The Iron Puddler: My Life in the Rolling Mills and What Came of It
John Stuart Mill · en
Now I know why the cranks from everywhere swarm into any region where a
strike is on. They are seeking audiences. They have no love for humanity
except that portion of humanity which is forced to be an audience for
their itching tongues. I have known rich Jawbone Janes to travel half
across the continent to harangue a poor bunch of striking hunyaks. These
daughters of luxury wanted one luxury that money could not buy. The
luxury of chinning their drivel to an audience. You can't buy audiences
as you buy orchids and furs. Accidents make audiences. When a horse
falls down and a crowd gathers, he'll be up again and the crowd gone
before a girl from Riverside Drive can come a hundred miles in a
Pullman. But when the job falls down, the strike crowd sticks together
for days. This gives the crack-brained lady opportunity to catch the
Transcontinental limited and get there in time to pound their ears
with her oratory. She prefers a foreign crowd that can not understand
English; they are slower to balk on her. Not understanding what she
says, it fails to irritate them greatly. I know of one radical rich girl
who boasts she has spread the glad tidings to audiences of thousands
representing every foreign language in America. She still hopes some
time to catch an audience that understands her own language. That would
be a little better fun, she thinks; but still the joy of talking is the
main thing, so it matters little whether their audience understands. She
wants her audiences to be alive, that's all; she doesn't care much what
they're alive with.
When the worker comes to understand that these “leaders” from high
society care nothing for him but only want a prominence for themselves
and have no natural talents with which to earn that prominence, then
the worker will get rid of that tribe forever. Bill Haywood lacked the
qualities that made Sam Gompers a labor leader. Bill decided to be a
leader without qualifying for it, and history tells the rest.
I circulated among the audiences that were listening to other candidates
and waited for the men to express their opinions. I heard one stalwart
old fellow declare he was going to vote for Jazz. “Jazz is the fellow we
want for City Clerk,” I heard him tell his comrades. I had never heard
of Jazz in those days: Jazz was decidedly a dark horse. But the man was
strong for him and wanted his friends to vote the same way.
There is a trick that was often used in small-town elections. When the
“reform element” made a fight on the “old gang” it was customary for the
gang to lie down and place the name of the new man on the ticket. The
reformer thought the gang beaten and that his own election was sure, so
he didn't make a hard campaign. But the gang quietly passed around word
to scratch the name of the reformer and to write in the name of a gang
candidate in the secrecy of the polling booth.