Thursday April 19, 1906
From the Appeal to Reason: George Shoaf on Idaho Frame-Up, Part II

Over the next few days, Hellraisers will present an entire article from the pen of correspondent George Shoaf who is on the ground in Idaho. Shoaf describes, in full the conspiracy to hang the officers of the Western Federation of Miners and, thereby, destroy the mighty union of some 40,000 miners and smeltermen.

In part two of the article, Shoaf tells of the leading role played by the W. F. of M. in the founding, last summer, of the Industrial Workers of the World. Shoaf also explains the fundamental differences existing between revolutionary unionism of the I. W. W. and the class collaborationist unionism of the American Federation of Labor.

From the Appeal to Reason of April 14, 1906:

DESTRUCTION OF FEDERATION
PURPOSE OF CONSPIRACY
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Mine Owners' Association Seeks to Make Moyer, Haywood and
Pettibone Vicarious Victims for Capitalistic Crimes in Order to
Disrupt Organization and Crush Socialism.
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PINKERTON CRIMES LAID BARE
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Lawless Methods of Organized Thugs Operating Under Cloak
of Detective Agency Are Mercilessly Exposed.
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BY GEORGE H. SHOAF.
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[Part II]
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Present Officers Peace Makers.

Not so was the miners' union in the beginning. In the old days of Boyce there was only one method by which they knew how to enforce their demands-the strike. Always energetic and ambitious, inherently possessed of the ideals of justice and fair play, they sought and secured high wages, humane conditions of employment and shorter hours. But it generally required a stubborn and bitter strike to win their demands. The early history of the Federation records some of the hardest fought labor wars that have ever been experienced in the history of the American trade union movement. These appeals to force to gain their rights obtained until the installation of Moyer and Haywood as heads of the organization.

With the inauguration of these men there was a perceptible change in the policy of the administration. Reason, diplomacy and arbitration were substituted wherever possible for the old displays of brute force. Socialists at heart, and Socialists from philosophy, Moyer and Haywood sought to use the organization as a means to educate the rank and file of the miners to the Socialist program. Their first work commenced among the executive board members, and so diligent were they that in a little while the general executive board was made up of men as ardent in the advocacy of Socialism as were the president and secretary. John M. O'Neill, the brilliant editor of the Miner's Magazine, became an early champion of the new idea, and week after week he presented it with all the force and persuasive ingenuity of which he is capable. The strike, which was the original weapon of defence, was tabooed as crude and savage, fit only for men who were incapable of reasoning. The men were taught to think and to express that thought through the ballot box by voting for the collective ownership of the means of life.

Committed to Socialism.

At last the inevitable occurred: the Western Federation of Miners, by referendum vote, formally committed themselves to the platform of principles promulgated by the Socialist party, and henceforth became a part of the International Socialist movement of the world. Force and war, theoretically at least, were put on the retired list with the labor strike, and the Federation turned its face to the future, prepared and determined to work and vote for the establishment of the brotherhood of man, which they believe will be found in an industrial democracy. When the new labor movement was launched in Chicago last year, the Western Federation of Miners was ably represented by a large number of delegates. In fact, Moyer, Haywood and a few other Federation spirits were among the most active men who might be held responsible for the launching of the new movement. While that organization has spread rapidly throughout the nation, and today numbers several hundred thousand men and women, having branches in every state of the union, there is no disputing the proposition that the Western Federation of Miners constitutes the backbone of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Change Caused Conflict.

And, now comes the conflict of tactics between the Industrial Workers of the World and the American Federation of Labor. The first organization is founded on the principle of industrialism; the second is based on the idea of trade autonomy. The first holds that an injury to one worker immediately becomes the concern of the entire working class; the second says we will give you assistance provided you belong to the same craft as ours, and then only if it does not run counter to the agreement which we have with our bosses.

The first says do not strike unless your cause is just. If it is just we will call out every man, woman and child in our movement, if it is necessary, to help you win your fight; the second says strike when you are driven to that recourse, but for God's sake don't ask any other union to strike in sympathy with you-that might violate an agreement and injure the interests of our employers. Strike, lose and be d--d, the agreement must be preserved, and the interests of our bosses must not be disturbed.

The first says to its members, join the party of your class and vote as you strike; the second denies the right of political discussion, and stands for class division and class ruin at the ballot box. The first says there can be no identity of interests between the capitalist class and the working class; the second declares all differences between the employer and employe can be settled easily by each party getting on opposite sides of a table and looking each other squarely in the eye. The first stands straight in the sun and demands its full meed of justice-owner ship of the earth, including the governments thereof; the second would send a delegate committee to congress with a petition humbly begging a miserable scrap from a gang of political highwaymen.

The first declares in thunder tones that the working class is the only useful class, and that the working man is the only man who has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the second admits that the workers have a right to exist and that they are entitled to a fair share of what they produce, but, after all, the capitalists are the masters, and in the face of their influence, power and money the workers had better go a little slow-one step at a time. The first has sworn eternal war on capitalism, and is dedicated to its destruction; the second stands for a continuance of the present system with all its misery, starvation, poverty and crime.

The first means business; the second is organized, to all appearances, only for dress parade. The employers' associations throughout the country hate and fear the first; the second they welcome with open arms. The Industrial Workers of the World is pronounced anarchistic and dangerous by the capitalistic press and by the capitalist class; the American Federation of Labor is regarded as safe, sane and conservative.

Such are the differences between the two great labor organizations seeking to unite the American wage earners in their struggle for existence in the opening years of the twentieth century. With the first organization, and all it means and stands for, is affiliated the Western Federation of Miners. And the miners' union is the hub of the wheel that has commenced its roll toward the shining goal of liberty, fraternity and equality.

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[Photographs and paragraph breaks added.]

SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Apr 14, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66993900

IMAGES
Haywood, Moyer, Shoaf, AtR, Apr 14, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66993900
George H Shoaf, p.391, Common Cause, Vol 2, 1912
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=Q_E-AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcove...
WFM Button
https://www.nps.gov/kewe/learn/historyculture/museum-guide-5.htm
IWW Label 1905
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015079028836;page=root;view=...
AFL Button
http://www.laborsolidarity.info/index-2.html
IWW Preamble to Constitution, 1905
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015079028836;view=2up;seq=4;...

See also:

DK Tag: IWW Founding Convention
http://www.dailykos.com/news/IWWFoundingConvention

DK Tag: Industrial Unionism
https://www.dailykosbeta.com/news/industrialunionism

Hellraisers Journal: The Labor World Rails Against Bill Haywood as Signer of Industrial Manifesto -by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/3/25/1372803/-Hellraisers-Journal-The...