Patea & Waverley Press WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1st, 1922 NO MASTER, NO COUNTRY, NO GOD.

Patea Mail, Volume XLV, 1 November 1922, Page 2

Patea & Waverley Press WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER Ist, 1922 NO MASTER, NO COUNTRY, NO GOD.

In the year 1905 there was born in Chicago an institution known as “The Industrial Workers of the World” which to-day has branches in almost every country. The preamble of its constitution contains the following interesting and significant statements:— 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 organise as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production and abolish the wage system. Instead of the conservative motto “A fail* day's work for a fair day’s wage,” we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary motto “Abolition of the wage system.” It is the historic mission of the working cJass to do away with Capitalism. By organising industrially ive are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.” It will be noticed that the starting point of the I.W.W. reasoning is Hie doctrine of class warfare. li is accepted as a fact that tne wage earner and his employer must each have a hatred for the other and be ready to fly at one another’s throats a totally wrong premise, for the vast majority of sane workers live and work peacefully with .their employers for whom in most cases they have a sincere regard which in turn is reciprocated by the employers themselves- That the wnole organisation is revolutionary from top to botom is plain by the utterances of its leaders from time to time. Fof example one shining light, Grover H. Perry by name, in a pamphlet published by the I.W.W. Publishing Bureau in Chicago says ; “We are going to do away with capitalism by taking possession of the land and of the machinery of production. We don’t intend to buy them either.” In other words when the long looked for revolution is brought about the mem-

bers of the agricultural workers’ union will seize the farms, the miners will take possession of the mines, the raiiwaymen of the railways* and the other workers of the respective industries in which they are engaged, turning out the present owners without ceremony and without compensation. Thus is “Capitalism to be destroyed and the wage system abolished.” Mr Grover H. Perry is also very clear w r ith regard to the overthrowing of the present form of Government which be it noted, represents all classes, being of the people, by the people and for the people, as Abraham Lincoln so aptly put it. Mr PeiTy says ‘ ‘ The Industrial Workers of the World are laying the foundation of a new Government. This Government will have for its legislative halls the mills, the workshops and the factories. Its legislators will be the men in the mills, the workshops and the factories. Its legislation enactments will be those pertaining to the welfare of the workers.” In other words the I.W.W. propose to abolish the present form of Government and set up in its place a government of a class, by a class, for a class, instead of a government of the people, by the people for the people. Of the revolutionary acts that have already been carried out and of the sacriligeous propoganda issued by the I-W.W. pax*ty much could be written. The doctrine preached can perhaps best be summed up in the words “No master, no country, no God.” In view of this doctrine and the end towards which it is leading it ■would be as well if the Labour leaders in this country would tell the electors definitely where they stand, with regard to the I.W.W. party. The electors have the right to know this and should be given the information without any beating about the bush.