in going to work....[566]
On the other hand, there is fairly conclusive evidence that the advent of Ettor and Haywood resulted, if not in the entire elimination of violent tactics, at least in their marked reduction and shifting of emphasis to the tactics of passive resistance. According to one who was on the spot, the riots occurred
before Ettor's organization was effected, when the strikers gathered about the mills as an organized mob and mill bosses turned streams of water upon them in zero weather. After the "blood-stained anarchists" arrived on the scene, a policy of non-resistance to the aggressions of the police and the militia prevailed.[567]
Howsoever passive the strikers may have been in their attitude to the police and the militia, they were probably quite aggressive in their campaign to win recruits to the ranks of the strikers. A Lawrence mill overseer reports that the I. W. W. strike committee[568] did it in this way:
The addresses of the men working are given to a committee. They are visited after nine o'clock at night by strangers, generally Poles: "Working today?" "Yah." (The man speaking has a sharp knife and is whittling a stick.) "Work tomorrow?" "I d'no." "If you work tomorrow, I cut your throat." "No, no. I no work." "Shake." And they shake hands.[569]
There is strong evidence of at least one attempt on the part of the business and commercial interests of Lawrence to discredit the strikers. In three places in the city a total of twenty-eight sticks of dynamite were found. The strikers declared that it had been "planted." Later a business man of Lawrence, who had no connection with the strikers, was arrested and finally tried and "convicted of conspiracy to injure by the planting of dynamite." He was fined $500.00![570]
There was great friction between the I. W. W. and the locals of other labor organizations. The Socialists and I. W. W.s accused the American Federation of Labor leaders of trying to break the strike. "All the mechanical crafts," we read in a pro-I. W. W. journal, "including engineers, firemen, electrical workers, machinists and railroaders ... remained at work, scabbing on their fellows with the full sanction ... of their officials."[571] In the face of this antagonism the rank and file of the A. F. of L. membership contributed liberally to the strike fund, giving about $11,000 to the cause of the strikers. Socialist contributions are placed at $40,000 and those of the I. W. W. local unions at $16,000.[572] The Federal investigators report that "these relief funds came from all sections of the country and average $1,000 a day throughout the strike."[573]
The Lawrence strike furnished the opportunity for some parading of the idea of a general strike. William D. Haywood, in his first speech to the strikers after his arrival in Lawrence, said: "If we prevail on other workers who handle your goods to help you out by going on strike, we will tie up the railroads, put the city in darkness and starve the soldiers out."[574] This agitation became more vigorous, however, after the strike itself and during the subsequent trial of the two I. W. W. agitators, Ettor and Giovannitti.
They were in jail at Salem, Massachusetts, at the time of the seventh I. W. W. convention in September, 1912, and the General Executive Board, in its report, threatened that unless these "fellow-workers are acquitted the industries of this country will feel the power of the workers expressed in a general tie-up in all industries...."[575]
In addition to the general strike, a boycott was demanded. Under the caption, "Boycott Lawrence," a heavily headlined announcement was printed on the front page of the Industrial Worker.[576] It ran in part:
Boycott Lawrence.... Railroad men: Lose their cars for them! Telegraphers: Lose their messages for them! Expressmen: Lose their packages for them! Boycott Lawrence! Boycott it to the limit!...
Let nothing, cars, messages, packages, mails or anything whatsoever that bears the sign, label or address of an official of the Wool Trust, or of a bank, business house, or prostituted newspaper, which favors them, or of a judge, policeman or cossack, or any one who lends the slightest aid to the mill-owners, go on its way undisturbed!
Boycott Lawrence!
Against the bludgeons of Industrial Despotism bring the silent might of the Industrial Democracy!
Boycott Lawrence!
