We found this interesting item in the Chicago Daily Tribune in which we find socialist attorney, Peter Sissman, at a speaking event with Mother Jones, Father Hagerty, A. M. Simons and Eugene Debs. Our readers will remember that the Tribune quoted Comrade Sissman as disapproving of the Convention of which these four fellow socialist are members:

I consider the whole proceedings of that convention a farce, and whatever may come from it will be sure to fail…The convention is made up of shipwrecked De Leonites from New York, every anarchist in Chicago, and a lot of impossibilist socialists.

From the Chicago Daily Tribune of June 30, 1905:

MEETING OF LOCAL RUSSIANS.
—–
Eugene V. Debs, Mother Jones, and Others
to Address Assemblage at Apollo Hall.
—–The Russian Social Democratic society of Chicago will hold a meeting this evening at Apollo hall, Blue Island avenue and Twelfth street, for the benefit of the Russian revolutionary movement in Chicago. Eugene V. Debs, Mother Jones, A. M. Simons, Father Hagerty, and P. Sissman will speak.

—–

Convention of Industrial Unionists
Day Five-July 1, 1905

MORNING SESSION.

The Convention was called to order at 9 o’clock by Chairman Haywood.

Secretary Trautmann read the minutes from the previous session and a communication of greeting from the Socialistische Arbeiter Zeitung, the the German Organ of the Socialist Labor Party.

COMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTION.The Constitution Committee reported that Del. Powers had been taken ill. Comrade De Leon was appointed to replace him. The Convention also  decided to allow the International Union of Musicians to select a representative to serve on the Constitution Committee.

RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE.Del. Coates reported for the Resolution Committee. Of particular interest was the report and recommendation of the committee regarding Resolution No. 4 which led to a lively debate:

Del. Coates read Resolution No. 4:

RESOLUTION NO. 4(Read by Delegate Hall.)

In view of the fact that the first of May is the international holiday of the proletariat, be it

Resolved, That we, as industrial unionists, manifest our solidarity with the class conscious wage workers of the world by setting apart the first day of May as the holiday of the American proletariat.
(A. Klemensic.)

The Committee recommended that a substitute resolution be adopted:

DEL. COATES: The Committee on Resolutions offers the following substitute and ask that the convention adopt it:Resolved, That the first day of May of each year, which day has been selected as the International Labor Day, by the International Congress of Labor, be designated as the Labor Day of this organization, and that the members of this organization be urged to cease all labor on that day and carry out exercises appropriate to such a day for the education of the working class as to their rights and interests on the economic and political fields.

Del. Jergensen argued that it would be wiser for the Convention to stick to the official state sanctioned Labor Day, the first Monday in September.Several delegates responded in long winded speeches, but Luella Twinning spoke to the issue succinctly:

DEL. LUELLA TWINING: I am in favor of the first of May because it will work for the solidarity of labor. When the question of a national holiday was brought up Mark Hanna asked the government not to name the first of May because that is associated with Socialism, and well he knew that Socialism worked for the solidarity of labor, and that labor when united would be a force that would sweep them out of existence. In Denver, Colorado, the Citizens’ Alliance and the labor organizations all march in September. We do not want a capitalist Labor Day. Let us have a labor day of our own. Let us have an international labor day, the first day of May. (Applause.)

The recommendation of the committee was adopted with only four dissenting votes.

MEMBERSHIOP REPRESENTED.

THE CHAIRMAN: There was one of the delegates yesterday that asked for some information. This is for the benefit of Delegate Rowe if he is here. There are seventy delegates here with power to install, representing 51,430 members. There are seventy-two delegates here representing other unions aggregating 91,500 members. There are sixty-one individual delegates. A total aggregation of 142,995. (Applause.)

WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE.The report of the Ways and Means Committee was read by Del. Held:

Inasmuch as the convention has expressed its desire to have a stenographic report of this convention; and inasmuch as funds must be provided to pay the temporary expenses and to launch this organization, we, the Ways and Means Committee, find by actual computation that an assessment of five cents per member of the entire membership of this new organization will bring at once, if acted upon, $2,500 or near about; a sum amply sufficient to cover all necessary expenses such as a stenographic report and temporary expenses. In view of this, we, your Committee on Ways and Means, fraternally submit the following report: We recommend an assessment of five cents per member of the full membership to cover the temporary expenses of the convention; first, to secure a stenographic report; second, to launch the new organization.

Much debate followed regarding the need for and expense of the stenographic report. In the end the Convention voted to defer action on the report of the Ways and Means Committee until “such time as the Constitution Committee shall have reported.”

LITERATURE AND PRESS COMMITTEE.

THE CHAIRMAN: The Committee on Literature and Press.DEL. BRIMBLE: The first recommendation of this committee is that this organization shall have an official organ, to be published weekly. It was the sense of the Committee on Literature and Press that the official organ be sent to the entire membership, arrangements to be made for so doing. At 1.45 P. M. yesterday we met and considered the resolution No. 11, presented to the convention by Brother J. J. O’Brien. It was moved and seconded that we concur in the resolution, but that at present we see no way of carrying it out. The motion was carried. It was also suggested by the committee that Simons and O’Neil prepare an address to the workers on industrial unionism; that Smith and Kiemensic prepare a leaflet on the political aspect of the union; and that Brimble and Mrs. Forberg prepare an indictment of the new trades unionism against the old.

THE CHAIRMAN: The Committee on Literature and Press will report progress.

RESOLUTIONS.

Several resolutions were read by Secretary Trautmann and referred to the various standing committees by Chairman Haywood, including the following:

RESOLUTION No. 19Whereas, For the purpose of unifying and strengthening the new organization it is necessary to have a uniform system of dues and tax collection; therefore, be it

Resolved, That for the purpose of collecting dues and general assessments stamps be issued by the general organization through its duly elected officers ; that the stamp be put upon the books as a per capita tax; that the same stamp be issued by the various departments to the members thereof, and the proceeds be used for the creation of a general fund.

THE CHAIRMAN: That will be referred to the Committee on Constitution.

RATIFICATION MEETING.

Del. T. J. Hagerty rose to speak on the need to begin planning for the public ratification meeting and pointed out that the time for planning such a meeting is short:

DELEGATE T. J. HAGERTY: Under the head of new business should come, I think, the resolution offered here calling for the appointment of a committee to make arrangements for a ratification meeting to be held not later than July 7th, so that the representatives of the various organizations here might publicly express their adherence to this new organization, and that to the public at large might be given an expression of the attitude of the men who stand for this economic organization. If that is to be done it must be done soon, for many of the members will be unable to remain any longer than July 7th. I think the arrangements for such a meeting rightly come under the head of new business.THE CHAIRMAN: The resolution alluded to was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and they have not reported.

A VISIT TO WALDHEIM CEMETERY.

Del. Klemensic made an announcement in regard to delegates visiting the graves of the Chicago martyrs in Waldheim Cemetery.

