Robert L. Tyler

“ On October 30 the I.W.W. made a major effort to break the blockade. Forty-one Wobblies, just off the harvest fields of the Pacific Northwest, tried to get into Everett by taking a regular passenger boat from Seattle. Deputies with identifying white handkerchiefs around their necks met the boat at the Everett city dock, sifted the forty-one Wobblies from among the other passengers, and then, over the horrified protests of the passengers, began to beat them murderously with revolver butts and clubs. In the excitement they clouted many innocent passengers and even laid upon some of their own men. ”

“ But after the war, economic and social changes diminished the size of this labor reservoir and altered the character of the transient labor in gen eral. As southerners migrated to the mills and logging camps of the Pacific Northwest, as the region's population grew, and as the automobile made logging camps less isolated from towns or cities or made them disappear entirely, more and more lumber work ers became "home guard" workers like the factory workers of the East. ”

“ Are you poor, forlorn and hungry? Are there lots of things you lack? Is your life made up of misery? Then dump the bosses off your back. Another Wobbly "hymn" was sung to the tune of "Onward, Christian Soldiers." It expressed Wobblies' antimilitarism, and it made wry fun out of the presumed hypocrisy of church goers during the first World War: Onward, Christian soldiers, rip and tear and smitel Let the gentle Jesus bless your dynamite. Many I.W.W. songs echoed a note of bitter humor. ”

“ Most Wobblies, however, never recog goals, revolution and unionism, as contradictory. busy with their hell-raising to notice that they much of a permanent union nor even advancin appreciably. Only once in the Pacific Northwest, lumber strike, did the revolutionary I.W.W. al fective labor union; and this success, cited thereaf as a vindication of their program, proved flee accidental. The very effectiveness of the strike, while the United States girded for war, stim patriotic and pseudo-patriotic attack upon the from which the organization never recovered. ”

“ In Idaho or Mont might not even boast a road or railroad conne civilization but rely instead upon a wild mountain which logs floated and up which the camp's sup half-dozen or more rough shacks served as bunk crews. Outside the huddled ring of shacks stood office, the company store, the "cookie" shack; with and the garbage cans, swarming with flies, close dozen men-oftentimes more-slept in each bunk congestion. Loggers worked hard in all kinds of oftentimes returned to camp wet, cold, and dirty. ”

“ I fury from which neither the I.W.W. n further.19 The I.W.W. opened its first hall in Centralia during the height of the war fever. Viewed as little better than German spies, the I.W.W. insulted the patriotic sensibilities of many Centralians and seemed to threaten the economic interests of others. During a Red Cross parade in 1918 the marchers rushed into the hall, smashed the doors and windows, dumped the furniture in the street, and man-handled the few Wobblies they captured inside. ”

“ Wobblies' propaganda and agitation alone did not bring the strike, but as the liberals of the period tried to explain to the
intemperate public, I.W.W. provocati ditions had brought the trouble. Co industry were sufficiently bad to hav even if the I.XW.W. had not been on han them.11 Part of the trouble stemmed fr of employers. Most of them espoused philosophy and were adamant against forms of trade unionism. Many employ from the bottom rungs of the economic shared more of a common culture with they or the workers recognized. ”

“ During the latter p the first part of 1923 the organization made e repeat the great 1917 lumber strike. Wobblies all try took up the hue and cry for a "general strik patterned after the 1917 strike but even bigg March, 1923, the Industrial Worker published veteran of the 1917 strike, an article full of t advice on tactics and methods learned from the 1 In his article the writer showed so much reveren time strike that the impending "general strike" s to redress real grievances than a ritual to recaptu of a golden age. ”

“ Joe Hill, Frank Little, and Underneath the picture of Everest someone h his last words, spoken as the lynchers dragged Centralia jail, "Tell the boys I died for my cl pictures give a curious ikon-like impression. All the occupants of the hall, the men at the and the card players in the rear, are somewher age. At the height of the I.W.W.'s career the typ been under twenty-five. The Wobblies in the hal deferential, and they pause in their conversation the stacks of newspapers in quest of documentat Next door an independent cannery workers' headquarters, and the sidewalk is crowded with k 29. ”

“ Camp-hardened "bin to act on the job like inexperienced farm boy following foremen's orders to ludicrous, work-s or standing idle when minor decisions of th quired. All Wobblies acted as if the eight-hour been won. They quit work every day after their elapsed. Exasperated foremen and employers blies for continually quitting early. Unconcerned Wobblies moved to other jobs and repeated I.W.W. claimed many advantages for these tac of course, could no longer arrest strikers and every worker had ostensibly returned to wor longer had to think of ways of dealing with "sc the strikers "worked." ”

“ When asked why t to incorporate the cannery workers' un for a moment, almost as if the idea had n to him, and then explains that the I.W. If workers have satisfactory unions, m-nili I.W.W. gives them its blessing and does When asked about the prospects for the offers friendly but somewhat evasive ans to hunt through the files for a missing reveal the facts on the Centralia riot or t Leaving the darkening hall, preserv museum display, one strolls uptown tow the automobile din, convinced that the vive its present membership. ”

“ The organization was also weakened in a less its unplanned exclusiveness. Though it pr Union" it became in practice a special little un between fact and ideal was a dilemma that t faced squarely. In America unions have always h practical benefits and collective bargaining to r but if Wobblies tried to make the I.W.W. "business" union, they stood accused of bein and disloyal to their ideals. If they continued t revolutionary "bindle stiffs" they only succeed I.W.W. smaller and more exclusive and the d Union" a chimera. ”

