Just off the boat from Europe where he attended to Socialist International Congress in Copenhagen and toured much of Europe, Haywood gives an interview of his impressions.

‘Returning from Socialist Congress, Haywood Talks on European Labor’ from the New York Call. Vol. 3 No. 351. December 17, 1910.

Gives His Views on English Socialism and French Industrialism.

William D. Haywood landed in New York yesterday morning from his European speaking tour after attending the Copenhagen. Congress, coming direct from Liverpool to the United States. He will remain in the East about two weeks filling speaking dates, after which he will go West.

Haywood’s first lecture since coming back to America will be delivered in the Yorkville Casino, 210 East 86th street, Sunday afternoon (tomorrow) at 3 o’clock. The lecture will be held under the auspices of the New York locals of the Industrial Workers of the World. The subject is “Industrialism, the Coming Victory of Labor.” At enormous crowd is expected to greet the vigorous labor leader and Socialist from the West, as he is expected to present a fresh view of the European Socialist and labor movement.

When seen by The Call reporter yesterday, Haywood was as optimistic and as aggressive as ever. The same old fighting spirit that characterised his actions in the great labor wars in the mining camps of the West stands out as prominently as ever. If anything, the added experience of much travel and study among the workers of the entire country and in Europe have served to clinch old convictions and stimulate anew his spirit of revolt against working class wrongs.

Everywhere throughout Great Britain and Europe Haywood received an admirable reception. His speaking was done principally in England, Scotland, Wales and in Sweden and Norway. He did not have any time to do any speaking in France, Germany or Italy. Haywood, on the whole, saw very little in the recent international congress of the Socialist party, to which he was a delegate from this country. He said yesterday:

“I will not take any other but a working class point of view, and I must say that the Copenhagen congress did not impress me very much. As a work of organization the international Socialistic congress is perfection. It works automatically from a bureaucratic center. One is often caused to wonder how beautifully resolutions are introduced and amended, and finally adopted.

Hobbled by Lack of Language.

In the proceedings of the congress itself, Haywood saw very little, but he saw much in the gathering on the whole. He continued:

“The one important feature was the coming together of a large body of men and women, many of whom were thoroughly imbued with the revolutionary spirit, which, however, found no means of outlet or expression at the congress.

“The drawback among Comrades of the radical elements was the lack of a universal language. Were it not for this lingual division, there would have been many important meetings outside the congress hall, that would have meant more to the working class than anything which was done at the official sessions. Many of us grasped the hands of each other, and knew each other’s sentiments, but we were tongue-tied. Of the many languages that were spoken it seems to me that the English language prevailed over the others.”

From Copenhagen Haywood went to Norway where he held two large meetings. There, he said he was deeply impressed with the condition of affairs among the Socialists and labor unionists, He said generally both organize and meet in the same buildings. In Norway, he said the Socialist party and the labor movement are working close together, and are aggressive.

At Helsingborg, Sweden Haywood said the Socialists and organized workers own a large building. He held several meetings in Sweden, and they were all crowded.

From there he returned to London and toured England, Scotland and Wales under the auspices of the Social Democratic Federation. He happened to be in Wales about the time the coal miners there were locked out, and he made speeches throughout the regions involved.

Haywood said the Welsh coal strike was the first strike that has badly scared the capitalists in that part of Great Britain.

“Heretofore.” he said, “the miners have fought peaceably and starved contentedly holding demonstrations, passing resolutions, and singing religious hymns.”

Due to Industrial Union Literature.

He said the remarkable change which has been wrought in the minds of the Welsh miners was due to the spread of industrial union literature during the last two or three years. Hundreds of dollars’ worth of pamphlets on industrialism, printed in America, have been used and this is the cause of the change in the tactics of the workers in recent strikes. The lockout of about 12,000 miners in Tony Pandy, and about 18,000 who struck for better conditions Immediately after the Tony Pandy miners were locked out, is still on, he said, but they are fighting hard and they are employing up to date methods which the workers of England have never employed before. Haywood says the Welsh miners are as revolutionary a group of men as may be found anywhere. Until the time industrial union literature was being distributed among them, they simply felt that they must stand by agreements, which bound them hand and foot. Now they are realizing that time contracts are obstacles in the way to better conditions and they are breaking away from the leaders who have been fooling them.

