---
title: The unemployed
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iww-i-wont-workers-1914/
description: A crowd of well-dressed idle men under a banner reading 'I Won't Workers' refuses to shovel snow, with a sign demanding two dollars a day and overtime…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![The unemployed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iww-i-wont-workers-1914.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iww-i-wont-workers-1914.jpg)

# The unemployed

A crowd of well-dressed idle men under a banner reading 'I Won't Workers' refuses to shovel snow, with a sign demanding two dollars a day and overtime; one shouts 'We'll break into a church first!' The cartoon re-expands the initials I.W.W. into a label, so the union's name itself carries the charge that its members refuse work, and no worker's stated grievance appears in the frame.

- **Date:** March 10, 1914
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** John Scott Clubb (cartoonist)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=cartoon)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Wilson Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=wilson-administration)
- **Leader:** [Woodrow Wilson](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=woodrow-wilson)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Theme:** [Labor](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=labor)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)
- **Regime:** [Wilson administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/wilson-administration/)
- **Leader:** [Woodrow Wilson](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/wilson-administration/#woodrow-wilson)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2009616454/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1914, before 1931; LoC: No known restrictions on publication. No renewal in Copyright Office.) Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
I Won't Workers

Well break into a church first!

$2 A DAY
FOR SHOVELING
SNOW EXTRA
PAY FOR WAITING

[illegible — artist's cursive signature, bottom right, catalogued by the Library of Congress as "Clubb 14"]
```

The banner reads 'I Won't Workers' with the letters of 'I.W.W.' capitalized/enlarged within the words to spell out the pun. The picket sign's apostrophe ('We'll') is not visible/printed in the drawing. The artist's signature is a small stylised cursive mark next to a four-leaf-clover doodle; not legible letter-by-letter, so left as [illegible] even though the LOC catalog identifies it as 'Clubb 14'.

[← "Ned med militarismen - Leve socialismen" propaganda stamp (Norway, 1914)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/norway-down-with-militarism-stamp-1914/) [Ejército Constitucionalista de México: billete de cinco pesos (Constitutionalist Army of Mexico: Five-Peso Note) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/constitucionalista-cinco-pesos-1914/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)
- [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)