The result of the strike was a decided victory for the strikers. The Federal government's investigators reported that
some 30,000 textile mill employees in Lawrence secured an increase in wages of from 5 to 20 per cent; increased compensation for overtime; and the reduction of the premium period from four weeks to two weeks. Also, as an indirect result of the Lawrence strike, material increases in wages were granted to thousands of employees in other textile mills throughout New England.[577]
It is a significant fact that the highest percentages of increases in wages were given to the unskilled employees. The General Executive Board of the I. W. W. reported the range of wage increases as being "from 5 per cent for the highly paid workers to 25 per cent for the lowest paid workers."[578] Moreover, there were other effects, no less important. This strike demonstrated that it was possible for the unskilled and unorganized workers (preponderantly immigrants of various nationalities) to carry on a successful struggle with their employers. It showed what latent power there is in the great masses of semi-skilled and unskilled workers. Moreover, it demonstrated the power of a new type of labor leaders over the ignorant and unskilled immigrant workers. A writer who has little sympathy for revolutionary unionism says concerning Joseph J. Ettor:
This man ... steeped in the literature of revolutionary socialism and anarchism, swayed the undisciplined mob as completely as any general ever controlled the disciplined troops ... [and was able] to organize these thousands of heterogeneous, heretofore unsympathetic and jealous nationalities, into a militant body of class-conscious workers. His followers firmly believed, as they were told, that success meant that they were about to enter a new era of brotherhood, in which there would be no more union of trades and no more departmental distinctions, but all workers would become the real bosses in the mills.[579]
The Lawrence Citizens' Association reports that Ettor
avowed himself an advocate of the doctrine of "direct action," of violence, as a believer in the philosophy of force, for he proclaimed time and again ... that "he who has force on his side has the law on his side." He also advocated destroying the machinery of employers who did not grant all the demands of the strikers.[580]
The effect of the strike on the membership of the I. W. W. in Lawrence was to increase it greatly but only temporarily. Just after the strike the organizers claimed 14,000 members in Lawrence. In October, 1913, there were 700.[581] An investigator for the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations reports that they had over 10,000 members immediately after the strike.[582] The I. W. W. itself claimed 20,000 in Lawrence in June, 1912, as well as 28,000 in Lowell, and boasted that "in nearly every town in the New England states there are locals ranging from 800 to 5,000 in membership."[583] The Federal investigator referred to puts the Lawrence membership of the I. W. W. in 1914 at about 400 and says that local I. W. W. officials attribute this low figure to unemployment, but he himself thinks that other factors entered.[584] The wage increase gained was, he said, offset by the increased speed required on the machines.
This amounted to 50 per cent. Another factor was the forced scattering of I. W. W. leaders after the strike. He found in 1914 only one of eight local I. W. W. leaders who were there at the time of the strike and reports that the employers established a system of espionage in the mills.[585]
Lawrence made the I. W. W. famous, especially in the East. It stirred the country with the alarming slogans of a new kind of revolution. Socialism was respectable—even reactionary—by comparison. The "Wobblies" frankly abjured the rules under which, as they would express it, the capitalist game is played. They said: "If it serves our interests as members of the working class to obey certain accepted canons of conduct, we will obey them because it would be detrimental to our class to disobey them." Lawrence was not an ordinary strike. It was a social revolution in parvo. St. John is said to have written to Haywood, "a win in the Lawrence mills means the start that will only end with the downfall of the wage system."[586] This was a class war and the I. W. W. insists that the principle of military necessity justifies it in a policy of schrecklichkeit, at least to property, which on the syndicalist hypothesis was stolen anyway, in the beginning. The I. W. W. abjures current ethics and morality as bourgeois, and therefore inimical to the exploited proletarian for whom a new and approved system of proletarian morality is set forth. In this proletarian code the sanctions of conduct are founded on the (material) interests of the proletarian, as such. The criterion is expediency—effectiveness to one particular end, the overthrow of the wage system and the establishment of—something else—the words industrial democracy or coöperative commonwealth are commonly used in reference to that nebulous future state that all radicals see as in a glass, more or less darkly. This means that staid old New England was confronted with an organization which derided all her fond moralities. The most shocking défi of these I. W. W.s was the défi they hurled at the church. Only less so was the défi they leveled at the flag. The I. W. W. said that the church, obedient to the dictates of big business, preached to the workers a servile obedience now for the sake of a hypothetical heaven of comfort later; "ergo," they said, "the church is unethical and we abjure it for a superior proletarian ethics." It considered that the flag was being made the excuse for a jingo patriotism which made the enlargement and conquest of markets and the further exploitation of labor the end and aim of patriotism. In brief, the church and the flag are made to serve commercialism. Commercialism is evil because unjust. Therefore, its servants are, pro tanto, evil also and rightly to be repudiated.
