g to men from all over the world." He pointed down to a
cluster of Lascars with white turbans on their heads. "_You_ don't
understand me. But some of your comrades will give you my speech, for we
are all strike brothers here. On the ship there is no flag--on the ship
there is no nation--on the ship there is only work--on the ship there
are only the workers!

"For a ship may be equipped with the most powerful engines to drive
her--she may have the best brains to direct her course--but the ship
can't sail until you go aboard! You're the men who make the ships of
use, you're the men who give value to the stock of all the big ship
companies! You are the ship industry--and to you the ship industry
should belong!

"I want you now to think of a tombstone. Out in the Atlantic, two miles
down they tell me, a big ship is stuck with her bow in the ooze of the
ocean floor and her stern six hundred feet up in the water. In the cold
green light down there she looks like a tombstone--and she is packed
with dead people inside. She is there because where she should have had
lifeboats she had French cafes instead, and sun parlors for the ladies.
Some of these ladies went down with the ship, and we heard a lot about
their screams. But we haven't heard much of the cries for help of the
thousands of men who go down every year in rotten old ships upon the
seas! Nor have we heard of the millions more who are killed on land--on
the railroads, in the mines and mills and stinking slums of cities!

"But now we've decided that cries like these are to be heard all over
the world. For we've only got one life apiece--we're not quite sure of
another. And because we do all the work that is done we want all the
life there is to be had! All the life there is to be had--that's what we
are striking for! That is our share of the life in this world! And until
we get our share this labor war will have no end! Other wars may come
and go--but under them all on land and sea this war of ours will go
steadily on--will swallow up all other wars--will swallow up in all your
minds all hatred of your brother men! For you they will be workers all!
With them you will rise--and the world will be free!"

* * * * *

When the long stormy din of cheers had little by little died away Joe
Kramer began the last speech of the day. He had eaten and slept little,
he had lived on coffee and cigarettes, and there was a strained look in
his deep ey