NE of the most important problems confronting the International Working Class today is the solidification of their forces industrially and internationally in order to enable them to successfully combat the forces of International Capitalism.

It is fifty-nine years since the first attempt was made to weld the militant forces of labor into an international fighting force, and to establish greater solidarity between the workers of the different countries in their struggles against the common enemy-Capitalism.

The First International and the Workers'
Economic Interests

This organization was named the International Association of Workingmen, and later came to be known as the First International. It adopted the following statutes:

"That the emancipation of the working class is to be attained by the working class itself;

"That the struggle for the emancipation of the working class does not mean a struggle for class privileges and monopolies, but a struggle for equal rights and equal obligations, for the abolition of every kind of class-domination;

"That the economic subjection of the worker under the monopolists of the means of production, i. e., of the sources of life, is the cause of servitude in all its forms, the cause of all social misery, all mental degradation and political dependence;

"That the economic emancipation of the working class is therefore the great aim which every political movement must be subordinated to;

"That all endeavors for this great aim have failed as yet because of the lack of solidarity between the various branches of industry in all countries, because of the absence of the fraternal tie of unity between the working classes of the different countries;

"That the emancipation is neither a local nor a national problem but a problem of a social character embracing every civilized country, the solution of which depends on the theoretical and practical cooperation of the most progressive countries;

"That the actual simultaneous revival of the workers' movement in the industrial countries of Europe, on the one hand, awakens new hopes, while, on the other hand, it is a solemn warning of the danger of relapse into the old errors and an appeal for an immediate union of the hitherto disconnected movement."

Solidarity Vital

It is to be noted that although the above program is incomplete, it is extremely clear on certain points, namely: That all working class political movements

must be subordinated to the great aim of obtaining the economic emancipation of the working class, and that this can only be done by getting solidarity in the ranks of the workers in various branches of industry in all countries.

Necessarily, this implies that the economic factor is the predominating factor, and that therefore revolutionary economic organization of the working class is the key to the solution of working class problems. Any organization which does not organize in accord with the above theories cannot truly claim to be continuing the great work started by the First International.

The Second International and German Economic Interests

In regard to the Second International, it is only necessary to state that history has proved that the finely worded phraseology and resolutions emanat ing from it were but camouflage for a nationalistic political movement, whose controlling element, the Social Democratic Party of Germany, went over to the German Imperialists as soon as the first real test came at the outbreak of the World War in 1914. In reality the leaders of the German Social Democracy represented the economic needs and interests of the German Bourgeoisie; they succeeded so well in camouflaging themselves that they were able to impose their narrow, nationalistic concep tions on the international labor movement to such an extent that today we have thousands of sincer workers who think that they are internationalists, when it reality they are only camouflaged nationalists.

The Third International and Russian Economic

Interests

A close study of the Third International and its offspring, the Red International of Labor Unions will disclose the fact that nearly all their programs and policies are the reflex of Russian economic needs and interests in the same manner that the German Social Democracy was the reflex of certain Germar economic needs and interests.

One of the outstanding features of all literature and propaganda issued by the Third International and the Red International of Labor Unions is that most of their reasoning and contentions center around the idea of a revolution in all countries which is to happen in the same manner and go through the same processes as the Russian revolu tion.

Those in control are in such close and sympatheti. touch with present day Russia and her problems that they reflect her needs and desires and hav deluded themselves into thinking that they are voic ing the interests of the international proletariat.

As yet Russia has no industrial proletariat corresponding to the proletariat of other countries which are more highly developed industrially, and until Russia has adjusted herself economically she cannot have a Russian proletarian interest that is identical to that of the International proletarian economic interest.

We can understand and sympathize with Russia, but we, as proletarian workers, cannot allow our sympathies to override our judgment. We cannot swallow Russian nationalistic policies and call them international policies just to prove our friendship for the Russan revolution.

It is only natural that the hard and intense struggle of Russia to adjust herself economically should cause even the most advanced Russians to lose sight of all else for the time being. In acting thus they are only proving themselves human.

Exponents of the Third International make much of the fact that it was "established in March, 1919, in the Capital of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic." It might be well to recall that the Social Democratic Party of Germany was also begotten during a time of great stress, and that the poison which later killed the Second International was injected at that time.

Predominating Influences

In considering international labor problems we need to remember that the actions of the labor movements in all countries are largely, if not altogether, influenced by their own peculiar problems, and that each country is inclined to consider its own problems as the most important.

Any international body, to be truly international, will necessarily have to subordinate all national economic interests to that of the International Proletarian interest.

We should also remember that international activity of the working class is not at all dependent upon, nor a result of, the formation of an international body.

The formation of an international body does not produce international activity but it does provide an organized expression for that activity.

