- Skill, in the modern sense, applies to the faculty of doing one or a few particular things exceptionally well.
- 214. Does not that imply that there are no crafts now?
- Strictly speaking, there are none. We speak of printers as being craftsmen, but it is a long step back to the time and condition when that was true. The work of the old-time printer is now done by many specialized workmen. Where he did everything in a printing plant, now a number of specialists, each doing a particular thing, co-operate to perform his task. This holds for the tailor, shoemaker, carpenter, blacksmith, etc. The tendency is toward the sub-division of labor and simplification of processes, so that the skilled worker of a period of long passed development is unknown and unnecessary to modern production. As has been said, strictly speaking, there are no crafts, and it follows, s day follows night, that a craft union is an anachronism in modern industry. As the Industrial Union Manifesto well said: "Laborers are no longer classified by difference in trade skill, but the employer assigns them according to the machines to which the are attached. These divisions, far from representing differences in skill or interests among the laborers, are imposed by the employer that workers may be pitted against one another . . . . and that all resistance to capitalist tyranny may be weakened by artificial distinctions."
- 215. How is the I. W. W. constituted?
- The I. W. W. is composed of Industrial Unions, Industrial Departments, Industrial District Councils and General Industrial District Councils. Each Industrial Union has branches at strategic points within the industry and maintains contact with the members through the job delegate system.
- 216. What is an Industrial Department?
- Industrial Unions of closely allied industries are combined into departmental organizations. For example, the Marine Transport Workers' Industrial Unions referred to above, would be united with Railway or Steam Transportation Industrial Unions, Municipal Transportation Industrial Unions, Motor Transporters, and Aviators' Unions, into the "Department of Transportation and Communication."
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