A

BY

BOUT seven seven hundred delegates representing organized labor recently gathered at Buffalo in annual convention and elected Mr. Samuel Gompers their president for another year. The action was dramatic in its atmosphere and momentous in its possible bearing upon the history of this country. Mr. Gompers, now in his sixty-ninth year, has become almost a venerable figure. The time has passed when his friends and his enemies referred to him as "Sam"; the usual designation now, indicating either affection or contempt -according to the particular person who uses the phrase is "the old man." Mr. Gompers's grizzled hair and deeply. furrowed, almost haggard, face abundantly justify this title. He certainly looks the "old man"-even older than he is. And his career has taken on new and almost unexampled dignities. The little immigrant boy who was placed, at the age of fifteen, at work in a cigar factory-and cigar factories fifty years ago were even more destructive places for labor than they are now -and who immediately demonstrated his capacity for leadership by starting insurrections against his employer, has risen to become the confidant of Presidents and the director of important national policies. He had already given his associates a demonstration of his power by bringing President Wilson before his convention. Although the newspapers had printed stories that Mr. Gompers's enemies had finally assembled sufficient support to dethrone him, these enemies, at the final test, summoned only five opposing votes-the opposing members, let it be recorded, bearing the significant names of Voigt, Kaufman, Halonen, Buchbinder, and Silberstein. Perhaps the finest aspect of Mr. Gompers's triumph was that it was generally accepted, both inside and outside the convention, as a final indication that Americanism

had won over the forces of disloyalty in the labor ranks. The word went out from Buffalo that the American workingman had enlisted for the war.

Yet, despite the American flag which each member of the convention carried, certain proceedings inspired considerable anxiety. The delegates adopted two resolutions: the only one that was headlined in the newspapers was that in which the delegates pledged "our undivided support in carrying the war to a successful conclusion." The resolution which did not receive such wide attention was the one in which the American Federation practically stated the terms upon which it would join hands in the prosecution of the war. 'The recognition of the employees as a group having common interests is one of the fundamental prerequisites to coöperation Whenever the employees in a department or an establishment have a common complaint or grievance, it is fundamental that the employer should meet those who may be selected by the workers to represent them . There should be no cessation of work except as a last resort." The "loyalty pledge" was indefinite; but these terms of coöperation, however velvety the phrasing may have been, were very much to the point. They mean, of course, the unionization of American labor. They plainly say that strikes, when necessary to attain the workmen's aims, shall be resorted to.

The brief speech made by Mr. Frank Morrison, the reëlected secretary, hardly held forth the promise of an industrial truce. This speech was practically a declaration of war against the two corporations upon which we chiefly depend to produce war materials. "I have only this to say: That as in the past I will give all the time I have to assist in organizing the unorganized workers and retaining the standards established by the trade union movement, and I hope that during the

coming year the organized forces of the Federation capture the last trench of the unorganized workers and organize the employees of the United States Steel Company and the Bethlehem Steel Company."

The

There is a general impression that employees and employers have declared a truce for the period of the war. Our popular national habit of headline reading has made most people believe that Mr. Gompers and his associates have promised that there shall be no strikes. The declarations already quoted, and hundreds of others that could easily be brought forward, Ishow that this is a mistaken idea. thousands of strikes that have taken place since April 6, 1917, clearly show that no such promises have been made, or that, if they have been made, they have certainly been violated. The fact of the matter is that the public has the most grotesque conception of the attitude which organized labor has assumed in the present crisis. Few people understand even the position of Mr. Gompers. Yet, as the Yet, as the leader of two and a half million men, forming a considerable part of that industrial army which must furnish the fighting materials for our soldiers in the field, there are few Americans whose activities have such importance and interest.

THE POWER OF THE FEDERATION

Mr. Gompers, as already indicated, has now reached the zenith of his power. When he became president of the American Federation in 1881, it had a membership of less than 50,000; at the present time it has nearly three million. Though he holds his position only by annual tenure, in only one year (1894) has he failed of reëlection. These facts in themselves testify to his resourcefulness as a leader and his personal power. It is true that he has not succeeded in his life ambition of unionizing American industry-there are about 30 million workers in the United States, less. than 10 per cent. of whom have affiliated with his organizations; but he has accomplished great things in other ways. A mere glance around Washington to-day reveals the extent to which Mr. Gompers has unionized the Administration. No Administration has ever maintained such close relations with the American Federation of Labor as the one which is now in power. It may be mere arrogance that makes the Federation regard Mr. Wilson as one of themselves; nevertheless

they do so regard him. The recent loyalty pledge praised President Wilson as "a staunch defender and able interpreter of the fundamental principles of practical democracy”— a phrase which, to those who are familiar with union literature, means that Mr. Wilson is an advocate of union ideas. Mr. Baker, Secretary of War, openly proclaims his sympathy with the union cause. Mr. Wilson, Secretary of Labor, is a leader in the union ranks. The new Department of Labor is practically a union organization. union organization. In most of the special commissions which have been appointed to handle labor difficulties in the war union leaders or their sympathizers have predomihated. No Administration has ever responded as has this one to the demands made for legislation favorable to the union cause. For many years Mr. Gompers has sought the ear of Presidents and Congresses in the interest of reforms which he regarded as essential to the labor triumph; it was not until the Wilson Administration came in, however, that his long and arduous campaigns met with success. Legislation has been passed exempting labor unions from the operation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law-an exemption for which Mr.Gompers had vainly struggled for years. Another law has exempted labor unions from the processes of injunction. The law passed in the heat of a campaign raising the wages of railroad employees is still fresh in the public mind. The Army appropriation bills carry prohibitions against the use of so-called "efficiency methods" in Government plants and forbid the payment of extra wages or bonuses to workmen who display unusual skill or fidelity. These are only a few of the things which indicate the power which Mr. Gompers now wields in our public life.

MR. GOMPERS FRO-ALLY

The breaking out of war, therefore, found Mr. Gompers the most powerful labor leader in the history of the country. There were few men whose attitudes loomed so important. Though union members form only a small minority of American workingmen, they could do much to make or mar our war preparations. What would Mr. Gompers do? As to his unswerving fidelity to the Allied cause there could be no question. In the nearly three years preceding our entrance into the war Mr. Gompers had shown no taint of proGermanism. His enthusiasm for the cause of