The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-12-20
FEDERATION De lAeoa.

Annual Convention In Session Mt Chicago
Address OF President Comparable Of
fers Remedy for the Industrial De-
preston. ~,
CHICAGo. Dec. 12. --Repressntativesof
organized labor from all parts of the
country. and identified with combina-
tions of wage workers having an ag-
gregate membership of million and
q half, assembled in the council cham
ber of the city hall yesterday morning
and formally inaugurated the thir-
teenth annual convention of the Amer
lean Federation Of Labor.
In few words President j. ]. Nc
Grath, of the Chicago Trades Assem-
bly,, expressed fraternal greetings to
the delegates and President Samuel
Gompers responded on behalf of the
federation.
The annual address treats Of the In
dustrial depression, its effect upon
labor organizations, the necessity for
harmony, child labor, political action,
the organization of new unions, fed
eral labor legislation and kindred
topics His utterances on the indus
trial depression are of interest at this
juncture. Says he on this topic:
'Since August of this year we have
been in the greatest industrial depres-
sion this country has ever witnessed.
1t is no exaggeration to say that moro
than three millions Of our fellow toll
ers throughout the country are with
out employment and have been so since
the time named. This lamentable In
dustrial condition Is attributed by
many TO various causes, and itseems TO
me that the accurate statement OF
them here is both requisite and appar-
ent, so that we may be better enabled
to 30 frame our legislation that 1t may
tend to proper solution of the prob
lem dependent upon the wage workers
for solution. From the time industry
began TO emerge from the panic of
1s73-7o there began the introduction of
vastly improved machinery. tools and
methods Of production. The inven-
tions in electricity, the general appli-
cation OF this force as we'll as steam to
industry was indeed 'displaeing labor
faster than new industries could be
founded -....
"That in the end the great body Of
workers comprise those who must Of
necessity consume the production was
given no consideration whatever by
our captains of industry Asa result
the great storehouses are glutted with
the articles required by the people,
without their ability--or rather their
opportunity to obtain-to consume
them. Does 1t require more than ordi-
nary observation to discern that from
conditions so abnormal and abomin-
able, industrial stagnation must ensuc?
We, the representatives of the organ
lied toiling masses of the country,
offered the only reasonable, practica BILE
and tangible solution to meet the
changed conditions of industry. The
federation early foresaw the great diff
ficnlty which confronted the people
and in 1884 declared for the movement
10 reduce the hours of labor.
ut is unnecessary TO repeat the
lamentable incident which frustrated
the eight-hour movement Of 1886. But
in 1890 the federation of labor, true to
its mission, resolved TO engage in the
movement to gradually enforce the
eight-hour work day in which we were
partially successful. Had we been met
by less nntaRonism OF the capitalistic
class and by those who should have
been our friends, II is safe TO say that
the panic of 1893 would have been
averted, deferred and certainly rem
dered less intense.
THE only method by which q practi.
cal, just and safe equilibrium can bO
preserved in the industrial world for
the fast, and ever increasing introduce
tion Of machinery, is commensurate
reduction OF the hours of labor. am
very sure that ifemployers II were to sub
stitute division of the work required
among all their workers, instead of the
discharge of n number we would much
sooner emerge from the present indus.
trial and commercial stagnation."