The convention voted to adjourn early once again so that the standing committees could meet. The Constitution Committee will be especially busy preparing the foundation for the new industrial labor organization.The Convention will take Sunday off and will reconvene on Monday morning at nine o’clock.

~~~~~~~~~~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)
-June 30, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/…

IMAGES
Peter Sissman
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/…
Socialistische Arbeiter Zeitung,
Socialist Labor Party, German newspaper
https://books.google.com/…
Luella Twining
http://korzybskifiles.blogspot.com/…
Waldheim Cemetery,
Monument of Haymarket Martyrs, 1899
http://www.chicagohistory.org/…

See also:

CONVENTION-Industrial Workers of the World
FIFTH DAY-Saturday, July 1
MORNING SESSION
https://www.marxists.org/…

See also for more on Peter Sissman:
H/T to officebss for assistance with this search.
Thank You, officebss!

Google search: Sissman + Darrow-
https://www.google.com/…
Sissman eventually became a law partner of Darrow’s. It appears that this was sometime after 1905.

From the Chicago Daily Tribune of Mar 9, 1905, “Fourth Ticket in Field, Socialist Party Names John Collins for Mayor,” shows “Comrade Peter Sissman” active at the city convention of the SPA.

A short biography of Peter Sissman:
http://www.ccjonline.net/…

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Internationale – Pete Seeger

Debout! les damnés de la terre
Debout! les forçats de la faim
La raison tonne en son cratère,
C’est l’éruption de la fin.
Du passé faisons table rase
Foule esclave, debout! debout!
Le monde va changer de base
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout!

C’est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous et demain
L’Internationale
Sera le genre humain.
– Eugène Pottier

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The Convention of Industrial Unionists is in session today, Independence Day, planning to create an organization based upon class struggle for the purpose of achieving  the eventual emaciation of the working class.During yesterday’s session at Brand’s Hall, the Convention approved a preamble as presented by the Constitution Committee and amended by the Convention. The debate over the report of the Constitution Committee took up most of the morning session. The following is the final Preamble which was adopted by the Convention to great applause:

PREAMBLE.The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all the toilers come together on the political, as well as on the industrial field, and take and hold that which they produce by their labor, through an economic organization of the working class without affiliation with any political party.

The rapid gathering of wealth and the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands make the trades union unable to cope with the ever-growing power of the employing class, because the trades unions foster a state of things which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. The trades unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These sad conditions can be changed and the interests of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries, if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all. Therefore, we, the working class, unite under the following constitution.

Convention of Industrial Unionists
Day Six-July 3, 1905

MORNING SESSION

The Convention was called to order by Chairman Haywood at 9:30 a. m. The minutes of the previous day’s session were read by Secretary Trautmann. Comrade Trautmann also read communications of greeting into the record.

The Credentials Committee reported recommending the seating of two more delegates. The report was approved by the Convention, and the delegates were seated.

THE PREAMBLEChairman Haywood called for the report of the Committee on Constitution and Del. T. J. Hagerty, secretary of that committee, read the following:

DEL. HAGERTY (reading Preamble): “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people, and the few who make up the employing class have all the good things of life.Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all the toilers come together on the political as well as on the industrial field, and take and hold that which they produce by their labor, through an economic organization of the working class without affiliation with any political party. (Applause).

The rapid gathering of wealth and the centralization of the management of industry into fewer and fewer hands make the trades unions of to-day unable to cope with the ever-growing power of the employing class, because the trades unions foster a state of things which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping to defeat one another in wage wars. The trades unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These sad conditions can be changed and the interests of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that its members in any one industry or in all industries if necessary, shall cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one the concern of all. Therefore, we the workers unite under the following constitution.” (Applause.)

Debate on Paragraph Two.

Much debate followed as the Convention took up the report paragraph by paragraph. Most of the debate centered on the second paragraph, but in the end paragraph two was adopted. During the debate, many long speeches were made, of which we offer a few excerpts:

The paragraph was opposed as unclear by Del. Simons and defended in a long-winded speech by Del. De Leon as a member of the Committee on Constitution. Del. Murtaugh then offered this concise defense of paragraph two:

DEL. MURTAUGH: I desire to speak in favor of the clause as read, not exactly for the reasons pointed out by the previous speaker [De Leon], but simply because it is in the field of possibilism and practicability. (Applause). I cannot agree with the sentiments just expressed, but with the clause just written. In looking over the past and considering the great number of men, the men of many ideas politically and otherwise, that have contemplated coming into this organization, I think that this clause is just exactly the thing, and it is born of exactly the same need that the old line trade unions mean when they say “no politics in the union.”It is born exactly of that same need. It is useless for us here to attempt to disguise the fact that we have every shade of political opinion. We have the Socialists—I happen to be one of them—who believe that action in the political line is absolutely necessary. We have the Socialist, on the other hand, who is so near the anarchist that he is beginning to think as the anarchist does, that action along the political line is absolutely harmful instead of being useless. We have on the other hand, members of different religious faiths, recognizing the fact of the absolute necessity of the solidarity of the working class, but who still cannot get away from their early teachings, their early superstition, if you please, and cannot get into any political party.

Now, if we are going to be practical, if we are going to work for possibilism, as it has been expressed, we had better start out along the lines expressed in that section of the Preamble, because only along such lines is it possible to amalgamate the forces that we wish to amalgamate. (Applause.)

Del. Klemensic also rose to defend the paragraph as written:

DEL. KLEMENSIC: Mr. Chairman and Fellow Delegates: We must not overlook the fact that we are here as workingmen, and as such we do not recognize the Socialist, the anarchist or any other kind of ist. We are here as workingmen and as rebels. (Applause).The reason why we are here is that we want to devise ways and means whereby we all can agree, and as the previous speaker stated already, the economic condition of the workingman is the foundation, is the fundamental condition of his being and his welfare and his development. Now, then, this being the case, it lays the foundation that economically we all are united and we all have the desire to unite, for the simple fact that in the past history of every one of us our division came from the work of the capitalist and exploiting class. Now, then, we come here to agree, and we all agree on the economics as the fundamental question.

We readily recognize the fact that there are men who believe in political action, and they are entitled to; there are others that believe straight-out in education and omitting to take this political action. Both of those parties are right and correct according to their standpoint. But the most important fact is this, that all of us want exactly the same thing, and there is no reason why these different factions should be on the outs in any way. As I stated to start with, our economic foundation is the one on which we are all agreed, and these two ways, political action and non-political action, are only a question of method, a question of judgment, of practicability or whatever it is.

But, as Comrade De Leon stated it very well, there are many chances in every political party to give weight and force and strength to the fakir. Now, what we want to do is to eliminate the fakir, and, as I understand the statement of Comrade De Leon, the Socialist party and the Socialist Labor Party are looking after it to eliminate the fakir as much as possible. Therefore, I appeal to all of you not to forget the point on which we are united, the fundamental economic action. I think the Manifesto in its clause is short and brief, but is broad enough to embody all these different factions, and I am heartily in favor of this clause as it stands.

The clause in the Manifesto to which Klemensic was referring was this one:

A movement to fulfill these conditions must consist of one great industrial union embracing all industries, providing for craft autonomy locally, industrial autonomy internationally, and working-class unity generally. It must be founded on the class struggle, and its general administration must be conducted in harmony with the recognition of the irrepressible conflict between the capitalist class and the working class. It should be established as the economic organization of the working class, without affiliation with any political party.

Del. Hagerty  and Del. Lilian Forberg defended paragraph two:

DEL. T. J. HAGERTY: Mr. Chairman, as a member of the Committee on Constitution, I am opposed to referring this clause back to this Committee, not only for the reasons so very plainly and convincingly outlined by Delegates Gilbert, De Leon, Klemensic, and others, but also for the reason that this Preamble is not drawn up by the Press and Literature Committee, but by the Constitution Committee. It is not designed as an exhaustive treatise on these questions. Its function, as we understand it, is simply a statement of bare facts and not the proof of those facts, which is impossible in a Preamble. We are agreed on the bread and butter question, all of us. We are agreed that we need food, shelter and raiment. The economic, as Comrade Klemensic just said, is the foundation in the last analysis, and it is not the part of the Constitution Committee to engage in a long-winded rhetorical flight in the Preamble to the Constitution. There are plenty of opportunities, with this Preamble as a basis, for all manner of orators and all kinds of politicians to burn up the oxygen out of the atmosphere with long phrases and fine technical hair-splitting. The fundamental fact is here stated and ought to stand as it is stated, and ought not to be elaborated in this Preamble. This is a part of the educational propaganda of the proposed economic organization. To load down this Preamble with all the suggestions that are turned in here, especially the suggestions from one of the delegates, would mean the turning of this Constitution into a folio of a hundred pages or more by the time you got through. The Constitution should be a brief, pithy, concise document, written in the language of workingmen, not written in the language of Proudhon, not written in the language of Bakunin or Marx or Engels, but written in the plain, everyday language of the man in overalls. We want to appeal to the man in overalls. (Applause). We want to organize the plain common workingman, the workingman who could not, to save his immortal soul, tell you the difference between variable capital and constant capital, who could not distinguish the most technical proposition in an academic statement. We want to talk to that man in his own language. Therefore, I am opposed to referring this thing back again. I also want personally to resent the insinuation of Delegate Smith that this is toadying to anybody, no matter who he is or what he is, or to any existing institution, no matter what it may be. We are working here for the working class. We do not care about any factions. We are agreed only on the substance, upon the fact that we want to take and hold all the things that belong to the working class, and we want the goods, and we want to put the boots to the other fellow. (Applause.)DEL. LILIAN FORBERG: I want to oppose the amendment that was offered by Comrade Smith, because it seems to me it is a waste of time. It seems to me that this paragraph in the Preamble is just as clear and plain on what we are going to do as language can be made to express it. It says distinctly that this struggle, meaning the struggle between capital and labor, must go on until the forces are united on the political field. That means the forces of capital on the one side united in a solid political party, and the forces of the working people on the other side. It distinctly says that this struggle must go on. It states in the next paragraph that we come here to organize an economic organization of the working class, based on the class struggle, without any affiliation with any political party whatsoever. What has been the trouble with the working class movement in all the time that has gone before? Because there has been no economic organization based on the class struggle. The old American Federation of Labor is based on the idea of harmony, that the interests of capital and labor are identical, and the old political parties have been the expression of that idea, and have been just as muddled as the expression of the American Federation of Labor. If you organize here an economic organization based on the class struggle, the workingmen that came into that organization will understand that it is battling on the workingman’s side, and they will come to understand that no political party can be put up by the capitalists to represent the working class, and the time will come when no political party which is the expression of the interests of the capitalists can get the vote of a workingman belonging to an economic organization of the working class based on the class struggle. (Applause.)

At the end of this debate, paragraph two was adopted without changes.The Preamble was accepted as a whole with a few amendments to other paragraphs:

THE CHAIRMAN: It has been regularly moved and seconded that the Preamble be adopted in its entirety.A DELEGATE: As amended?

THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, the whole Preamble. Those in favor of adopting this Preamble as amended will signify it by saying aye. Contrary, no. The Preamble is adopted as amended. (Great applause.)

PREAMBLE.The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all the toilers come together on the political, as well as on the industrial field, and take and hold that which they produce by their labor, through an economic organization of the working class without affiliation with any political party.

The rapid gathering of wealth and the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands make the trades union unable to cope with the ever-growing power of the employing class, because the trades unions foster a state of things which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. The trades unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These sad conditions can be changed and the interests of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries, if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all. Therefore, we, the working class, unite under the following constitution.

Announcements were made as to meetings of the standing committees, and resolutions were considered.The Convention then adjourned until 1 p. m.

AFTERNOON SESSION

The Convention was called to order at 1 p. m. by Chairman Haywood who then called Del. Coats forward to serve as temporary Chairman.

LITERATURE AND PRESS.Much debate followed the reading of the following report of the Literature and Press Committee. In the end the Convention voted to refer the report to the incoming Executive Board.

Del. Dinger read the following report on behalf of the [Literature and Press] committee, he not being a member:

IS THE [UNITED WORKERS] A POLITICAL ORGANIZATION?The inherent weakness of the arguments against the United Workers [this name is being used in this document until such time as the Convention adopts a permanent name for the new organization] and industrial unionism is proven by the fact that the only thing that is used with any effect by its enemies is a lie. That is, that the United Workers is not in fact a labor organization, but a political movement.

On account of many of the organized and unorganized working people being ignorant of the real principles and purposes of this new labor unionism, it is necessary that these charges that are being made by the salaried officials of craft unionism, by the so-called labor papers that depend upon craft unionism for support, and by the capitalist press, be refuted.In the American Federationist, official magazine of the American Federation of Labor, for March, 1905, Samuel Gompers, its editor, referring to the Industrial Union Manifesto, says

“The Socialists have called another Convention to smash the American trade union movement.”

The Iowa State Federation of Labor, acting upon this misrepresentation, adopted the following:

“A few disgruntled office seekers and would-be politicians have seen fit to criticise the present methods and government of our trade organizations; and these same people have issued a call for a Convention to be held in the City of Chicago June 27, 1905, to form an organization TO BE A POLITICAL INDUSTRIAL LABOR ORGANIZATION, the avowed purpose of which is the complete annihilation of the present trade union movement BY POLITICAL METHODS.”

The Advance Advocate, a so-called labor paper depending upon Gompersism for support, says

“And now a new industrial union is to be launched in Chicago. It is going to revolutionize the whole labor movement, according to the Manifesto of its promoters. IT IS GOING INTO POLITICS. We predict that it will fail.”

The Milwaukee journal, a capitalist daily newspaper, repeating the chorus of all capitalist newspapers, has this to say:

“The Socialists are still earnestly advocating the formation of a new national organization in the hope of downing the American Federation of Labor, as the federation is opposed to making the labor union a political organization.”

These falsehoods have been freely circulated in craft union literature, and more freely by the capitalist press, in spite of the fact that not a word can be found in any of the official acts or utterances of the United Workers, or of the Conferences or Conventions that brought it into existence, or in the Manifesto or other industrial union literature, to justify them.

On the other hand, every official declaration of the United Workers and the Industrial Union movement on this question has been clear and unmistakable AGAINST making it a political organization or a political movement. The Manifesto declares:

“It (the industrial union) should be established as the economic organization of the working class, WITHOUT AFFILIATION WITH ANY POLITICAL PARTY.”

The United Workers is not a political party. It is a labor union. It is made necessary because other so-called labor organizations have proved themselves incompetent and unable to represent the working class. It also declares its final purpose to be the abolition of wage slavery and complete freedom of the working class in the possession of the means of production and distribution.

While the United Workers is not a political party, and does not affiliate with any political party, the capitalists must not delude themselves with the idea that they alone are wise enough to know the value of political power, and that they, through the political ignorance of the working people, will be free and unhampered in placing capitalist servants in charge of the law-making and law-executing powers, and in using for the benefit of the employing class the policemen’s clubs and the guns of the soldiery.

The United Workers and the industrial union movement reserves the right for its members to use, outside this labor organization, in a political way, any weapon that will prove useful in the struggle for economic betterment.

As organized workers we oppose every form of working class ignorance, and urge all working people to study politics, and advise all unions to set apart a time to study political questions, to the end that when the working people use the ballot, their votes may be cast unitedly in their own interests.

The reading of the report was greeted with applause.

COMMITTEE ON RATIFICATION MEETING.

Various resolutions were considered and acted upon, among them being a resolution to appoint a committee to plan for the public ratification meeting:

THE TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN, COATES: The chair will appoint as the special committee to arrange the meeting as provided for in this resolution just adopted, Delegates O. M. Held, Daniel McDonald, W. J. Bradley, John Cranston, Guy N. Miller.Del. Jorgensen suggested that the proposed meeting be so arranged as to reach the organized workingmen of Chicago especially, those not belonging to organizations not being so important to reach at the present time.

The Convention then adjourned until nine o’clock the next morning.

