The subversive adventures of Mr. Block

Transcript:

Introductory

By Walker C. Smith

This pamphlet may enable the readers to see their reflection on a printed page without the aid of glass or quicksilver. Right off the reel we wish to state that these cartoons that please you are portraits of the other fellow, while the ones that arouse your ire are exactly as though you had looked in a mirror. Knowing that Capitalism is builded on Blocks, the Cartoonist thought to weaken the foundation by joking some knowledge into those Blocks which have been split open a trifle in the College of Hard Knocks. Mr. Block appeared- and his success was instantaneous.

Mr. Block is legion. He is the representative of that host of slaves who think in terms of their masters. Mr. Block owns nothing, yet he speaks from the standpoint of a millionaire; he is patriotic without patrimony; he is a law-abiding outlaw; he boasts of our "tremendous wheat exports," yet has no bread on his table; he licks the hand that smites him and kisses the boot that kicks him; he is a personification of all that a worker should not be.

But Mr. Block is part of the labor problem. In fact, were it not for innumerable Mr. Blocks there would be no labor problem. Mr. Block blocks the pathway of progress. Yet it is from the Blocks that we must recruit our forces to overthrow wage slavery, and this can be done only by reaching Mr. Block with the message of industrial unionism.

As this is an age in which pictures play a leading part, an age where the moving picture show has stolen the audiences of the church and where the magazine without illustrations has fallen by the wayside, this little book of cartoons, showing the every-day experiences of Mr. Block- the average worker is sent out to catch the eye and mould the mind of any Block into whose hands it might fall.

The most of the cartoons in this book were originally published in the Industrial Worker of Spokane, Washington, from week to week. The series is still running and tens of thousands of workers eagerly watch the adventures of Mr. Block each week. This book is sent out to put the series in more permanent form.

The Cartoonist has pictured the grim humor that underlies the tragedy of the great class war and if these sketches serve to cause only a few desertions from the ranks of Block army that guards for the masters the very wealth that has been stolen from it, then the publication of the book will not have been in vain.

To those rebellious spirits who are marching steadfastly toward Industrial Freedom, making war on Blockism and fighting battles of the working class, this book is respectfully dedicated.