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ORGANIZATION OF THE UNSKILLED. By Arl'TIN LEwis, in "The New Review." The foregoing (attempts and failures of the A. F. of L. to organize the unskilled workers) represents th,: work given to the organization of the migratory unsl:illed in the State of California. It shows that the :ctiviti'e of the American Federation of Labor in this regard proceed from two main theories, the one being that the migratory unskilled are capable of organiza tion by the A. F. of L., the other that this class of workers mIuLIst be organized for the benefit of the skilled craft.smIen i hose province they threaten to invade. Ac,rding to the underlying conception of organi zatioln of the A. F. of L., unskilled labor must be regarhi d as a craft. In fact the report of the com inittee quoted at the beginning of this article de clares that it is so and says, "your committee firmly bciie\cs in the possibility of organizing this craft." But unskided labor of the sort described is no craft. '1 he man who is handlling a shovel to-day may to morrow be workng with a machine, and six months from now be taking his place with a gang of lumber n oraers. If these men constituted a craft the work of organizing them in the A. F of L. would not be ,o dan. uit for the scope of their employment being ....ited, tlhey could, wituout more than ordinary dif ,,. u., be brought into such a position that a union Sousu appear advantageous to them. Moreover, if they really constituted a specific craft with recog inzed limitations on the scope of their employment, tue A. F. of L. wouldnot be very anxious to organize them. I1 he mere fact of their poverty would by no means be suaicient ins eutive for the spending of money and the pjaciug of organizers in the field by an orgam zation whath is not engaged in the business of gen eral charity to the working class. It has a very dl.tixict policy in such matters, namely, that the com ponent factors of its organization must be capable of muintaining themselves intact as separate individual trafts. If the unskilled were such they would need no assistance beyond the use of the skilled organizer. 'They would organize spontaneously in terms of their specific crai. and thus form a part of the Federation Speaking of the disbanding of the Los Angeles union and the reason given, that it so disbanded be cause the other unions did not support it, the com mittee said, "If the organization of migratory work ers is ever going to be really successful and a power in the land it must learn to depend upon its own strength rather than the support of other unions." But that is just what these unions have not done since their inception. They have come into being artificially as the product of the labor and money of the other A. F. of L. unions, and have perished wherever artificial sustenanpe has not been forth coming. Brietly the organization of the unskilled is not com patible with the A. F. of L., for the reason that the latter in its essence is a federation of individual crafts, whereas the unskilled cannot be by any means so classed. Moreover, the organizations themselves recognize this fac·t. They are anxious to organize the unskilled, not. as has been already remarked, because they are poor and ill-used, but because they are dangerous. Andrew Furuseth and O. A. Tveitmoe, than whom there are no two better informed labor men in the entire West, reg;ard the organization of the unskilled as an obsolutely necessary step. Toward what? The devlopmennt of labor and the merging of all factional and juridictional differences in one great solidified labor organization By no means. The object is the maintenance of the crafts as they now exist against invasion. The unskilled, for the most part, are products of the imachine industry and operate in terms of the new .system. The crafts are tottering before the as srults made upon them by the machine industry. Therefore the unskilled must be organized to form a screen hbetween the crafts and the operation of the machine industry. The unskilled must remain classi fled as unskilled,. in order that the crafts may main tain the r presage as skilled, and their pay in pro portion. And this notion is by on means confined to the Amnrican representatives of the craft notion in labor organization. Even such a radical syndieahlst as Tom lMann canont rise above the notions of a life time wh·n he deals with the unskilled labor problem. lII,' regardsc the proh,.m from the point of view of the skilled cr;ifstnan, hlie appears to concern himself as to how far this unskilled labor group actually threatens the existence of trades organization, as at present constituted, and there is evident the same lack of ability to really comprehend the position of the unskilled laborer. The reader will easily dstset the weakness. Mann says in No. 3 of the "Industrial Socialist : "The reason that