Haywood said the industrial union agitation was started in the first place by the Central Workingmen’s College, which was originally a part of Ruskin College, but broke away from it when it became too radical for the parent institution. The Central Workingmen’s College is maintained by labor organizations, principally the miners’ organizations.

Haywood, in commenting of the political parties of labor in Great Britain, said that the only Socialist party in Great Britain is the Social Democratic Federation. He continued:

“It should be understood that the Labor party is not a Socialist party. It is at the present time the political expression of the pure and simple trade unions.”

Labor Party Not Socialists.

“With this knowledge.” Haywood said, “one can realize now how the Labor party acts in conjunction with the Liberal party. The trade unions enter into long contracts with the Liberal masters in the shops, and when their political representatives meet the same identical masters, the agreements which were entered into are but extended to matters political, until at the present time the Labor party can be regarded in no other light than as an auxiliary to the Liberal party, who are the representatives of the manufacturing interests.” Haywood said this was demonstrated in the last election. He said: “In the last election the Liberals in every constituency, with one exception, made way for the Labor party. It is now generally understood that seats in parliament held by the Labor party are due to sufferance, or by the grace of the Liberals. In some instance the Liberals went so far as to indorse the Labor party candidates.

“For example. Lansbury, of Bow and Bromley, was publicly indorsed by Lloyd George, one of the leading Liberal politicians.”

From England, Haywood went to Boulogne, France, where he got a glimpse of the railroad strike. He said, however, that he simply saw the fringe of the strike, as the trains were not running on the Nord railroad, which made traveling difficult. “Here,” said Haywood, “I saw the conscripts and reservists, who were mobilized by Briand, the renegade Socialist. Later I visited France and met nearly all the prominent Socialists and labor unionists, or syndicalists, as they are there called.”

Haywood visited Gustave Herve and his Comrades, who are now in prison for their military activity in behalf of the workers. He said it was through the efforts of Charles Marck the treasurer of the General Confederation of Labor, that he secured the necessary pass to see the anti-militarist of international reputation. Haywood said only stopped a few days in Italy, where he visited George D. Herron and his wife, who are living in Florence. Herron’s health, Haywood says, is improving slowly. He requested that Haywood convey his regards and those of Mrs. Herron, to American Socialists. He said he also met Odon Por, the brilliant young syndicalist writer, in Italy.

Workers in Europe Far Ahead.

“Generally speaking,” the big miner concluded, “the labor movement in each country that I visited is far in advance of the labor movement in the United States, as expressed by the American Federation of Labor. In nearly all countries they are numerically stronger. England, for example, has double the numbers, with half the population that we have here. Even England, the most backward of European countries, is now taking steps to abolish contracts and time agreements with employers.

“I regret that time did not permit me to go to Germany, as I was anxious to see how the movement was being conducted there.”

In commenting on the action of the National Civic Federation in attempting to get laws passed which will prohibit striking in the transportation industry, and the assistance which labor leaders are lending in the matter, Haywood, in referring to similar moves on the part of labor leaders in England, said:

“In connection with this attempt on the part of officials of the miners, boiler makers and cotton workers unions in England, to hold the workers down through long contracts, which the heads of the organizations, chief of whom is Mabbin, of the miners, intended to prevent strikes, it is interesting to notice the action of the same type of labor leaders in working with the Civic Federation in Albany.

“The rank and file of the organizations mentioned, however, rent the agreements to pieces and went on strike in spite of all that their officials could do. And no with the railroad workers in New York or elsewhere. When oppression becomes unbearable they will go on stage, law or no law. There is no law that can be suggested by labor officials, in or out of the Civic Federation, that will hold men in check when the time comes for them to revolt. History is replete with laws that the working class have revoked by their organised power.”

The New York Call was the first English-language Socialist daily paper in New York City and the second in the US after the Chicago Daily Socialist. The paper was the center-right of the Socialist Party and under the influence of Morris Hillquit. The paper is an invaluable resource for information on the city’s workers movement and history, it is one of the most important socialist papers in US history. The Call ran from 1908 until 1923, when the Socialist Party’s membership was in deep decline and the Communist movement became predominate.

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