existing only in the fears of a wealthy class to invest money under a reform administration. They may be malicious, in so far as money is deliberately withheld in an effort to discredit the present administration. Some sociologists have said that the whole army of the unemployed owes its idleness to the lure of the big city. The continual drift of men from the country down to the big cities. to enjoy fancied wealth and pleasure has drained the country districts of their labor force and has clogged the avenues open to the laboring population of the cities. Scientific reform of the situation in the State of New York was initiated on this theory and efforts were made to induce the overflow working class to abandon the cities and to go to up-state farms. The plan might have been more successful had the I. W. W. not commanded its members to refuse the offer of work in the country.

But whatever be the cause or series of causes responsible for it, there is no denying the pitiable fact that idleness was more prevalent throughout the country during the past winter than it ever was before. Statisticians, basing their figures in many cases on an actual census of the unemployed, said that at one time there were about 350,000 men out of work in New York alone. Chicago had 46,000, Philadelphia had 125,000, San Francisco had 10,000 idle men, and one more excited orator maintained that there were more than 2,000,000 unemployed throughout the whole country. But one in touch with the working classes or observant of city life needs no statistics to convince him that this problem is very seriGus. There is scarcely a tenement in New York City from whose open windows there do not gaze a half-dozen or more healthy, able-bodied men, willing to work but unable to find employment. Even many of the larger factories are

running on a diminished schedule. The park benches are jammed with men who eagerly scan the "Help Wanted" columns of abandoned newspapers in search of something to do. Never before have there been seen along the city streets such hordes of men who should work and who would work were employment open to them. Many of these are highly specialized mechanics who are helpless when their line of work is closed to them. Unwilling to change the complexion of their lives by changing their trades, they idly tramp the streets in the hope that better times are coming soon. The buoyant hope of many of them is futile, because the steadily advancing perfection of machinery has closed many branches of specialized labor forever. But this is not a study of the causes of unemployment; it is merely a statement of the facts. It is not causes in which the I. W. W. is primarily interested. They recognize the facts, and without much serious consideration of the underlying forces propose a remedy. Of course this kind of procedure is unscientific; in the case of the I. W. W. it is unlawful and unfair. But it cannot be denied that it carries a strong appeal to the army of the unemployed. Why? Because the man willing to work and unable to obtain it is in a more desperate situation than the unskilled workman with steady employment who is fighting in the face of great odds for a better condition of life. The latter has at least the ordimary necessaries of life, while the idle man faces starvation. He feels that his willingness to do a share of a great city's work should prompt a great city to hire him. If he be a married man, trying to hold a starving, almost naked family above the whirlpool of existence, his condition is tense. If he has very little "sand," he quits and just drifts. If he is in earnest and fired with an ambition to rise above his misfortune, he con

tinues "to hunt for a job." Every rebuff makes him more desperate; every day of idleness weakens his hope in the present system: every weak wail of his hungry children makes him less respectful of law, order and religion. His religion, if he has any, may save him again by recharging his weakening hopes and soothing his sense of justice. But without religion he becomes an apt subject for any creed; he becomes a willing listener to schemes of the most violent action against life, property, government and Church. This accounts for the successful appeal made by the I. W. W. to the unemployed.

But not all the unemployed are willing to work. A vast percentage of them is unwilling to accept work of any kind. They are simply a city edition of the old-fashioned hobo whom we used to see clustered around a freight-yard or around the water-tanks along a railroad track. This gang attaches itself to the I. W. W. because it foresees just enough excitement to make life interesting, and scents enough free coffee. and sandwiches to make the adventure worth while. Any serious consideration that has been given to the 1. W. W. inovement by reason of the fact that there are a few honest but misled members in its ranks should be rescinded when mention is made of this "tramp" element. They are simply idle adventurers who have thrust themselves into a problem that is serious enough without their presence. Like scavengers, they trail in the wake of the I. W. W. direct actionists, shielding their ingrained cowardice under the cloak of numbers and hoping that something will turn up by which they can acquire an easy meal or a free drink. The presence of this element in the I. W. W. cannot be denied. The events of last winter are too fresh in the minds of all. While the I. W. W. agitators were leading their benighted followers

to raid the churches in the hope of obtaining lodging therein, the city of New York, held in the throes of a blizzard, was appealing for thousands of men to shovel snow. This class of I. W. W. ridiculed the idea of accepting such work, just as they refused to accept the thousand or more beds in the municipal lodging-houses. It was more exciting, more lawless, and placed them more conspicuously before the public to continue their sacrilegious invasion of God's temples. This is a most striking illustration of the insincerity in the whole.

movement.

