It has been stated that experience with, and the deposition of, President Sherman resulted in the abolition of the office of General President. No doubt the Sherman controversy was the principal predisposing cause, but it is very probable that there would have been some agitation for the abolition of that office even if there had not been a single charge against Sherman as President. A good many were a little shy of the name "President"--it savored of the present political state! Others thought it involved too great concentration of power in the hands of one individual. These latter were the sponsors of the "rank and file" and the forerunners of those who later figured as "decentralizers" in the controversy concerning centralization in the Industrial Workers of the World.[282] "The people who direct the Industrial Workers of the World," said Delegate Reid, "are the rank and file.... In a multitude of counsellors there is wisdom, and wisdom is not in the brain of one man to direct this institution."[283] Furthermore, as DeLeon pointed out, "the President is mainly, essentially and exclusively an organizer, a general organizer with a high-sounding title and wages and expenses to match...."[284] The committee appointed to report on the advisability of retaining the office of President reported that it came to its negative conclusion "on the assumption that there was not a man in this convention strong enough or capable enough to assume the office of President."[285] The efforts of the industrial abolitionists did not end with the attempt to abolish the departments and the universal label, and the successful abolition of the office of General President. Many less important matters were put under the ban. It was decreed that "all rituals, signs, grips and passwords, borrowed from pure and simpledom, be abolished," and that the use of all terms of salutation of the more orthodox sort, such as "brother" and "comrade" be abolished and the term "fellow-worker" be used on all occasions.[286] Of more material consequence to those concerned was the reduction made in the salaries of the national officers. The salaries of the General Secretary-Treasurer (now the national head of the organization), and Assistant General Secretary-Treasurer were reduced from one hundred and twenty-five dollars per month, to one hundred dollars.[287] The committee making the recommendation felt that former salary was a sum of absurdly bourgeois magnitude!