The mass produced, color sticker was an invention the I.W.W. made full use of. These ‘silent agitators’ were plastered along rail lines, by soup kitchens, in logging camps, skid rows, mines, restaurants, and mills from one end of the country to the other. As the U.S. increased its standing army and imperial footprint with invasions of Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico in the early 1900s, the I.W.W. began an anti-militarist campaign inspired by the French sabots.

‘Stickers Are Raising Hell’ by S.G. from the Industrial Worker. Vol. 3 No. 6. May 4, 1911.

ANTI-MILITARY STICKER AROUSES BUTCHERS.

Army Officers Declare California Hotbed of Anarchists—Jack London Accused of Trying to Prevent Men From Joining Army—Workers Getting Wise.

San Francisco, Cal., April 15. —The military authorities of California are aroused by the vigorous campaign against militarism that is now going on in California. It is reported that some unknown persons in every city in the state are posting small stickers urging men not to join the army or navy. The government officials are troubled because this campaign has been continued unceasingly for many months and is having a visible effect upon the young men of the state, who are steadily growing less “patriotic” and actually look down upon the army as hired thugs of the capitalist class. California, however, is not the only state where this condition of affairs exists, as in Oregon, around Portland, thousands of these little stickers have been posted in every conspicuous place. In Colorado, too, the authorities are worried as a result of constant agitation against the army and a circular has been recently issued by the state war department of Colorado, the aim of which was to counteract the work of the anti-militarists.

This circular mentions the situation in California, too. Here is an extract from it:

“Colorado is not the only state which has an ignorant antagonism to its military force. California has recently been having more or less trouble with some anonymous writers, but the blame has NEARLY been fixed on that notorious anarchistic author, Jack London. This anonymous writer has been distributing circulars throughout California, urging young men not to join the guard of that state, and it is probable that if he is located he will find himself in serious trouble at no distant day, for General Forbes, the Adjutant General of the state, proposes to prosecute him either under the federal or state laws for his activity against the military work in that state. No man made as bitter a fight against the passage of the present Dick bill as London, and a portion of one of his novels is devoted almost entirely to what he claims are the abuses that might arise from this military law. Read chapters 8 and 9 of ‘The Iron Heel.’”

In San Diego, Cal., recently these little stickers became so numerous that “patriotic citizens” and members of the Y.M.C.A. and civic bodies constituted themselves as committees for the purpose of tearing down or defacing the “vicious posters.”

In Los Angeles, these anti-army forces have been very active, and all over Los Angeles and adjacent beach towns the stickers have been thickly posted. One of them is as follows:

The Military Ideal.

Young man: The lowest aim in your life is to be a good soldier. The “good soldier** never tried to distinguish right from wrong. He never thinks, never reasons; he only obeys. If he is ordered to fire on his fellow citizens, on his friends, on his neighbors, on his relatives, he obeys without hesitation. If he is ordered to fire down a crowded street when the poor are clamoring for bread, he obeys and sees the gray hairs of age stained with red and the life tide gushing from the breast of woman, feels neither remorse nor sympathy. If he is ordered off as one of a firing squad to execute a hero or benefactor, he fires without hesitation, though he knows the bullet will pierce the noblest heart that beat in human breast.

A good soldier is a blind, heartless, soulless, murderous machine. He is not a man, he is not even a brute, for brutes only kill in self defense. All that is human in him, all that is divine in him, all that constitutes a man, has been sworn away when he took the enlistment oath. His mind, his conscience, aye his very soul, are in the keeping of his officer. No man can fall lower than a soldier—it is a depth beneath which we cannot go. YOUNG MAN, DON’T BE A SOLDIER. BE A MAN.

And at the bottom is printed “Read Chapters 8 and 9 of ‘The Iron Heel,’ by Jack London.” This is what got Jack into trouble, and he is now threatened with arrest. London, the “hobo author,” is very outspoken in his denunciation of the military power of! The capitalist class, therefore the threatened prosecution. In commenting upon this, intelligent workers will say that it is a sure sign that the working class are at last getting some sense in their craniums.

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 issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v3n06-w110-may-04-1911-IW.pdf