Page:William Ernst Trautmann - Industrial Unionism (1908).djvu/6

move of the proletarians, for fear that methods adopted successfully in the conflicts of one land may be copied in another; trembling because they would dread nothing more than to see the working class everywhere profit from the experience of all and thereby avoid the mistakes which doomed others in their struggles. But knowledge is power; and to know the fighting methods applied by Industrial Unionists in every land upon the globe also is one of the essential requisites of those who struggle and strive to attain the quickest and best results in the war of the workers against the shirkers.

"It was certainly shocking!" What impudence of these workers in the electric power plants of Paris, part of which were even operated on the municipal ownership plan, to walk out in a body in 1907 without giving notice to the employing class! Indeed an appalling spectacle! All traffic stopped, all theaters, restaurants and amusement places dark; no lights in the streets; in fact, industrial life brought to a standstill. The threats that troops would be called out scoffed at by the strikers! The prefect and municipal authorities pleading in vain for harmony and arbitration! Frantic appeals to good citizenship and the sense of duty towards the general public of no avail!