Page:Sandgren (1919) The IWW needs an Industrial Encyclopedia.pdf/1

The IWW needs an Industrial Encyclopedia By John Sandgren We are constantly reiterating to the workers: “Organize into Industrial Unions by means of which you will not only be able to unite on a common battlefront in every industry, but also to take over the industry, using your Industrial Union as the new organ of production.”

This is the “One Big Union Idea.” which is now sweeping over the world. Hundreds of thousands are joining the One Big Union in the various countries as a token of their unqualified endorsement of this general principle, but we are not satisfied. We are not progressing in the direction of our goal with the speed that is necessary in order that we may be able to take over production and the whole responsibility for the smooth running of human society  when capitalism collapses.

This collapse of capitalism appears to be so imminent, so close upon our heels, that the whole structure may be expected to tumble down over our heads most any moment. The gigantic strikes taking place in every country, one after the other, signify a state of affairs that is very disquieting to anyone with a spark of a sense of social responsibility.

It is simply dreadful to contemplate what would happen if these strikes for some unforeseen reason should break out into a general social conflagration which would stop all the wheels of industry, or nearly all, and throw the world's hundreds of millions of humans into almost inextricable disorder, with no guiding principle for reconstruction and restoration of order and system, without which human society cannot exist.

“But,” you will say, “have we not got the One Big Union of Producers as our guiding principle; is not that enough ?”