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speaker should have gone further and described the methods by which Mr. Gompers and his close associates on the executive council of the American Federation of Labor have maintained themselves in office by the shrewdest of political machination for thirty years, and by which they could no doubt maintain themselves in office for three hundred years, could they live so long. Had the general gone into a discussion of this phase of Mr. Gompers' officeholding, he would have had something interesting to tell his colleagues.

ment.

As to the rest of what General Sherwood said, it does not require com

When it comes to Mr. Gompers, the greater measure of truth, we believe, is contained in what Mr. John Kirby, Jr., said, as president of the national convention of manufacturers at its meeting in May. Discussing Gompers in his address, Mr. Kirby said:

"Samuel Gompers, I contend, is the worst enemy honest labor has. He is doing all he can to build up a system that would work greater hardships to the man with the dinner bucket than to the man with a gold platter. A system that would put the honest toiler under the iron heel of tyranny from which there would be no escape; that would practically close the door of opportunity to the laborer of today for becoming the selfmade man of tomorrow. A system that proposes to substitute restless meddlesomeness for statesmanship and destroy contentment altogether, and when you destroy contentment you kill the root of happiness.

"The goal to which this man aspires, being a complete monopoly of the labor market, would find the laborer just where he began, so far as its economic effect on him is concerned. Because, unless the law of supply and demand is repealed, which, of course, cannot be done, the extra dollar which the system might bring to him would mean nothing in purchasing power."

Sentences Imposed on Gompers and Associates

In finding Samuel Gompers and his associates in the American Federation of Labor, guilty of contempt of court for violating the court's order in the case of the Buck Stove & Range Co. VS. the American Federation of Labor, on June 24, 1912. Justice Wright, of the district supreme court of Washington, D. C., said: "Where else does the history of jurisprudence show so bold, so broad, so effectual a contempt of the judicial arm of the government as here?" Again he said: Again he said: "If its (the court's) orders are not to be obeyed, why should it issue any orders? And if it is not to issue orders, why should it exist?" Justice Wright also said that the contempt admitted by the "least of these offenders" was more pernicious and malignant than that of Eugene V. Debs in the American Railway union case, in that it put down the law, so that the law did not operate or protect the citizen in his right.

There will be a howl from organized labor at the imprisonment sentences, but we are sure that a close perusal of the summary of Justice Wright's decision, given elsewhere in this issue of THE AMERICAN EMPLOYER, will pursuade any reader that the Washington jurist and his associates fully believed that by nothing more moderate could they uphold the dignity, or indeed the effectiveness of their court.

That being the conclusion of the justices, who shall gainsay it? Surely if they do not protect their own office no one else will do so. Presumably they were of the opinion that nobody in authority had placed Gompers and his associates above the law and that those men were not intuitively better judges of what constitutes the right of free speech than trained and learned jurists. It is safe to say that millions of right minded men share that opinion.

The newspapers of the United States, outside of those in Washington, which regarded the decision as local, carried, for the most part, very little of this most important decision. The AMERICAN EMPLOYER gives, in another part of the paper, the summarization which formed the last part of what Justice Wright said.

Industrial Workers Wave the Red Flag

In Spokane, Wa., the Industrial Workers of the World has a paper called the Industrial Worker, which not longer ago than May, of this year, exploited "The Red Flag", the recognized emblem of anarchy, to its readers in an article so named, written by William Craig. Of course, Craig does not say in so many words that the red flag is anarchistic, because his article is appearing in a socialistic paper, and even socialists of the Haywood type want to try to mark a distinction between socialism which ostensibly stands for all government, and anarchy, which openly stands for no government. However, the socialist paper is willing to extol the anarchist flag.

that:

Craig says that the crimson flag is the flag of revolutions, and declares

"Stained as it was with the blood of our forebears; standing as it does for progress; it is liable to be again reddened in the near future, and let us hope, with more successful results than of yore.

"Then raise the scarlet standard high,

"Beneath its folds we'll live or die.

"Let cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
"We'll keep the red flag flying here."

Why! How is This, Mr. Gompers?

In commenting on the late strike of the street cleaners in New York, the American Federationst, in a recent issue, says: "The night work compelled the men to change their mode of living. . besides losing occasional gifts from householders for services performed for them beyond regular duties."

.

Does Mr. Gompers advocate that an employe take time from his employer to work for others, "beyond regular duties"? The present municipal govern-. ment of Cleveland, O., which has been kept in power for nine out of the last eleven years by the votes of working people, on which it depends, has for a number of years condemned this form of petty graft by making a rule that any employe of the Cleveland street cleaning department detected in accepting a gift from a householder shall be summarily discharged.

