He built the road,
With others of his class he built the road.
Now o'er it, many a weary mile, he packs his load,
Chasing a job, spurred on by hunger's goad.
He walks and walks and walks and walks
And wonders why in Hell he built the road.

The Industrial Workers of the World, the revolutionary
organization founded to destroy the forces of avarice, and the
"one big union" which first made songs of militant action out of
songs of discontent, ironically enough became a singing move-
ment through the mercenary scheme of a professional spell-
binder.

In the fall of 1906, a year after its inception as a combination
of such radical groups as the Socialist Labor Party, the Western
Federation of Miners, and the American Labor Union, the
IWW went through its first great crisis. A disagreement in
philosophy between the syndicalistic ("red") and the socialistic
("yellow") factions split the union in two. The red faction, com-

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