Editing Industrial Workers of the World (section)

====Haywood trial and Western Federation of Miners exit====
Leaders of the Western Federation of Miners such as [[Bill Haywood]] and Vincent St. John were instrumental in forming the IWW, and the WFM affiliated with the new union organization shortly after the IWW was formed. The WFM became the IWW's "mining section". Many in the rank and file of the WFM were uncomfortable with the open radicalism of the IWW and wanted the WFM to maintain its independence. Schisms between the WFM and IWW had emerged at the annual IWW convention in 1906, when a majority of WFM delegates walked out.<ref name="Brissenden" />

When WFM executives Bill Haywood, [[George Pettibone]], and [[Charles Moyer]] were accused of complicity in the murder of former Idaho governor [[Frank Steunenberg]], the IWW used the case to raise funds and support and paid for the legal defense. Even the not guilty verdicts worked against the IWW, because the IWW was deprived of martyrs, and at the same time, a large portion of the public remained convinced of the guilt of the accused.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=American Bar Association Journal |volume=54 |number=5 |date=May 1968 |jstor=25724408 |title=This fabric under which we have lived (editorial) |page=474 }}</ref>

Bill Haywood for a time remained a member of both organizations. His murder trial had made Haywood a celebrity, and he was in demand as a speaker for the WFM. His increasingly radical speeches became more at odds with the WFM, and in April 1908, the WFM announced that the union had ended Haywood's role as a union representative. Haywood left the WFM and devoted all his time to organizing for the IWW.<ref name="Brissenden" />{{rp|216–217}}

Historian Vernon H. Jensen has asserted that the IWW had a "rule or ruin" policy, under which it attempted to wreck local unions which it could not control.  From 1908 to 1921, Jensen and others have written, the IWW attempted to win power in WFM locals which had once formed the federation's backbone. When it could not do so, IWW agitators undermined WFM locals, which caused the national union to shed nearly half its membership.<ref name="Fink">{{cite book |title=Biographical Dictionary of American Labor |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=9780313228650 |year=1984 |first=Gary M. |last=Fink}}</ref><ref name="Dubofsky">{{cite book |title=We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World |first=Melvin |last=Dubofsky |editor-first=Joseph A. |editor-last=McCartin |year=2000 |isbn=9780252069055 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DmAer6Nz75kC |access-date=October 14, 2018 |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803075620/https://books.google.com/books?id=DmAer6Nz75kC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Disrupted by I.W.W. |work=Los Angeles Times |date=June 22, 1914 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/search/#lnd=1&query=disrupted+by+i.w.w&ymd=1914-06-22&t=4312 |access-date=October 14, 2018 |archive-date=October 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003153501/https://www.newspapers.com/search/#lnd=1&query=disrupted+by+i.w.w&ymd=1914-06-22&t=4312 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Mine Federation in West Doomed by Faction's War |work=Chicago Daily Tribune |date=June 27, 1914 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/search/#lnd=1&query=Mine+Federation+Doomed&ymd=1914-06-27&t=4351&p_place=IL |access-date=October 14, 2018 |archive-date=October 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003153501/https://www.newspapers.com/search/#lnd=1&query=Mine+Federation+Doomed&ymd=1914-06-27&t=4351&p_place=IL |url-status=live }}</ref>