the argument.

The I. W. W. was not primarily an anti-war organization In theory it
had abandoned political activity to devote itself exclusively to
agitation and organization on the field of industry. Practically its
funds and its energies were expended upon industrial struggles. Long
before the war, the I. W. W. had made itself known and feared for its
conduct of strikes, its free speech fights, and its ability to put the
sore spots of American industrial life on the front page of the daily
press and to keep them there until the people had become aroused to
the wrongs that were being perpetrated. It was in this domain of
industry that the I. W. W. was functioning, and it was among the
business interests that the determination had been reached to rid the
country of the organization at all costs.

Had the chief offense of the I. W. W. consisted in its expressed
opposition to the war, it would not have been singled out for attack.
Many of the peace societies that flourished prior to 1917 were more
outspoken and more consistent in their opposition to war than were the
leaders of the I. W. W. None of these societies, however, had acquired
reputation for championing the cause of industrial under dogs, and for
demanding a complete change in the form of American economic life.
Consequently, in the prosecution, in the sentences, in the
commutations and in the pardons, the anti-war pacifists were treated
very leniently, while the revolutionary I. W. W. members were singled
out for the most ferocious legal and extra-legal attack.

Technically, Ralph Chaplin and his comrades had conspired to obstruct
the war. Actually, they had lined themselves up solidly against the
present economic order, of which the World War was only one phase.