There is a certain membership of the 1. W. W. that is but one step removed from this hobo grade. They are the independent unfortunates who are willing to work only if they get work which they consider commensurate with their dignity. In that good old philosophy that has done so much good for the country, an idle man refusing to accept employment of any kind was a disgrace to the community. It was laudable for him to aim as high as he could, but to refuse to break his long idleness by accepting even temporarily demeaning labor was an unpardonable sin. The test of a man's sincerity was his willing ness to accept any kind of employment when his own special field was closed to him. Not so with the members of the I. W. W. They have inverted, or rathe have destroyed, this common sense. practical view of things. Theirs is a plan that admits of no temporizing and no compromise. They teach the workman that he is the natural ruler of society and, consequently, the absolute arbiter of his own destiny. His special mission in life is not to work out an honest existence under another, but to rule and control everything at once. Hence, anything that looks like a concession to capitalism is to be eschewed, and an employer who offers a man a position less than that of general man

ager is an enemy not to be pardoned. This is no exaggeration. A dozen incidents could be adduced to substantiate it. Take, for example, that occasion iast spring when a commission acting under the guidance of the Governor of New York endeavored to bring some of these idle men up the State to do farm work. The I. W. W.'s answer to himself ought to get out and hoe the the proposition was that the Governor gardens, that the men would stay where they were, and, if necessary, get better positions by force. This procedure is thoroughly consistent with I. W. W. logic, but it is a scheme destructive of all sincere efforts to produce a permanent solution of the great unemployment problem. So much for the rank and file of the I. W. W.

What can be said about the leaders of the movement? Of course, a prison record, the label of murderer or arsonist, does not disqualify one from leadership. The policy of direct action makes the commission of these crimes a laudable ambition. As a matter of fact, the moving spirits in this modern anarchy have stood in the shadow of the gallows for heinous crimes. It is here that lawlessness becomes a virtue and the criminal becomes a hero. The leadership has not been confined to the male element of the organization. On the contrary, many women have been more successful as agitators than men. And naturally so. They excite sympathy, they advertise the movement and even by their arrest they attract a certain maudlin pity to the cause from a class that does not know how to condenin the woman who condemns herself. "Becky" Edelson and "Sweet Marie" Ganz, through sheer brazenness and the indulgence of an imprudent press, have brought the organization before the public where many men have failed. Becky and her theatrically-faked hunger strike have been an asset to the movement.

The general public knows the leaders. of the I. W. W. imperfectly. As orators they would not merit serious consideration except for their enthusiasm. Strikingly illogical, they have an ability to stir up the prejudices of a mob which is really remarkable. Of course, the ground on which they work is well prepared. It is not difficult to convince a starving man that he is hungry. The social environment of an I. W. W. gathering makes it specially responsive to inflammatory oratory. And the agitators are quick to take advantage of the situation. They are tireless workers; they seize eagerly every event while it is fresh in the minds of the people and turn it to their own advantage. With remarkable sophistry they can prove that every adverse situation, from the Colorado miners' war or the platoon of police down to the heavy winter's snow is a deliberate blow struck at the poor man. In this way they destroy any lingering respect for our Government, any inborn fear of authority or any natural reverence for the ministers or churches of God. With all the barriers of restraint broken down, the agitator has the advantage. It takes but a few suggestions and his own example to lead a mob of this sort anywhere. The power of suggestion and a sheep-like force of imitation will complete the work. On this theory one can understand, but one cannot condone, the scene presented by Frank Tannenbaum leading his motley mob into St. Alphonsus' Catholic Church, New York, where they committed the most repulsive improprieties until a wise pastor called in the police.

Frank Tannenbaum is but a representative of one element of I. W. W. leadership. He is on the firing-line inflaming the masses! Joseph Ettor performed the same service during the riots connected with the Paterson strike. But there are other leaders behind the line of action preparing the ammunition and

exercising national supervision over the movement. William Haywood, whom the public knows well as a revolutionary of the wildest sort, is one of these lead

ers.

Certain radicals like Upton Sinclair, of ill repute but with a scientific reputation, attach themselves to the movement periodically. Often they withdraw when their wild philosophy results in an unforeseen outbreak outbreak against life and property. The terrible bomb explosion on July 4 which wrecked a New York tenement and destroyed a half-dozen lives offers unique illustration of this. Callon and his friends, so the presumption goes, incited by the vicious harangues of the agitaters against Rockefeller, were preparing a bomb to be exploded on the Tarrytown property of the oil king. The bomb exploded prematurely, killing the makers and injuring scores of others. A significant feature of the consequent ruin was the damage done to a church. adjoining the tenement where the bomb exploded. It suggests the lack of influence which religion has with them; the church is merely an accident which they must tolerate for the present. Some of the I. W. W. leaders disclaimed responsibility for the bombmaking and the use of dynamite at any time. Society, however, holds them responsible for having caused the damage by working on the wild passions of their ignorant followers. Other leaders like Alex. Berkman were more loyal and logical; they called a general parade, a public meeting, to eulogize the self-slain murderers and to justify the obliteration of the present order, even with dynanite if necessary.

