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CARLETON H. PARKER
From the collection of the
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WITH INTRODUCTION BY
NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE
1920
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC,
TO
THORSTEIN VEBLEN
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 3
III. THE I. W. W 91
APPENDIX
Foreword 169
field.
In New
York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
his soul exulted in chance after chance for telling
A
lawyer wrote: "I have not yet written and
told you what I think of your Atlantic article. It
period.
"Here am
running up against a
in Seattle I
quency. ..."
And quote from the letter of a strange
lastly I
Professor: "... I think you have put one
over in your article on the I. W. W. in the current
lowing way :
To fear.
To hoard, to gain and hold property.
collect, to
To migrate, to be mobile.
To feel revulsion at confinement (cause of prison
psychosis) .
sons.
So we ascribe a high degree of normality to
these methods of satisfying. In contrast to these
in reality rare if desirable ways, are countless ways
of gratification which are compromises between a
fair approximation of this norm and a gratification
so pitiful or so psychically costly or nauseatingly
pression.
One of the great discoveries of Freud was that
in early childhood all the psychical equipment is
present and pressing for gratification, and that the
UNDERSTANDING LABOR UNREST 43
tasy habit and that with her gone, life was an ir-
ciency.
So the problem of industrial labor is one with
the problem of the discontented business man,
the indifferent student, the unhappy wife, the
immoral minister, it is one of mal-adjustment
thinking.
II
picking.
The pickers in August, 1913, were drawn from
three sources. About a third came from Cali-
NORTHWESTERN PACIFIC
In a camp called the "Tunnel Camp," during
the five months from January to May, 1914, 529
men worked 7414 days, an average of 14 days per
man. Following are the statistics in detail:
Jan. 133 men worked 2169 days, average 16.3 days per man.
" " " "
" " "
Feb. 107 1554 14.5
"
Mar. 138 1471 10.6
"
Apr. 90 1153 12.8
"
May 61 1067 17.5
June 68 men worked 825 days, average 12.1 days per man.
9.3
13.3
15.2
9.3
9.7
7.6
THE I. W. W.
ganization.
It would be best here to announce a more or
lessdogmatic hypothesis to which the writer will
steadfastly adhere and which is: human behavior
is the rather simple, arithmetic combination of
the inherited nature of man and the environment
in which his maturing years fall. Man will be-
THE I. W. W. 95
that for them there was only one war, and that
'
the class war between the "master class' and the
"slaves/' It was, they argued, purely incidental
whether a German or an American ruled the po-
litical machinery. It made even less difference
when you went west for a job, and had never lo-
cated them since if your job had never kept you
;
gratory laborers.
To revert for a moment to the economic view
point. The I. W. W. movement with complete
accuracy can be described as the extension of the
American labor strike into the zone of casual, mi-
gratory labor. All the superficial features, such as
its syndicalistic philosophy, its sabotage, threats
of burning and destruction, are the natural and
normal accompaniments of an organized labor dis-
turbance in this The American strike in
field.
indignation.
THE I. W. W. 113
II
decency."
It is reasonable to argue that working class
to humanitarianism.
3. Instinct of curiosity: manipulation: work-
cide.
his castle.
animal.
Since every instinct inherited by man from his
feriority obsessions.
The balked laborer here follows one of the two
described lines of conduct: First, he either weak-
MOTIVES IN ECONOMIC LIFE 163
C. S. P.
A REPORT
EXCELLENCY:
The occurrence known as the Wheatland Hop
Fields' Riot took place on Sunday afternoon, August
3rd, 1913. Growing discontent among the hop pickers
over wages, neglected camp sanitation and absence of
water in the fields, had resulted in spasmodic meet-
ings of protest on Saturday and Sunday morning, and
finally by Sunday noon in a more or less involuntary
strike. At five o'clock on Sunday about one thousand
pickers gathered about a dance pavilion to listen to
speakers. Two automobiles carrying a sheriff's posse
drove up to this meeting and officialsarmed with guns
and revolvers attempted to disperse the crowd and to
arrest upon a John Doe warrant Richard Ford, the
davits, is 1005.
The general average of the total number of aliens
or foreigners in the camp, as taken from 18 affi-
davits, is 1438. It may be noted that during the
course of the trial a hop inspector testified that in his
gang of 235 he counted 27 different nationalities. One
witness testified that he heard speakers using seven
different languages at the meeting on Sunday.
Wage Conditions
Garbage
Water
1 The few
following extracts from affidavits and statements
go further to emphasize the hardships caused by the lack of
drinking water in the fields than any amount of description:
"I carried water to the field in a demijohn and it would
only last about 3 hours and it took an hour to go to camp
for more water."
"We had to carry our own water. A demijohn only lasted
about half a day and we had to walk from a mile to a mile
and a half to refill it. There were a great many children in
the field who cried for water and it was very pitiful to see them
suffer for want of it. Many times I gave my water away to
little children."
"My own boy had to go back nearly two miles to camp
every day at noon and get drinking water and this got hot as
hell and took time from work."
186 APPENDIX
the testimony of the druggist's clerk with whom J
D traded, to have been made largely from citric
acid. . . .
1 The
following is a sample collection of extracts from
the almost pitiful affidavits on this point:
"Water was brought out on the lunch wagon to the field,
but it was free only to those who bought lunches. No other
water was given away."
"J D sold ice cream cones and lemonade in the
fields and was supposed to give the pickers water for this
privilege. He always had a barrel of water with him on
the wagon and one day we asked him for the water: 'If I give
water away, I will not be albe to sell lemonade or soda.' "
"There was no drinking water furnished to pickers, but there
was a man selling lemonade and ice cream cones. This man
was supposed to furnish drinking water, but refused to give
any away free. He told two boys he would let them have
water at five cents per quart. I purchased a pint of lemonade
Saturday afternoon and I and my children were almost per-
ishing for a drink of water. The lemonade contained a great
deal of citric acid and almost cut the insides out of us."
THE HOP FIELDS' REPORT 187
Store
Sickness
1
Following are extracts from affidavits in regard to sick-
ness in the camp:
"I had malarial fever. So did some other women I know."
"I know of one family that all had typhoid."
"I had malarial fever, which lasted until I came to San
188 APPENDIX
in and reported the existence in their families of
typhoid, which originated beyond reasonable doubt
at the D ranch. In one case, it is alleged that
four out of a party of five had typhoid. It is a matter
of common knowledge that there are at present in
every labor camp in California active typhoid carriers
and the careless conditions at this camp afforded an
excellent opportunity for spreading the disease.
The Employer
R D the manager and part-owner of the
,
The I. W. W.
fun we have."
Taking into consideration the misery and physical
Problem
The Remedy
methods adopted
It is obvious that the violent strike
by the I. W. W.
type agitators, which only incident-
ally, although effectively, tend to improve camp con-
ditions, are not to be accepted as a solution of the
problem. It is also obvious that the conviction of
the agitators, such as Ford and Suhr, for murder is
not a soluton, but is only the punishment or revenge
inflicted by organized society for a past deed. The
Remedy lies in prevention.
The laws of the state already provide for the regu-
lation of the sanitation of labor camps, and the Com-
mission of Immigration and Housing has made definite
preparations for the enforcement of these laws. The
inspectors of this Commission are already at work in
the and when the camps are opened up at the
field,
Respectfully submitted,
CAKLETON H. PARKER.
Executive Secretary for the
State Immigration and
Housing Commission of Cal-
ifornia.