War of the Classes | Page 9

struggle cannot very well be denied by
the optimistic Americans who say: "A class struggle is monstrous. Sir,
there is no class struggle." The class struggle is here, and the optimistic
American had better gird himself for the fray and put a stop to it, rather
than sit idly declaiming that what ought not to be is not, and never will
be.
But the socialists, fanatics and dreamers though they may well be,
betray a foresight and insight, and a genius for organization, which put
to shame the class with which they are openly at war. Failing of rapid
success in waging a sheer political propaganda, and finding that they
were alienating the most intelligent and most easily organized portion
of the voters, the socialists lessoned from the experience and turned
their energies upon the trade-union movement. To win the trade unions
was well-nigh to win the war, and recent events show that they have
done far more winning in this direction than have the capitalists.
Instead of antagonizing the unions, which had been their previous
policy, the socialists proceeded to conciliate the unions. "Let every
good socialist join the union of his trade," the edict went forth. "Bore
from within and capture the trade-union movement." And this policy,
only several years old, has reaped fruits far beyond their fondest
expectations. Today the great labor unions are honeycombed with
socialists, "boring from within," as they picturesquely term their
undermining labor. At work and at play, at business meeting and
council, their insidious propaganda goes on. At the shoulder of the
trade-unionist is the socialist, sympathizing with him, aiding him with
head and hand, suggesting--perpetually suggesting--the necessity for
political action. As the JOURNAL, of Lansing, Michigan, a republican
paper, has remarked: "The socialists in the labor unions are tireless
workers. They are sincere, energetic, and self-sacrificing. . . . They
stick to the union and work all the while, thus making a showing which,
reckoned by ordinary standards, is out of all proportion to their
numbers. Their cause is growing among union laborers, and their long
fight, intended to turn the Federation into a political organization, is
likely to win."
They miss no opportunity of driving home the necessity for political
action, the necessity for capturing the political machinery of society
whereby they may master society. As an instance of this is the avidity

with which the American socialists seized upon the famous Taft-Vale
Decision in England, which was to the effect that an unincorporated
union could be sued and its treasury rifled by process of law.
Throughout the United States, the socialists pointed the moral in
similar fashion to the way it was pointed by the Social-Democratic
Herald, which advised the trade-unionists, in view of the decision, to
stop trying to fight capital with money, which they lacked, and to begin
fighting with the ballot, which was their strongest weapon.
Night and day, tireless and unrelenting, they labor at their self- imposed
task of undermining society. Mr. M. G. Cunniff, who lately made an
intimate study of trade-unionism, says: "All through the unions
socialism filters. Almost every other man is a socialist, preaching that
unionism is but a makeshift." "Malthus be damned," they told him, "for
the good time was coming when every man should be able to rear his
family in comfort." In one union, with two thousand members, Mr.
Cunniff found every man a socialist, and from his experiences Mr.
Cunniff was forced to confess, "I lived in a world that showed our
industrial life a-tremble from beneath with a never-ceasing ferment."
The socialists have already captured the Western Federation of Miners,
the Western Hotel and Restaurant Employees' Union, and the
Patternmakers' National Association. The Western Federation of
Miners, at a recent convention, declared: "The strike has failed to
secure to the working classes their liberty; we therefore call upon the
workers to strike as one man for their liberties at the ballot box. . . . We
put ourselves on record as committed to the programme of independent
political action. . . . We indorse the platform of the socialist party, and
accept it as the declaration of principles of our organization. We call
upon our members as individuals to commence immediately the
organization of the socialist movement in their respective towns and
states, and to cooperate in every way for the furtherance of the
principles of socialism and of the socialist party. In states where the
socialist party has not perfected its organization, we advise that every
assistance be given by our members to that end. . . . We therefore call
for organizers, capable and well-versed in the whole programme of the
labor movement, to be sent into each state to preach the necessity of
organization on the political as well as on the economic field."