Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-06-30
CENTRAL LABOR UNION
An Important Letter on Politics From
President Gompera
Advises All Workingmen to Abstafn
From Amliat1on With Any
Party-Other Business.

From Amliation With Any
Party-Other Business.
The meeting of the Central Labor Union
which was held last evening, was consider
ed by the delegates in attendance as the
most important yet held by that organiza-
ton. President Milford Spohn presided,
Mr.. Joseph F. Torrens was secretary and
every affiliated union was fully represented.
The following letter from President Samuel
Gompers was read and placed on file:
I'VE will soon be in the throes Of a po-
itical campaign. The passions Of men will
be sought to be aroused, their prejudices
and supposed ignorance played upon and
brought into action. The partisan zealot,
the political mountebank. the statesman
for revenue only, as well as the effer-
vescent, bucolic. political party. cure-all.
sophist and falkir, will be rampant. The
dear workingman and his interests will be
the theme of all alike, who really seek
party advantage and success, though civ
ilization fail. labor be crushed ard relapse
into barbarlSm be the result.
I'VE are Oh the eve of events which will
put our members, our unions and our en-
tire movement to most critical test, q
test which may mean either a partial DISCO
"
extension and development. 1t is because
of the great trust committed to my care
that a timely word of advice and warning
is given, lest our members be taken un-
awares and fail to profit by the ex-
perience of labor organizations which
have weathered the storms and those
others whose only evidence of for
mer greatness or existence are their
epitapns. folly, blunders, calamities. Learn
to see in another's calamity the ills which
you should avoid is a maxim declared
more than 1900 years ago, and 1t Is as
applicable to our times as when 1t was
first penned.
Whatever labor secures now or secured in
the past is due to the efforts of the workers
themselves in their own organizations-the
trade unions on trade union lines, on trade
union action. When in previous years the
workers were either unorganized or poorly
organized, the political trickster scarcely
ever gave a second thought to the dear
workingman and his interests. During the
the political soothsayers attempted by cajol-
cry and batting to work their influence into
labor organizations, to commit them to
either one party or another.
The Insidious Politician.
There are many organizations which may
declare that their unions are safe from such
influences. and, lulled into a fancied securi-
ty, permit the virus of political PARTISAN
ship to be injected into their very being
laying their unions liable to the most malig-
nant diseases of division, antagonism and
disruption. Bear in mind that the modern
political party freebooter finds his proto-
type in the one who For ways that are
dark and for tricks that are vain, the
heathen 0oliticaD Chinee is peculiar
The movement Of labor now is growing
stronger day by day. 1t is becoming more
far-reaching than at any time within the
history of our country. Each city, town
and village now has its unions Of labor
The time is coming, If We but meet the in
truder at the doors Of our meeting rooms
and compel him to turn about and take his
departure, when there will be few If any Of
our fellow toilers outside the beneficent in
huence of organized labor.
The industrial field is Uttered with more
ccrpses OF organizations destroyed by the
damning influences of partisan political ac-
ton than from all other causes combined
Nor must it be at all lost sight of that this
does not only apply to local or national
trade unions. but also to previous efforts of
lahcr at national federation. The National
Labor Union. in it's time great fedora ion
after 1T committed itself to political parti-
san action, went to the limbo of movements
which no longer moved. After that act it
acted no more. No convention of that or
ganization was ever after held.
In the light of that experience the Amer
lean Federation of Labor has always de-
clared and maintained that the unions Of
labor are above and should be beyond the
power and influence of political parties 1t
was with these great object lessons still
dangling before our vision, like the famous
writing on the wall or like the sword of
eamocles hanging over our heads by a
single thread, which severed by a failure
to profit by past experience may leave us
headless. and the whole body of organized
labor bleeding to death, a hapless victim of
our folly, serfs or slaves to the cupidity Of
corporate monopolistfc greed, that the A.
+. of l.. at its last convention resolved that
party politics. whether they be democratic.
republican, socialistlc, pOpuiStic. prohibi-
ton or any other, shall have no place in
the conventions of the American Federation
Of Labor
This action, while it directly DEGREES the
course for the conventions of the A. F. of
L.. is also declaration of policy and prin-
cipie and hence applies equally to all affil-
lated organizations.
The Steam Filters Fight.
Delegate McCrink offered a series of
resolutions, which were unanimously adopt-
ed, declaring that hereafter untA- the boss
steam and hot water filters yield to the
demands of their men for an eight-hour
day, no member CT the Central Labor
Union and it's affiliated unions shall work
in any building where those bosses have
contracts, and that all firms or individuals
dcirg business with the bosses shall be
considered unfair.
LII discussing the resolution several of the
delegates from the steam and hot water
the action heretofore taken by the Central
Labor Union had been of great service ard
benefit to them. and they were getting
along very comfortably and with continued
good prospects for speedy victory.
District Organizer Weber reported hav-
ing organized the white BARRIERS Union"
as stated in yesterdays Star. and the ap-
plication of the new union for charter
from the American Federation of Labor
was Endorsed by the Central Labor Union.
At the request of the delegates from
Columbia Musical League, a committee,
composed of Messrs. Rodier, Mayer and
Canty, was appointed to call on Manager
Herman of the Lyceum Theater and Grand
Opera House for the purpose of denying
certain reports said to have been told him
regarding members of Columbia Musical
League, and also to try to get some of his
patronage for the latter.
The delegates from the engineers reported
that their union had Endorsed the labels of
the Cigar Makers and Typographical
Union.
Organized Labor and Real Estate.
Resolutions were also adopted, on motion
of delegate from the Bricklayers' Union,
pledging the c. L. U. and all affiliated or
CARNATIONS to refuse to rent or buy houses