clad rules and
regulations, and if they don't suit he can quit.

In the presence of this great power, workingmen are compelled to
organize or be ground to atoms. They have organized. They have the
numbers. They have had some bitter experience. They have suffered beyond
the power of language to describe, but they have not yet developed their
latent power to a degree that they can cope successfully with the great
power that exploits and oppresses them. Upon this question of
organization, my brothers, you and I may differ widely, but as we are
reasonable men, we can discuss these differences candidly until we find
common ground upon which we can stand side by side in the true spirit of
solidarity--and work together for the emancipation of our class.

Until quite recently the average trade unionist was opposed to having
politics even mentioned in the meeting of his union. The reason for this
is self-evident. Workingmen have not until now keenly felt the necessity
for independent working class political action. They have been divided
between the two capitalist parties and the very suggestion that the
union was to be used in the interest of the one or the other was in
itself sufficient to sow the seed of disruption. So it isn't strange
that the average trade unionist guarded carefully against the
introduction of political questions in his union. But within the past
two or three years there have been such changes that workingmen have
been compelled to take notice of the fact that the labor question is
essentially a political question, and that if they would protect
themselves against the greed and rapacity of the capitalist class they
must develop their political power as well as their economic power, and
use both in their own interest. Workingmen have developed sufficient
intelligence to understand the necessity for unity upon the economic
field. All now recognize the need for thorough organization. But
organization of numbers of itself is not sufficient. You might have all
the workers of the country embraced in some vast organization and yet
they would be very weak if they were not organized upon correct
principles; if they did not understand, and understand clearly, what
they were organized for, and what their organization expected to
accomplish.

I am of those who believe that an organization of workingmen, to be
efficient, to meet the demands of this hour, must be organized upon a
revolutionary basis; must have for its