The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-15

delayed Short Line train Yesterday
afternoon. and was met at the station
by reception committee representing
the Utah Federation of Labor, and was
driven directly TO the Kenyon.
For an hour or more after his arrival,
Mr.. Gompers held an impromptu leVee
at his rooms in the Kenyon, represent
atives Of nearly all the labor unions of
the city calling to meet and extend a
welcome to him. He is a small man,
this man who has made such d name
for himself all over the country by his
speeches and writings in the cause OF
labor. He stands but little over five
feet high, and is square-shouldered and
Stocky of build. A shock of black gray
streaked hair hangs almost to his
shoulders His features are heavy; a
large black moustache wells his mouth,
under which is a tiny goatee, setting
off the rounded, dimpled chin, which Is
a bit pitted. as with smallpox. His
hazel eyes look out keenly from behind
his glasses, and seem to search one
through and through.
He is an interesting talker. To the
circle of union men who were there To
call he chatted entertainingly of what
IS being accomplished and viii be ac-
complished by the great organization
OF which he is the head.
Growth of Unionism.
our work is growing rapidly year
by year. he said, and it is hard to es-
innate what we have done and will do
for the laboring man in this country.
We embrace seventy-one national labor
unions, sixteen state declarations, 122
city declarations and over 1900 local
unions, numbering in their ranks over
100000 laboring men. We exercise a
certain amount of control over all OF
these various organizations, and yet It
IS control free from ali dictation, u
control which is founded in the conf
dence sDf the men and women who COM
pose the members of the different
unions.
Our work relates to the interests of
the laboring classes at large. We handle
only matters which affect all wage
earners, not the affairs of any one par
ticular class. Those matters are at
tended to by the several national
unions which are affiliated with
the general federation. Nearly every
great reform which has been accom-
plished in the interests of the laboring
classes had its inception in the fedora
ton. and was put through by the
active, aggressive efforts Of the leaders
of the federation. We represent to the
laboring man his defense and his bull
wark against the aggressions and the
expressions of the money power, the
every industry in the country, throt-
Ting competition, which is the life Of
trade
Organization In the South.
Take, for example, the southern
states. As that part of the country is
essentially an agricultural region, Ia
Dor is not 50 perfectly organized there
as it is in the manufacturing states OF
the north and east And there we are
actively working. We have several or
ganizers who are going about establish
ing unions and organizing the laboring
men. We are gradually accomplishing
much in that region in the way Of re-
forms. We are working against the
cheap labor with which that part of the
country is flooded. They have no laws
against child labor there, nor against
the indiscriminate employment of
women with long hours and at starva-
ton wages. But We are working there
to good effect, and have already done
much for the wage-earners Of that re-
gion.
In the west, also, We are making