between the railroad employes and the companies; therefore, be it resolved. that we hereby serve notice on said anarchist, Debs, that we repudiate him and that we will have nothing to do with him nor the anarchist organization he represents.”
After these resolutions appeared I had a number of letters from the poor slaves who were employed upon these railroads, apologizing for the resolutions, and saying that the railroad officials had prepared the resolutions, and had submitted them to the employes for their signatures, and then given them to the press.
But even this was not sufficient. They discharged those who attended our meetings. They had their special men at the doors of meeting places to take the names of those who attended. They were determined to stamp out the last spark of the union’s life. And they did succeed in destroying the organization, but they could not kill the spirit of the American Railway Union. That still lives.
And now a far greater organization has come to take its place—as much greater as the American Railway Union was greater than the old union—and that organization is the Industrial Workers of the World. This great union is organized on the basis of the class struggle. It makes its appeal to the intelligence of the working class. It commands you workingmen to open your eyes and see for yourselves; to use your brains, and think for yourselves; to cultivate self-reliance and depend upon yourselves.
That is your only safety. You have been taught in the old union school to look to some leader; to depend upon some master. You have been trained to submit; to follow and obey orders. You have not developed your
