was "better not to say much about it." "If we begin hair-splitting," said one, "we should muddle them up." "We are out to make them conscious of their class interests; conscious that those interests are not the interests of the employers. To make them believe that and act on it is our work." Another said to me, "We do just what the preachers and professors do—we give our people as much light as we think safe,"—a statement which has its own disconcerting truth about many others besides preachers and professors.
The shock of this conflict in Colorado had scarcely ceased before plans were on foot to create a powerful, all-inclusive labor organization, independent of special craft unions. Before the year (1904) closed, a gathering was held, resulting in a Secret Conference in Chicago on the January following. Thirty of the two and thirty invited delegates were promptly on the spot. From this came in June the first convention with its 186 delegates claiming to represent 90,000 members. Only a small part of these proved faithful to the first declared purpose of the gathering. To protect themselves from "traitorous intruders," those first to call the meeting so managed credentials by shrewd rulings as to prevent the capture of the convention. From that moment the warfare has not ceased. The National Secretary writes: "It is a fact that many of those who were present as delegates on the floor of the first convention and the organizations that they represented have bitterly fought the I. W. W. from the close of the first convention to the present day." For twelve days the principles of the new order