many men are graded as semi skilled or unskilled is because the capitalist system will not permit of all engaging in skilled work--o matter what the amount of skill men may posses. There must be no lowering of the standard of the skilled, but there must a raising of the standard of the lower-paid man. The position of the latter must be made worthy of a man; and as he serves society not in the manner he desires, but in the manner society compels him, he must in future be counted as a man and a brother. The skilled men must throw off that silly notion of superiority which still char acterizes a number of them." That the same notion is generally prevalent among trade unionist, even the most radical, appears also from the pamphlet entitled "Synlicalism" by Earl ('. Ford and Wm. Z. Foster (Chicago, 1912). These w riters are affiliated with the Syndicalist Educational League, which is the American counterpart of Tom Mlann's English orgaalization. Its purpose is the extension of Syndicalist action and organization among the unions as they already exist. The Syndi c.alist League denounces the formation of any labor organization outside of the A. F. of L. In accordance with this idea the unskilled laborers must be brought into the Federation, and the Syndicalist so-called are confronted by the same set of circumstances and the same difficulties as the California State Federa t ion of Labor has faced. It is easy to say that the unskilled must be taken into the unions. The question after all is, will they join the unions ? The above writers say: "The skilled workers in the large industries are in such a minority that they cannot seriously dis organize these industries-and without this disorgani zation of industry they cannot win concessions from their employers. To be able to win they must pool their demands with those of the unskilled workers. and by sticking with them bring whole industries to a standstill. This involves letting the unskilled workers into their union.' It would appear as if these writers already regarded the matter as accomplished, as if all that had to be done is fo,r the unions to declare their readiness to accept the unskilled and the question would be'im mediately solved. But as we have seen, this is not the case. The unskilled do not see their way to joining the unions even when they are actually per suaded to do so and even when the unions have ex pended money on behalf of their organization.. The organizers admit this and attribute the refusal to a callous indifference to their own degraded con dition on the part of the laborers and a refusal to recognize the benefit which would arise from asso ciation with the A. F. of L. This is hardly the case. It may apply to a certain extent to that portion of the unskilled proletariat which has, so to speak, become sodden with misery and which has lost the impulse to struggle, owing to the continued pressure of miserable circumstances. lBut such people form but a very small fraction of the great army of the migratory unskilled. On the contrary, this body of men consists for the most part of young bachelors in the full flower of youthful vigor. No others could do their work or endure the hardships which they daily face. It is the poorest sort of sophistry to speak of these men as passive and disinclined to rise. On the contrary, they form some of the very finest fighting material as passive and disinclined to rise. On the contrary, odds, if once they have learned the trick of solidarity and organized movement. The consciousness that they cannot achieve their solidarity within the American Federation of Labor is one of the chief reasons why they do not join the IUnited Laborers' Locdls which have been insti tuted in their special behalf. They know that there is no identity of interest between themselves and the craft organizations; that the latter will use them when it is conveilent to do so, otherwise they will repudiate them or will refuse to make any effort to help them gain better conditions. This has been made apparent time and time again The molders not so long ago had a strike in which were involved also the molders' helpers. The latter were ignored when the time of settlement came. The crafts, when a strike is dec·lared, do all in their power to persuade the unskilled men in the shops to quit their employinent. Indeed, they must do so, for if the unskilled remained at work it would be useless ifor the crafts to strike, for as has bee'l already shown, the position of the craftsmen is so uncertain that their places can be readily filled by the unskilled. But when the time for settlement comes these un skilled men whose sacrificees have been necessary to the success of the strike are completely left out of consideration. It cannot be expected that men who see this sort of trick constantly played upon them will show any great enthusiasm for the organization whose members so