The San Francisco call., 1898-12-13
GOMPERS POINTS TO DANGERS.
DRIFTING TOWARD ASIATIC
 ENTANGLEMENTS
Expansion Policy Means Denial to Others of the Independence Which We Claim For
 Ourselves.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

KANSAS CITY, Mo, Dec. 12.-At the meeting of the Federation of Trade to- day President Gompers in the course of his address stated the objections of the Federation to the policy of imperialism and expansion, as follows:
 We cannot annex the Philippines with out a large increase in our standing army. A large standing army is repug- nant to Republican institutions and a
 If we annex the Philippines we shall have to conquer the Philippines by the force of arms and thereby deny to them what we claim for ourselves-the right of self-government.
 We shall surrender the present safe and independent position by which we are of peace, and force ourselves into Euro pean and Asiatic entanglements, imply ing war and the preparation for war.
 We shall seek to conquer by the force of arms, instead of by our own industry, commerce and superior mentality and civilization.
 We shall be compelled to open the gates and admit the Chinese, Malays and slave laborers who may come from "our new possessions" since the constitution of the United States forbids the interdiction of the free entry of men and their products between our States and Territories.
 The policy of imperialism is a declara- tion that self-government has failed and that the people. cannot be trusted; that
 
 man and plutocracy and militarism nobler than humanity.
 The attempt to divert the attention of our people from the ills from which we fail
 It has always been the hewers of wood and the carriers of water, the wealth. producers, whose mission 1t has been not only to struggle for freedom but to be ever vigilant to maintain the liberty or freedom achieved: and 1t behooves the representatives of the grand army of la bor, in convention assembled, to give vent to the alarm we feel from the danger threatening us and our entire people and to enter our solemn and emphatic protest against what we already feel-that with the success of the policy of imperialism the dependence of our republic will have already set in.
 MT. Gompers reported that S80 local unions were chartered during the year and there are now affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 67 na- tional and international unions, with 10,500 local unions attached; 10 State federations; S2 city central labor unions unions, having no nationals, and 109 federal unions
 On the subject of an eight-hour work day MT. Gompers says
 Should industrial conditions warrant. fl is suggested that every effort be made bv the incoming ofncers Tn cooperation with the trade union movement of the country to inaugurate a general agitation and movement for the more universal intro duction of the eight-hour or shorter work day.
 Although there seems to be no doubt that MT. Gompers will be reelected. a fight will be made upon him by a small faction headed by Isaac Cowen and Max Hays of Cleveland.
 T would fight against Gompers. ,, said Cowen, in an interview to-day. If it were the last thing I had to do on earth. Gompers is entirely too con servative and slow. We have not se- lected a candidate yet, but shall do so. He will be a representative of up-to- date socialism '