Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT [Illustration: Logo] THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO . DALLAS ATLANTA . SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT BY ROBERT HUNTER AUTHOR OF "POVERTY," "SOCIALISTS AT WORK," ETC. New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA COPYRIGHT, 1914 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1914. FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY NEW YORK CITY THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR TO EUGENE V. DEBS "ONE WHO NEVER TURNED HIS BACK BUT MARCHED BREAST FORWARD, NEVER DOUBTED CLOUDS WOULD BREAK," AND D. DOUGLAS WILSON WHO, THOUGH PARALYZED AND BLIND, HAS SO LONG AND FAITHFULLY BLAZED THE TRAIL FOR LABOR PREFACE This volume is the result of some studies that I felt impelled to make when, about three years ago, certain sections of the labor movement in the United States were discussing vehemently political action _versus_ direct action. A number of causes combined to produce a serious and critical controversy. The Industrial Workers of the World were carrying on a lively agitation that later culminated in a series of spectacular strikes. With ideas and methods that were not only in opposition to those of the trade unions, but also to those of the socialist party, the new organization sought to displace the older organizations by what it called the "one Big Union." There were many in the older organizations who firmly believed in industrial unionism, and the dissensions which arose were not so much over that question as over the antagonistic character of the new movement and its advocacy here of the violent methods employed by the revolutionary section of the French unions. The most forceful and active spokesman of these methods was Mr. William D. Haywood, and, largely as a result of his agitation, _la greve generale_ and _le sabotage_ became the subjects of the hour in labor and socialist circles. In 1911 Mr. Haywood and Mr. Frank Bohn published a booklet, entitled _Industrial Socialism_, in which they urged that the worker should "use any weapon which will win his fight."[A] They declared that, as "the present laws of property are made by and for the capitalists, the workers should not hesitate to break them."[B]