Necessary Steps

MAY, 1923

The first step to be taken by an International, or any other body which happens to be really sincere in wanting to carry out the work attempted in 1864 by the International Association of Workingmen, is to start in removing from the labor movements of all countries all obstacles which stand in the way of getting "solidarity between the various branches of industry in all countries." This cannot be done successfully by any sectarian group which excludes workers because they fail to endorse certain phraseology that pertains to the immediate struggles of some particular country.

To use the words of Frederick Engels, the First International "trusted entirely to the intellectual development of the working class, which was sure to result from combined action and mutual discussion."

When the Third International and the Red International of Labor Unions made admission dependent upon endorsement of phrases which have come to the front as a result of the Russian Revolution, they ignored the policies laid down by Marx and others, whom they pretend to follow, and became but a sectarian group of "phrase-mongers." Marx, himself, always pointed out the need and necessity of combined action and mutual discussion, and the danger of becoming transformed into a sectarian group.

His policy was to find points of agreement and get the workers together and then, if as a result of their combined activity and mutual discussion the workers decided to adopt other policies, well and good.

The Communist Manifesto makes that point extremely clear to all those whose minds are free from nationalistic or other prejudices.

The Future Industrial Workers of the World We of the I. W. W. are looking forward to the time when the workers of other countries are ready to seriously undertake to put into practice the principles enunciated by the First International. Then and not till then, will we have an International that can truly be called THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD.

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S a rule socialization follows in the wake of technical progress. When we pass from the handsaw to the sawmill, we become socialized because it takes a social group instead of an individual to operate the new tool, the sawmill.

Machinization of life through the industrial process opens up the era of the big shop.

Every one of 13 groups into which the Census Bureau divides the industries of the country increased in capital and in horse-power used in factories between 1914 and 1919, but 7 groups lost in numbers of establishments.

In 13 major groups of industries, the following changes in number of establishments took place in the 5-year period from 1914 to 1919:

Net Increases

FOOD, 1,995 plants, 3.4 per cent.

TEXTILES, 5,089 plants, 21.6 per cent.

IKON and STEEL, 2,401 plants, 11.3 per cent. OTHER METALS, 644 plants, 6.5 per cent. RAILROAD REPAIR SHOPS, 357 plants, 17.5 per cent.

MISCELLANEOUS, 3,056 plants, 16.3 per cent.

Net Decreases

WOOD MANUFACTURERS, 2,081 plants, 4 per

cent.

LEATHER and SHOES, 361 plants, 5.3 per cent. PAPER and PRINTING, 793 plants, 12.1 per cent. CHEMICALS, 150 plants, 1.2 per cent.

CLAY, STONE, GLASS, 2,218 plants, 15 per cent. TOBACCO, 3,660 plants, 26 per cent. AUTOS and all VEHICLES, 991 plants, 15 per cent. (Excluding auto repair plants, which average 5 men each.)

If the increase in small automobile repair-shops is omitted from consideration, the number of factories in the United States showed an increase of only 232-less than one-tenth of 1 per cent-in a five-year period which put an army of 2,017,000 additional workers into American shops, increased the energy of their engines, motors and waterwheels by 7,000,000 horse-power, and vastly swelled their capital. It is the Era of the Big Shop.

No one is more hopelessly blind than the man who refuses to see, and there are still a lot of people who imagine that such a distinctly pronounced economic tendency will have no bearing upon their puny little individualiity.

A few years ago, there existed in New York a magazine called The Unpopular Review and it certainly deserved its name. It made a specialty of boosting so-called individual opportunities in the face of the economic concentration which follows

technical progress, as surely as night follows day, and many a poor devil with a middle class mind lost what few cents he had in trying to domesticate for his personal advantage a technical process that was in its essence social.

Just now, some electric interests are engaged into a campaign to rob the little country boy of his swimming hole in order to provide "juice" for the farms. Commercially it is just a scheme to sell small dynamos and many will "fall" for the glib talk of the salesmen who ought to realize that they can never produce their own juice cheaper than the large concern can sell it to them.

The individualism which the American derives from his pioneering ancestors becomes, after the public domain is gone or gobbled up by the capitalists, a silly superstition which causes many a hardworking but ignorant person to drop what little he has scraped together after many untold privations.

As soon as a technical progress is registered beyond the purely experimental stage, it is always used to hamstring a few would-be capitalists. It is practically useless to remind those people that every step forward in the technique of industry means more wage-workers and less tool-owners.

When there is on the surface a slight possibility of backing up such a notion with scientific considerations, the economically ignorant rush up to be plundered with all the speed at their command.

