W. W. paper, and afterwards in pamphlet form was
read by many hundreds of thousands of workingmen. In it the poet
said:
"The preamble of the I. W. W. opens with the statement that the
employing class and the working class have nothing in common; but on
this occasion I learned that the preamble is mistaken. On this
occasion I saw one thing in common between the employing class and
the working class, and that thing was a black-snake whip. The butt
end of the whip was in the hands of the employing class, and the
lash of the whip was on the backs of the working class, and thus to
all eternity was symbolized the truth about the relationship of the
classes!"
Section 61
Peter awoke next morning with a vivid sense of the pain and terror
of life. He had been clamoring to have those Reds punished; but
somehow or other he had thought of this punishment in an abstract
way, a thing you could attend to by a wave of the hand. He hadn't
quite realized the physical side of it, what a messy and bloody job
it would prove. Two hours and more he had listened to the thud of a
whip on human flesh, and each separate stroke had been a blow upon
his own nerves. Peter had an overdose of vengeance; and now, the
morning after, his conscience was gnawing at him.
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