Cleveland I. W. W. Leader

There is a possibility that the Solidarity printing plant, which the Industrial Workers of the World have set up in Newcastle, Pa., may be removed. to Cleveland, O. William Glover, who is the leader of the I. W. W. movement in Cleveland, has pledges of at least $40, with which to finance the removal. It will require $100, if the present outfit is merely moved, or about $1,000 if a new press is bought.

Glover is the big mogul of the Cleveland I. W. W.'s and seems pretty ambitious. For instance, he told a

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Industrial Workers of the World Split

Rival Branches in Chicago and Detroit Call Each
Other "Anarchists" and "Politicians"-Bitter Feeling

If there be truth in the old adage that a house divided against itself cannot stand, the Industrial Workers of the World, the labor organization of militant tendencies that conducted the Lawrence strike and which would monopolize the fruits of all production, will one day go to pieces, because there are two well defined factions in the order. One of these absolutely rejects politics and relies absolutely on working along industrial and economic lines. The headquarters of this faction is in Chicago. Vincent St. John is the general secretary, with an office at room 518, No. 160 North Fifth avenue. This is the faction that conducted the Lawrence textile workers' strike and in which William D. Haywood is such an important factor.

The other faction would combine economic and political work, depending for the political work end of things on the socialist labor party, with which nearly all its members are affiliated. Headquarters are Detroit, where Herman Richter, the general secretary and treasurer, can be reached at post office box 651. Richter is a wagon worker by trade and probably maintains his office at his house.

Neither faction has a president.

The struggle in the Independent Workers of the World between those who wanted to strive along political lines through the socialist labor party and those who did not, began at the first convention. In the second and third conventions those who would eliminate politics grew stronger. the fourth convention they prevailed and eliminated partisan politics from their oganization.

In

Then came the split. The socialist laborer workers maintained their right

to engage in politics through the order. They pointed to the original preamble of the organization, which read: "Between these two classes (the working and the employing) a struggle must go on until all the toilers come together on the political as well as on the industrial field and take and hold that which they produce by their labor, through an economic organization of the working class, without affiliation with any political party." The Detroit faction clings to the three words, "on the political", as allowing the individual members to talk and work in politics, even though the organization as such cannot be affiliated with any political party.

The fourth convention, heretofore referred to, amended the preamble to read: "Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production and abolish the wage system."

The feeling is as bitter between. these two factions in the Industrial Workers of the World as that on the part of the Industrial Workers against the American Federation of Labor or even against the employers of labor themselves. The Detroit faction says the Chicago faction is composed of anarchists. The Chicago faction says those in the Detroit faction are simply using the organization to bolster a political party.

In a room no bigger than the back platform of a modern street car, in the Acme hall building on the outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio's, downtown business section, Richard Koeppel, a scholarly, peaceful socialist, edits the national organ of the socialist labor party. The paper is a German sheet,

styled Volksfreund und Arbeiter Zeitung. Koeppel is paid his wages bythe socialist labor party national organization. He speaks of its affairs. and also of those of the Detroit faction of the I. W. W. with authority.

"The anarchists," said Koeppel, "were insistent in the second and third national conventions of the I. W. W. At the fourth convention stringent financial conditions prevented many of the socialist labor people. from attending. The anarchists obtained control and eliminated political action from the preamble. We, who are not anarchists, who discredit and discountenance violence and who believe in achieving our ends peacefully along political and industrial lines alike, dispute the right of the anarchists to deprive anybody of the right of political action."

"Do you regard the Chicago branch of the organization as composed of anarchists?" Koeppel was asked.

"I regard its leaders as advocating anarchistic principles."

"Do you think William D. Haywood is an anarchist?"

"Assuredly I do. Any man who advocates violence and unlawfulness as he does is an anarchist. I regard him, too, as an unreliable man. He is trying to carry water on both shoulders."

"Just what is his official relation to the I. W. W.? It is said he is not even a member of any I. W. W. local, but only of the Propaganda league, a side issue of the Chicago I. W. W."

"I don't know anything about his membership in a Propaganda league. He has been posing as an organizer of the I. W. W. I know the Chicago branch sent him into Paterson, N. J., where the Detroit branch was conducting a stubborn strike, to injure the Detroit branch's work by carrying the internal troubles of the Industrial Workers of the World into the meetings of the strikers. That was an obnoxious trick. The Detroit branch kept hands off, while the Chicago branch was conducting the strike at Lawrence. Internal dissensions became unimportant when the interests of the strikers were at stake.