The advent of the motor truck is a case in point. There was a machinized tool, a comprehensive technical improvement, and still one man could drive it, keep it up and-notice the easy economic mistake -own it. So, salesmen went around the country who had not only trucks for sale but hauling contracts as well. All one had to do was to buy a truck, paying down what he had and giving notes for the balance, and he could get a long time contract from some industrial concern. On the face of it, it was a golden opportunity but, in reality, it was not as good as it looked. The best those people could do, after all their expenses were paid, was to realize that they were only wageworkers in disguise. Most of them learned by experience that in the wake of all key industries there exist a lot of minor, secondary enterprises which the owners of large concerns are quite willing to leave to individuals because they know that, at their best, those minor industries can only assume a subordinate life and are at all times depending for their very existence upon the tolerance of the large corporations. The latter know their exact profits and, as soon as their earnings rise above a certain figure, absorption by the parent concern follows.

In the meanwhile the little fellows are doing at their own expense a lot of experimenting that is especially useful in the long run to the big concern.

In the specific case of the motor truck, most of the economic nonsense about the false possibilities of hauling by truck came from the little fellow who had purchased trucks on the installment plan and imagined that they were going to give the railroad companies the run of their lives.

As a matter of fact, the truck lines never made very serious inroads upon the revenues of the rail carriers. As soon as the truck lines became important enough to become dangerous competitors, the railroads saw to it that they were placed under the regulative power of the state railroad missions.

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The individualistic illusion of the small truck owner caused him to bear the whole burden of a competition which, he now understands, could lead nowhere.

Now peace has been restored in the transportation world. Good roads have been built, the motor truck is not able to compete with the steam trunk lines, but is going to be used to a larger extent on the branch lines. Such is the understanding which has been brought about between the two types of land carriers, and the first result of which is going to be the ownership of the trucks operating on feeder or branch roads, from the main line, by the railway companies themselves.

This understanding is the product of a technical invention, the railroad container.

A railroad container is a locked steel box which fits inside the stake pockets of a flat car and the standard size of which is the same as that of a boxcar in height, with a length of 8 feet. On the upper part is a strong eyebolt ready to receive the hook of a crane.

It does not look like very much of an invention but the reader will probably change his mind if he follows me in the study of its possibilities.

Let us say that A is a wholesaler in Chicago. The railroad company delivers to his backdoor all the containers he wishes. They come on an automobile truck and are lifted off by an electric crane. A has received an order from a customer B who lives in C. He opens a container, throws the order into it and locks the door. If A is a big firm and has his own spur or side-track, he leaves the container on his rear loading platform and, during the night, a flat car comes along, puts the container alongside of another one and moves off. If A is a small firm, the railroad company will collect the container with a motor truck, take it to the yard and load it with a crane on a flat. The flat moves off on the main line till it reaches the proper junction. Here a motor truck comes along and several containers are loaded on it. The truck moves off along a branch line and deposits the containers at the very door of B, the local merchant in the town of C.

Now let us notice the economic consequences of this simple invention.

MAY, 1923

First, from the point of view of the common carrier. Do you, reader, realize that most of the cities are hemmed in and restricted in their development and traffic by the necessity for the railroads to locate in- and outbound freight houses as near as possible to the center of business? Some of the most valuable real estate is tied up on that account.

The door of the container faces the long side of the flat car. Place a board or a steel plate between the container and the stakes and thefts and robberies in transit become practically impossible. No more losses to the railroad on that account and, besides, the use of the container means more flats and less boxes, which represents quite a difference in the cost of buying and maintaining the equipment.

So far we have looked at this thing from the point of view of the employer, but what of the man at the other end who gets his goods delivered at his door without paying to send a team or a truck for them? The item of trucking is by no means to be overlooked. It is still in the chaotic stage. It is also very expensive, specially if we compare it with the cost of long distance hauling.

Petaluma, the greatest chicken and egg producing center in the world, is nearly a hundred miles away from San Francisco by rail, but it costs more to haul a load of eggs from the freight house to the commission merchant's than it costs to bring the same eggs from Petaluma, and I have no doubts that the same conditions are duplicated in other lines in most of our large commercial centers.

And now from the point of view of the worker. The new invention is sure going to treat him rough. Here is a list of some of the employees whose job the railroad container causes partly or entirely to disappear.

Goods carried in containers must not be packed, nor boxed, nor crated, which means a reduction of at least fifty per cent in the number of order pickers, checkers, packers and laborers at both ends of the haul. It means also a smaller demand for box and crate lumber and paper cartons. It cuts out twothirds of the freight house employees, truckers, deliverymen, clerks, checkers, callers, etc. It decreases the amount of work to be performed by the carwhackers and builders of freight cars, with only the compensation of a little more work in the plants where containers and pressed steel cars will be manufactured.

For so simple an invention, it surely threatens to make a lot of victims.

Should the workers oppose the introduction of the container? This would be ridiculous if it were not impossible. Under a sane social system, the workers in the railroad transportation industry would hail the container with joy. It would give them a better chance to read, to get acquainted with their families and to improve their minds, or even to become more proficient at their favorite pastimes.