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is crime against property.

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When asked what he would do with the lazy man, Mr. Haywood replied, "I would give the lazy man the kind of work he would like to do. I don't believe any man is lazy," and he added, "I think that each man has a selection of his own, and would find his place in the group where the work was going on."2

Since political action is considered worthless, the only means by which I. W. W.'s can attain their goal is physical force. The only force which they can bring to bear is the organized industrial power of the workers. They speak much about "direct action," by which they mean the withdrawal of labor power or efficiency from the place or object of production. They propose to organize the workers to control the use of their labor so that they will be able to stop the production of wealth except upon terms dictated by the work

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De Leon prophesied that if the I. W. W. abandoned the "civilized" method of solving social questions it would be treated to a dose which it would itself have invited, a dose of Russian governmental terrorism; for the exclusion of the political clause from the constitution, leaving the "take and hold" clause extant, would drive the agitation into the narrow quarters of a conspiracy. This would give

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the capitalist class a welcome pretext to drop all regard

1. Haywood, "Testimony before the Indus.Relations Commission," 64. 2, Ibid, 38-9.

3. Ibid, 16.

4. Daniel De Leon, "As to Politics," 30-1.

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for decency and resort to the terrorism that would suit it.
Mass action and "striking at the ballot box with an ax" get
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the workers en masse into jails, says the W. I. I. U.

This is precisely what has happened.

Organizers of

the W. I. I. U. agitate unmolested, while I. W. W.'s, even when studious in the observance of law, suffer violence of every kind. Sedition, i.e., insurrection against the government, was the charge placed against 166 members and sympathizers of the I. W. W. in 1917, and 100 of these people were convicted on 400 counts by a jury which was out for only a matter 3 of ten minutes. Their offices are raided, free speech is repeatedly denied them, and they are the victims of mob violence. Such experiences tinge their philosophy with bitter

ness. The following sentences are representative:

"Believing that the whole body of existing law is

class legislation which enslaves us in every respect, we have nevertheless been studious in our observance of its forms... "Always it has been our law-reverencing enemies, the capitalists, who have broken their own laws when they faced the I. W. W. It was Boss Ward and not the I. W. W. who planted the dynamite in Lawrence. It was the Loyalty League and not the I. W. W. which violated both city, state and national laws in Bisbee.....

"Their honor is, like their laws, a scrap of paper.

1. Ibid, 37.

2. W.I.Í.U. Leaflet No.5, "Organize Right to have Might."

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We trusted to their honor in Trinidad, and we were burned alive. We learned the sacredness of their contracts in West Virginia, where they gave us post-mortems. The members of the I. W. W.

have no illusions as to the justice or the patriotism of the

master class. Their justice is class justice and their patriotism is only profit-deep.

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Their experiences breed contempt for courts. Mr. Haywood testified before the Industrial Relations Commission as follows: "The working class of this country have looked upon the courts with a great deal of awe and respect in the past; that is not true now. They look upon the courts as a tool of the employing class."2

And he said further, "I have been plastered up with injunctions until I do not need a suit of clothes, and I have treated them with contempt.

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The illegality of an act would not of itself raise a moral qualm or scruple against it in an I. W. W. mind, for he absolutely rejects the conventional "commercial morality" and the present ethical system. "He retains absolutely no respect for the property 'rights' of the profit-takers," says Haywood. "He will use any weapon which will win his fight. He knows that the present laws of property are made by and for the capitalists. Therefore he does not hesitate to

break them. He knows that whatever action advances the in

terests of the working class is right, because it will save
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the workers from destruction and death."

1. H. L. Varney, "The Truth about the I.W.W." 2. Wm. D. Haywood, "Testimony before Indust. Relations Comm.," 65. 3. Ibid, 28.

4. Wm. D. Haywood and Frank Bohn, "Industrial Socialism," 57. Cf. Wm.D.Haywood, "Testimony before Indust.Relations Comm.,

π 26.

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