I. W. W. in Adelaide

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 7, 1 August 1913, Page 4

I. W. W. in Adelaide

‘‘More Pernicious than Mormons”

The I.W.W. has been active in the sand-swept capital of' South Australia, and the “ dope” dealt out has touched to the quick a local penny-a-liner who, evidently indignant at the seditious speeches of the I.W. ’s, hastened to contribute a column and a-quarter to the Mail by way of warning against the propaganda which, says the sapient penman, ‘ ‘ is more pernicious than that of the Mormons.” Something was said from the soap-box to the effect that Georgie, the monarch who wears a beard to tone down the imposing strength of his chin, not being the most useful member of society, wasn’t eligible for the I.W.W. Feeling the foundations of the Empire rock at this awful utterance the press hero promptly took it down and made a note of the exact time, too, for he says: 4 ‘ The statement was made at 9.25 p.m. ’ ’ Further down we are let into this secret: ‘ 1 I have wasted my substance in purchasing their literature . . • and as an intelligent man of the world I can come to no other verdict but one: that we are now tolerating amongst us, whether by neglect or deliberately I know not, a dangerous coterie of firebrands who may, or may not, set the community ablaze with uncontrolled and unregulated passion arising from their incendiary and inflammatory statements. Their arguments would be amusing if they were not absolutely foolish. . . .

“ Their ‘ literature’ is, first, The Industrial Unionist . . the. motto of this organ is as follows: ‘To use the organs of existing society to transform the same society, means to collaborate to defend and guarantee it, to wit, do a work openly anti-revolutionary’ . . . plainly, the object of the sheet is anything but ‘ anti-revolutionary,’ because, inter alia , it publishes the ‘ I.W.W. Preamble’ (then follows quotation from the Preamble). It seems a tolerably large order that the I.W.W. propose to execute. ‘ Take possession of the earth and all that therein is,’ and the spokesman for the I.W.W. of South Australia — which, by the way, they said numbered 75 members —were quite confident'that it could be done. The modus operandi is to be . . . to abolish the present-day

system of craft (or trade) unionism, and to have one mighty, all-the-world-round Industrial Union of ‘ Proletarians. ’ Their programme is to be: ‘ Get all the wages you can; do as little as you can; work the shortest hours you can.’ Once again to quote the I.W.W. preamble as presented in cold type, ‘ Instead of the conservative motto of a fair day’s work we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, abolition of the wages system.’ ”

Much more philosophy follows, plentifully besprinkled with quotations from the ‘ ‘ I.U. ’ ’ and from I.W.W. pamphlets. Towards the end the knight of the pen, in relating how he was moved on for loitering and the I.W.W. wasn’t, makes a serious admission about, himself: “ They are distinctly dangerous, while I am harmless” (!) He winds up with the startling statement that “ they should be stopped,,and stopped quickly.” We cannot stop wondering whether the warning, that the community may be set ablaze by men with absolutely foolish arguments, is a compliment to the community or the I.W.W 7 ". —O.L.