Industrial unionism stands for the solidarity of labor.
Under industrial unionism it would not be possible
that the Western Federation of Miners, when on strike,
could be shot down by the militia hauled by trainmen.
-Luella Twining
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Saturday July 8, 1905
Chicago, Illinois - Industrial Workers of the World Holds Ratification Meeting
The newly organized Industrial Workers of the World held a Ratification Meeting at Brand's Hall in Chicago last evening. The Chairman of the meeting, Miss Luella Twining, announced the purpose of the meeting:
Fellow workers:—We have come to celebrate and ratify the organization of the Industrial Workers of the World. Industrial unionism stands for the solidarity of labor. Under industrial unionism it would not be possible that the Western Federation of Miners, when on strike, could be shot down by the militia hauled by trainmen. Industrial unionism stands for solidarity.
Below the fold can be found the
Hellraisers report on Day Ten (July 7th) of the Convention of Industrial Unionists along with our report on the Ratification Meeting, held later that evening.
We first offer this report from today's edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune:
DEBS MEN STILL IN STRIFE.
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Amendment to Constitution
of Industrial Union Organization
Bitterly Opposed by Many Radicals.
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Warring factions in the "industrial unionist" convention at Brand's hall came together yesterday on a "half hearted" compromise on the question of a constitution for the new industrial organization.
An amendment was adopted which provides for national and international unions having complete autonomy in their respective internal affairs, but gives the general executive board power to regulate matters concerning the "general welfare."
Although this was accepted by the convention, it by no means brought the "peace" which was hoped for by the "radicals," for when the constitution came up to be voted for as a whole, many of them voted against it.
Officers will be elected today.
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Whatever the reason is that the
Tribune continues to focus its attention upon Comrade Debs, we cannot say. Eugene Debs gave one speech early on in the Convention and has otherwise played no role in the proceedings.
We will also point out that delegates voted overwhelmingly to approve the report of the Constitution Committee as amended: 42,714 yes; 6,995 no.
Convention of Industrial Unionists
Day Ten-July 7, 1905
MORNING SESSION
The Convention was called to order at 9:30 a. m. by Chairman Haywood, the minutes of the previous day were read by Secretary Trautmann, corrected and then approved by the delegates.
A communication of support from a New York local of the Socialist Labor Party was read by the Secretary.
The Credentials Committee reported, recommending the seating of an individual delegate, John Matthews of Chicago, which was approved by the delegates.
Thomas Hagerty
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ADOPTION OF CONSTITUTION RESUMED.
The Convention proceeded easily with the adoption of a constitution with Thomas Hagerty, Secretary of the Committee on Constitution, reading the proposed constitution section by section and the delegates discussing and voting their approval.
UNIVERSAL LABEL.
We found the discussion of Article IV Section 10 to be of particular interest.
[Del. Hagerty reading:] Section 10. There shall be a Universal Label for the entire organization. Local unions, and other organizations must procure supplies, such as membership books, official buttons, labels and badges from the General Secretary-Treasurer, all of which shall be of uniform design.
Delegate White moved that the section be adopted. (Seconded.)
DEL. SCHEIDLER: I would like to ask about the label. What is meant by the label? Is it the same label as that of the American Federation of Labor?
DEL. HAGERTY: No.
DEL. SCHEIDLER: Explain what is meant.
DEL. HAGERTY: The label, as Brother Trautmann outlines in his indictment read before this convention, the American Federation of Labor label, is a manufacturer’s label, as for example, the woodworkers’ label, the steel makers’ label, the type setters’ label; they are manufacturers’ labels, capitalist labels, and indicate a collusion between these craft unions and the capitalists themselves, as Brother Trautmann overwhelmingly demonstrated in his indictment.
This unionism is for the purpose primarily of showing the uniformity of the organization, to show that all the workers recognize only one symbol, irrespective of the craft or the nature of the commodity: and it is the opinion of the Constitution Committee, I think, that during this transition period some such a thing is necessary to show that the workers will stand together and eliminate from the minds of the workers all these craft distinctions that are found in the other labels; not that it will be an essential weapon in overthrowing the capitalist system, but during this transition period as a matter of progress for the workers it shall be used.
The section was then adopted.
