A writer in the _Evening Post_ (New York) thinks that but for this official ousting of Haywood by the W. F. M., the I. W. W. might never have survived the trouble, dissension and "hard times" of 1908. "It is doubtful," he says, "if either faction of the Industrial Workers of the World [Detroit or Chicago] would have survived but for a change in the attitude of the Western Miners' Federation ... which left Haywood free to devote all his energies to the Industrial Workers of the World."[413] If we can credit the evidence presented at the 1912 convention of the W. F. M., the I. W. W. had at least sufficient vitality to be plotting, through its officials, to regain control of the Western Federation. In the published proceedings of its twentieth convention is printed a letter, dated August 4, 1908, from Vincent St. John to Albert Ryan, a member of the Western Federation. This letter reads in part: I believe we could turn in now and lay the wires to defeat the machine at the next W. F. M. convention, and it can be done in this way: by picking out good reliable men with ability, and getting them to place themselves in local unions of the Federation for the purpose of getting to be delegates to the next convention. To do this they should cultivate the sentiment of the membership in the local to which they go. If the local is a Moyer local, let them be Moyer men. Let them outdo the best of them in worship at his shrine. If the local is indifferent, let them be likewise, but let them be elected as delegates.... Once we can control the officers of the W. F. M. for the I. W. W. the big bulk of the membership will go with them, and the prestige of the W. F. M.... is worth something to the revolutionary movement, and we should make an attempt to get it with us, ... take up the matter with Bechtel and Oppman and have them work with you to control Arizona for the next convention. Pick out a man or two for every local in the state, let them get into them and do the work.... I will try to handle Michigan and Minnesota from here. If you are shy [of] men, or have any to spare, we can trade with the different districts....[414] President Moyer said that this letter was found among Ryan's effects "after he had received a sentence of life imprisonment in San Quentin penitentiary for having applied direct action in Los Angeles, which resulted in the death of two men."[415] These or similar charges had evidently been made at about the time this letter was supposed to have been written. St. John, in his report to the fourth I. W. W. Convention as General Organizer, denied certain "insinuations of a serious nature" which had been made against him.[416]