﻿WHY BE A PAUPER? 

To say I. W. W. throws men off the freight trains because they suspect them of being hi-jacks is just as ridiculous as to say the Communist party is a company union . . .  
 In the first place, the I. W. W. doesn’t throw men off the freight trains for any, many or nary reasons whatsoever.  
In the second place, it never acts except upon knowledge; and not on mere suspicion. Thirdly, it never is necessary to throw men off trains––men are glad to get off––consider it a pleasure, a duty to get off. But the I. W. W. has a hard reputation, undeservedly, of course, and this is “how come”:  
A man gets drowsy on the train, drops off to sleep on, say, the runningboard of a tank car, the train jerks, sways, jumps, the man rolls off the train and lands in the weeds. Is that man gonna admit he went to bed on a train and woke up in a ditch?  
No.  
He marches to the first farm house bums the poor farmer for court plaster and breakfast and unburdens his soul thusly:  
“I was robbed and thrown off the train by the I. W. W.” 
 Him, robbed?––He hasn’t seen a dollar since Hoover was baptized. Nevertheless, the man actually believes the I. W. W. contributed to his scratches and loss of equipoise; if in no other way then by their propaganda, which made him drowsy and caused him to dream himself a glider . . .  
His faith in that respect is so powerful he will protect himself from further such happenings by getting himself a red card and keeping himself awake at all times, (this ail is contingent on the stinginess or generosity of Mr. President Hoover).  
But there are a few, very few, cases in which men fully awake have been peremptorily assisted off trains or encouraged to make a hasty and undignified exit in the interest of the business at hand and, in the course of years, few of those cases have resulted in the strengthening of the coffin market.  
Noow I am not personally acquainted with those gentlemen that heave men off trains, and cannot know their religions. Be they unprincipled methodists or calloused presbyterians or mayhap malicious members of the reformed church I cannot say at this time without further investigation––but I will say their act smacks heavily of the handling bestowed upon Jesus Christ the time his Father sent him among the Hebrews to be crucified and, as it happened, the Hebrews did ketch-up, with him and spike him to a cedar cross––the “old man” not lifting a finger in defense of his son. Now I, myself, didn’t get my religion with my mother’s milk; but got it in a woodshed from the end of a piece of “draft-harness”; therefore, it may be the throwing of men off trains is a form of religion as yet too subtle for my crusted soul or understanding––thus it is too that I am unable to believe that railroad bulls, agents, (in the interest of upbringing a bad reputation for the virtuous I. W. W.), toss men off the trains; masquerading themselves as union men or self-respecting hi-jacks in the process of unloading workingmen and robbing them––they ain’t that good christians, I must conclude, despite the encouraging timbre of their snarls the many times I have listened to the enraptured.  
No, I cannot say those officers or hi-jacks perform in that manner but I can say the I. W. W. does not do so.  
At the same time in the interest of truth I must say the I. W. W., in so far as many of its members is concerned, is opposed to associating too extensively with such defectives as do not possess the rudiments of unionism––but that aversion does not take the form of assault or attack and as for throwing men off trains let me say many of the men thrown off were I. W. W.’s. 
They wouldn’t hardly throw themselves off trains, would they?  
Of course not.  
It may be that hi-jacks have been doing the throwing off––there is a suspicion in that direction. If so, they are practically ruining their business in doing so because the I. W. W., to protect itself must view every unorganized man a possible hi-jack. Thus it is that a number of unorganized men causes the I. W. W. to pay them, the hi-jacks, more than their proper share of attention. At the same time many non-union men are inconvenienced considerably in proving that their lack of unionism is the only blemish on their otherwise healthy morals. This situation is very difficult to live under––each man “suspicioning” the other––but it can be remedied very easily: 
Let every non-union man take out a red card and learn to know his fellow worker––when that happens all will be wobblies and workers; conditions and wages will improve so much that it will be a desire of every man to perform useful labor and hi-jacks will be a thing of the past for verily, it is low wages and rotten conditions long endured that make hi-jacks––in other words the employer with his rotten system of skinning toil.  
The most hardened hi-jack, even, would much prefer to earn his living, at just wages, than get it by robbing paupers.  
Why be a pauper? 
T-b S. 
 
P. S. 
During harvest season tens of thousands of harvest hands travel night and day, some times, to reach certain points––hundreds, yes thousands of them deliberately go to sleep in precarious positions, on top box cars, flat cars and “rough” freight––oil tanks.  
It is then a wonder that few, very few, in the course of years have fallen off? 
Personally I think every damned one of those liars fell off.  
Just now North Dakota is advertising in Minneapolis papers for 15,000 harvest hands.  
Poor North Dakota! Right now she has only twenty thousand more men than she can use and needs 15,000 more.  
Out with your handkerchiefs,boys––this is a crying need.––T-b S.