The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Sabotage

SABOTAGE, sȧ-bo-tázh, a method used by labor revolutionists to force employers to accede to demands made on them. It consists in a wilful obstruction and interference with the normal process of industry. It aims at inconveniencing and tying up of production, but stops short of actual destruction or of endangering human life directly. The practices are varied. The original act of sabotage is said to have been the slipping of the wooden shoe or "sabot" of a workman into a loom, in the early days of the introduction of machinery, to impede production. Some of the more common forms are wasting of materials; telling the exact truth to customers; obeying orders punctiliously, especially on railroads; using of bad materials so as to impair the standing of the employer; placing sand or emery in wheel bearings; loosening screws and nuts; cutting belts; sitting idle at machines; mislaying tools, and any number of petty devices for hindering and delaying production. These methods were found to be more subtly effective by the syndicalists, and have been endorsed also by the I. W. W. (q.v.). Sabotage is conducted secretly, so that the blame cannot be fixed and the criminal law is thus avoided. Many prominent labor leaders consider it a slavish, wasteful and sterile instrument and prefer the strike as a form of direct action. Consult Brooks, J. G., 'American Syndicalism: the I. W. W.' (Chap. XII, New York 1913).