"With the purpose of the Chicago branch the Detroit branch has no quarrel; its quarrel is with the means they advocate employing to to carry it out. The Detroit branch does not deny the Chicago branch's right to the name. The Chicago branch denies that of the Detroit branch. The Detroit branch admits to membership in a local everybody who works for wages; the Chicago branch draws the line by admitting only those who work with their hands for wages.

"The Detroit branch is not, as the Chicago branch asserts, in aid of the socialist labor party. Most of its members, however, are members of tha party, but many members of that party are not members of the Industrial Workers of the World."

William Glover is the "big stick" in local No. 33, Cleveland, O., Industrial Workers of the World. On the evening of Wednesday, June 12, 1912, speaking to the members of the local about the announcement that Boris Rheinstein, of Buffalo, a prominent member of the Detroit I. W. W. faction and an equally prominent member of the socialist labor party, was to speak in Acme hall, Cleveland, on the evening of June 25, 1912, Glover said: "They (the Detroit faction) are in the I. W. W. purely to help along their party. They know perfectly that the I. W. W. preamble forbids their using the I. W. W. for political purposes, yet they use the name and the label. They know they have no right to do so, but they do. They know we cannot appeal to the capitalistic courts for injunction, and they know, too, that if we did, they could bring influences to bear to defeat us and then we would have to change our name and begin all over again."

"If a man isn't a craftsman," said Glover further along in his speech, "he will be contented with belonging to the Propaganda league, as does Haywood. If he insists on joining an I. W. W. local, open only to craftsmen, rest assured he has his own reasons, or there is something crooked about him. Take John Kircher (socialist labor candidate for governor of Ohio) for instance. He makes cigars and sells them himself. He

gets every cent's worth of his own production. Why should he be entitled to, or want to belong to a local?"

Vincent St. John, secretary of the Chicago faction, thus, in part, describes the struggle between the two factions in the early days of the Industrial Workers of the World, in his pamphlet on "The I. W. W., Its History, Structure and Methods", in which he also says that "the question of 'right' and 'wrong' does not concern us."

"The struggle for control of the organization formed the second convention into two camps. The majority vote of the convention was in the revolutionary (St. John's own) camp. The reactionary camp, having the chairman, used obstructive tactics in their effort to gain control of the convention until enough delegates would be forced to return home and thus change the control of the convention. The revolutionists cut the knot by abolishing the office of president and electing a chairman from among the revolutionsts. . .

On

the adjournment of the convention the old officials (the present Detroit faction) seized the general headquarters and with the aid of detectives and police, held the same, compelling the revolutionists to open up new offices. . . The organization entered its second year facing a severe struggle than it contended with in its first year. It succeeded, however, in establishing the general headquarters again and in issuing a weekly publication instead of the monthly seized by the old officials.

more

The third convention of the organization was uneventful, but it was at this convention that it became evident that the socialist politicians who had remained with the organization were trying to bend the I. W. W. to their purposes; and a a slight effort was made to relegate the politician to the

rear.

"The fourth convention resulted in a rupture between the politicians and the industrial unionists, because the former were not allowed to control the organization."

Boycott is a Strangler

The following editorial utterance concerning the obnoxious boycott is contained in a recent issue of American Industries:

"While no utterance either of Gompers or of Mitchell can be quoted to justify the use of dynamite, yet it should not be forgotten that the boycott is quite as cruel and destructive. as dynamite. The latter does its work quickly; the boycott strangles a business enterprise slowly, insidiously, but none the less effectually. The Bucks. Stove & Range Co. was a large and prosperous concern, employing union labor and agreeing to arbitrate any differences with the labor organizations by a joint arbitration. Some of its employes went on strike in violation of the agreement of arbitration, and the collective power of the federation of labor under the direction of Gompers and Mitchell was thereupon. employed to crush the Bucks Stove & Range Co. The harrassed company obtained an injunction, which was flouted by the labor leaders and which simply served to increase the destructive effects of the boycott. With this weapon Gompers and Mitchell slowly ground the Bucks Stove Co. to pieces, inflicting, as was credibly stated, a loss of nearly $500,000 and finally compelling that company, after the death of its militant president, to make peace with the federation or go under the sheriff's hammer. Dynamite would have been more merciful than this slow strangulation of a legitimate business enterprise."

Mann Committed to Jail

Tom Mann, the most militant of all the English labor leaders, was quite recently sentenced to jail for six months for "inciting troops to mutiny". His alleged offense was addressing regular troops called for duty in the English coal strike and urging them to refuse to shoot strikers and their sympathizers.

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