“By Mr. Call:  Q. You want something better to eat and to wear,
     and better houses to live in?

     “A. Yes, we want to dress better and to live better, and become
     better citizens generally.

     “The Chairman:  I see that you are a little sensitive lest it
     should be thought that you are a mere theoriser, I do not look upon
     you in that light at all.

     “The Witness:  Well, we say in our constitution that we are
     opposed to theorists, and I have to represent the organization
     here.  We are all practical men.”

Another offshoot of the same Marxian Internationale were the “Chicago Anarchists."[17] The Internationale, as we saw, emphasized trade unionism as the first step in the direction of socialism, in opposition to the political socialism of Lassalle, which ignored the trade union and would start with a political party outright.  Shorn of its socialistic futurity this philosophy became non-political “business” unionism; but, when combined with a strong revolutionary spirit, it became a non-political revolutionary unionism, or syndicalism.

The organization of those industrial revolutionaries was called the International Working People’s Association, also known as the “Black” or anarchist International, which was formed at Pittsburgh in 1883.  Like the old Internationale it busied itself with forming trade unions, but insisted that they conform to a revolutionary model.  Such a “model” trade union was the Federation of Metal Workers of America, which was organized in 1885.  It said in its Declaration of Principles that the entire abolition of the present system of society can alone emancipate the workers, but under no consideration should they resort to politics; “our organization should be a school to educate its members for the new condition of society, when the workers will regulate their own affairs without any interference by the few.  Since the emancipation of the productive classes must come by their own efforts, it is unwise to meddle in present politics....  All direct struggles of the laboring masses have our fullest sympathy.”  Alongside the revolutionary trade unions were workers’ armed organizations ready to usher in the new order by force.  “By force,” recited the Pittsburgh Manifesto of the Black International, “our ancestors liberated themselves from political oppression, by force their children will have to liberate themselves from economic bondage.  It is, therefore, your right, it is your duty, says Jefferson,—­to arms!”

The following ten years were to decide whether the leadership of the American labor movement was to be with the “practical men of the trade unions” or with the cooperative idealists of the Knights of Labor.

FOOTNOTES: 

[13] After the defeat of a strong anthracite miners’ union in 1869, which was an open organization, the fight against the employers was carried on by a secret organization known as the Molly Maguires, which used the method of terrorism and assassination.  It was later exposed and many were sentenced and executed.