The conflicting attitudes are well illustrated by two placards carried along Lawrence streets during the strike. The I. W. W. paraded first with, among others, a placard reading:
XX Century civilization.... For the progress of the human race we have jails, gallows, guillotines, ... and electric chairs for the people who pay to keep the "soldiers" to kill them when they revolt against Wood and other czars of capitalism.
Arise!!! Slaves of the World!!! No God! No Master! One for all and all for one!
The citizens (no reference here to the textile operatives) of Lawrence paraded their righteous indignation as follows:
Perhaps there is no better illustration of the reaction of the great bulk of the progressive citizenship of the country to the I. W. W. strike-drama than the following editorial paragraph published during the strike:
On all sides people are asking: Is this a new thing in the industrial world?... Are we to see another serious, perhaps successful, attempt to organize labor by whole industrial groups instead of by trades? Are we to expect that instead of playing the game respectably, or else frankly breaking out into lawless riot which we know well enough how to deal with, the laborers are to listen to a subtle anarchistic philosophy which challenges the fundamental idea of law and order, inculcating such strange doctrines as those of "direct action," "sabotage," "syndicalism," "the general strike," and "violence"?... We think that our whole current morality as to the sacredness of property and even of life is involved in it.[587]
At the seventh convention held in Chicago in September, 1912, there were present forty-five industrialists; twenty-nine of these being delegates from as many regular local unions; one delegate each represented the two National Industrial Unions which were component parts of the I. W. W., viz., the Textile Workers and the Forest and Lumber Workers; seven were General Executive Board members, and seven "fraternal delegates" from the Brotherhood of Timber Workers. Locals in eight states and in British Columbia were represented.[588] During the time the convention was in session, Joseph J. Ettor, a member of the General Executive Board, was awaiting trial in the Essex County jail in Salem, Mass. He wrote to the delegates that
all of the past term's progress is mainly due to the policies adopted, particularly by the sixth annual convention, and ... I feel it an urgent duty on my part to advise that as much as conditions will allow, the lines laid down by the last convention be ratified....[589]
The General Executive Board specifically recommended to the convention the use of direct action as a weapon of the working class.
The only effective weapon that the workers have with which to meet this condition [runs the Board's report] is to [sic] render unproductive the machinery of production with which they labor, and have access to. Militant direct action in the industries of the world is the weapon upon which they must rely and which they must learn to use.[590]
With the growing interests of the I. W. W. in the workers in the agricultural and lumber industries came a realization of the need for some kind of a land policy. Delegate Covington Hall presented a petition which was adopted as a resolution by the convention:
Why not ... proclaim today [the resolution asks] what we will be compelled to proclaim tomorrow—a land policy? Why not base this policy on the motto of the Russian peasant, "Whose the sweat, his the land," and couple this with a new I. W. W. motto: "Whose the sweat, theirs the machines"? In other words, proclaim that we will recognize no title to machinery except that which vests its ownership in the users.[591]
The most important aspect of this convention was the sentiment which was evidenced by some of the delegates in favor of reducing the power of the national administration—the central office—often referred to in this and following conventions as "Headquarters." This agitation for decentralization was not particularly successful, but the idea was given a hearing. At the following convention a much more extended discussion took place and the subject will be resumed in connection with the discussion of that meeting.[592] At this 1912 meeting the question of decentralization came up in the discussion of a motion to give the General Executive Board jurisdiction over the calling, management and settlement of all free-speech fights. The alleged object of the motion was to restrict the number of such controversies. The "Wobblies" had been even more inclined to overindulge in free-speech fights than in strikes, and some thought this appetite might be kept in better control if it were made more difficult for locals to get support for such struggles from the national office. The motion was lost by an overwhelming majority. The vote expressed a significant reaction from the traditional I. W. W. policy of centralization. That the latter policy was still strong was indicated in the overwhelming defeat of motions to deprive the General Executive Board of its power over the strike activities of the organization.[593] The policy of the convention was centralist on strike and decentralist on free-speech fights. The editor of The Agitator, an anarchist exponent of industrial unionism, believes that this was due to the fact that the I. W. W. had had much experience of "free-speech fighting" and realized the need for local autonomy, whereas it had had limited strike experience and so had "not yet learned the danger of allowing a few men ... to control its strike activities." The writer imagines that geography was also a factor. The proponents of continued centralization of strike power were the more disciplined eastern members. The defenders of local autonomy in free-speech fights were the western "Wobblies," and the nature of their life and experience bred in them much of the anarchistic spirit of individualism.