~~~~~~~~~~SOURCE
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/…

IMAGES

Brands Hall, Chicago, 1883
http://nucius.org/…
Father Thomas J Hagerty
http://www.iww.org/…
American Federationist
https://books.google.com/…
IWW What We Stand For, poster,
Industrial Workers of the World
http://www.iww.org/…
Preamble, Industrial Workers of the World
http://rebelgraphics.org/…

See also:CONVENTION-Industrial Workers of the World
SIXTH DAY, Monday, July 3
MORNING SESSION
https://www.marxists.org/…

CONVENTION-Industrial Workers of the World
SIXTH DAY, Monday, July 3
AFTERNOON SESSION
https://www.marxists.org/…

About the IWW
http://www.iww.org/…

“Father” Thomas J Haggerty
(Note: “Hagerty” is the spelling used by
Hagerty in 1905 and in the stenographic report.)
http://www.iww.org/…

Modern Day Preamble:

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The Commonwealth of Toil-Pete Seeger

When our cause is all triumphant
And we claim our Mother Earth,
And the nightmare of the present fades away,
We shall live with love and laughter,
We who now are little worth,
But we’ll not forget the price we had to pay.
-Ralph Chaplin
(with last line changed by JayRaye)

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Bonus Song for Independence Day
This Land Is Our Land

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
-Woody Guthrie

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Hellraisers Journal: “We want to have under that banner our brothers and sisters of the world.”

Hellraisers Journal: Article I Section 2, Adopted As Amended, Provides for Industrial Organization.

Today’s edition of the Inter Ocean would lead one to believe that the Convention of Industrial Unionists, meeting in Brand’s Hall in the city of Chicago, is in complete disarray. In fact, the Convention, yesterday, settled it’s differences over Article I Section 2 of the proposed Constitution, and then proceeded quickly forward. The adoption of a Constitution will most likely be completed by the end of today’s session.The sad news that Mrs. Emma F. Langdon had been robbed was greeted with dismay by the Convention, and a committee was appointed to investigate the theft.

Mrs. Emma F. Langdon is the author of the The Cripple Creek Strike, a history of the recent strike which has been officially endorsed by the Colorado Federation of Labor. She is an honorary member of the Western Federation of Miners and was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary of the Convention at the suggestion of Mother Jones.

Below the fold, our readers can find the Hellraisers report on Day Nine of the Convention, but first we offer this account from the Inter Ocean. The Inter Ocean, a member of the kept press of Chicago has, as is usual, twisted the story to suit its own bias.

FRIEND OF WAGE SLAVES ROBBED
BY PLAIN THIEF
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Secretary of Socialists Shocked at Degeneracy of Man,
Which May Compel Her to Walk to Denver.There was consternation in the ranks of the “industrial” unionists in convention in Brand’s hall yesterday afternoon. It was caused by the discovery that common, ordinary sneak thieves had invaded the sacred precincts of the men who are endeavoring to save the world.

Imbued with purely altruistic motives, the delegates have no thought of themselves. They are anxious to rescue the “wage slaves” of the country, whether the latter want to be rescued or not.

But the thieves who entered the hall during the convention thought only of immediate wants and appropriated the pocketbook of Mrs. Emma Langdon, the assistant secretary of the convention. It contained $50 in money and a railroad ticket to Denver, the home of Mrs. Langdon.

Mrs. Langdon left the pocketbook on a table in the rear of the platform while she carried some books and documents to an ante-room. When she returned it was gone. She announced her loss with tears in her eyes, as visions of walking to Denver arose before her, and the delegates decided to take up a subscription to help her. Some of the delegates changed their ideas of reforming society and decided that it was essential to reform individuals first.

The entire time of the convention yesterday was taken up in discussing a constitution for the proposed organization. David C. Coates, who has fought for an organization purely on industrial rather than on economic lines, was defeated by a vote of 39,540 votes to 11,523. The report of the constitution committee was adopted.

After the vote was announced Coates proposed to discharge the committee on constitution and appoint a new one, but his motion was defeated by decisive vote. He left the hall in disgust shortly after and left the theorists in full control.

The adoption of the report of the constitution committee was a victory for “Father” Hagerty and Daniel De Leon and proved that they control the convention. The trade unionists and the regular socialists are disgusted and they predict that the convention will end in smoke.

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Convention of Industrial Unionists
Day Nine-July 6, 1905

MORNING SESSION

The Convention was called to order by Chairman Haywood at 9 a. m. who then announced those appointed to fill the vacancies on the Ratification Committee: Delegates W. E. White, Lynch, Starkenberg and Mrs. Forberg.

