Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-12-13
THE FEDERATION.
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE GREAT AMERICAN
LABOR BODY
In Session in Philadelphia President GOmpsrs De-
livers His Annual Address-The Strikes Of
Last Summer and Their Results Re
viswsd-Secrstary Evans Report

Federation of Labor in Independence
Hall this morning. An address OF wei
come in behalf of the United LABOR
League of this city was delivered oy
George Chance, of the Typographical
Union No. 2, in which he said:
Measured by the wealth that mas
been gathered, Pennsylvania Is great,
pros porous and powerful; contrasted
with the condition of the producers, the
State is poor indeed.
81 have no hesitaRcy in saying tnat
the laws of the nation and the State
are partly responsible for this condition
OF affairs. Trusts, have been legaiized
and fostered, while soulless corpora
tions aud gigantic plants are the espe-
cial wards of State; laws passed for the
| benefit Of the masses are declared I'M
constitutional, or decisions given thai
render their provisions nugatory. These
and other decisions force us to the De-
lief that there is one law or rather con-
struction of it for the poor man and an
other for the rich. When this fact
becomes patent to the masses or the
| people as it surely will, the remedy, or
the attempt at it will be swift, and IL
may be terrible. IL is said that the
'blood Of the martyrs was the SEED OF
| the church," IL is possible that through
, the blood Of men who died on the banks
OF the Monongahela last July may come
| q realization of the true condition OF al
fairs and that the legislation will be In
| favor Of the masses rather than for the
ACKNOWLEDGMENT of the few"
President Gompers replied briefly for
the Federation, thanking the laooring
men of Philadelphia for their welcome
and for the admonitions that had been
given.
sit is lamentable, ;" he declared, "that
judges should stoop so low to arrive at
such depicable ends as has been wilt
messed recently In Pennsylvania"
He ascribed these wrongs to two
causes: The comparative lack OF or
ganization among the laboring men OF
| the State; and the devotion OF wage
workers to partisanship first, and to
! their class interests last.
At the afternoon session the dele
gates were entertained for half an hour
by John Swinton, the New York jour-
nalist, in savage attack on BLACK
| 4
| Mr.. Swinton declared he was not dis
couraged by the abandonment of strikes
at Homestead, Buffalo. Ceuer D'Alene,
New Orleans, and other plabes In the
| last year. These efforts had been the
effect of checking aggression on the
worklngmen.
1.-THE labor of the country" he con-
| tinued, "has been paid millions OF dol
| lars this year which it would surely
have lost without the help Of these
striking brethren. Every man dis
abled In these wars OF labor should be
remembered and hoDored for his SER
vices as he who draws his daily dole for
his duty in the camp"
The speaker concluded with an appeal
for union of all labor organizations, on
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The committee on credentials then
reported eiehty-one delegates entitled
to admission and the report was adopt
ed.
| President Gompers announced the
membership of the various committees.
| President Gompers then read his annual
report which was in brief as follows:
"Events have transpired in the field
of labor within the past six months
which have aroused public attention,
because the incidents connected with
them have been more or less OF an I'M
usual chaeacter. In each Of these labor
struggles the employers, the corpora
tions, have simply made request and
! the armed forced Of the States and the
United States were at their bidding. In
the coal mines OF Tennessee, where the
miners are being gradually but surely
supplanted by the labor Of con-
victs, miners pleaded in vain
to the legislature of the
State to stop this nefarious traffic. In
stead OF having their wrongs redressed
they are scorned. At Homestead,
where the iron and steel workers were
offered wholesale reduction In their
wages, an armed band of marauders
sailing under no flag, owing allegiance
TO no State or country, land conse-
quently by the law of all nations con-
sidered pirates), was brought by the
corporations to invade that peaceful
town, to oyerawe and intimldate its
citizens and workers, to aid in the effort
to supplant their labor by poorer and
demoralized set of human beings. The
men of Homestead seeing their liber-
ties endangered; their lives, their
homes and families menaced, took up
arms against the invaders and repealed
them.
cat Buffalo about $50 switchmen used
all the peaceful, persuasive powers men
were capable of for the purpose OF In
ducing their corporations to cease
working their employees, at their re-
sponsible and often dangerous occupa-
tions, longer period than the
laws of the State OF New
York provides, ten hours. They were
treated contemporary by the COM
! pany, and as last resort struck for
the enforcement of the law. The mill
tia OF the State was called out and con-
contracted at Buffalo, doing switchmen's
work and even forcing men to work
against their will.
sat Occur D'Alene, where the miners
had been suffering intense deprivatlons
during six long winter months. the men
who extracted the great wealth from
the bowels of the earth were subjected
to reductions In wages. or the alternative
of seeing their work passing from their
hands to the gangs and hordes of peo-
pie brought over TO this country under
contract At the bidding of the mine
owners the United States troops were
brought to Occur D'Alene and the men
overawed and subdued, the commanding
general Of the United States forces is
suing an order that any employer who
would operate his mine with union men
would not be allowed to work. A
United States judge issued an order
prohibiting the union miners from hold
! ing q meeting. In other words. the
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