For a variety of reasons the I.W.W. historically was most successful in organizing agricultural workers. Here is a good example of that organizing from the fruit-growing Wenatchee Valley in central Washington State from 1916.

‘Big I.W.W. Drive in the Wenatchee Valley’ from Industrial Worker. (New) Vol. 1 No. 30. November 24, 1916.

This Fall the Wenatchee Valley has been the scene of strenuous I.W.W. activity. The apple-picking has been taken hold of by a large number of members who have carried on a well-planned and successful organizing campaign. In the towns of Wenatchee and Cash- mere, and on the job at the fruit ranches, the delegates and active members have made industrial organization and working-class revolt the supreme topic of conversation.

Large numbers of workers have been lined up in the organization, through the unceasing efforts of the members, job-delegates and stationary men. Fellow Worker Roy A. Brown, Stationary Delegate in Wenatchee is the center of the movement. He is kept constantly busy supplying literature and supplies to the job delegates. Delegates Miclin and Beck have kept Cashmere on the map.

Hard for Drug Business.

Many strikes have been pulled off and wages have been increased substantially in many places by the action of the men on the job. There is one particularly humorous instance of this at a large ranch in Appleby, a spot twenty-three miles from the city of Wenatchee. On this ranch about thirty men are at work and they are all lined up in the I.W.W. The owner of the ranch runs a drugstore in Wenatchee. When the boys felt they were strong enough on the job they began to get busy. Four strikes were pulled off in one week! The first strike won an advance of wages from $2 to $2.25, the second won $2.50, the third gained a Saturday night wages settlement and the fourth was for job control, and got it! The unfortunate boss had to make the 23 miles trip to his ranch and back for each strike and the drug business was going on the bum. At the fourth strike he implored the men to run the ranch for themselves and save him any further trouble. This the workers consented to do and the job is now a solid “Wobbly” one. When new men are needed the boys select a member to go to town and hire red-card men! And the boss stands for it, not because he likes it, but because their solidarity compels it!

Quite a few longshoremen from Seattle and Tacoma, members of the I.L.A. on strike, have come for the apple-picking and have lined up in the organization. When they return to the docks to work they will be an additional influence in the lining-up of the dockworkers into the M.T.W. of the I.W.W. A few bright high-school boys, working in the orchards, have also joined and insist in reading our papers aloud and singing from the little red song-book in the family circle in the evenings, much to their parents’ disgust.

Fellow Worker Charles Ashleigh was in the valley Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 28th and 29th. He spoke in Cashmere, Saturday night and in Wenatchee, Sunday afternoon.

These meetings were for the purpose of educating the workers in the principles of Industrial Unionism and collecting funds for the prisoners of the Mesaba strike. This is the first speaking that has taken place for the I.W.W. here within our knowledge. The success of the two meetings made the membership wish they had had meetings earlier in the season, as the apple picking is now nearly over.

Successful Meetings.

In Cashmere a hall was secured and a good crowd filled it. The meetings were well advertised in the valley by handbills. The Cash- mere meeting created a good impression among the slaves and Ashleigh’s explanations of the I.W.W.’s principles and methods met with hearty, approbation. Fellow Worker Ashleigh also related the history of the Mesaba strike and of the Steel Trust’s frame-up upon our fellow workers. About sixteen dollars’ worth of literature was sold and a good collection was taken up for the defense.

In Wenatchee the Commercial Club fixed it so that it was impossible to secure a hall. Therefore the City Park was the scene of the meeting. The members gave notice to the authorities that the meeting was going to be held and that if would be best for everyone if it passed off peaceably. Thereupon, the mayor very graciously gave permission for the affair, plaintively appealing to the boys not to talk at the meeting too much about local conditions in the orchards. There were too many of our men working in the surrounding orchards for the city to dare make any trouble, so the boys took the “permission” for what it was worth. There were some rumblings among the members of the Commercial Club, but the ranchers did not want to make the acquaintance with the cat, therefore all was peace.

The weather was rather bad for the Wenatchee meeting, so the attendance of local citizens was not so great as expected. Fellow Worker Ashleigh spoke from the municipal bandstand to an enthusiastic crowd. He traced the development of labor organization and showed the futility of sectional unionism. He also showed how the despised foreigners and the semi-skilled and unskilled workers were far outstripping the “aristocrats of labor” in the efficiency and revolutionary vigor of their organization. A stirring appeal for the defense of the prisoners in Minnesota was made resulting in a very satisfactory collection. Quite a quantity of literature was also sold in the park, the slaves seeming anxious to get wise to the I.W.W. proposition. Some of the local intellectual and fashionable lights were present, in the shape of some dapper young gentleman in very high collars and cheaply smart would-be English-cut clothes They began to make audible comments until requested by one of our members,about six foot two inches high and stout in proportion, to desist; whereupon the remarks suddenly ceased. The mayor, judge and chief of police together with some lesser minions of the law came up in a machine, but, seeing that the gutters were not yet running with blood and that there were no explosions, except oratorical ones, they left us in peace. The reporter of the local paper was present and Fellow Worker Ashleigh, talking of the press boycott of the Mesaba strike, publicly challenged the local paper to give a half-way fair account of the meeting. Needless to say, this was not forthcoming. This helps to make the slaves realize to what an extent the daily press is in the control of the bosses.

Altogether, the season’s campaign in the valley has been very successful. Members have been made, literature disposed of, and many thousands of dollars have been diverted from the bosses’ pockets into those of the workers in the form of increased wages. The two meetings have been a fitting wind-up to one of the most fruitful campaigns of propaganda and organization the I.W.W. has conducted.

Next Fall this valley must be put under complete job control. This can be done if the members stick fast to the organization and continue in the work of educating themselves and the slaves on the outside. The I.W.W has driven the thin end of the organization wedge into the Valley of Apples. Next year several thousand strong shoulders will drive it in complete.

The Industrial Union Bulletin, and the Industrial Worker were newspapers published by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) from 1907 until 1913. First printed in Joliet, Illinois, IUB incorporated The Voice of Labor, the newspaper of the American Labor Union which had joined the IWW, and another IWW affiliate, International Metal Worker.The Trautmann-DeLeon faction issued its weekly from March 1907. Soon after, De Leon would be expelled and Trautmann would continue IUB until March 1909. It was edited by A. S. Edwards. 1909, production moved to Spokane, Washington and became The Industrial Worker, “the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism.”

PDF of full issue: http://iw.applefritter.com/Industrial%20Worker/1916/1916%2011%204%20IW.pdf