“ For activists such as the W tion was not hard thinking but more action. If build the union or even bring the revolutio still be justified as education for the worki Thus, the I.W.W.'s almost legendary exploits w toms of its weakness, and its tactics were large its failure. An obvious example was its meth the "job delegate system." Any Wobbly could organizer while pursuing the irregular jobs of a They supplied themselves with membership c and literature and, like colporteurs, carried them on the job. ”

“ Whenever circumstances seem called strikes for higher wages, bette cessation of discrimination against W wildcat strikes it is often difficult to of the I.W.W. Certainly Wobblies inte ary agitation and working class "educa efforts to improve immediate working the strikes often resembled free speech riots in their hullabaloo and propagand violent and usually short and unsuccessf In 1912 Wobblies assumed leadership workers in Aberdeen and Hoquiam. ”

“ But the proved a difficult barrier to understa might himself at one time have worke a mill or with a crew in the woods, an the same language" as his workers, he hard struggle for success, making universal rules of the game. ”

“ Roped away from the dock, th points on other docks and on the hill overlooki As the Verona neared the dock, the Wobbl deck, singing their rebel songs and cheering fo the docks and on the hill. The bowline had before the sheriff, standing on the dock, raise the uproar. "Who is your leader?" he shouted. "We're all leaders!" the Wobblies chorused.
"You can't land herel" "The hell we can't!" the Wobblies shou around the gangplank. A shot punctuated the tense momen volleys crackled through the air. Wobblies and others rushed in panic toward the she threatening to capsize it. ”

“ As hoboes they learned most of the popular hymns at street missions and from their contact with the Salva tion Army. Indeed, as street corner evangelists in their own right they often had to outshout the competing Salvation Army. ”

“ During the same w organizations of the unemployed that form land. In Oregon a band of one hundred m lamette Valley seeking jobs. This "Idle papers termed it-accepted food and shelte nervous civic organizations, sang songs and and then moved on to the next town. With without any violent episodes, the Army then broke apart.9 At Everett, Washington, in 1916, the I.W bitter harvest from its decade of sowing re by their fearsome reputation, Wobblies d to speak on the downtown streets, their ing with each arrest and beating they suf Snohomish County deputies. ”

“ The press reflected the shock and rage that swe state, and no newspaper made much of an effo riot at all objectively. The Seattle Union Recor the Seattle Central Labor Council, printed the opinion, a statement that there might be two sid and that fair-minded readtrs should wait for mo editorial position it suffered a raid by federa search of evidence of sedition. ”

“ Washington, Oregon, and particularly Californi suffered many trials and convictions under these l Spokane, passed a special Criminal Syndicalism o gave police courts a special weapon to use aga defendants. Actually, the federal government and the states a Wobblies than they prosecuted and prosecuted m they succeeded in convicting. But the wholesal imprisonments disorganized the I.W.W. almost as e if every arrest had ended in a conviction. The I with some of its old dash and bravado during th in court. ”

“ Behind the dows Wobblies have arranged a display of pamph some of them I.W.W. classics published forty have also attached the current issue of the Indus the window with pieces of Scotch tape, one of th visible from the street that the year is 1953 and Inside the hall near the door stand two battered stacked high with piles of papers and newspapers bulb hangs from the ceiling over the desks. In hall several elderly men in work clothes play cri round table. Against the wall near the door sta the library of the Seattle I.W.W. branches. ”

“ Science-fiction ample, often envision futuristic or inter-planeta are "anti-capitalist." The writer suggested that th go into the science-fiction field itself or ally itsel The surviving I.W.W. halls are fit settings for a The hall in Seattle, for example, is a dusty room district near the railroad stations. ”

“ Seattle, Spokane, and Portland, for exam almost continual "I.W.W. troubles" for a decade experiencing few major disturbances. During a Po in Seattle in 1914 Wobblies tussled with sailors an were on leave to help celebrate the city's holi men took exception to some anti-militarist Wobbly street orator. They protested; the aud the melee that followed several servicemen suffe wounds. The following night soldiers and sailo in force to mix vengeance with celebration. T the I.W.W. and Socialist Party halls to the app ment of police and spectators and roamed the str Wobblies. ”

“ Inside these shacks, as one investigator note steamy odors . . . would asphyxiate the uninitiat might talk of binges, prostitutes, the foreman, Wobbly "job delegate" in their midst. 13 The origins of the 1917 strike support the liberals "conditions"-not the I.W.W. alone-set off the labor troubles. Though a newly reorganized I.W. Lumber Workers' Industrial Union No. 500, calle July 1, 1917, the actual mass walk-outs began at lea before the date set by the I.W.W. The epidemic middle of June near Sand Point, Idaho. ”

“ Finally, in his charg Wilson made a verdict of guilty mandatory the I.W.W. could not plead self defense the aggression of the American Legion. being stationed in a hotel across the street Seminary Hill several hundred yards aw facts, Judge Wilson reasoned, they could fending their lives and property when their property. Wilson sentenced seven def to forty years in prison for second degree had been released during the trial, two w was adjudged insane. For the next decade Wobblies, radicals, futilely for amnesty for the seven prisone tentiary. ”