GOOD ADVICE FROM THE FIRING LINE.
By George Fenton, Secretary, Kansas City.
The time has come when the man without a job must get into an organization, the same as the man on the job. What we want to do is to organize the man without a job, into a strong organization so that he will be able to hold his own against the Master Class and not be driftwood on the sea of life.
If the unemployed make up their minds they can have what is coming to them and would not have to break rock for a class of people who make money out of them in the name of Charity.
All we have to do is to get into the Brotherhood Welfare Association and see that we get in as many members as possible, and build up an organization in the Spring and Summer, as well as in the winter. The trouble with most of the members is that, when the Spring and summer comes, they think that they have no more use for the I.B.W.A., but they forget that another winter is coming, and they will be in the same place as they were in past winters.
The time has come when we must keep the I.B. W. A. going in the Summer as well as in the Winter, because our experience has shown us that, by letting the Groups go out of business in the Summer, when Fall comes again we must build afresh. By the time we get the group on its feet it will be Spring, and, of course, the same thing will happen again, and that has been the trouble with the I.B.W.A. for the last seven or eight years. The members could very easily keep open head quarters in the Spring and Summer by paying their dues. If the members would pay their dues and donate a few cents on the side in the summer months, when they arrive in the City in the Fall and Winter they would have a place to come to, and not have to look for Charity or Help or stand in the Bread Line. They would have a headquarters to come to in the future.
Let us all get together the coming year and make the Brotherhood Welfare Association an organization that will have a membership of many thousands by next Fall, and also have an open headquarters in every City in the United States.
This can be done by every member making his business to lineup all the new members he can find. Do not leave it to the secretaries of the Groups, or the Organizer to get new members, but get out yourselves, put up a hustle, and see what YOU can dot build up e International Brotherhood Welfare Association. The Secretaries and Organizers can not do it all. They must have your help and it is your duty to help the Secretaries and all the Officers in the Organization, and not to sit around the Hall and make a kick at every move you see an officer make. What this organization needs is a paper of its own, and the members should see that the Hobo newspaper should get the co-operation of all its members, You can help to build up the lobo News by sending in for a bundle to the National Office, and sell the same in the Camps where you work; and when you are out of a job take a bundle of your papers and sell them on the street corners of the towns or cities when you are hoboing it around the country looking for a Master.
The Groups of the I. B. W. A. should elect a literature agent at the next business meeting to sell the Hobo News in their city, and see that the Literature Agent is well supplied with the papers.
If this is done the News will be a success; but if we all sit around and let the papers lie around in headquarters, do not blame the Editor if the paper goes on the bum.