As the harvest drive gets underway, Kansas-born wobbly organizer tells of the conditions which led to the formation Agricultural Workers Industrial Union No. 400 in 1915, the response of the farmers, and the work of union. The A.W.I.U. was the I.W.W.’s most successful post-war project, with around 20,000 members in 1920.

‘The Modern Agricultural Slave’ by E.W. Latchem from One Big Union Monthly. Vol. 2 No. 8. August, 1920.

The parasites of the State of Kansas are having their yearly spasm over the I.W.W. Ever since 1915 when the first concerted move was made by the I.W.W. to organize the harvest workers, the ruling powers of that state have had a brainstorm of some kind, just about harvest time.

Conditions in the Harvest Fields

Every year large numbers of men go to the harvest fields in answer to calls in the newspapers asking for men at big wages to help harvest the crops, but who find that they are not only forced to work at less wages than promised, but that nearly everything else in connection with the harvest has been misrepresented.

During harvest the farmer seldom works longer than 10 hours owing to the fact that horses and mules cannot stand the intense heat longer than that, When the harvest is over and threshing starts there is little or no stock used and the hours are lengthened to as long as the slaves will work which sometimes is as much as 14 or 16 hours of pitching headed wheat, which, is the hardest kind of work.

During harvest the sleeping facilities are fairly good as a rule, but when threshing starts the worker is forced to shift for himself, and must find a bed in the barn in a space not used by four legged stock, and if no room is found there, he can hunt up a discarded horse blanket and hunt sleeping quarters in a straw pile or keep company with the coyotes on the prairie.

It was only natural that all self-respecting workers should resent being classed as beneath the so-called “lower animals,” but they found themselves powerless as individuals; against the well-organized financial interests and an overstocked slave market.

Enters the I.W.W.

In 1915 harvest workers organized in the I.W.W. presented the first wage scale ever set by themselves as follows: A minimum of $38.00 for a 10-hour day together with decent food and sleeping quarters; this to apply all over middle and southern Kansas, and the heavier fields of the northern part of the state to receive a higher wage.

These demands served to cement the harvest workers together with a common aim and they discovered that when they stood solidly together as one, that they had the power to force decent working hours as well as good food and better sleeping quarters.

Seeing the results of the Solidarity of the workers through organization, the harvesters joined the I.W.W. by the hundreds, and this of course was a challenge to those who live by robbing the bread basket of the nation.

No matter how well off a farmer appeared, he was, as a rule completely at the mercy of these exploiters, because of being head over heels in debt and could be easily handled; but if the harvest workers should be able through their organization to get and hold better working conditions, it opened up the possibility of the farmer getting next to the skin game that was used on him, and the thoughts of the possibility of having to earn a living by honest toil drove these so-called respectable citizens frantic.

Insurance Capitalists Traffick in I.W.W. Scare

The papers of the wheat belt were filled with weird and fantastic tales about the I.W.W. burning wheat crops, etc., but very rarely did a bit of truth get into print.

The insurance agents were quick to take advantage of these fantastic stories and use them to get money from the farmer to insure his crop against fire, etc., when in reality they knew that the I.W.W. was not setting out any fires and that the stories printed in the papers were lies published with the object of creating prejudice against workers who were trying to better their working conditions.

In spite of all misrepresentation and abuse the I.W.W. continued to grow by leaps and bounds. This served to make the parasites more frantic. Their lies and abuse had failed of its object. What were they to do?

When the United States entered the war against Germany it suggested another chance which they grasped like a drowning man grasping a straw. They lost no time in making use of the war hysteria in an effort to deal a blow to those who had challenged their right to live by robbing the nations’ bread basket. The mental prostitutes of the newspapers were again called into action and this time the I.W.W. was “pro-German” and “out to destroy all the nations’ food so as to keep the United States out of the war.”

But this did not have the desired effect of stopping the I.W.W. The only result was an increase in the number of insurance agents who reaped a rich harvest from the ignorant farmer who had become frightened at the lies he had read.

Our Enemies Become Frantic

By this time the parasites had become desperate and dropped all their camouflage of respect for the constitution and laws of the United States and in the later part of Nov., 1917, about 25 members and delegates were arrested without warrants or due process of law and thrown into jail and held for two years without trial in a desperate attempt to stop the work of organization, but to no avail as the work of organization went along anyhow.

The failure of their efforts to stop the I.W.W. found these parasites and their henchmen on the verge of insanity at the opening of the harvest of 1919.

They again called on the prostitutes of the press, each of whom, this time, tried to outdo the other in committing terrible crimes on paper and blaming the I.W.W., in an attempt to get the ignorant workers and farmers worked up into the same insane state of mind as themselves, and act as their catspaw. Members and delegates were arrested all over the wheat belt, but all were released without trial as they had committed no crime.

While the people’s minds were still stultified from reading the ravings of insane newspaper prostitutes, 28 members and delegates who had been in jail for 2 years without trial were rushed into court convicted and sentenced to the Federal Penitentiary for from 3 to 9 years. Their only crime was activity in the organization that had challenged the worst set of brigands that’ ever lived off the labor of another.

Enters the Interchurch Movement

Another feature of the harvest of 1919 was the opening of reading rooms and “community kitchens” under the auspices of the Interchurch World Movement, in an attempt to keep the workers under their influence and away from “those terrible I.W.W.’s” who might tell them some truths. These were usually under tents with hay or straw flooring on which the harvest hands were allowed to sleep at night, and which soon became vermin infested owing to lack of proper care, as the principal function of those in charge were to act as stool pigeons for the powers that be and they had little or no time to look after the cleanliness of the place.

Flooding the Country with Men

This year most of the old stunts for flooding the country with men were tried. The newspapers stated that the farmers had set the wages at 70 cents per hour, but on arrival you were told that the farmers could not afford to pay that amount. Also that the farmers did not have anything to do with setting this wage and that it had been set by the bankers and business interests without consulting the farmers and that they were not under any obligation to abide by it.

If any suggestion was made to the effect that the harvest hands should have something to say in regard wages, you were told that you were welcome to all that you could get as an individual. But there was to be no pooling of interests among harvest hands, and that anybody attempting it would land in jail pretty d quick.

You are deliberately told that the business interests have set the wages and if you attempt any effective resistance, you will feel the ‘mailed fist’ in the hands of our modern descendants of the “cave man” who has been dressed as officers of the law and who are usually ready and anxious to show that they still have the same stupid mentality as their ancestors,

A talk with any county or state official in the harvest belt is sufficient to convince all workers of the necessity of organization among the harvesters, and if his mentality be above that of the “cave man” he will also see the need of a society that is not based on robbery and ruled by those who have inherited the ferocious instincts and stupid mind of the cave man who scientists claim passed away centuries ago.

It is time to abolish the savage remnants of the past which remain in our so-called civilization, and when we do, we can say that we are above the savages, but until then we have nothing to boast of.

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/one-big-union-monthly_1920-08_2_8/one-big-union-monthly_1920-08_2_8.pdf