Page:Eleven Blind Leaders (1910?).pdf/6

INTRODUCTION process of emasculation is the inevitable revolt of proletarian elements inside this so-called political movement. Such revolts, however, are doomed to failure, so long as the actual basis for a revolutionary political movement is wanting, namely: class organization on the industrial field. The duty of the hour, then, for all revolutionists, is the upbuilding of the economic organization.

While it may be contended that the particular "reforms" or "steps toward socialism," dealt with in the following pages, are little likely at any time to absorb the whole attention of the working class, there is one phase of the subject which, like "Banquo's ghost," will not down. That is the question of leadership. The Industrial Union, however, points the way to its solution, also. Instead of the craft union "labor leader" with his autocratic powers and his constituency of indifferent or blind followers, or the "platform intellectual" with his crowd of "half baked" hero worshipers, the Industrial Union requires in its leading men administrative abilities only. That is to say, it demands at the head of the economic organization, men who have been and are living the life of the working class; who "embody the tendency of the movement"; who respect the constitution and are amenable to the discipline of the organization, and who possess the ability to administer its affairs in accordance with its purposes. This conception of leadership, in conjunction with the structural form of the economic organization itself, foreshadows the industrial democracy of future society—a society in which the individual will find his "freedom in labor" by serving to the extent of his capacity the interests of the collectivity.

To stimulate inquiry along these lines, rather than to attempt to "settle" the questions at issue, this work is released for publication at this time.

B. H. W.

New Castle, Pa., January 23, 1910.