141. UNDEMOCRATIC CHARACTER OF THE I. W. W.--The I. W. W. oppose our
present democracy. They oppose our Constitution and its fundamental
guarantees of personal liberty, individual rights, and private
property. They seek revolution, not in order to secure justice for the
masses, but in order to place the laboring class in complete power in
industry and government. They announce their intention of continuing
the class struggle "until the working class is able to take possession
and control of the machinery, premises, and materials of production
right from the capitalists' hands, and to use that control to
distribute the product of industry _entirely_ among the workers."

142. LIMITED APPEAL OF THE I. W. W. PROGRAM.--It is a testimonial to
the common sense of American workmen that the I. W. W. have made
little headway. Until the Lawrence strike in 1912, the movement
centered in the Far West, and it is even now practically confined to
those parts of the West where industry is less well organized, and
where family life is less stable. Miners, lumbermen, and railway
construction workers are prominent in the movement. In general, the I.
W. W. theory appeals chiefly to the lower strata of unskilled labor,
to young and homeless workers, to transients, and to unassimilated
immigrants. The better trained and the more intelligent American
workmen reject the program of the I. W. W. These latter workmen
believe in bettering their condition through the gradual development
and enforcement of industrial standards, made possible by lawful
coöperation with the employer. The truth of this statement is borne
out by the fact that whereas the I. W. W. number scarcely 30,000, the
American Federation of Labor has more than 4,000,000 members.
Numerically the I. W. W. are unimportant, and it is chiefly their
violent and spectacular tactics which attract attention.