Article IV Section 11 was then read, discussed and adopted:
Section 11. There shall be a free interchange of cards between all organizations subordinate to the INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD and any Local Union, or International Industrial Union shall accept, in lieu of initiation fee, the paid up membership card of any recognized labor union or organization.
Delegate Gillhaus moved that the section be adopted. (Seconded.)
DEL. PAYNE: I would like to ask, if a man has taken out a card in one local and wants to join another local, is that accepted as the initiation fee, or must he pay another initiation fee?
DEL. HAGERTY: Not at all. This section distinctly answers that question. I will read it again. (Section read by Delegate Hagerty.)
DEL. KIEHN: I don’t hear any provision made for certain qualifications. Suppose a man wants to transfer to another division to work in that particular industry that he understands absolutely nothing about. It may be dangerous to the lives of the men that he is working with. There ought to be some certain line of qualification. There is no provision made for that.
DEL. HAGERTY: I think the brother’s difficulty is answered in the fact that in each international industrial division the local union makes its own constitution governing its own membership, as long as it does not conflict with the general constitution. The section was then adopted.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Secretary will read.
DEL. HAGERTY: That is the end of the present report of the Constitution Committee.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LABEL AND EMBLEM.
Del. Henion reported for the committee:
DEL. HENION: Your Committee on Emblem and Label desires to make a verbal report, submitting to the convention an emblem decided on by your committee. Your committee has decided upon an emblem based on the sphere of a globe with the name of the organization inscribed, “Industrial Workers of the World.”
Your committee recommends that such an emblem be adopted by this convention for the official emblem of this organization, and that the globe be in its natural colorings, probably with the tint of green, and with a ribbon across the globe which shall be red with the name of the organization, “Industrial Workers of the World,” in white letters.
They further recommend that the official label of the organization shall be based upon the emblem; that the union label shall be practically the same as the emblem, only marked “union label.” This is the verbal report. We have no written report. We simply submit this for your consideration. If this is adopted by the convention, of course we will present our written report to the Secretary so as to be part of the minutes of this meeting.
The delegates approved the committee's report and voted to to refer the report to the incoming Executive Board with the instruction that this report is the sense of the Convention.
THE CONSTITUTION WILL BE PRINTED.
DEL. ROSS: Mr. Chairman, simply a suggestion under the head of new business. If the convention will support me in it, I want to ask that we appoint a committee to be furnished a copy of the constitution as now framed, and assess ourselves twenty-five cents apiece for it, and take it to a printing office so that each member can take a copy home with him. If I can get a second, I make that as a motion. (Seconded.)
DEL. HAGERTY: I desire to second the amendment of the brother delegate. I think it would be well that we have copies of the constitution so that no false statements or misrepresentations may prevail in certain localities.
Some discussion followed, and then Del. Saunders spoke in favor of the motion:
DEL. SAUNDERS: I am in favor of having the constitution printed and in favor of paying for it; and if it can he shown that twenty-five cents is necessary to pay for it, I am willing to pay that twenty-five cents or more; or even if this party making the motion will show that the difference between the amount paid for the constitution and the amount received will go into the hands of your officers, I would be willing to pay for that. What I would like to ask is this: Is it necessary to pay twenty-five cents simply to cover the expense of one constitution for each delegate?
DEL. ROSS: I believe my suggestion or motion carried with it this, that we appoint a committee to have that done, and if they find it is more or less they can regulate it.
The motion was put, and the Chair declared the result of a viva voce vote in doubt. A raising of hands showed that the motion was carried by a vote of thirty-nine to seven.
THE CHAIRMAN: I will appoint on that committee Delegates Ross, M. P. Haggerty and Saunders.
The Convention adjourned until 1p. m.
AFTERNOON SESSION
REPORT OF THE AUDITING COMMITTEE.
W. E. Trautmann
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Del. Saunders reported for Auditing Committee which revealed a debt of $154.66 owed by the Convention. The committee recommend that the Ways and Means committee devise a plan whereby the Convention could liquidate this debt. The report was signed by Delegates Saunders, Powers and Twining.
W. E. Trautmann then read into the record the Secretary's Financial Report which detailed the expenses and extraordinary effort involved in the preparation for the Convention now in progress. Thousands of letters were mailed out and thousands of copies of the Manifesto distributed.
Both reports were accepted by the Convention and the Auditing Committee was discharged.
