Page:Sandgren (1919) The IWW needs an Industrial Encyclopedia.pdf/3

THE ONE BIG UNION MONTHLY 9th. Giving relationship to other industrial unions.

10th. Giving advice as to how to go about spreading this handbook to all the workers in the industry and building up the organization, suggesting committees and by-laws needed.

11th. The preamble and constitution of the I. W. W. and address of the Industrial Union office.

12th. A stirring appeal to the workers to wake up to a realization of the responsibility resting on them to take over their line of production to save them. selves and their fellowmen from social destruction by doing their share in building up a society of industrial communism.

The above are only extemporaneous suggestions, calculated to give a general idea of the outline of each handbook. For many industries perhaps a somewhat different plan would have to be adopted. A handbook of this kind would perhaps cover from 100 to 200 pages and sell at 25-50 cents. The writer is absolutely confident that the workers of every industry would fight for the possession of such a handbook, because it gives a picture of himself and his relations to his fellowmen, his hopes and possibilities in life. It would raise him from a hypnotized, isolated, hopeless drudge without a rational aim in life to a consciousness of world citizenship, self respect and social responsibility.

There would be as many such handbooks needed as there are producers, that is in this country about forty millions of them.

Is the I. W. W. able to tackle such a tremendous undertaking? The writer maintains that it is. Several of its industrial unions now have funds on hand to undertake it. The sale of the handbook would quickly bring the money back and make it possible to issue new editions until every worker has a copy.

The thing to do is to immediately engage a man of learning, or several, a capable writer, who can study and handle statistics and who has a good general insight into American industrial life. He must of course, be in sympathy with our aims. There are scores of such men available, men who would find the happiness of their lives in just such work. And we are able to pay them and support them while they are doing it for us. Anyhow, it will mean only a temporary outlay, as the money expended will rapidly come back. At our first opportunity we should establish a special "Bureau of industrial research” for this purpose under the supervision of the right kind of man.

As soon as possible we should extend this work beyond the basic industries and cover every field of human activity, thus bringing the gospel of industrial organization and the new society to every worker in the land.

The writer, therefore, makes the suggestion that everyone of our industrial unions, at its next convention, take up the matter of issuing such a handbook for their industry and that they pledge the general office financial support for the issuing of such handbooks for one industry after another.

Thus we are guarding against the imminent danger of a social calamity of terrible proportions and making this country “safe for Industrial Communism and Industrial Democracy.”