The Socialist Labor party and the doctrinaires of Detroit thought that this convention was a very insignificant gathering. One of the DeLeonites described it: "About thirty men acting in the capacity of delegates and about a score of onlookers, leaning with their backs against the walls leisurely smoking their pipes or chewing tobacco.... This constituted the convention...."[594] It is interpreted differently by one who is with the direct-actionists at least in sympathy. He says:
It is a significant proof of the sound base of the I. W. W. philosophy that the tremendous growth of the past year has not brought with it the germ of opportunism. There was no suggestion of a desire on the part of any of the delegates to swerve from the uncompromising and revolutionary attitude of the organization; nor was there any reaching out for "respectability." Every man was a "Red," most of them with jail records, too.... All striving ... to hasten the day when "the whistle will blow for the Boss to go to work."[595]
[557] Cf. appendix vii.
[558] Supra, p. 261 et seq.
[559] An "I. W. W. strike" may or may not be managed by the I. W. W. Also, it may be managed by I. W. W. leaders, but include no appreciable proportion of "Wobblies" among the strikers. The writer has endeavored to exclude here all strikes in which the I. W. W. did not in some way actively participate. Cf. appendix viii.
[560] Report on Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, Mass., 62nd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Document No. 870, p. 9.
[561] Compiled from data in St. John, I. W. W. History, Structure, Methods (1917 ed.), pp. 20-23.
[562] National Industrial Union of Forest & Lumber Workers.
[563] Op. cit., p. 11.
[564] Hearings on the Lawrence Strike (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1912), p. 75.
[565] McPherson, The Lawrence Strike of 1912 (Reprint from Sept., 1912, Bulletin of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers), p. 25.
[566] Ibid., pp. 43-44.
[567] Mary K. O'Sullivan, "The Labor War at Lawrence," Survey, vol. xxviii, p. 73 (April 6, 1912).
[568] The chairman of the committee belonged to the I. W. W. but its personnel included those with other affiliations. (The Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, Mass. [Federal report], p. 66.)
[569] "Statements by people who took part." Survey, April 6, 1912, vol. xxviii, no. 1, p. 76.
[570] Federal report, op. cit., p. 39.
[571] L. H. Marcy and F. S. Boyd, "One Big Union Wins," International Socialist Review, vol. xii, p. 624, Apr., 1912.
[572] Ibid., pp. 618-619.
[573] Federal report. op. cit., p. 66.
[574] Mary E. Marcy, "The Battle for Bread at Lawrence," International Socialist Review, vol. xii, p. 538, March, 1912.
[575] On the Firing Line, p. 20. This is a pamphlet containing extracts from the report of the General Executive Board to the Seventh Convention. The report is published in full in The Industrial Worker (Oct. 24, 1912).
[576] March 21, 1912.
[577] Federal report, op. cit., p. 15.
[578] Ibid.
[579] McPherson, op. cit., pp. 9-10. For a different view see W. E. Weyl, "The Strikers at Lawrence," Outlook, Feb. 10, 1912, p. 311. Weyl thinks that "the workers' real attitude is that of the ordinary trade-unionist."