Secretary Trautmann read the minutes of the previous day’s session and a communication from Local Union No. 9, Brewery Workers of Milwaukee, which organization donated $25 toward the stenographic report.

DEBATE ON COATES AMENDMENT CONTIUESThe debate on the Coates Amendment, begun on Day Seven of the Convention and continued all through Day Eight, was then resumed.

At issue was Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution as proposed by the Constitution Committee:

Section 2. (a) And shall be composed of thirteen international industrial unions, designated as follows:
Division 1 shall be composed of all persons working in the following industries: Clerks, salesmen, tobacco, packing houses, flour mills, sugar refineries, dairies, bakeries and kindred industries.Division 2. Brewery, wine and distillery workers.

Division 3. Floriculture, stock and general farming.

Division 4. Mining, milling, smelting and refining coal, ores, metals, salt and iron.

Division 5. Steam railway, electric railway, marine, shipping and teaming.

Division 6. All building employes.

Division 7. All textile industrial employes.

Division 8. All leather industrial workers.

Division 9. All wood working employes excepting those engaged in building departments.

Division 10. All metal industrial employes.

Division 11. All glass and pottery employes.

Division 12. All paper mills, chemical, rubber, broom, brush and jewelry industries.

Division 13. Parks, highways, municipal, postal service, telegraph, telephone, schools and educational institutions, amusements, sanitary, printing, hotel, restaurant and laundry employes.

Central bodies. Central bodies (first) composed of seven or more local unions in two or more industries shall be known as industrial councils; (second) Local unions, in such industries as are not organized and represented on the General Executive Board; (third) Individual members in such places where there is not a sufficient number of workers to organize a local union in any industry.

The Coates Amendment to Article I, Section 2:

DEL. COATES [on Day Seven]: Mr. Chairman, I want to offer an amendment. The amendment is that the second paragraph of Article 1 shall read “This organization shall be composed of national and international unions embracing all workers of an industry,” instead of thirteen division as made up.

Del. Coates took the floor to continue his closing argument in support of his amendment. We refer our readers to the debate on Article I, Section 2 which took place yesterday, for, notwithstanding the long-winded speech to which Mr. Coates subjected the delegates, we cannot find where he added anything new to support his position.A vote was taken, with a roll call as demanded by Del. Coates, and the Coates Amendment was overwhelmingly rejected by the Convention. Our records show a vote of 10,617 in favor to 38,937 against.

The vote of the Western Federation of Miners delegation was unanimous totaling 27,000 votes. The vote of the American Labor Union was split with McDonald, Coates, and Cronin supporting the Coates Amendment and the remainder  of the A. L. U. delegation opposed. Haywood and Moyer are members of the both delegations, and were, therefore, allowed to vote twice in opposition to the Coates Amendment.

HAYWOOD’S MOTION TO REFER

Del. Sherman was called to the Chair so that Haywood could present a motion to refer Article I Section 2 back to the Committee on Constitution:

That Section 2 of Article 1 be referred back to the committee with instructions to specifically satisfy and provide for that part of the Manifesto providing for craft autonomy locally, industrial autonomy internationally, and working class unity generally.

Much debate followed, during which, Haywood appealed to the members of the delegation from the Western Federation of Miners to support his motion. Nevertheless, Haywood’s motion to refer was rejected by the Convention by a vote of 22,471 supporting and 28,679 opposed. With the exception of Haywood, himself, the entire W. F. of M. delegation voted against the Haywood Motion, including Charles Moyer.The Convention adjourned at 12:10 p. m. until 1:10 p. m.

AFTERNOON SESSION

The Convention was called to order by Chairman Haywood at 1:25 p. m.

THE TRAUTMANN AMENDMENT

THE CHAIRMAN: When the convention adjourned we had just disposed of the motion to refer. The motion now occurs on the adoption of Section 2 of Article I of the constitution as recommended by the committee.Secretary Trautmann: I would ask, in order to eliminate too much discussion, the consent of the Constitution Committee to insert in their report on Section 2 the following clause: “Shall consist of thirteen industrial divisions subdivided into industrial unions of closely connected industries in the appropriate organizations for representation in the departmental administration.”

DEL. BRADLEY: Do you make that as a motion?

SECRETARY TRAUTMANN: Yes, sir.

DEL. BRADLEY: I will second that motion.

THE CHAIRMAN: You have heard the amendment offered by Secretary Trautmann to Section 2, Article I of the constitution.

Del. Trautmann gave a short speech in support of his amendment, after which, Del. Coates took the floor:

DEL. COATES: I understand now that this motion or this amendment is before the house.THE CHAIRMAN: This amendment is before the house.

DEL. COATES: I want to make a motion. I am willing to submit this motion without any debate. I do it largely on account of this new matter coming in and the temperament as I understood of the convention when it voted on the previous motion. My motion is this: I move that the present Constitution Committee be discharged and the amendment now before the convention be referred to a committee of the same number and selected in the same manner as the present Committee on Constitution, with instructions to report a constitution complying with the Manifesto declaring for craft autonomy locally, industrial autonomy internationally, and working class unity generally.

DEL. PARKS: I second the motion.

Question called for.

DEL. COATES: I wish to ask for a roll call, Mr. President.

COATES APPEALS DECISION OF CHAIR

Chairman Haywood refuse to consider the motion and Coates then appealed the decision of the Chair:

THE CHAIRMAN: I would say to the mover of the motion that the motion will not be entertained by the Chair until such time as the disposition of this convention is determined as to the plan that has already been selected to form a Constitution Committee of this convention. (Applause). The Chair will suspend his decision in regard to this very serious matter. The committee will be selected in the same manner as the present committee, as this provides. Permit the Chair to say that in his opinion the selection of the group from the Western Federation of Miners would consist of identically the same delegate that is now on that committee, the President of the Western Federation of Miners. And it is the opinion of the Chair that the formation of this committee would be identically the same as it is at the present time, and until such time as this amendment has been disposed of, and the sense of this convention in regard to the committee that have already submitted their work has been defined, the motion will be declared out of order. If you have a desire to appeal from the decision of the Chair, you will be so permitted.DEL. COATES: Give me a chance. I want to say, Mr. Chairman, that I appeal from the decision of the Chair, and in that appeal I wish to state my reasons. My reasons for appeal is this: I disagree with the Chairman when he says the make-up of the committee will be the same. I do not believe the Chair or any other delegate can assume that right or that position; I do not believe it.

I make the appeal on another ground. Mr. Chairman, we have realized all the way through that this Constitution Committee has absolutely pledged itself to support this report, and we know that behind that pledge is a sufficient number of votes to carry that amendment. At the same time the temper of the resolution, or rather of the convention, on the previous motion that was voted on, to refer it back to the same committee, shows to us that there are some members of the Constitution Committee that would be willing to send it to some other committee. They are simply standing together as a committee. They would prefer that this be unloaded onto some other committee. Now, Mr. Chairman, that is my only reason, and I do not think this convention ought to be forced to go up against a committee that is absolutely pledged to support this motion regardless of whether they are convinced that it is right or that it is wrong; and I make my appeal on those grounds, and I ask a roll call on the appeal.

THE CHAIRMAN: The Chairman would take the position that every member on this committee is placed on his honor; that after coming into this convention and listening to the debate which has consumed twenty hours of time, I say the members of this committee must have absorbed some ideas, and that the will of this convention stands above any action that may have been taken in that committee. Delegate Miller, will you kindly take the chair?

(Delegate Miller took the chair.)

The decision of the Chair was sustained by the Convention by a vote of 28,891 to 22,648, with Charles Moyer voting twice (for the W. F. of M. and for the A. L. U.) against the decision of Chairman Haywood

RATIFICATION MEETING

The Ratification reported on progress made in planning for the ratification meeting which will take place on on July 7th (tonight!) at 8 p. m. at Brand’s Hall, corner of Clark and erie streets.

ATICLE I, SECTION 2 AMENDED AND  ADOPTEDThe question of the Trautmann Amendment was put before the Convention and was adopted. The question was then called as to the adoption of Article I Section 2 as amended. The roll call revealed a vote of 40,801 in favor of adoption and 10,363 opposed.

Haywood on “Parliamentary Railroading.”

During the roll call, Del. Parks explained his vote against:

DEL. PARKS: Mr. Chairman, I want to state my reason for the vote which I gave. I object to the parliamentary railroading that has lately been inaugurated in this convention. Therefore I vote no.

After the vote was announced Chairman Haywood took exception to the statement of Del. Parks:

THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair at this time wants to resent any imputation on the part of any delegate that there has been any parliamentary railroading of any proposition m this floor. Two days and a half of time have been consumed in discussing this proposition, and then a delegate Las the impudence to get on the floor and say something has been railroaded. (Applause.)

PROGRESS ON ADOPTION OF CONSITUTIONThe adoption of the report of the Constitution Committee then progressed rapidly for the rest of the afternoon with Del. Hagerty, Secretary of the the committee, reading the proposed Constitution paragraph by paragraph. The Constitution was adopted, with a few amendments up to and including Article IV Section 2.