Yes, the I. W. W. has its literature. and its code of ethics. It is here we glean a more serious statement of the organization's aims. Notice that when saying that these statements are more serious, we do not mean that they are less radical. Eliminating those features

which the movement shares with Socialism, and which have already been mentioned, the I. W. W. stands for the following mode of procedure:

Their solitary standard of right and wrong is based on what the organization can do. "As a revolutionary organization, the Industrial Workers of the World aim to use any and all tactics that will get the results sought with the least expenditure of time and energy.

* * *

The question of right and wrong does not concern us." These are the words of the I. W. W. writer, Vincent St. John. According to them, the present state of society is a crime and everything is right that tends to destroy it, while everything is wrong that helps to continue it. So says Giovannitti, the I. W. W. bard. Under this principle they advocate sabotage, the ruining of an employer's machinery and the destruction of his raw materials or finished product. Under this principle, also, they advocate the destruction of the employer's life, if necessary. "Force"! That is their creed. "Direct action"! That is their slogan.

This is the new religion cf dynamite. as viewed by the ordinary citizen, by the capitalist, by the rank and file of the I. W. W. and by its leaders. The religion of God, preserved by the Catholic Church, put its trust in God's justice, placed its hope in the judgments of a future life and advocated patient tolerance of present burdens in view of a greater supernatural reward. The trust of the I. W. W. is in themselves, because they mock God, ridicule Christ and persecute the Church. The hope of the I. W. W. is dynamite, because dynamite blasts the shortest cut through present obstacles. In a word, the restraints of religion have been abandoned by the Industrial Workers of the World for the use of dynamite, a new hope that spells robbery, destruction, anarchy and murder.

A

BOUT a year and a half ago— to be more exact, on a December afternoon, of 1912a number of representative Catholics gathered at the residence of Cardinal Farley in New York City to discuss the stage. At that time there was in New York a lamentable tendency on the part of stage managers to produce plays which represented "phases of life" best left unrevealed, at least to the sensitive imaginations of the younger generation. Under the pretense of teaching "great moral lessons" unscrupulous managers presented to the public dramas dealing with subjects suitable for the dissecting room or the laboratory only. Literally speaking, an entire crop of improper plays had found its way to the billboards and "success." When the box-office receipts began to jump, swelled by the patronage of the dilettante and the seeker after sensation, as well as by a justified but ill-timed denunciation, it was even claimed-and somewhat generally believed—that popular taste demanded the immoral play, since such productions played to crowded houses.

This sort of play, dealing with the deplorable, the depressing and the harrowing, was followed closely by the "problem play" in which the most sacred obligations of life were portrayed as debatable. The argument to support them was that we must take up these matters, know all about them, and be allowed entire liberty to discuss them -that, in short, we must be "broadminded," however shallow-minded that might really mean! Education of the public was the ostensible object, but the defenders of the new theory did not seem to realize the fundamental error of

the doctrine that knowledge of evil must be extended.

To appreciate the seriousness of the situation it must be remembered that New York is the centre of the theatrical world. From the big producing firms of Broadway come the plays which tour the country. The current of the stage two years ago was being poisoned at its very source. People were growing accustomed to improper stage productions and indifferent as to their influence on public morality.

Such a situation in the theatrical world could not but cause alarm to every thoughtful man and woman, especially to those who realized the enormous influence which the stage has exercised during recent years upon the general public. In a certain sense its influence is stronger than that of the pulpit, not only because of its convincing realism, but because of the steadily increasing number of playhouse throughout the country. The daily press, to its credit be it said, reviewed popular amusements with a sincerity that exposed the degeneracy of the stage. Not one of the great New York papers failed to denounce in vigorous terms the placing of lewd dramas before the public. There was even a gratifying tendency to multiply good plays, and to appreciate them, but as society on the whole failed to make any effective protest, those that were bad grew more aggressively wanton.

All serious-minded persons realized that steps must be taken to check the growth of the evil and to avert its deplorable consequences. Prompt and concerted action was an imperative necessity. Priests and ministers alike denounced the shameless degradation of