[580] "Lawrence as it really is—not as syndicalists, anarchists, socialists, suffragists, pseudo-philanthropists, and muck-raking yellow journalists have painted it." Congressional Record, vol. xlviii, no. 82, 62nd Congress, 2nd Session, March 18, 1912, p. 3544.
[581] R. F. Hoxie, "The Truth About the I. W. W.," Journal of Political Economy, vol. xxi, p. 786 (Nov., 1913).
[582] Selig Perlman, "The Relations between Capital and Labor in the Textile Industry in New England." Report to the Commission, typewritten MS., p. 12.
[583] Industrial Worker, July 4, 1912, p. 1, col. 4.
[584] Perlman. op. cit., p. 17.
[585] Perlman, op. cit., pp. 12-16.
[586] McPherson, op. cit., p. 15.
[587] Editorial, "After the Battle," Survey, vol. xxviii, no. 1, April 6, 1912, pp. 1-2.
[588] Report of the Seventh Convention, pp. 2-3. Wm. E. Trautmann, who had gone over to the Socialist Labor party faction, charged that "two-thirds of the voting power of the whole convention" was lodged in the hands of two delegates, one of whom was a paid officer. ("Open letter to Wm. D. Haywood," Weekly People, May 31, 1913. p. 2.)
[589] Letter dated September 14, 1912, Report of the Seventh Convention, pp. 26-27.
[590] Industrial Worker, Oct. 24, 1912, p. 4, col. 3.
[591] Report of the Seventh Annual Convention, pp. 9, 24.
[592] Vide infra, p. 305 et seq.
[593] "The I. W. W. Convention," The Agitator, Oct. 15, 1912.
[594] Arthur Zavels, "The Bummery 'Congress'", Weekly People, Oct. 12, 1912, p. 1.
[595] J. P. Cannon, "Seventh I. W. W. Convention," International Socialist Review, vol. xiii, p. 424, col. 2 (Nov., 1912).
In 1913 the visit of Tom Mann, the well-known English labor leader and advocate of revolutionary unionism, revived the discussion of "dual unionism" and the respective merits of what the French Syndicalists called la pénétration and la pression extérieure,[596] or what the American "Wobbly" calls "boring from within" and "hammering from without," respectively. Even before his visit a growing minority had been feebly protesting against the accepted I. W. W. policy of creating a new organization without regard to existing labor (or craft) unions in the locality instead of allowing the unorganized—and especially the radicals—to enter the old unions (of the A. F. of L.) and "bore from within" their conservative shells to let in the light of revolutionary industrial unionism. This renewed interest was largely due to the exchange of ideas with European radicals at international congresses. The policy in Europe and in England has been precisely "the boring from within" policy, and European unions—especially the Confédération Générale du Travail of France—has prospered by it both in numbers and influence. In 1911, William Z. Foster, a member of the I. W. W., visited Europe and made a careful examination of the labor organizations there. He returned fully convinced that the I. W. W. should change its policy on "dual unionism" and begin to "bore from within" the American Federation of Labor.
In connection with the proposal of his name for the office of editor of the Industrial Worker he sent a letter on the subject to that paper. He makes such a cogent exposition of the case against dual unionism that the greater part of it is here given:
The question, "Why don't the I. W. W. grow?" is being asked on every hand, as well within our ranks as without. And justly, too, as only the blindest enthusiast is satisfied at the progress, or rather lack of progress, of the organization to date. In spite of truly heroic efforts on the part of our organizers and members in general ... the I. W. W. remains small in membership and weak in influence. It is indeed time to examine the situation and discover what is wrong.
