bnormal.

To understand the spread of bolshevist agitation and sympathy among a
very considerable part of the working class in this country, we must
take into account the fact that its logical and natural nucleus is the
I.W.W. It is necessary also to emancipate our minds from the obsession
that only "ignorant foreigners" are affected. This is not a true
estimate of either the I.W.W. or the bolshevist propaganda as a whole.
There are indeed many of this class in both, but there are also many
native Americans, sturdy, self-reliant, enterprising, and courageous
men. The peculiar group psychology which we are compelled to study is
less the result of those subtle and complex factors which are
comprehended in the vague term "race" than of the political and economic
conditions by which the group concerned is environed.

The typical native-born I.W.W. member, the "Wobbly" one frequently
encounters in our mid-western and western cities, is very unlike the
hideous and repulsive figure conjured up by sensational cartoonists. He
is much more likely to be a very attractive sort of man. Here are some
characteristics of the type: figure robust, sturdy, and virile; dress
rough but not unclean; speech forthright, deliberate, and bold; features
intelligent, frank, and free from signs of alcoholic dissipation;
movements slow and leisurely as of one averse to over-exertion. There
are thousands of "wobblies" to whom the specifications of this
description will apply. Conversation with these men reveals that, as a
general rule, they are above rather than below the average in sobriety.
They are generally free from family ties, being either unmarried or, as
often happens, wife-deserters. They are not highly educated, few having
attended any school beyond the grammar-school grade. Many of them have,
however, read a great deal more than the average man, though their
reading has been curiously miscellaneous in selection and nearly always
badly balanced. Theology, philosophy, sociology, and economics seem to
attract most attention. In discussion--and every "Wobbly" seems to
possess a passion for disputation--men of this type will manifest a
surprising familiarity with the broad outlines of certain theological
problems, as well as with the scriptural texts bearing upon them. It is
very likely to be the case, however, that they have only read a few
popular classics of what used to be called rationalism--Paine's _Age of
Reason_, Ingersoll's lectures