A PERSONAL ANNOUNCEMENT.Sadly, during the deliberations on the adoption of a constitution, Del Sherman took the floor to announce that the Assistant Secretary of the Convention had been robbed:

DEL. SHERMAN: I would ask, as special privilege, the ears of the delegates of this convention for two minutes. I would ask it as a special privilege, if there is no objection. (No objection was heard.)THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sherman has the floor.

DEL. SHERMAN: Mr. Chairman, Sisters and Brothers, I have an announcement to make, and I desire to make a motion following the announcement. Our little sister here on the platform, Sister Langdon, who has so efficiently served us through this convention, had the misfortune yesterday of having some one steal all her belongings from this platform, including her return transportation, some $40 or $50, and some valuable credentials that she had from various organizations in her work that she has done for many years. I want to make a motion that the Chair appoint an uninstructed committee to take up this case and make such provisions as in their judgment will be fitting for the occasion. (Seconded.)

THE CHAIRMAN: You have heard the motion. Are you ready for the question? (Question called for). Those in favor of the motion signify it by saying aye. Contrary no. The motion is carried. The Chair would appoint on that committee, the mover of the motion, Brother Sherman, Brother McCabe and Brother Hickey.

The Convention was adjourned at 6 p. m. until 9 a. m. the next morning.

~~~~~~~~~~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/…

The Inter Ocean
(Chicago Illinois)
-July 7, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/…

IMAGES
Emma F Langdon
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/…
Father Hagertys Wheel,
from Miners Magazine of April 20, 1905
http://www.gutenberg.org/…
David C Coates
https://books.google.com/…
Big Bill Haywood, 1904
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/…
William E Trautmann
https://libcom.org/…
Father Tomas J Hagerty
http://www.iww.org/…

See also:

CONVENTION-Industrial Workers of the World
NINTH DAY-Thursday, July 6
MORNING SESSION
https://www.marxists.org/…

CONVENTION-Industrial Workers of the World
NINTH DAY-Thursday, July 6
AFTERNOON SESSION
https://www.marxists.org/…

Luke Grant reports to Samuel Gompers
http://www.gompers.umd.edu/…
Grant’s Report on 9th Day
http://www.gompers.umd.edu/…

In 1905 Luke Grant, the labor editor of the Chicago Inter Ocean, attended the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. A member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters, which was an AFL affiliate at the time, Grant kept Gompers informed of the convention’s progress.

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My Old Kentucky Home – Paul Robeson
We Will Sing One Song – Joe Hill

We will sing one song of the meek and humble slave,
The horn-handed son of the soil,
He’s toiling hard from the cradle to the grave,
But his master reaps the profits from his toil.
Then we’ll sing one song of the greedy master class,
They’re vagrants in broadcloth, indeed,
They live by robbing the ever-toiling mass,
Human blood they spill to satisfy their greed.

CHORUS:
Organize! Oh, toilers, come organize your might;
Then we’ll sing one song of the workers’ commonwealth,
Full of beauty, full of love and health.

We will sing one song of the politician sly,
He’s talking of changing the laws;
Election day all the drinks and smokes he’ll buy,
While he’s living from the sweat of your brow.
Then we’ll sing one song of the girl below the line,
She’s scorned and despised everywhere,
While in their mansions the “keepers” wine and dine
From the profits that immoral traffic bear.

We will sing one song of the preacher, fat and sleek,
He tells you of homes in the sky.
He says, “Be generous, be lowly, and be meek,
If you don’t you’ll sure get roasted when you die.”
Then we sing one song of the poor and ragged tramp,
He carries his home on his back;
Too old to work, he’s not wanted ’round the camp,
So he wanders without aim along the track.

We will sing one song of the children in the mills,
They’re taken from playgrounds and schools,
In tender years made to go the pace that kills,
In the sweatshops, ‘mong the looms and the spools.
Then we’ll sing one song of the One Big Union Grand,
The hope of the toiler and slave,
It’s coming fast; it is sweeping sea and land,
To the terror of the grafter and the knave.
-Joe Hill

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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.
—–
Amendment to Constitution
of Industrial Union Organization
Bitterly Opposed by Many Radicals.
—–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.

—–

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.

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.

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’NEILMISS LUELLA TWINING, PresidingFrom the report on the Ratification Meeting:

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.

~~~~~~~~~~

SOURCESProceedings 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/…

““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
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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But before our own report, we offer the following summary of yesterday’s events from today’s edition of the Inter Ocean, which summary is surprisingly accurate for a member of the kept press:

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS ELECT.
——
Convention of Socialists Ends With
Organization Perfected.

Despite predictions that the convention of the Industrial Workers of the World would end in fire and smoke, the delegates, representing 50,000 workers, elected officers for the ensuing year by a unanimous vote yesterday.The officers elected are as follows:

President-Charles O. Sherman, Chicago, secretary of United Brotherhood of Metal Workers.

Secretary and Treasurer-William E. Trautmann, Cincinnati, United Brotherhood of Brewery Workers.

Delegates at Large-John Riordan, British Columbia, American Labor union; F. W. Cronin, Butte, Mont., American Labor union; Frank McCabe, Kansas City, Mo., United Brotherhood of Railway Employes; C. H. Moyer, Denver, president of Western Federation of Miners; Charles Kirkpatrick, Chicago, United Brotherhood of Metal Workers.

These seven men will constitute an executive board, in whose hands the convention placed the right to act in the reformation of the world in general and laborers in particular.

Organizing delegates will be sent broadcast throughout the land to secure the affiliation of labor unions with the new organization.

The most conservative of the delegates declare the membership of the association at the time of the next convention, in May of 1906, at a place to be fixed by the executive board, will be over 1,000,000.

—–[Photograph added.]

Convention of Industrial Unionists
Day Eleven-July 8, 1905

MORNING SESSION

The Convention was called to order at 9 a. m. and quickly proceeded to the report of the Committee on Literature and Press:

TO ALL WORKING PEOPLE

To-day the warfare of the struggle between the classes is as
merciless, fierce and bloodthirsty as it ever was in the past.
“““““

Old as the story of wealth is the story of oppression, and that oppression has always been leveled at, and heaped upon those who have produced all the wealth—the laboring class.To-day the warfare of the struggle between the classes is as merciless, fierce and bloodthirsty as it ever was in the past.

Your employer may be personally your friend. He may be a man of the best intentions, and really desire to better the condition of those he employs. But when his competitor cuts wages, he in turn must cut yours or go out of business.

This is the iron law of business, the law of competition, and the class struggle.

Can you not see the futility, therefore, of fighting individual employers ?

The whole method must be swept away, until in the hands of the laboring class rests the control of the tools of production and distribution.

For this, the most important of all questions, insists upon being answered, and must be answered without evasion.

Who are entitled to the ownership and control of the industries? Those who perform the labor and produce the wealth; or, those who produce nothing yet claim ownership after production, because they have permitted part of your product to return to you in the form of wages?

The natural law of labor and wages, as laid down by all the great authorities, beginning with: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,” is that the result of labor belongs to that one who performs the labor. Thus the ownership is by right of labor alone.

Naturally, then, follows this question: Who shall fix the wages? Those who labor with the machines of production and distribution, or those who laboring not at all, demand a portion of the product?

Many men who claim to be our friends tell us there is a harmony and identity of interest between the laboring and the master class. Let us see. You are interested in getting the largest possible returns for your labor. The master is interested in getting your labor for the smallest wages.

Can you imagine harmony or identity of interest here?

This industrial union has been brought into existence because those who organized it recognized there could be neither harmony nor identity of interest, but instead, a never-ending and merciless conflict, until the wage system is swept away.

This organization has come into the field for the purpose of giving you a weapon with which to wage a contest for better returns for your labor than you now enjoy, and that in all conflicts you can offer an unbroken front of all labor to your enemy,—the master class.

Also by becoming members of this organization you do your part toward bringing into life and action a solidified workers’ union, —a union that, recognizing the solidarity of the working class, unites instead of dividing the workers.

All the efforts of labor organizations of the past have been directed toward benefiting a few of the laboring class.

Just the skilled workmen of the various trades, as cigar makers, carpenters, engineers, etc.

And after these men have joined their various unions, they seem to feel they have become of another class than their fellow workers, and seem to think those fellow workers are not entitled to the same treatment, conditions and pay as they demand for themselves.

The industrial union, however, offers to all the workers the same advantages the older organizations offer to only a favored few.

Recognizing that the common laborer is as valuable to society as the most skillful mechanic, we offer to him the same shelter, the same assistance and the same comradeship the older unions offer to only a few tradesmen.

In the past, these bodies of union men have been kept divided and at enmity by leaders who either ignorantly or willfully assassinate the welfare of their followers for the benefit of the master class. By these divisions and the strife, thus brought about, these unions have wasted upon each other the strength which should have been expended against the common enemy.

But the industrial union, embracing all workers, gives no opportunity for craft conflict, nor can unscrupulous leaders embroil the branches in wrangles over trade autonomy.

A uniform label for all products of union labor makes impossible wrangling between trades over their labels. It will end corrupt bargaining between capitalists and labor officials to further the label of one group of workers above that of another.

Such a union label is truly a weapon of defense for the workers; instead of an advertisement for favored manufacturers and to assist in the formation of monopolies to further oppress working class purchasers.

Divided in resources and fighting strength as are the forces within the present unions, nearly every strife becomes a battle, not between laborers and capitalists, but between different divisions of the working class.

But the industrial union concentrates all its force upon any one point, financially or any other way.

It is the business and duty of the industrial union to wipe out all imaginary boundary lines or divisions between the workers by bringing them within the lines surrounding all the workers in this and other countries.

Neither must a worker serve an apprenticeship to man or machine, nor “stand and deliver” an enormous initiation fee to become a member of this union.

In this industrial union there is room for and no bar against any worker on account of race, sex, creed or color, and an earnest invitation is extended to every worker to enroll him or herself a member of this union.

At the time craft unions were organized trades were of importance, and individual employers were the rule. Inventions and developments upon the industrial field have wiped out the trades. Craft unions have refused to keep up with the progress of economics. They have served their time. Their usefulness has ended, and they are to-day only deadweights on the forward movement.

Would you not think a nation foolish that would go to war with bows and arrows against machine guns. Yet that is the condition of the trades unions to-day on the industrial field, its members rushing unarmed and divided to do battle with a unified, disciplined and merciless employing class.

Divided into small crafts they are helpless, for many crafts are employed in one industry.

Betrayed by their leaders, these crafts are led singly to battle and destruction, for all other crafts of that industry assist the master in crushing their brothers. Just think how easy it is done.

Union hod carriers go on strike, and union bricklayers carry brick and mortar for themselves.

Union coal miners strike. Union railroad men haul scabs to the mines and scab coal away from the mines.

Officials of the miners’ union order members of that union to unload machinery loaded by scab teamsters.

We recognize that injury to one is injury to all, and that the workers should be organized as a whole; thus avoiding such treason among themselves.

In this way only an entire industry becomes a branch of the organization, and the day of craft troubles will disappear.

For the uniform union label will mean uniform union conditions to all.

And when you join any union, your card is good in any other union without another initiation fee.

We see that the defeats of the past that have met us at every turn were only because of our lack of unity.

For these reasons this organization has come into being. We earnestly entreat you to enroll yourself with us.

Photograph added.]

The report of the Literature and Press Committee was referred by the Convention to the incoming Executive Board.

INSTALLATION OF ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS

THE CHAIRMAN: The installation of Organizations. The representatives of the different local unions, international unions and individual members who are to take part in this new movement will so announce by rising to their feet.The respective representatives and individuals rose.

THE CHAIRMAN: Individuals, all who take part in this new movement, either representing themselves, their local unions or other national bodies.

The delegates rose almost unanimously.

THE CHAIRMAN: I, as Chairman, hereby duly install the respective individuals and the representatives of the local unions as a part of the Industrial Workers of the World. (Applause).

DEL. CLARENCE SMITH: I desire to know if those who did not stand did not participate in becoming a part of this organization. In other words, Mr. Chairman, I want to know if those who did not install themselves and did not participate in installing their organizations at this time, shall have a voice or a vote in this organization from this time on.

THE CHAIRMAN: Those who have not become installed have neither a voice nor a vote from this time on.

DEL. SMITH: I believe it would be well to have a record of those.

THE CHAIRMAN: To make a record of the delegates, or of those present?

DEL. SMITH: To make a record of those who have installed themselves in the organization. Several delegates representing organizations with instructions to install did not rise or participate in the installation.

THE CHAIRMAN: The Secretary will read the roll call and proceed to make a record of the delegates and their organizations that have been installed.

The roll call revealed that these organizations were installed:

Western Federation of Miners,
Socialist Trade & Labor Alliance
Industrial Workers’ Club, Cincinnati,
Industrial Workers’ Club, Chicago,
Workers’ Industrial and Educational Union of Pueblo,
United Mine Workers of Pittsburg, Kansas,
United Brotherhood of Railway Employees,
Punch Press Operators of Schenectady, NY,
Journeyman Tailors’ Union, I. U. No. 102, Pueblo,
United Metal Workers of America,
Journeyman Tailors’ Benevolent and Protective Union, San Francisco,The delegation of the American Labor Union voted to install with the exception of one member, Henry S. Davis.

Among the individuals installed we sadly find but few women. Among the notable women who are now members of the Industrial Workers of the World are: Miss Luella Twining, Mrs. Emma F. Langdon, Lucy Parsons, and Mother Jones.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS.The President: C. O. Sherman

Nominate for the office of President were Albert Ryan of the W. F. of M. of Jerome, Arizona; and Charles Moyer, president of W. F. of M. Both men declined the nomination, with Moyer nominating Charles O. Sherman in his stead.

Bill Haywood was next nominated:

DEL. GUY MILLER: Briefly I rise to voice my own preference. When one realizes that the battle is to be hard and bitter, one wants to know that the man who is to lead that movement will stand the hardest blows and be able to give as much as he receives. The man whom I name is one who has the power to do and the courage to dare in larger measure than any other man identified with the labor movement in America. I name that peerless Secretary-Treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners, William D. Haywood. (Applause.)DEL. FERBER: Mr. Chairman and Fellow Delegates, I rise not to make a nomination, but to second the nomination made by Guy E. Miller. I second the nomination of the man who has acted as our Chairman; a man whom I consider one of courage; a man whom I think and I trust the capitalists of this country and of the world will not point their fingers to with scorn, but a man who will not be afraid to go to the bull-pen if necessary.

MOTHER JONES: And lick the militia.

Haywood declined the nomination:

DEL. HAYWOOD: Brothers and sisters, I realize the honor that has been conferred upon me by being placed before this convention as a candidate for the presidency of this organization; but it is impossible for me to accept the nomination. I have but recently left Salt Lake City, where the Western Federation of Miners held their thirteenth annual convention, and was there re-elected as Secretary-Treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners. I was elected in good faith by the membership of that organization. I accepted the office in good faith. When you stop to consider the condition of other officers in other labor organizations that have been involved in trouble, and think what it means to the officers of that organization to have been re-elected, you will understand where my duties lie at the present time.I want to stay there with the Western Federation of Miners to fill out the term for which I have been elected. In doing so I believe I can assist the Industrial Workers of the World. You can depend upon me at every turn in the road. You can crush me on the wheel, if you will; I will do everything I can to carry my part of the burden. But owing to the condition of my family making it impossible—or rather I do not desire to be away from home as much as an office of this kind would entail upon me. I cannot move my family to where the headquarters are likely to be located, and believing that that family is the first consideration, I must decline the nomination.

Charles O. Sherman was then elected by the unanimous vote of the convention as President of the Industrial Workers of the World. He was called to speak and stated in part:

DEL. SHERMAN: Mr. Chairman, Brothers and Sisters: As I never was placed in a position of this kind before, it is difficult for me to find words fitting for the occasion….I feel that I have been honored with the greatest trust that any man was ever honored with in years (applause), because I feel that no man was ever offered an executive office or any position where the principles were involved that are involved in the Industrial Workers of the World. I feel that it was the greatest honor that could be bestowed upon any man when the Western Federation of Miners laid their vote at my feet, realizing as I did the vast material that they have got in their organization that I feel is superior to myself for a position of this kind; realizing the great education that they have had, and when they absolutely refuted to furnish a candidate and laid the force and the vote of that organization at my feet, I felt that it was the greatest honor that could be bestowed upon me. I trust, sisters and brothers, that you will realize as keenly as I do the responsibility that you have put upon me.

As Mother Jones remarked, we are up against the real thing. But I feel that if I get the same co-operation of the sisters and brothers that there has been in this convention, if they give the same co-operation to the administration of this organization that they have to this convention, there will at the next convention be plenty of candidates for the executive head of this organization. (Applause).

Because I feel that with the assistance of those who are joining this organization at the present time and those that will join between now and the next convention, we are going to have an industrial organization second to none in the world. I realize too keenly that there will not be one moment of quietude, there will not be one moment but what there will be a contest or fight on somewhere, but I will say to you, brothers, that as long as there is one drop of blood left in my body, if my constituents will stand by me they will find me on the battle line supporting the banner. (Applause).

If we do not succeed, it will not be because we will recede from the position, but because we will be crushed. We will succeed or they must kill us. (Applause).

The watchword must be, “There is no defeat. We must and will win.” (Applause)….

Charles O. Sherman was then installed as President:

President Sherman was then called before Chairman Haywood, to be installed.CHAIRMAN HAYWOOD: President Sherman, the Ritual Committee, have prepared a pledge. “You have been selected by the members of this organization to assume the responsibilities of office. The place of difficulty and danger is the post of honor. It is neither to be sought nor shunned. All that the world has gained is the gift of the toilers. They stand with empty hands, but they are coming to claim their own. It is your duty to carry out the policies that will best defend their interests. Your devotion and courage will hasten the day when those who have known only toil and gloom shall enjoy the sunshine and the beauty of the world. Let neither praise nor slander take you from the path of duty. The measure of your service will be the measure of our love. Guard well the interests confided to your care.”

President Sherman then assumed the duties of President, amid applause.

PRESIDENT SHERMAN: Sisters and Brothers, I subscribe to the charge in full, and will, to the very best of my ability, carry them out to the letter….

The Secretary-Treasurer: William E. Trautmann

The only man nominated for the office of Secretary-Treasurer was W. E. Trautmann. The nomination was seconded many times with several speeches of praise. We offer these two examples:

DEL. CLARENCE SMITH: I have known Brother Trautmann since last September only, but since last January I have been intimately associated with him in the work of the Executive Committee that has prepared for this convention. I want to say, Mr. Chairman, that in my opinion there are two requirements for an official position in this organization. One of them, which is the less of the two in my opinion, is perfect familiarity with the work with which he has to contend or meet, and the other, which is the most important of all, is the willingness to meet any test to which he may be put.I believe that the members of this organization, particularly the members of the Executive Board and its officers, are going to be placed in a position where, if they perform their work properly, they will be the target, not for the American Federation, as has been referred to on this floor, so much as the target for the capitalist class. And I want to say, Mr. Chairman, that in my judgment the fight of the capitalist class in Colorado against the Western Federation of Miners will, by the side of this that we are approaching, be the mere skirmish, and this is to be the battle.

I believe that when men are to place particularly their lives in the hands of other men, we should have men who can be absolutely trusted with the lives of those men with whom they are associated. I do not know any other man with whom I would care to place my life if I were to be associated with this movement, than William E. Trautmann, the man who has been nominated. (Applause).

I move you that the nominations now be closed and that the President cast the ballot of this association for William E. Trautmann as the unanimous choice of this organization for Secretary-Treasurer of the Industrial Workers of the World. (Seconded.)

DEL. POWERS: I rise to second the motion; and I will say on the nomination of Brother Trautmann, that the people I represent here are familiar with the name of Comrade Trautmann. We know that he is one of the pioneers of this movement. We know also of the great sacrifices he has made, and I know also of the work that he has done in this convention, and the hardly comprehensible amount of work which he has done in the launching of this organization. It is hardly conceivable to me how a man could go through all the work which he has gone through since this movement took its initiative step.

I think, also, comrades, that when the workingmen of America have an opportunity to see the typical workingman represented by Comrade Trautmann, and to know by his speech and by his actions that he is the real every-day workingman, the man who has got the education necessary as a worker and all that sort of thing they will feel that the work of this organization is in the hands of the right man.

Now, comrades, I do not feel equal to the emergency; I do not feel equal to the task of giving Comrade Trautmann the credit which properly belongs to him, but I heartily endorse on behalf of the Socialist Trade & Labor Alliance and heartily second the motion of the comrade to close the nominations and make the election of Comrade Trautmann unanimous. (Applause.)

W. E. Trautman was elected to the office with entire convention rising to their feet amid great applause.Secretary Trautmann was called forward to speak:

SECRETARY TRAUTMANN: My comrades, in the early days of my life, confronted by the conditions of being raised from the slums of this proletarians of the world, I have known the class conflict on all its sides in every part of the world, and I was made by cruel conditions a slave, but a class conscious slave of the working class. In Russia, when the first lashings were administered to me in the same city where to-day the revolution arises, from that day I have become, not by the mere study of the works of the economists, not by a study of the conditions as they are shown in the books, but by the cruel, barbarous conditions under which my class has been evolved, I have become a class conscious wage worker and a wage slave. (Applause).Driven from one part of the world to another: born in a country which is considered to be free, in New Zealand; my father himself being a miner and crushed to death in the mines; from that day on my family was separated and I became a victim of the present system, and as a victim I became a warrior against the conditions that have made me a victim. (Applause).

I came to this country, where my father was a citizen until he was forced to emigrate to New Zealand. When I entered upon the shores of this country, I found the same conditions prevailing as I found over in Russia, in Germany, in all the countries of the world wherever I had a chance to travel as a wage earner. I was a member of the United Brewery Workers, an organization of which I am proud because the rank and file are in it. When a member of that organization that to-day stands foremost in all the battles of the wage earners of this country, I went through all the struggles with them and have seen defeats and have seen victories.

And today, I say as a United Brewery Worker that I know the rank and file will pretty soon be ready to become a part of the Industrial Workers of the World. There were days in this country when we had to work sixteen and eighteen hours a day. I saw the progress that that organization made under the leadership of progressive men in those early days, and I saw how this organization was later on, through the instrumentals of the capitalist class, made an auxiliary of the capitalist system of society, not by the fault of the rank and file themselves, but by their ignorance to observe and their having too much confidence in leadership. (Applause.)…

In accepting this office in the Industrial Workers of the World I realize the confidence that the representatives of the working class of this country have placed in me. I realize also that the storm and the fight will begin from this day on. Through all my life I have tried to be on the right side, although I was always in the minority, but it is not a shame or a disgrace to stand with the minority, because a time will come when the minority will be the majority. (Applause)….

I look to see the day when the working class will be their own masters, and not the slaves of a master class; and with that object clear before my eyes I pledge to this organization of the working class, not to the representatives at this convention only, but to the entire working class, the devoting of my energies to the interests of the victims of the capitalist system of society, of which I have been one. I thank you. (Applause.)

The Executive Board

An election was held for the two at-large positions on the Executive Board, and John Riordan and F. W. Cronin were elected by a wide majority of the vote.

The organizations announced the selections:
Western Federation of Miners: Charles Moyer,
United Metal Workers: Charles Kirkpatrick,
United Brotherhood of Railway Employes: Frank McCabe.

The convention unanimously ratified the selections of these members to their positions on the incoming Executive Board.

INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS

THE CHAIRMAN: I do not think it is necessary to put the motion. The next thing in order will be the installation of the officers. It seems to me that the platform here is the proper place for the members of the Executive Board, the Secretary-Treasurer and the President of the organization as well. In the installation this morning the Chairman overlooked the obligation.The officers and members of the Executive Board proceeded to the platform and arranged themselves before the Chairman.

THE CHAIRMAN (addressing the candidates): You have been selected by the members of this organization to bear the responsibilities of office. The post of difficulty and duty is the post of honor. It is neither to be sought nor shunned. All that the world has gained is the gift of the toilers. They stand with empty hands, but they are coming to claim their own. It is your duty to carry out the policies that will best defend their interests. Your devotion and courage will hasten the day when those who have known only toil and gloom shall enjoy the sunshine and beauty of the world. Let neither praise nor slander take you from the path of duty. The measure of your service will be the measure of our love. You will now raise your right hand and repeat after me:

“I. . . . . promise to fulfill the duties of my office to the best of my ability. I promise to deliver all books, papers, money or other property entrusted to my care to my successor in office or faithfully account for the same. I shall obey the constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World, in letter and spirit. I further promise to use all my efforts to secure unity of action among the workers, on both the political and economic field, and never by any act of mine create dissension in the councils or division in the ranks of the workers. To all of which I pledge my sacred honor.”

The obligation was taken by all the officers.

THE CHAIRMAN: The officers and members of the Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the World are duly installed. (Applause).

SELECTION OF HEADQUARTERS

The city of Chicago was selected for the headquarters for the Industrial Workers of the World. The temporary office will be located at the large headquarters of the United Metal Workers at 148 West Madison street where rent will be free of charge.

COMPENSATION OF OFFICERS.

DEL. MOTHER JONES: Owing to the fact that there is no money in the treasury to start this organization with, it seems to me it would be good policy to leave the decision of the salaries to the incoming officers. I for one am not afraid to trust those officers with fixing the salaries that will compensate the officers, and I think it will be satisfactory to the body as a whole. I do not know that this body here could now decide what is best to do with regard to the salaries, as long as we have no funds to begin with. When the funds grow larger and it is worth while making a decision about that, I believe that is time enough for us to begin. (Motion seconded.)THE CHAIRMAN: Now, Mother, will you please state that motion again? Just make the motion so that I can understand it.

DEL. MOTHER JONES: My motion is to refer the salary question to the incoming officers, the Executive Board. (Seconded.)

THE CHAIRMAN: It has been regularly moved and seconded that the salaries of the members of the Executive Board be referred to the executive officers. Are you ready for the question?

DEL. BRADLEY: Am I to understand that the Executive Board itself is to fix the salaries of the members of the Executive Board and the others?

DEL. JOHNSON: I would like to offer as an amendment to the motion that the compensation of the Executive Board shall be in accordance with the wages that the different members of that board receive, and in addition the extra expenses connected with their work. (Seconded.)

THE CHAIRMAN: There has been an amendment made to the motion, but I wish you would make that amendment again, as short as possible.

DEL. JOHNSON: I offer an amendment to the motion, that the compensation of the members of the Executive Board shall be equal to the wages that they receive in their respective vocations, and in addition to that the expenses incurred by their work.

THE CHAIRMAN: You have heard the amendment to the motion, which has been duly seconded. Are you ready for the question on the amendment? (Question called for). Those who are in favor of the same will signify it by saying aye. Contrary minded no. The ayes have it and it is so carried.

STENOGRAPHIC REPORT.We are pleased to report that there is a complete stenographic report of the proceedings of convention, and that this report will be left in the hands of Daniel De Leon and the Socialist Trade & Labor Alliance for transcription and publication.

De Leon argued for the report:

Now as a matter of right this stenographic report is the property of the Daily People, and we can put it through quickly, long before the Board can have come to a decision and long before it can have raised the funds for that. The stenographic notes are valueless as they are now. They are valuable only if we have stenographic notes transcribed. You all know that it takes time to collect funds, and a person who works wants to know who is going to pay him for it. I am authorized to say that the stenographic report can be published, that the publication of it can be begun immediately by the Daily People.

De Leon further stated:

This report is the property of the Daily People. You rejected the motion of Delegate Smith; you rejected the motion of the Committee on Ways and Means: and had we acted on the spirit that disposed of those motions we would have discharged the stenographer on the spot, and then there would have been no stenographic record of the transactions of this convention. But we saw the value to the Movement of preserving this record, and so, while you were hanging fire and this convention was making history, we continued the expense of the stenographer’s fees.[History will owe Comrade De Leon and the Socialist Labor Party a debt of gratitude.]

THE CONVENTION COMES TO AN END

DEL. WHITE: I move that we now adjourn.THE CHAIRMAN (DEL. HAYWOOD): Just a moment. I want the President here when we adjourn. Is there any further business to come before the convention?

DEL. COATES: Have we decided on the place where the next convention is to be held?

THE CHAIRMAN: I do not believe it has been decided.

DEL. COATES: Of course the constitution, as I understand it, fixes the first Monday in May, doesn’t it?

THE CHAIRMAN: The first Monday in May is the date, but the place has not been named.

DEL. DE LEON: I move that this matter be referred to the incoming Executive Board. By that time they will know what organizations have joined and in what place it would be advisable to hold that convention; they will be in a much better position to decide. (Seconded.)

The motion was put and carried.

THE CHAIRMAN: Now, delegates, the temporary Chairman has a request to make of this convention. At the opening of the convention I was presented by some one with a gavel. I do not know to whom that gavel belongs, but I would very much like to retain it, and I would like to ask the privilege of this convention to do so.

DEL. MORRISON: I move that the request be granted.

DEL. T. J. HAGERTY: I move that the Chairman take possession of that gavel in the name of this organization, of the Industrial Workers of the World. (Seconded.)

DEL. POWERS: Before you put the motion I wish to state that there is another comrade there at the door that has got the stick that Comrade Haywood called the meeting to order with, so that he has got a rival in Chicago to that gavel.

DEL. PAT O’NEIL: I have a resolution that I would like to offer and move its adoption:

“Whereas, During the period from the issuance of the Manifesto to the convening of this congress of industrial workers, the Miners’ Magazine, the Chicago Arbeiter Zeitung, the Crisis, the Cleveland Arbeiter Zeitung and the Daily People have uncompromisingly advocated our cause; therefore be it

“Resolved, That we, the Industrial Workers of the World, express our thankfulness to the above mentioned journals for their support of industrial unionism.”

Motion seconded.

THE CHAIRMAN: You have heard the reading of this resolution. What is your pleasure?

DEL. POWERS: Question on the gavel.

THE CHAIRMAN: Is my request in regard to the ownership of the gavel granted?

DEL. SHURTLEFF: I would like to state that that gavel is the property of the International Machinists’ Union. It has been carried by me all over the country from the West to the East. Personally I am willing for the Chairman to keep it. I don’t think there will be any question about it, and really I would rather see him keep it than any other man.

THE CHAIRMAN: I thank you very much, Delegate Shurtleff. I will put this with the chart and the chairman’s badge, in one group. What is the pleasure of the convention in regard to this resolution?

DEL. COATES: I have no objection to the resolution at all, except I know of a number of other papers, that I cannot call by name just now, which have done valiant service for this Manifesto and for this organization since the issuance of the Manifesto. A number of them are small papers out in the community or in the part of the United States in which I live, and I think, Mr. Chairman, if we are going to do this, if we are going to offer thanks to somebody that in my opinion simply did their duty, let us include them all. Let us not only name four or five that are the most prominent and exclude a number of others that are entitled to the same thanks, but let us include them all. I am in favor of that motion.

DEL. DE LEON: I move, to amend that resolution by adding the words: “and all other papers that have upheld the cause of industrial unionism.” If any one can name them, let them be placed in that resolution, so as to include them all. (Amendment seconded.)

THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment is that the names of all other papers that are known be added to this list? Is that it?

DEL. DE LEON: The amendment is to add “and all other papers that have stood for the cause of industrial unionism.”

THE CHAIRMAN: “And all other papers that have stood by the cause of industrial unionism.”

DEL. FITZGERALD: If I am not out of order I would like the Voice of Labor inserted in there.

DEL. GILBERT: I think this is all out of order. The Crisis was the first paper to champion this cause, and I prefer not to put in any names. As the delegate here said, we only did our duty, and therefore what do we want a vote of thanks for? Therefore I move as a substitute that the whole thing be laid on the table. (Seconded.)

DEL. DE LEON: Is he to be allowed to make a speech on a motion to lay on the table?

DEL. T. J. HAGERTY: I object to the substitute, on the ground that there are very few labor papers in this country that have endorsed the Manifesto. By looking at the labor exchanges we can find out the names of the other labor papers or journals that have endorsed this working class movement, and it seems to me right and proper here that we should express some recognition of the fact; that these papers and whatever other papers may be known be recognized as supporting our cause. If there are other papers, it ought to be no great matter to find out their names. Every man here who has been in the labor exchanges since the issuing of that Manifesto can find that out. As soon as the other papers outside of the Voice of Labor are known, I think they can very easily be specified, and not make any error in the names. There are a number of papers that have supported the movement, but I personally do not know any others outside of that, and I have been in the labor exchanges since the issuance of the Manifesto. I would like to know the names of those that support this Manifesto and have them added to that resolution.

The motion on the substitute to lay on the table was lost. The amendment of Delegate De Leon was then carried, and the resolution was adopted.

DEL. J. C. SULLIVAN: Mr. Chairman, unfortunately the Assistant Secretary of this convention incurred some loss, partially, I suppose, owing to the fact that she was acting as Secretary of this convention; that is, she lost some effects, and the matter was presented to this convention yesterday. Whether or not the loss has been recovered or replaced I am unable to say, but I believe that the work that she has done and the attention that she has given to the duties of Assistant Secretary of this convention are worthy of consideration and a just and fair recompense. I move you at this time that the Executive Board be instructed to pay out of the first money available in the treasury of the Industrial Workers of the World a just, fair and equitable compensation for the services rendered to this convention by the Assistant Secretary, Mrs. Langdon. (Seconded.)

The motion was put and carried, and the Chairman directed the Executive Board to take notice accordingly.

Chairman Haywood retired and President Sherman resumed the Chair.

There being no further business to come before the convention, the President at 1.20 P. M. declared the first convention of the Industrial Workers of the World adjourned sine die.

~~~~~~~~~~

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/…

The Inter Ocean
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Jul 9, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/…

IMAGES
William E Trautmann
https://books.google.com/…
Cripple Creek Deportations June 1904
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/…
Mother Mary Harris Jones, Miners Angel
http://www.biography.com/…
Charles Moyer, President of Western Federation of Miners
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/…
Daniel De Leon
http://spartacus-educational.com/…
Big Bill Haywood, 1904
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/…
IWW Founding Convention Stenographic Report
https://www.marxists.org/…
Pyramid of Capitalist System
https://en.wikipedia.org/…

See also:CONVENTION-Industrial Workers of the World
ELEVENTH DAY-Saturday, July 8
MORNING SESSION
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/…

The 1905 Proceedings of the
Founding Convention of the
Industrial Workers of the World
Friday June 27 through Saturday July 8th, 1905
https://www.marxists.org/…

Luke Grant reports to Samuel Gompers
http://www.gompers.umd.edu/…
Grant’s Report on Final Day
http://www.gompers.umd.edu/…

In 1905 Luke Grant, the labor editor of the Chicago Inter Ocean, attended the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. A member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters, which was an AFL affiliate at the time, Grant kept Gompers informed of the convention’s progress.

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One Big Industrial Union – May Day Chorus of Asheville

PAINT ‘ER RED!

Come with us you workingmen and join the rebel band
Come you discontented ones and lend a helping hand
We march against the parasite to drive him from the land
With One Big Industrial Union

Chorus:
Hurrah! hurrah! we’re gonna paint ‘er red!
Hurrah! hurrah! The way is clear ahead!
We’re gaining shop democracy and liberty and bread
With One Big Industrial Union.

In factory and field and mine we gather in our might
We’re on the job and know the way to win our hardest fight
For the beacon that shall guide us out of darkness into light
Is One Big Industrial Union.

Come on you fellows, get in line, we’ll fill the boss with fears
Red’s the colour of our flag, it’s stained with blood and tears,
We’ll flout it in his ugly mug and raise our loudest cheers
For One Big Industrial Union.

“Slaves”, they call us, “working plugs”, inferior by birth
But when we hit their pocketbooks, we’ll spoil their smiles of mirth
We’ll stop their dirty dividends and drive them from the earth
With One Big Industrial Union.

We hate their rotten system more than any mortals do
Our aim is not to patch it up but build it all anew
And what we’ll have for government when finally we’re through
Is One Big Industrial Union.
-Ralph Chaplin/Elmer Rumbaugh

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