﻿T-BONE SLIM DISCUSSES EASY MARKS 
 
The thought-poverty of the workers has been put in evidence so often as to cause great sorrow in my breast and, while I admit that it, the thought-poverty exists, I don’t admit that it is peculiar to the working class. Therefore: it is with pleasure that I point out wherein, I think, the bourgeoisie is blank and I offer it for your consideration, and commend it to your thought apparatus — I hope I’m right: 
It is said that the KKK is against the Catholic, the Foreigner, the Jew and the Negro ; that they are hundred per centers and that they want America for Americans — and that business men have embraced this faith of the Klan. Alright. This program of “agin,” what does it do? What will be the result? Don’t you think that it will have a tendency of uniting those four factors, the Jew, Catholic, Negro and Foreigner “agin” the Klan, and don’t you think the Klan undertook to cover too much geography, and finally don’t you think the Klan has been fooled into biting off a chunk too big to chew? 
Supposing the Foreigner takes his trade elsewhere? Supposing the Negro does the same, and so on? Where will the Hundred Per Center then be?  
Supposing Catholic wealth and Jewish wealth combine to protect themselves “agin” the Klan — isn’t it possible that they will do that very thing? Where was the brain power of the business man when he named those four factors specifically, and courted their wrath? 
Did the Klan consciously select those overwhelming odds or were they selected for the Klan? To my paupered-thought, as a member of the despised working class, it would appear that some outfit, bent on mischief, persuaded the Klan to “stick its foot into it”— and that’s not saying much for the business man’s thinking ability. Numerically the Klan can muster up about 12,000,000 men (at the outside), in a battle of ballots. — The Catholics alone can outvote them. In a battle of wealth the Jews alone can “pay them off,” without opening their “grouch sacks.” 
I don’t see where the Klan comes in for any emoluments of any kind—they might as well have been born in Madagascar as far as getting any special privilege, or consideration, is concerned. 
The whole question resolves itself into a question whether the Hundred Per Centers were arrayed against foreigners, negroes, jews and catholics, or were the catholics, jews, negroes and foreigners arrayed against the hundred per centers? Which came first? What is the result? We must go by results: 
Undoubtedly the Klan has united these four factors against itself. — If the Klan did it. Hence the business man’s wealth of thought must have been been in total eclipse?? If the Klan didn’t do it, if it was done for it, the same result obtains, and the wealth of bourgeois thought is BLANK. 
The brainy business man has been led by the nose — a few workers with him. 
They have started something! 
That’s why I say thought-poverty is not peculiar to the working class. Never in all history has Labor pulled such a “boner”— a boner it is. One of the world’s greatest boners. Fellow Worker Fred Merkle’s failure to touch “third base” fades into insignificance alongside of it. 
Idiots pure and simple — especially simple. Easy marks— I blush for them! Their action in this fosters race- prejudice— and further: witness the “hooded-cohorta” invading the so-called “black-belt,” violating the rights of colored citizens— yes, in Chicago. — This raid amounts to a declaration of war and cannot be called “prejudice.” Necessarily the Negroes were compelled to organize for self-protection. 

It is clear the Klan is looking for trouble. 
Now, in conclusion, while I’m airing my thought-poverty, let me explain the why fore of the mask; It protects the One Hundred Per Cent Business Man from Boycott— nobody knows who he is. With his head covered he hopes to convince people that he’s an ostrich . . . an oyster, more likely. 

The Industrial Workers of the World are not concerned with “the errors” of these — just so we do not err ourselves. We welcome the working people of the world, be they Jew, Catholic, Negro or Foreigner — or American — all wage earners — all useful men and women, whether citizens or visitors. We are building a one big union of world labor— we will not fail. We bite off only what we can chew. Join the I. W. W.—It is the only aggressive union in this country. Let’s go!	 
T-b. S.