The founders of the I. W. W. at its inception gave the organization the working theory that in order to create a revolutionary labor movement, it was necessary to build a new organization separate and apart from the existing craft unions which were considered incapable of development. This theory and its consequent tactics has persisted in the organization, and we later comers have inherited them and, without any serious investigation, accepted the theory as an infallible dogma. Parrot-like and unthinking, we glibly re-echo the sentiment that "craft unions cannot become revolutionary unions," and usually consider the question undebatable. Convincing arguments in favor of the theory I have never seen nor heard—I used to accept it without question like the vast majority of the I. W. W. membership does now, and in practice it has achieved the negative results shown by the I. W. W. today with its membership of but a few thousands. The theory's strength is due to its being the one originally adopted by the founders of the I. W. W., and to me this is but a poor recommendation, as these same founders, in addition to giving us a constitution manifestly inadequate to our needs and the changing and ignoring of which occupies a large share of our time, made the monumental mistake of trying to harmonize all the various conflicting elements among them into one "Happy Family" revolutionary organization—a blunder which cost the I. W. W. three years of internal strife to rectify and one that gives these founders—who have mostly quit the organization, anything but an infallible reputation. And if we look about us a little, at the labor movements of other countries in addition to considering our own experiences, we will be more inclined to question this theory that we have so long accepted as the natural one for the revolutionary labor movement. It has been applied in other countries and with similar results as here.
The German syndicalist movement, with a practically stationary membership of about 15,000, is a pigmy compared to the giant and rapidly growing socialist unions with their 2,300,000 members. The English I. W. W. is ridiculously small and weak; the German syndicalist organization, the English I. W. W. and the American I. W. W., using the same dual organization tactics in the three greatest capitalist countries, are all afflicted with a common stagnation and lack of influence in the labor movement. On the other hand, in those countries where the syndicalists use the despised "boring from within" tactics, their revolutionary movements are vigorous and powerful. France offers the most conspicuous example. There the C. G. T. militants, inspired by the tactics of the anarchists who years ago, discontented at their lack of success as an independent movement, literally made a raid on the labor movement, captured it and revolutionized it, and in so doing developed the new working-class theory of syndicalism, have for one of their cardinal principles to introduce [sic] competition in the labor movement by creating dual organizations. By propagating their doctrines in the old unions and forcing them to become revolutionary, they have made their labor movement the most feared one in the world. In Spain and Italy, where the rebels are more and more copying French tactics, the syndicalist movements are growing rapidly in power and influence. But it is in England where we have the most striking example of the comparative effectiveness of the two varieties of tactics. For several years the English I. W. W. with its dual-organization theory carried on a practically barren agitation. About a year ago, Tom Mann, Guy Bowman and a few other revolutionists, using the French "boring from within" tactics, commenced in the face of a strong I. W. W. opposition to work on the old trades unions, which Debs had called impossible. Some of the fruits of their labors were seen in the recent series of great strikes in England. The great influence of these syndicalists in causing and giving the revolutionary character to these strikes which sent chills along the spine of international capitalism, is acknowledged by innumerable capitalist and revolutionary journals alike.
Is not this striking success of "boring from within" after continued failure of "building from without" tactics, which is but typical of the respective results being achieved everywhere by these tactics, worthy of the most serious consideration on the part of the I. W. W.? Is it not time that we get up off our knees before this time-honored dual organization dogma and give it a thorough examination? And I'll promise—or threaten—that if I am elected editor the matter will get as thorough an investigation as lays in my power.... At Berlin a few months ago Jouhaux, secretary of the C. G. T. [Confédération Générale du Travail], in a large public meeting advised them to give up their attempt to create a new movement and to get into the conservative unions where they could make their influence felt. At Budapest he extended the same advice to the I. W. W. via myself, and I am frank to state that I am convinced that it would be strictly good tactics for both movements to adopt it. I am satisfied from my observations that the only way for the I. W. W. to have the workers adopt and practice the principles of revolutionary unionism ... is to give up its attempt to create a new labor movement, turn itself into a propaganda league, get into the organized labor movement and by building up better fighting machines within the old unions than those possessed by our reactionary enemies, revolutionize those unions even as our French syndicalist fellow-workers have so successfully done with theirs.[597]
Upon the arrival of Mr. Mann, Mr. Foster again took up the cudgels for the opponents of dual unionism.