A “Reverend” Fabricator

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 7, 1 August 1913, Page 3

A “Reverend” Fabricator

Auckland Pai son's Indiscretion

An Auckland sky-pilot—one Howard Elliott —has been philosophising on labour matters, and, incidentally, displaying his ignorance of international labour history—or his proclivity for lying. Speaking to a Star reporter on the recent Unity Congress the parson, with profuse use of the usual abusive stock adjectives, said:—

y The spirit and proposed methods of the Red Federationists . . . are practically identical with the methods of the Industrial Workers of the World, an organisation which has in its record such crimes as the blowing up of the newspaper buildings in Los Angeles, the wrecking of bridges and numerous murders carried out in pursuance of its policy.” We have little comment to offer on the first part of the statement, re the Federation, except to express a wish that it were wholly true; it is the second part, which we have italicised, that we are concerned with, because it is quite false and was evidently uttered and printed with the object of discrediting the I.W.W. and all advanced labour unionists.

Assuming that Elliott might have been incorrectly reported, the Auckland secretary wrote a letter to him to clear up that point, and received the following reply: Alfred Holdsworth, Esq., Secretary I.W.W. Local No. 1.

Dear Sir, —I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 22nd inst. I am correctly reported in the Star of the 21st inst. The statement made therein is true in substance and in fact. The Bridge Workers of U/S.A., which society was responsible for, and were identified with, by the courts of the U.S.A., the outrages which resulted in the destruction of the newspaper building in Los Angeles and in the loss of life thereby, which is in every sense of the word murder, was identified with the I.W.W. and a constituent part of that organisation. And, moreover, the outrages committed were never disavowed by that organisation, but when an appeal for funds was made, was supported by the constituents of the organisation. I therefore cannot either retract or apologise for the statements made. Believe me, Yours truly, (Signed) Howard Elliott. The facts of the case are as follows: — After a long imprisonment and trial the McNamara Bros, confessed to having dynamited the Los Angeles Times building. They were members of the I.A. of Bridge and Structural Ironworkers, a craft union affiliated with the American Federation of Labour, a conservative organisation. The I.A. of B. and S.I. were never in the 1.W.W.; they were a constituent part of the A.F. of L., the leaders of which always bitterly fight the. I.W.W. The McNamara Brothers were Roman Catholics; they were not revolutionary unionists. ■

As to the bridge wrecking: Thirty-eight men were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment for illegal transportation of dynamite. Most of them were members of the Bridge and Structural Ironworkers’ Union, of the American Federation of Labour. The I.W.W. had nothing whatever to do with the affair.

If the “ reverend” Elliott will take the trouble to look up back numbers of the Star, the N.Z. Herald or the American Review of Reviews he will find our statements correct. But perhaps the parson has no need to go to the trouble; perhaps he, in common with so many of the cloth, draws freely on his imagination when dealing with labour matters which he does not understand.

As to the Auckland Star —which, by the way, professes to be “ friendly” to labour —the editor must have known that he was permitting a lying statement, to appear in his columns. At any rate the non-appearance of letters, written by local working men to the Star in denial of the mis-statements, indicates the quality of the Star’s fairness. These lines: For the wrong that needs assistance For the good that needs resistance For the (Bosses’) future in the distance

And the items we can “ edit” might very well appear as a motto indicating the Star’s policy in place of the one which heads its columns at present. The Church and the Press are ever the upholders of privilege and of vested interests. The officers of both—with a fewhonourable exceptions—prostitute their intellects and degrade themselves lower than any working man dynamiter w-ho, driven to desperation by the merciless greed of a trust, does at any rate risk life or long imprisonment in doing that which he, perhaps mistakenly, judges to be in the interests of his fellow-w-orkers, while jesuitical parsons and capitalist editors send out their poisoned shafts from a coward’s castle. The 1.W.W., in America as elsewhere, has repeatedly pointed out that craft unionism is out of date, impotent and totally unfitted to meet modern combinations of capital; that its inevitable outcome is violence and ill-considered acts of desperation on the part of exasperated militants. It proposes a remedy—lndustrial Unionism plus up-to-date tactics. Let it be understood that this is no apologetic ” We didn’t do it” cry; it is a rebuttal of the mis-statements of an interfering parson. If a similar case to that of the McNamaras occurred here we should unhesitatingly help to raise funds for the defence, for even the laAv holds that a man is innocent until proved guilty, for the daily press is ever ready to magnify the crimes of working men who fight for their class and to minimise and keep in the background the murderous methods of Capitalism’s hirelings. * * # The above recalls the case of the dynamite plot of the textile employEßS of Lawrence, U.S.A., who, during an industrial struggle, planted dynamite under their own mills with the intention of having it “discovered” and having a dynamiting charge sheeted home, upon faked and paid-for evidence, so as to discredit the 1.W.W., who were conducting the strike. The plot fell through and the dynamiters were exposed, with the result that one of the mill owners committed suicide, and another, a wealthy scoundrel named Wood, stood his trial. An undertaker (1) named Breen was employed to do the “ job.” A socialist writer summed up the class nature of the law as follows: —“ The McNamara Brothers, working nen, planted dynamite and drew a life term for it. John L. Breen, a respectable undertaker, planted dynamite and drew a fine of SSOO. ’ ’

CHALLENGE TO DEBATE. Three members of Auckland I.W.W. have offered to debate with Howard Elliott, in public, the following question: “ Are all the statements about the 1.W.W., uttered by the Rev. Howard Elliott and printed in the Auckland Star of July 21st, true ?” Elliott to affirm. [The three members do not all want to Uieet the parson at once; he may make his choice. It is up to him to come to light or change the initial letter of his name from “ II” to “ C.”—Ed.]

Abuse is not argument, but some subjects won’t stand argument, The U.L.P. is rotten. Send for some I.W.W, literature, W Pass this paper on; get subscribers. x * Political action is not only slow ; it leads nowhere save into the swamp of barrenness, disappointment, and futility. It is wmrse than slow; it is rotten. It is a most encouraging sign that the young generation is beginning to lose patience with it— Ex.