Page:William Ernst Trautmann - Industrial Unionism (1908).djvu/7

All the capitalist newspapers throughout the world were commenting on the apparent new features of the strike; the papers in the United States, with few exceptions, reminding editorially the good, law-abiding workers that such horrible things could not happen in America, where employers and employes argue and arbitrate, and enter into contracts during the life of which peaceful relations prevail! "France was at the brink of the revolution"—was the outcry, when the Paris Syndicalists (Industrial Unionists) gained every point that such spontaneous action had been invoked for; worse yet, when three days later the subway employes demanded redress for their long-standing grievances, these other workers who had been given everything they wanted prepared to walk out again to aid their fellow workers! That was, of course, revolution on a small scale. There was no contract to give the companies and the municipalities notice when the workers would be ready to submit demand for consideration; unaware of the fact that the Syndicalists in these plants had organized the power to back up their demands, the employers listened cunningly to the expressions of "wants and wishes" and promised consideration until they found that economic might was something they had to reckon with.

The engineers could not be pitted against the firemen, and neither be played against the other