THE ONE BIG UNION.

"Tie 'em up, tie 'em up--that's the way to win.

Don't notify the bosses till hostilities begin.

Don't furnish chance for gunmen, scabs and all them like.

What you need is One Big Union and One Big Strike."

"Tie 'em up" is one of the songs in a pamphlet entitled "I. W. W. Songs to Fan the Flame of Discontent." It is interesting not because of its disorderly ferocity, which is certainly not characteristic of those to whom it is addressed, the workingmen, but because of the idea it advocates. It is a conception which has recently jumped into prominence in America, especially in Canada--the idea of the One Big Union.

As a political organization, or as an industrial organization, which somehow could manage without "direct action," the One Big Union might be a successful organization with possibilities of unlimited power. As an organization whose chief functions would be to strike, the O. B. U. would have to possess more organizing ability than its leaders have yet shown if it would end in anything but disastrous failure.

A reader has sent to the New York Tribune the following fable:

"Once upon a time there was a Trade Union which grew so big and powerful that it was able to absorb all the other Trades Unions. Ultimately it became know as, The Union, and everybody had to join it. A National Program was drawn up, and a Great Conference was arranged. It was unanimously decided that in the event of the National Program being refused a General Strike should take place.

"There was nobody left outside. The Union either to concede or refuse the demands of the National Program, so the General Strike began. Everybody in the country stopped work, and everybody drew Strike Pay. But there was nothing to buy with the Strike Pay, for Nobody was making anything, so Nobody could sell anything.

"So Everybody died in a desperate attempt to live at the expense of Everybody else.

"And the Union came to an end."