I think it is positively comical [he said] to see men who stand convicted before this convention of having trampled on the principles of this constitution ... who have refused the referendum, men who suspended locals because they did not submit to the men who lined up with those elements; I think it is positively comical to have such elements come before this convention and bow down to the referendum and salaam and kowtow to the rank and file, or start off screeching like howling dervishes--"referendum"![266] The convention had to face the important fact that a very large proportion of the human raw-material for I. W. W. propaganda were foreigners, new to America and speaking alien tongues. From the very first a very liberal policy in regard to the foreign element had been adopted by the Industrial Workers of the World. Certainly they could not consistently adopt a narrow policy here and draw the color line it they intended really to become an all-inclusive democratic organization. It will be remembered that protest against discrimination against the negro by craft unions was voiced by William D. Haywood at the very opening of the first convention.[267] At the second convention this liberal attitude was maintained in regard to all foreign elements. Moreover, in the work of organizing the immigrants it was proposed to go still further and take the aggressive. This convention [said Secretary Trautmann] should instruct the incoming Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the World to immediately find the necessary agencies in Europe, so that immigrants to this country, before leaving, will be already furnished with all the information necessary, and be enlightened as to the real conditions in the United States, and an appeal should be made to them to immediately join the existing organizations of the Industrial Workers of the World immediately after they accept employment in any industry. The literature of the Industrial Workers of the World should be distributed in different languages in the various emigration ports in Europe, and central bureaus be established by the Industrial Workers of the World in American harbors, and be opened to the immigrants, and information should be furnished them [as to] how they could ... participate in the struggles of organized labor....[268]