The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-13
MENACE TO REPUBLIC.
President GOmpers Thus Interprets
the Policy of Expansion.
LABOR LEADERS, ADDRESS
IMPERIALISM DECLARES SELF
GOVERNMENT A FAILURE.
Hordes of Slave Laborers Will Be
Brought Into Competition With
Americans-President of the Fed
Grafton Protests Against the I'm
pending Danger.

NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of the Fed
Grafton Protests Against the I'm
pending Danger.
Kansas City, Mo-, Dec. 1.-THE
annual convention of the
American Federation of Labor met this
About $50 delegates from all
parts of the country were present, also
William Thorne and William Inskip of
London, representing the British trade
union congress. Delegate 1nslip's mis-
sion is to present plans for closer ALI
ance between the United States and
the mother country along industrial as
we'll as political lines.
The work mapped out for the opening
day included the committee reports,
the seating and rejection of contested
delegates, Of whom there are several,
and the annual address of President
Samuel GomperS.
President Evans of the Kansas City
Commercial club welcomed the dele
gates, President Gompers responding.
After disposing of the usual prelim-
mary matters of organization, Presi-
dent Gompers delivered his annual adj
dress, which was received by the dele
Mr.. Gompers, referring to the ques-
ton Of international comfy, said:
with the view of a closer bond of
sympathy and unity among the organ
lied workers of the different countries,
correspondence with many of them has
been maintained and entered into with
a number of others.
Referring to the Pana and Virden
strikes, Mr.. Gompers said: 1.-The oper-
q N L q nj
and the strike by importing a horde of
eX-convicts, negro cheap laborers from
Alabama, and placing them under an
armed guard of Pinkerton thugs and
hirelingS. That bloodShed would ensue,
with an ignorant mass Of men armed to
do the bidding of characterless men,
could easily be foreseen. Governor
Tanner recognized the band Of men
armed was contrary to the laws of the
state and forbade entrance to others,
and finally, approaching the strained
condition of affairs, he declared martial
law and insisted upon the disarmament
Of all"
OPPOSITION TO EXPANSION.
Mr.. Gompers stated the objections of
the federation to the policy of imper-
ialism and expansion" as follows:
1--WE cannot annex the Philippines
without a large increase in our stand
ing army. A large standing army is
repugnant to republican institutions
and menace to the liberty of our own
people.
eff we annex the Philippines, we
shall have to conquer the Filipinos by
force and thereby deny to them what
we claim for ourselVes-the right of
self-g government.
I'VE shall surrender the present safe
and independent position, by which we
are guaranteed the tranquility and
the fruits of peace, and force ourselves
into European and Asiatic entangle-
ments, implying war and the prepara-
ton fer war. We shall seek to conquer
by the force of arms, instead of by our
mentality and civilization.
I'VE shall be compelled to open the
gates to admit the Chinese, MaIays and
slave laborers who may come from our
new possessions since the constitution
of the United States forbids the inter
diction of the free entry of men and
their products between our states and
our territories.
1.-THE policy of imperialism is a dec
laration that self-government has failed
and that the people cannot be trusted;
that the dollar is of more consequence
than man, and plutocracy and militar-
ism nober than humanity. The attempt
to divert the attention of our people
from the ills from which we suffer at
home to foreign questions viii fail.
LIBERTY'S DEFENDERS.
ut has always been the hewers of
wood and the carriers of water, the
wealth producers, whose mission it has
been not only to struggle for freedom
but to be ever vigilant to maintain the
liberty or freedom achieved, and it be-
hnny-aC OF Of Il
army of labor in convention assembled,
to give vent to the alarm we feel from
the dangers threatening us and our en-
tire people, to enter our solemn and
emphatic protest against what we al
ready feel, that with the success Of the
policy Of Imperialism the decadence OF
our republic will have, already set in
Mr.. GOmpers reported that $50 local
unions were chartered during the year,
and there are now affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor sixty
seven national and international unions,
with 10000 local unions attached, ten
state declarations; eighty-two city CEN
trail labor unions and trade assemblies;
315 local trade unions, having no ma
tionals, and l09 declarations.
On the subject of an eight-hour work
day, MIR. GomperS says: Should in
dustrial Conditions warrant, it is sug-
gested that every effort be made by the
incoming officers, in cooperation with
the trade union movement of the coun-
try, to inaugurate a general agitation
and movement for the more universal
introduction of the eight-hour, or short
er hour, work day."
ANNUAL REPORTS.
At the afternoon session. d number of
committees We're appointed and the
consideration of routine business was
begun.
Treasurer John B. Lennon submitted
his annual report, showing total re-
ceipts of S21, 5SS, and total disburse-
merts of 3d. 1877, leaving q balance on
hand of 1891, with an additional sum
of s., 900 in the hands of the secretary
Treasurer Lennon appealed for larger
contributions to the treasury of the
federation, stating that whenever the
officers of the federation had failed to
accomplish all that was expected of
them during the past year, the lack of
effectiveness had been due to lack of
funds.
Secretary Frank Morrison reported a
gratifying increase of membership.
Only two of the sixty-seven affiliated
organizations reported a decrease, sew
er-al having doubled or trebled their
membership Twenty-Five organiza-
tions surrendered their charters during
the year among them being the West
ern Federation of Miners, with a mem