How were the Wobblies viewed?
There was a different attitude, but that was brought on by the I.W.W. itself. The I.W.W. was really unique in many ways in the sense that they were not a trade union. They didn’t focus on a particular industry. They organized across the board and they, and surprisingly enough for that time, they invited everybody into the union. Nobody was excluded in the sense of race or creed or national origin. That had not been the case with the A.F.L. and it certainly wasn’t the case with any of the trade unions. And so they were even looked down on by other unions and other union leaders because they had this real attitude of democracy in the sense that they wanted everybody involved and the lowest person, the person that had the worst job, that no one ever thought would be organized were invited in the- into the I.W.W. The society at large did not like them because they were really intent on giving a voice to that person, the immigrant, the person that cleaned the stables if you will, the person
