The regular release of news and information from the A.W.I.U. as the 1919 harvest season begins.

‘Agricultural Workers Industrial Union No. 400, Bulletin No. 45’ from One Big Union Monthly. Vol. 1 No. 7. September, 1919.

Fellow Workers:

August 11, 1919.

Last week’s bulletin stated that we had taken in over 1,300 new members for July and that delegates were writing in that we were sure to reach the 10,000 mark for the month of August. During the first week in August we got over 1,000 new members despite the fact that we were short of supplies.

The General Office has had trouble getting cards from the printers for the past two weeks, but from now on we are almost sure to get enough to supply every delegate in the country. There has been some dissatisfaction caused among the delegates through this shortage of due books, but it is not the fault of the stationery delegate at Fargo that he has been short or of the traveling delegates or the A.W.I.U. office, either; we have begged, borrowed and all the cards which we could from every possible source.

We have around five hundred active delegates in the fields at this time, but there is a large field to cover and this number should be doubled before the end of the month. There are quite a few thousand different jobs through the Dakotas and we should have at least one delegate on each job in order to make the A.W.I.U. the power that it should be in the agricultural fields.

Many of the fellow workers travel around with delegates but that is not sufficient; get credentials and supplies yourself and the active delegates can always get plenty of new members who are not eligible to carry credentials to travel with him; the train committees should have credentials themselves and should impress upon all members the necessity of getting stocked up immediately.

Remember, that one active delegate with credentials and supplies is a hundred times better for the organization than a dozen who make a loud noise and sit around and criticize what others are doing without doing any real organization work themselves; also

Remember, that we have about one thousand active members lying in jails all over the country and we should have at least one active delegate in the A.W.I.U. for each member who is doing time for his past activities.

The General Defense Committee has been reorganized and is composed of the secretaries of the various industrial unions located in Chicago as well as the editors of all our publications in Chicago, the manager of the Publishing Bureau, the general secretary-treasurer of the I.W.W., and Wm. D. Haywood, who is now secretary of the defense.

John Atwood, a prominent lawyer in Kansas City, Mo., has been hired for the Wichita case and in connection with the latter all members and sympathizers of the I.W.W. should send letters and wires to Judge Pollock at Topeka, Kansas, voicing a protest against the members of the I.W.W. being held in the filthy jail at Wichita during their trials which will come up probably in September; ask that the men be released on their own recognizance or else housed at some suitable hotel during the coming trial. These fellow workers have already served a two years’ sentence and have not even been tried yet, so they surely are entitled to some consideration.

Letters coming from the various jails indicate that the men there are well pleased with the progress being made by us at this time and what bothers them most is that they have to remain inactive when you fellows are carrying on the fight. How long they will remain in this position rests entirely with you. First, we need new members and we also need money. Every penny that can be spared should be sent immediately to see that all men in jail get an adequate defense and enough tobacco and other necessities pending trial or appeal.

Take up collections at every possible opportunity It seems that members are too busy to send in job news; most of our mail only contains a few lines stating that there is a report and money order enclosed, but at this time threshing is on all over South Dakota and, in fact, south of Aberdeen around Dolan, Redfield and vicinity it is nearly over; east of Aberdeen as far as Groton on the Milwaukee threshing is in full blast and we get a few good reports from that section of the country. Conde was good for a while, but was queered recently by the gamblers and members may as well stay away from that town now.

On the Great Northern out of Aberdeen up towards Rutland and around Hankinson, Fairmont, Wapheton, Wyndmere and over towards Oakes on the Soo there is a pretty good crop and men are not over-plentiful.

Around LaMoure, Lisbon, Valley City and Jamestown there are fairly good crops, but at the latter place there are some hard boiled railroad dicks who have relieved some fellow workers of their cards; on the N.P. from Jamestown to Bismark there is a good crop, but in the immediate vicinity of Bismark the crop is not so good and there will be no great demand for help.

The main line of the Soo is good all the way up to Minot; east of Minot on the Big G. as far as Churches Ferry things are pretty fair and threshing will be starting up about the end of this week, but around Devil’s Lake and New Rockford the crop has been hailed out and wages are sure to be low; there is also an oversupply of help around these territories because the crop was burned out in Montana and there are lots of dry-landers with their own teams and wagons; the latter sympathize with the POOR FARMERS and as long as they get a job they seem to be satisfied.

Let your slogan be “10,000 new members each month.”

With best wishes, we are,

Yours for the big increase,

D. N. Simpson, Chairman, G. O. C., Mat K. Fox, Sec’y-Treas., A.W.I.U.

One Big Union Monthly was a magazine published in Chicago by the General Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the World from 1919 until 1938, with a break from February, 1921 until September, 1926 when Industrial Pioneer was produced. OBU was a large format, magazine publication with heavy use of images, cartoons and photos. OBU carried news, analysis, poetry, and art as well as I.W.W. local and national reports. OBU was also Mary E. Marcy’s writing platform after the suppression of International Socialist Review., she had joined the I.W.W. in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://archive.org/download/sim_one-big-union-monthly_1919-09_1_7/sim_one-big-union-monthly_1919-09_1_7.pdf