In 1915, Jack London wrote “Ode to a Scab.” It is one of his more powerful essays. To understand his essay, it is necessary to review the era, and how dangerous it was to unionize. Some of the highlights include:
Joe Hill, IWW – was shot by a firing squad in Utah on November 19, 1915. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in every state except Utah – he had explained he didn’t want to be caught dead in that state.
Frank Little, IWW – lynched in Butte, Montana on August 1,1917. No one was ever charged.
IWW Lumber Strike of 1917 – it’s hard to say exactly where and when this strike that covered the Northwest US began. I have found passable evidence that it started on Fortine Creek, when the river pigs went on strike and refused to run the logs from Trego to Eureka.
The Ludlow Massacre occurred on April 20, 1914, when the Colorado National Guard used Gatling guns to kill 21 people – mostly wives and children of striking miners who were in a tent city alongside the railroad. This photo shows Colorado National Guard in Trinidad, Colorado, during that strike.
On June 23, 1914, Butte’s Union Hall was dynamited. These Rocky Mountain towns are important milestones in America’s union movements. Here is what Jack London wrote – about a slightly less violent part of the unionizing movement:
The entire essay, by Jack London:
Ode To A Scab
After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a waterlogged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.
When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. No man has a right to scab as long as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab hasn’t.
Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas Iscariot sold his savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The modern strikebreaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children, and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust, or corporation.
Solidarity wins.
It was a time of strong and violent opinions on both sides of the issue.
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