First of all, you railroad workers, you million and almost a half of slaves, must wake up; realize that you are a part of the working class and that the whole working class must unite, close up the ranks and present a solid front, every day in the year, election day especially included.
As individual wage-slaves you are helpless and your condition hopeless. As a _class_, you are the greatest power between the earth and the stars. As a _class_, your chains turn to spider-webs and in your presence capitalists shrivel up and blow away.
The individual wage-slave must recognize the power of class unity and do all he can to bring it about.
That is what is called _class-consciousness_, in the light of which may be seen the _class struggle_ in startling vividness.
The class-conscious worker recognizes the necessity of organization, economic and political, and of using every weapon at his command—the strike, the boycott, the ballot and every other—to achieve his emancipation.
He, therefore, joins the union of his _class_ and the party of his _class_ and gives his time and energy to the work of educating and lining up his _class_ for the struggle of his _class_ for emancipation.
You railroad men may think you are doing this now, but you are not. You are wasting most of your time and money for that which will bring no returns.
Let me tell you a few things the railroad corporations and your leaders, between whom there is an “identity of interests,” are having you do to occupy your time and keep you chained to the kennels of your masters.
_First_—They have you divided into petty groups, each trying to be it, and not one having any real power for working class good.
_Second_—They have you quarreling about jurisdiction and about an “open door,” and the corporations smile serenely while you play with these toys.
Your jurisdiction squabbles never will be settled, but grow worse. At places the B. L. E. and B. L. F. are at swords’ points, and the O. R. C. and B. R. T. are ready to fly at each others’ throats; and so intense is the petty craft jealousy that they are ready to scab on one another.
And if they ever go out on strike, particularly the B. L. E., their own former members, victimized by them, will rise up to smite them.