believe. Besides, the unskilled men are not fools. They know that the margin of skill upon which the crafts rest their claim to superiority and to their higher wages is very slight. The helper and the unskilled iman knows that is the great majority of cases he is able to perform the work or could perform it satis factorily with a slight amount of practice. He sees in the United Laborers an attempt to keep him in a perpetually subordinate position. The union rules are such that he eannot join the silled crafts, for he cannot pay the required initiatien fee. He may be discriminated against in the matter of the techni cal examination required by the membership as a necessary preliminary to admissio to the craft. He may be, and in fact is, placed at a great diedvantage at every turn. This man sees, or thinks he sees, in the United -Laborers an attempt to bring him Into permanent subjection as a member of the unskilled class, and to discipline and control his union by the united forces of the associated crafts either in the Central Labor Council or in the Building Trades. Thus, in my particular locality, the United Laborers are attached to the Building Trades, the great organiza tion of so-called highly skilled craftsmen, which is actually by virtue of its own well-established posi tion and petty-bourgeois tendencies, the one least able to comprehend and sympathize with the un skilled laborer. The prospect of permanent subjection does not ap peal to the imagination of the unskilled, particularly when he recognizes that such position is purely arti ficial, that the superiority of the crafts does not pro ceed from an inherent quality, but that it is tran sient. evanescent, and only maintains itself to-day by a designed partial monopolization, that it will ,be obliterated by the natural process of economic development. Besides, the unions have been by no means im partial in their attention to the organization of the laborer, and in cases where they have aided such organization they have been inclined to favor such elements as could offer direct assistance to the leaders. This has been very apparent in San Francisco, where such laborers in the Building Trades as could readily exercise the electoral franchise or were affiliated with such an organization as the church have received special attention. The difference in the treatment of the Irish and Italian laborers is clearly in point. The former have been assisted so that the hod-carriers form a really very important organization while the laborers in cemnt who are for the most part Italians are in no such comfortable state. The former are of course for the most part voters, the latter are not. (To be concluded.) WE SHALL COME as comes the cyclone-in the stillness we shall form From the calm your terror fashioned we shall hurl on you the storm; We shall strike when least expected, when you deem Toil's route complete, And crush you and your hessians 'neath our brogan shodded feet! -From "Us The Hoboes." FREE TRADE AT FULLERTON. I am bound to relate to THE VOICE readers an other act of the Gulf Lumber Company at Fullerton. La. I was informed by some of the men, both black and white, that the Companyls building a new Bull pen around the Negro quarters, so as to keep pro 'duce peddlers out, and forbids the Negros to buy anything outside the commissary. I asked these people what they were going to do about that sort of bosh and they said: "Well, they tell us if we trade with the produce people we will lose our jobs. but we ain't got much jobs nohow, so we intend to buy as we have been buying, if we do have to walk." I said, Why don' you get in the I. W. W. and help better your condition? And the answer was: "You need not fret; if you knew how many I. W. W's. are at work in these mills you sure would be surprised. and so would the Boss." I told them that was right, for all of them to put their shoulders to the wheel and it would sure turn. but if they did not help better their conditions they would be like a wagon in the mire-they would never get out. So come, your Lumberjacks, white and colored, join the I. W. W., help the I. W. W. and the I. W. W. 'will damn sure help you. Else, how can any of you expect a good thing when you don't demand it ? And I want to say to all you old Lumber Workers, your wages are a matter of nothing now, then how are you going to provide for your families when your wages are cut. as they are being cut: Why don't you say "I Won't Work when my wages are cut," and MEAN IT? Why should YO" suck anti scab? I am still here and never sucked or sc.abbed in my life and I am still true to the I. W. W. and still yours in the cause of freedom. J. R. STROTHIER. SEND US SOME NAMES Help THE VOICE spread the battleline and at the same time increase its circ.ulation by sending in the names of working people you think might subscribe. Write names and Postotfice address PLAINLY, using only one side of a sheet of paper. If you can chip in a few coppers to help send out these samples, that too will be a great thing. Do it now, TO-DAY. ADDISON MILLER NOTICE. Fellow-worker Addison Miller last heard of in San Pedro, California. will greatly relieve fears of his father by writing at once to Fellow-worker Nett Mil ler, Rosepine, Louisiana. VOICE MAINTENAMCE PUt. Cand<tido Vei .......................... $ .51 W n. Lorne ............................... 