REPORT OF CONSTITUTION COMMITTEE.
The Constitution Committee made it's final report which was accepted easily by the delegates. An addition was added to Article I, Section 2, Paragraph A so that it now reads as follows:
[Del Hagerty reading:] “Article I, Section 2, Paragraph A. And shall be composed of thirteen international industrial divisions subdivided in industrial unions of closely kindred industries in the appropriate organizations for representation in the departmental administration.”
DEL. HAGERTY: This is the addition:
“The subdivisions, international and national industrial unions shall have complete industrial autonomy in their respective internal affairs; provided, the General Executive Board shall have power to control these industrial unions in matters concerning the interests of the general welfare.”
VOTE ON CONSTITUTION AS A WHOLE
During the roll call on the vote to adopt the constitution as a whole, this exchange took place:
THE SECRETARY (to Mother Jones): How do you vote on the adoption of the constitution as a whole as amended?
DEL. MOTHER JONES: I was not here when the report of the constitution was read, but I have sufficient confidence in the makeup of the Constitution Committee to commit my destinies to them, and therefore I vote yes.
The results were announced by Chairman Haywood:
THE CHAIRMAN: The result of the vote is, 42,714 yes; 6,995 no. The constitution is adopted as a whole as amended. (Applause.)
RECOMMENDATIONS OF CONSTITUTION COMMITTEE.
The following recommendations were offered by the Committee on Constitution and accepted by the delegates:
“Your committee recommends that this convention elect a Provisional Board of seven members to conduct the affairs of this organization until its progress at the next national convention.
The said Provisional Board shall consist of the National President, the National Secretary-Treasurer, and five other members; two of these five to be elected at large, one to be elected from the Western Federation of Miners, one from the United Metal Workers, and one from the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes.
When the Western Federation of Miners, the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes and the United Metal Workers elect their members to the General Executive Board, the Provisional delegates from their respective organizations shall withdraw.”
“The Provisional Executive Board shall also have the duty of a committee on style to revise the constitution and submit the draft to the next convention.”
“We, your committee, further recommend that in so far as it is feasible the general offices of the international industrial divisions shall be located in the same place as the general headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World.”
The Convention adjourned at 5 p. m. until 8 a. m. the next morning.
RATIFICATION MEETING
Brand's Hall, Chicago, July 7th at 8 P. M.
Speeches Delivered by:
THOMAS J. HAGERTY
WILIAM. D. HAYWOOD
WILLIAM E. TRAUTMAN
THOMAS POWERS
CHARLES O. SHERMAN
PAT O’NEIL
MISS LUELLA TWINING, Presiding
From the report on the Ratification Meeting:
![Luella Twining](http://images.dailykos.com/images/151874/small/Luella_Twining.png?1435853604)
A meeting to ratify the work of the Chicago convention in forming the Industrial Workers of the World, was held at Brand’s Hall, in that city, on Friday evening, July 7, at 8 o’clock. The hall was completely filled, and many people were compelled to stand throughout the meeting. The greatest enthusiasm was manifested as the different speakers explained the purposes of the organization. Miss Luella Twining, of Pueblo, Colorado, representing the American Federal Union, presided and introduced the speakers.
In opening the meeting Miss Twining made the following speech:
Fellow workers:—We have come to celebrate and ratify the organization of the Industrial Workers of the World. Industrial unionism stands for the solidarity of labor. Under industrial unionism it would not be possible that the Western Federation of Miners, when on strike, could be shot down by the militia hauled by trainmen. Industrial unionism stands for solidarity. I will not explain the principles of industrial unionism further, for there is no one on the program but who is celebrated as an exponent of these principles.
Deciding which speech to offer our readers was not an easy one. In the end we chose the speech of Pat O'Neil who is an individual delegate and the one who introduced the Convention to the fighting razorback hog.
The Chairwoman:—Before I introduce the last speaker I will state that Eugene V. Debs is out of the city, and Daniel De Leon was unable to come on account of sickness. The last speaker will be Pat O’Neil, the man from Arkansas.
ADDRESS OF PAT O’NEIL:
Madam Chairwoman and Fellow Slaves :—I do not intend to keep you here very long, because you have sat quite a while under a fire of oratory and I expect you are tired; if you are not now you will be mighty soon when I get going. We have heard every speaker here this evening mention the class struggle, but no one has yet defined what is the class struggle, so that if there is any one here who has any wonder or any doubt as to what the class struggle means he may go away not knowing unless it is explained.
Now, just imagine yourself as a workingman on friendly terms with your employer. He probably is a man of the very best intentions but remember that, when his competitor cuts wages, he in turn must cut yours or go out of business. That is the iron law of competition and of business. On the other hand, some labor leaders in the United States undertake to convince us that there is a harmony or identity of interest between labor and capital. Now, you are interested in getting the largest possible wages in return for your toil, while the employer is interested in getting your labor for the least possible amount. Is there any harmony or identity of interest in that? Can there be? Now, that is the class struggle; the struggle of those who produce all and have nothing, to have larger and larger returns for their labor.
The natural law of labor and of wages is laid down by all the great authorities, beginning with the sacred writings, that “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”; not in the sweat of another man’s face, but in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread; that is, that the result of labor ought to belong to those who do the labor. That is the natural law of labor and wages. Adam Smith repeats it as such. John Stuart Mill copies this law, and so do all the great writers from that early time up to the present. I will admit that we have some men who write to the contrary, but they are not great writers. (Applause). I want you to get that idea into your minds, as it constitutes the class struggle. It is very plain when you once come to see it, very plain.
Another thing. They were jollying the members of the press here to-night, and I have just one thing to say about that. I am satisfied that we have been organizing here on exactly correct lines, exactly class-conscious lines, because there is only one newspaper in the city that has told the truth about what you did (applause), and that is the German newspaper, which has given us a fair deal because it is a workingman’s paper. The other papers all belong to the employing class, and they have lied like thieves. (Laughter and applause.)
Now, I just want to ask you a straight-forward question. I saw a sign down here the other day, “Diamonds, jewelry, etc.” Now, just suppose that you were down there and your wife came in and found you buying a diamond necklace and a watch and chain and pendant with a nice motto, for some other woman, don’t you reckon there would be something doing at your house pretty soon? Well, now, I want to tell you that that is exactly what you do every day; you buy the diamonds and silks and satins for the other fellow’s wife, and the calico rags for our own. (Applause). And by the gods, if that wife of yours had a lick of sense she would go on strike and make you move your washing till you got some sense. (Applause.)
As you were told a moment ago, I am from Arkansas. We raise lots of things down in Arkansas; we raise some curious things. We raise cotton, corn and mules—two-legged and four-legged (laughter)—and we raise children and whiskey and hell. (Laughter). A short time ago I was talking with a gentleman down there, and he says to me: “Why, you are crazy; you want to pull mankind all down to your level.” I says: “No, no, I can’t understand it that way. I want to reach down and get the fellow that is in the hole and bring him up a ways. The trouble with your intellect is that it runs right down in the mud like a hog’s nose.” And that is a fact. You take a man whose intellect follows the line of his nose that is down all the time, he imagines that the only way to level humanity is by pulling down; but a man whose intellect looks upward towards the light, he recognizes that there is only one way of leveling mankind, and that is by leveling them up. (Applause.)
Some curious things occur in the labor field. I have lived quite a while in this world, seventy-five years the second of last month. I have been a laborer now a little over sixty-eight years since I was bound up to a trade, and I want to call your attention to some curious facts. You have been addressed to-night by workingmen: Hagerty, of laboring stock; Haywood, an actual laborer; Sherman and others. Now, Roosevelt is having some sort of hysterics about race suicide. I will admit that his class runs to cigarettes, collars and cuffs, but when you want men you go to the laboring class and find them. (Applause). Take that man Bill Haywood; the women who go to monkey dinners don’t have that kind of sons. (Applause). I don’t wonder. I don’t wonder the men who associate only in the class to which Roosevelt belongs fear race suicide. Luckily this climate is not good for monkeys.
Now, I don’t want to talk statistics; that is dry business; but I want to call your attention to one fact, that your employers’ figures show that every workingman in the United States produces wealth to the value of about $2,500 per annum on the average. We find that we have returned to us, including salaries of the high-priced superintendents, presidents of railroads and men of that class bunched in with the laborers—that we get a return of about $437 per annum. Now, then, I have got a question that I want to ask some of you fellows that don’t believe in this class business: Who in the Sam Hill gets the other $2,100? What was it produced for? And by what right does the individual who produces nothing at all relegate to himself the greater portion of that which labor has produced? Looking backward, as I said a while ago, we see that labor alone can produce wealth, and that the smaller part called wages is all that goes to those that toil. Then we find that the right to property comes by labor and through labor. Talking with a right nice Johnnie boy some time ago, whose father left him quite a little wad of money in the way of railroad stocks and the like of that: “How did all these things that you have, come to belong to you?” “Why,” he said, “my father gave them to me.” I said: “Well, where did your father get it?” “Why, my father made it in business, sir, and accumulated it.” “He did? And that is the way you come to inherit it, because he accumulated it? Well, sir, I want to tell you something. My father did not accumulate, but he produced, and I have been robbed of my inheritance. The law of inheritance is all right, but it should run through the line of production, not through the line of accumulation.” Of course, he couldn’t see it that way. I don’t blame him, because he was at the wrong end of the telescope, and I looked powerful small to him. (Applause.)
But see here, do you believe there is any truth in that story of the Carpenter of Nazareth? If you do, ask yourselves this question: How many kinds of a fool was He when He spoke this prayer that I want to give you: “Our Father who art in heaven, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Now, I want to ask you a question: If you believe He was here for that purpose, and that He was a true representative of your cult, I want to ask you who owns the corner lots and the oil wells in Heaven? (Laughter and applause). While they have been talking and praying about His will and His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, we have had nineteen centuries of Christianity and jails. (Applause). I don’t believe that kind of praying will do anybody any good.
I am like Dean Swift and his man Jock. One morning the Dean said: “Jock, did you black my boots?” “No,” said Jock, “I blacked them yesterday, and that is enough.” After a bit, about dinner time, the Dean said to him: “Jock, I wish you would go and saddle my horse and your pony,” and while Jock was gone the Dean ate his dinner, and when Jock brought the animals around to the door the Dean was ready to ride. “Well, but,” said Jock, “Master, I didn’t have my dinner.” “Oh,” said the Dean, “you ate yesterday, and that will do for you to-day.” Well, they started riding down the road, and while Jock was riding ahead he met a friend, who said: “Where are you going?” “We are going to heaven,” Jock replied. “How do you make that out?” “0h,” said Jock, “I am fasting and my master is praying, and if that is not the way to get to heaven I don’t know how you would get there.” Well, it is that way about Christianity and the jails. It is all either prayer or fasting for the working class. (Applause.)
But as I said to you, I did not intend to keep you here long. We have come here to hold a ratification over the organization of the first industrial movement in the United States. For eighteen years I have been agitating on this one particular line, asking my fellow laborers to get together in an organization which recognized really, not just simply through word of mouth, that an injury to one was an injury to all. They have at last got to the place where they recognize that. (Applause). And now, you who are here, I ask you to ratify it by giving three good hearty cheers for industrial unionism.
The meeting then closed with three rousing cheers for the Industrial Workers of the World.
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SOURCES
Proceedings of the First Convention
of the Industrial Workers of the World
-Industrial Workers of the World, Big Bill Haywood
Merit Publishers, 1905
https://books.google.com/...
Chicago Daily Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
-July 8, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Brands Hall, Chicago
http://nucius.org/...
Father Tomas J Hagerty
http://www.iww.org/...
William E Trautmann
https://libcom.org/...
Luella Twining
http://korzybskifiles.blogspot.com/...
IWW Red Button
http://iww.ca/
See also:
CONVENTION-Industrial Workers of the World
TENTH DAY-Friday, July 7
MORNING SESSION
https://www.marxists.org/...
CONVENTION-Industrial Workers of the World
TENTH DAY-Friday, July 7
AFTERNOON SESSION
https://www.marxists.org/...
CONVENTION-Industrial Workers of the World
APPENDIX 1-Friday, July 7
RATIFICATION MEETING
https://www.marxists.org/...
CONVENTION-Industrial Workers of the World.
APPENDIX 2-June 27-July 8
Roll Call Votes, Auditor's and Financial Reports
https://www.marxists.org/...
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Modern Day Wobblies Sing Solidarity Forever
All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone
We have laid the wide foundations, built it skyward stone by stone
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own
While the union makes us strong
-Ralph Chaplin
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