Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1891-03-28

~ ~ NlN'NpIll) lIllS ItNtl al
Labor Union was formed in the first
place 10 enable its members to take q
seat as Its delegates upon the floor of the
G.. l., L.
But with Mr., Foster as its delegate to
the Detroit Convention, where could
Mr.. Geo. McNell come in? Now it was
OF supreme Importance To him that he
should be delegate. He had but re-
Gently received one hundred dollars of
the tederatlon's money from MIR. Com
pers; he had received it under peculiar
circumstances and for a special purpose,
and 1t was matter of necessity both to
him and to Mr. Gompers that he should
he on the floor ready to defend the al
vance IN case such defence was neces.
sary. Besides. as "A man of all around
ability, ne would be L fuI to Mr.. Gom.
pers, who distinctly was not man Of
that kind. 1t was painful moment to
hlm, but very generously MIR. Foster
resigned IN his favor, and the next day
Mr.. Mcneil was announced as the dele
gate.
But Mr.. Foster having cast his bread
upon the waters set about finding the
tentold return, and he did find it in dis
covering the Tackmaker's Union Now
this Tackmakers Union, which is Gre
dlted III the report of the Federation
with membership of four hundred, is
undoubtedly an honest organization, but
1t had no intention of sending a delegate
to Detroit. But when Foster offered
to represent it there, pay his own expen-
ses and have union label officially recog
nlzed, its members would have been more
than mortal to have refused what cost
them nothing and what might greatly
lnure to their good. And they did not
refuse, but gave Mr. Foster permission
to act as their delegate.
Of this sweet smelling quartette. then,
Mr.. Crowley, the fourth and not the
least odoriferous, claimed to represent
the National Clothing Operative Union,
with membership of at least two thou
sand. But the most patient research
has failed to discover more than one
hundred names upon its rolls. And this
one hundred, be it furthermore known.
were tricked and coerced into joining
the affair. They were all employees Of
one large firm, and their monthly dues
were deducted from their wages and
handed over by an agent Of the firm to
Mr.. Crowley as secretary of the asso.
citation. ] would further state that Mr..
Crowley makes living by pejdlng the
union label to any clothing nrni wao
thinks it worth the purchase; and the
purchasers being, 30 far, plentiful and
the peddler persistent, he has been
enabled to do quite well, neither toiling
nor spinning, yet being arrayed quite as
fashlonably as Solomon in the days of
his glory.
These gentlemen then were duly accre-
dited as delegates; but the most Of them
having no money, and all Of them quite
unwilling to part with it if they had any,
IT only remained for them to get their
expenses paid by some party or parties,
who would deem it sufficient recon,
pense if only labor were kept quiet and
conservative; and this was compare
lively easy task to gentlemen of such
wonderful ingenuity, who led by
the redOubtable Crowley, could eo
quently argue the necessity of sending
to Detroit a delegation pledged to keep
the. socialists from interfering in trade
union affairs. TO crown all, the corpora
ton that runs the Fitchburg Railroad,
at the intercesslOn of Bro Skei1ington,
very generously presented the whole
gang with free passes TO Detroit aud
return
Some of these statements, no doubt,
the gentlemen will deny; but, before
they do SO, will they state when they
were elected, where they were elected,
and by whom they were elected; who
were the rival candidates ond when and
where and by whom the money was
appropriated to pay their expenses.
Elections for delegates to such impor-
tant conventions are not held in the
dark, they are not held without contests
for the position, they are not held with
out previous wire pulling, and never
without being matters of public n0to-
rlety. Yet in these cases it would seem
that they were all held as quietly and
secretly as in the case of Delegate
OSuIlivan of the Sailors Union, where
the very executive officers of tie Boston
branch of that society knew nothing of
his election until they had read that he
had started to Detroit.
Of their action at the convention it is
hardly necessary for me to speak. 1t is
now matter of world. wide notoriety.
But | would say that already in this
city anger among even its most con-
servative workingmen is the predoml-
nant feeling. He who looks back into
recent years and knows how all honest
efforts were frustrated by those men,
how the Central Labor Union of Bos
ton has been made worse than useless
by their management. how the name of
this body and even of their o-vn unions
has been prostituted at every political
meeting where members Of the gang
could catch dollar for speaking, may
deplore, but without surprise, that this
once great body is now in the last stages
of decay: that the pOWprful society of