The third group was frankly anarchistic
and revolutionary. In the fourth annual convention the Socialist
factions withdrew, established headquarters at Detroit, organized
what is called the Detroit branch, and left the Chicago field to
the revolutionists. So socialism "pure and simple," and what
amounts to anarchism "pure and simple," fell out, after they had
both agreed to disdain trade unionism "pure and simple."
This shift proved the great opportunity for Haywood and his
disciples. Feeling himself now free of all political
encumbrances, he gathered around him a small group of
enthusiastic leaders, some of whom had a gift of diabolical
intrigue, and with indomitable perseverance and zeal he set
himself to seeking out the neglected, unskilled, and casual
laborer. Within a few years he so dominated the movement that, in
the public mind, the I.W.W. is associated with the Chicago branch
and the Detroit faction is well-nigh forgotten.
As a preliminary to a survey of some of the battles that made the
I.W.W. a symbol of terror in many communities it will be well to
glance for a moment at the underlying doctrines of the
organization. In a preamble now notorious it declared that "the
working class and the employing class have nothing in common.
There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among
millions of working people, and the few who make up the employing
class have all the good things of life. Between these two classes
a struggle must go on until the workers of the world as a class
take possession of the earth and the machinery of production and
abolish the wage system.
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