Hellraisers Journal: Salina, Kansas, Braces for Invasion of IWW’s Agricultural Workers Organization

SABOTAGE
The Conscious Withdrawal of
The Workers’ Industrial Efficiency
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

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Tuesday June 20, 1916
Salina Evening Journal of Kansas on I. W. W. “Invasion”

IWW AWO, Day Book, Sept 24, 1915

From the Salina Evening Journal of June 19, 1916:

The Journal is mighty unhappy that newly organized harvest workers refuse to be content with low wages, long hours, poor food, and lousy bunks. Warning of an “invasion,” the Journal deplores the organizing of these harvest workers by the I. W. W.’s Agricultural Workers Organization and abhors the idea that workers who are on the receiving end of low wages and rotten living conditions might choose to work in a less than efficient manner.

One small man did the talking. From every quarter of the globe his hearers had come and as he expounded the doctrines of syndicalism how it was striving to keep them ground down, the play of hope and determination on their faces was evident. It was a queer place for the presentation of industrial freedom and its means of accomplishment, that dark little corner in the jungles of Salina. But the speaker had the attention of his hearers as if he had been speaking from the areopagus of old.

The I. W. W. in Salina is at work with every newcomer. No matter if it is from a class in college or the dregs of humanity, he is given an opportunity to hear the arguments, well put arguments, too, of these delegates. Every member of the Industrial Workers of the World is an organizer. As Billy Sunday tells his converts to bring another unsaved man to the sawdust trail, so the organization tells its members to land another member to bring about industrial independence.

“The masters” and “slaves” were common words used by the speaker the other night. As he appealed to their weakness in the face of capitalistic power, he grew bitter. Revolt against government extermination of the slaves and the realization of the phantasmagoria that those who work shall receive a share of the profits, were urged by the man who pictured the Utopian landscape.

[Said a man from New York:]

That is right…We are ground down. We have no chance.

[Said another:]

We haven’t any rights under this government…Why should the employers make their big profits when our wages are not increased: It is wrong.

These and similar grumbles followed the address of the delegate. The seed had been sown. The society for the propagation of discontent had gained new members.

These members are loyal. They claim to have the true democracy and the salvation of labor.

[Called another extempore orator:]

Ah, what are you fellows going to do about it?…The cost of living has increased sixty per cent in the past fourteen years. What about your wages? Have they increased? Are you getting more money now than you used to? Do you get a share of the profits? No. You are slaves for the masters. They will keep you down as long as they can. What chance have you? None in the world. As long as you are content to remain slaves, you will be slaves.

Why don’t you hit at your employer’s heart-his pocketbook. He doesn’t think anything of you. You are just a machine to make him more money and enable him to ride in his limousine. Join us, the army that will free you from this slavery.

In that motley crowd gathered from every corner of the world more than one voice accepted the call to the army. Bewhiskered faces were thrust forward, unkempt figures waved their arms, and tattered hats nodded in assent.

The hundred and more I. W. W. men in the Salina camp are loafing. They are awaiting for the harvest season but they say they do not have to work. They demand a wage of four dollars per day, good food, good sleeping quarters and other things they might think of. So far they have not acted ugly. For you must understand, force is far from their plan. A delegate seraphically smiled when asked about stone throwing and machinery jimming which had been attributed to I W. W. men.

[He said:]

That was not done by I. W. W. workers…We don’t do those things. But we practice sabotage.

There you have the magic word. When a green I. W. W. asks how he is to strike off the manacles of serfdom which capital has put about his wrists, a delegate will hurl “sabotage” at him. Nine times out of ten he doesn’t know whether that is a new rifle or poison to be administered in the masters’ cream puffs, but he is for it. The workers pronounce the word so affectionately that the green member falls in love with it immediately. According to the nomenclature of the order “sabotage” is loafing on the job. If you think your pay isn’t sufficient do as little work as possible. And you have never yet seen an Industrial Worker who thought his pay was sufficient. By this sabotage they hope to bring the employer to time and get a divvy on the profits.

The other night the new members learned of “sabotage.” They took to it immensely. They agreed that they could cut down on their efficiency without any trouble if the pay was not what they deemed satisfactory. That would be the easiest thing in the world.

[Said a speaker:]

If there was a war…I wouldn’t care a rap what became of the United States. I wouldn’t fight and I don’t care whether it is ruled by a Jap or a German just so the workers have their rights. We will use force if we can and we want to do away with money as the medium of exchange. We intend to control and we will.

There you have in a small way the declaration of independence of this organization which will send 10,000 men to Kansas this year to harvest the wheat. They will harvest the wheat if they get their demands. If they do not, why sabotage is the word. Sabotage like charity may cover a multitude of evils.

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EXPECT NO TROUBLE
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I. W. W. Delegates Says They Will Use Sabotage.

Harry Gray, delegate for the Industrial Workers of the World, said in regard to the trouble with the police Saturday and the working condition in the Kansas harvest field this year[:]

The chief of police here is a fair man and I will say the same for the sheriff of this county. In regard to the working of the Kansas wheat fields this year. If the farmers comply with our demands we will make money for them this year. Otherwise we will try to make it unprofitable for them to harvest their crops with cheaper labor. The Industrial Workers of the World have done the biggest part of last year’s harvest in this state. They are men who understand the harvest fields, and we expect to do the biggest part of the harvest this year as well as furnish the majority of the harvest hands in this state.

Sabotage is inefficiency applied in an efficient way. Sabotage does not mean dynamite, bombs or infernal machines. It means applying inefficiency in an efficient way. We can’t stop men from going out for less than we have demanded but there will not be enough of them to harvest the crop. I think that the farmers of Kansas would gain more if they would not fight the harvesters but would stop the gamblers who gamble with their crops in Wall street.

J. A. Sullivan and Harry Gray desire it to be known that they were not members of a committee that visited the county jail last week.

[Photographs added.]