2.00 N. B.T ................................... 1.00 L U. 886, F. L. W ......................... .50 L. U. 890, P. L. W....................... 5.00 Albert W alae ............................. .75 J. R. trother ............................. 1.00 Jean Leostie-......................... .50 F. L. RLoda ............................ .50 E. J. H .................................. .50 Fred. Freeman .......................$.... .50 C. S. Deeney ............................. 2.00 E. P. McMickle ............................ 1.00 M. Young ................................. 1.00 C. C. Duunham ............................ .50 C. H. Adams .............................. .50 L. U. 390, F. L. W ......................... 1.00 Jack Smith ............................... 1.00 W. J. B. and Two More Rebs .............. 1.50 Total ...............................L0tiS Fellew Rebels. THE VOICE thanks you. It has been only by your help that the paper has pulled through the last fey hard months and the fights that have been made upon it. Slowly but surely, a sub here and another there, its circulation growing into the South and carrying ever farther the call for ONE BIG UNION. Only by your help have we come thus far. Only by your continued support can we go on with the tight. for THE VOICE is absolutely in the hands of the Rebels who support it. It has no other resources and we want no other. • At all times it is up to you to say whether it shall live or die, THE VOICE. DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOICE. NOTICE! NOTICE! To the Public-Merryville would be heard from more, and evei ybody look, lison, read The Voice, for you ore going to get som interestig facts about wat has hapened wat is and wat are gointo happon in and around Merryville, and would all so giv the SAW DUST RING a small dose of pills just to see how they like um the justis as delt out by the Louisiana corts would not be over looked eather. For they hav don there worst and we mUst do our best to rite the rong that they hav don. I would handle this subjie with gloves but the kind that I have been useto pick. ing corn with in Iowa. This artickle would tel you all about the sab cat and her fine bunch of kits that ore causing their misteris so much worry just now. And how the American Lumber Company had to shet one of their mills down so the company mite hay all the good slaves to help keep them bunched as nu(h*l as posible, this would tel you wat the I. W. W. has is and(l ore gointo do in Merryville we would all so see who has fought the I. W. W.. Why they don it for and wat they got for it also who went on strike at Merryville and the clas of citisons that they got in return for themn and their good work of last spring? Who they deported and why they don it kind of a bull pen they bilt and the kind of ne gros they put in it, .1. L. Estes and his gang has had twelve months to plant potatoes in we must dig in som of their potatoes hills and see if their is any thing in them. This artic·kle would run twelve weeks in The Voice of The P'eople and no one that is intersted in the kind of justis that has been delt out here for the last year 'can aford to mliss it for we ore only gointo deal out soe cohl1 faits and if the SAW I)IST RING dont like them we would telum whereto go later. Yours for the One Big I'nion. Maxcey Wopez, 1779. CRAWFISH, KINK OF THE CHINKS. In a hlaze of glory, "loking every inch the king," in all the tinsel splenIdor of capitalist majesty, fol ,lowed by his tleet of .ijunks nanined by Chink, Nigger and Whitetirash selbs. ('rafish. Rex, King of the ('arinival. Kinik of the (Chiiniks. iunna of Bluefields, ('on of 'Colon, "'arrived"'' in New Orlehns, La., on .1rndaiy. February 23:lrd. andl was handed something that already belonged to him and his gang--"the ke/ys of the c·ity." The Stingaree. the Eel. the Kipper, the Jewfish. the Gairfish, the I'. S. ('onunissioner and Ilis Britanie lMajestiy's Consul., also the .shieroes l)unn and Dill man muist hlave been toladying somewhere, in the servants qltIarters. we suplpose. If this is lese iIajteste. ,'ll--we donl't eareadamn. BEHIND AlLL Kings and P'residents, all Govern mcnt and Law, Are army corps and cannoneers to hold the world in awe: For Might is Riht wheil emnpires sink in storms of steel and flatme. And it is ;,tldu whenl wakling hre.,(ds are hunted d(lown like gtrlillt. - From "Might is Right." DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOICE.