At the rate the organization is now growing
we shall soon have doubled our membership in this city
and the territory tributary to Spokane.
-J. H. Walsh
IWW National Organizer
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 6, 1908
Spokane, Washington – J. H. Walsh Has Returned from Chicago
From The Western News of December 2, 1908:
LABOR NEWS.
—–
SPOKANE, Nov. 24.-Spokane is to be made the headquarters for over 5,000 members of the Industrial Workers of the World employed in the lumber industry in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Northern California.
During the last year the number of sawmill workers and men employed in logging camps who have become members of the Industrial Workers, has attained large proportions, 3,000 members being located in Montana alone.
The Industrial Workers have now decided to form a department for men engaged in the lumber industry in these five states and in British Columbia, placing all local organizations in various towns and cities under the jurisdiction of the head officers of the department, who, it is stated, will have their offices in this city.
Organizer J. H. Walsh, of the Industrial Workers of the World, has returned from Chicago where he has been in conference with prominent members of his organization.
[Declares Mr. Walsh:]
Since the fourth annual convention of the I. W. W. at Chicago during the latter part of September, the organization has become thoroughly united and unaffected by factional differences.
The Western Federation of Miners is now practically co-operating with us. We have gained remarkable strength in the Coeur d’Alene country and in Montana we have control of the lumber situation and our organizers are meeting with phenomenal success in the formation of strong new unions. We are well organized in the Flathead country and after a few small tussels with employers have gained control of considerable work.
At the rate the organization is now growing we shall soon have doubled our membership in this city and the territory tributary to Spokane.
Mr. Walsh anticipates that he will shortly be ordered to Montana to assist in the organization work now in progress in that state.
—–
[Emblem of I. W. W. added.]
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SOURCE
The Western News
(Hamilton, Montana)
-Dec 2, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/343153106/
IMAGE
IWW Emblem, IUB p1, Oct 24, 1908
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iub/v2n26-oct-24-1908-iub.pdf
See also:
Tag: J. H. Walsh
https://weneverforget.org/tag/j-h-walsh/
Note: We now find Spokane, Washington, becoming a major point of IWW organizing for migratory lumber workers. However, this statement by Walsh was wildly optimistic: “The Western Federation of Miners is now practically co-operating with us.” In fact, The WFM had officially unaffiliated with the IWW before the IWW Convention of September 1908.
See:
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 4, 1908
Denver, Colorado – W. F. of M. Makes Break Official
-scroll down to WFM Convention of July 1908, Ninth Day July 22nd-Resolution No. 67 adopted.
Western Federation of Miners Drops Industrial Workers of the World; Constitution Amended
And see further:
The IWW in the Lumber Industry
-by James Rowan
Lumber Workers Industrial Union #500
IWW, Seattle, 1920
https://www.iww.org/history/library/Rowan/lumberindustry
Chapter 4 – The Early Struggle for Camp & Sawmill Democracy
https://www.iww.org/history/library/Rowan/lumberindustry/4
In 1907, 1908 and 1909 there were many strikes in Western Montana, but these were only partially successful. In some camps in the neighborhood of Missoula the nine hour day was gained. Much of the output of this section was used to timber the mines of Butte. During the strike of 1908, an appeal was made to the miners of Butte to refuse to handle the timbers cut by scabs. This appeal was turned down by the corrupt clique then in control of the union [W. F. of M.] and that broke the back of the strike.
In order to break up the lumber workers’ union [IWW], and also to save the faces of the miners from the reputation of using scab timbers, the lumber and copper companies made a deal with the A. F. of L., by which the latter was to invade the territory, and form a new “union” among the lumber workers. With the help of the companies the A. F. of L. lined up foremen, scabs, stools and company spotters. Many men joined this so-called union to hold their jobs. This “union” was completely controlled by the companies, and was looked upon as a joke among the workers. However it was partially successful in breaking up the then existing union which was considerably weakened by the hard struggles it had come through.
In 1907 two thousand sawmill workers struck in Portland, Oregon, tying up the lumber industry of that city. A minority were organized in the IWW and these were the leading spirits. The strike lasted about three weeks and was broken by the scabbing of the A. F. of L., which at that time was maintaining a lumber workers’ organization.
There were still many members of the IWW in the woods of the Northwest but they were scattered here and there, and were unable to make their influence felt to any great extent. However they carried on a constant agitation among their fellow workers on the job, and slowly but surely the idea of the One Big Union began to take hold in the minds of the workers in the sawmills and the camps. Lumber workers’ locals were maintained in the principal cities of the Northwest. These locals were a temporary proposition until a sufficient number of workers could be organized to form an Industrial Union…
For Brissenden’s Analysis IWW History, 1908:
The IWW
A Study of American Syndicalism
-by Paul Frederick Brissenden, Ph.D.
2nd Edition, NY, 1920
https://books.google.com/books?id=5CRAAAAAYAAJ
Page 213-Chapter IX: Doctrinaire Versus Direct-Actionist (1908)
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=5CRAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA213
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