The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-06-13
President of American Fedora.
ton Delivers an Address.
Opposes Militarism as Being
Clog on Wheels Of Progress.
In SCHOOLS.
Mr.. Gompers Attacks Military
Teachings to the Young.
WOrkingmen Are Going to Have
More In the Future.

An audience that filled Representative
hall heard Samuel Gompers. president
of the American Federation of Labor
speak on THE Struggles, the Progress
and the Hopes of Organized Labor
Monday night.
Owing to a misunderstanding the pro-
posed labor parade did not take place
preceding the meeting at the state cap
itol. This misunderstanding served to
delay the proceedings, and it was nearly
9 o'clock before the people were seated
and Mr.. Gompers rose to address them.
He spoke for over an hour and half,
and the points he made from time to
time We're greeted with loud applause.
The large audience was made up
principally of labOring men, but there
were many professional and business
men present. Conspicuous in a seat
near the speakers stand sat Chief JUS
tice Frank DoSter of the supreme court.
A sprinkling of feminine headgear here
and there throughout the hall proved
that the men were not exclusively inter-
ested in what Mr.. Gompers might say.
The president of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor was introduced by Mr..
w. L. A. Johnson, secretary of the state
society of labor. In responding to the
introduction, he remarked that he con-
sidered it an honor to again address
Topeka audience, and then opened his
address by the declaration that 'Nigi-
lance is the price of liberty" WHITTIER
are we drifting he asked, and entering
into his discourse, said:
rs it not true that our legislatures
and our municipalities are more con-
cerned in granting franchises and i'm
munities to the few instead of seeking
to tighten the burdens of the many?
Is it not true that the conditions eX-
listing before the fall of Rome are to be
found today? Is it not true that we see
wealth exercising it's power over our
legislative bodies, our municipal
councils and even the judiciary of the
country? If these be true, is not the
fundamental principle of our nation.
r-fcr
the consent of the governed, falling into
| decay?
do we not hear on every side the cry
that the people are unsafe, that the
people are not to be trusted, that
large standing army is a necessity in
this country? Is it not a fact that our
very children are now taught the mill
tary spirit in our public schools instead
of being instructed in the progress of
industries and of arts? And is this not
a proof that there are elements at
work on the undermining of our gov
eminent and proof that it is time to see
the danger before us and stand Shout
der to shoulder to defend the glorious
republic of Washington and Jefferson
and Lincoln and Sumner and Brown,
untrammeled and unstained?
WAS it ever known that militia
rism meant liberty? Militarism hangs
a clog in the wheels of progress. Our
country is one based on the sovereign
ty Of its people, and every step towards
militarism is question on the rights
of the American people to govern
themselves.
THE burning, living question of to-
! day" continued Mr.. GOmperS, going
deeper into his subject, (which needs
the minds of our greatest men and our
greatest women to nationally and
peacefully solve, is the labor question.
It is the question that asks, why, when
we produce the wealth of the world
easier and better today, there should be
such a struggle for existence.
This la Dor question brings into play
the labor movement. The labor move
ment is born of hunger; hunger for
food, for better clothes. for better
homes, for human sympathy, for the
time when the brotherhood of man will
be a fact and the enunciations of the
Declaration of Independence be the
principles of our daily life.
The men who refuse to see the JUS
tice of our cause declare us to be I'M
satisfied, declare us to be a class al
ways wanting more. Yes, my friends,
we are a class who want more, but in
that fact are we different from other
people? Go to the man who earns $50
day and ask him what he wants and
he will tell you, more. Ask the man
who has business that brings him in
several thousand dollars a year and
ask him what he wants. He viii tell
you, more, and go to the men who have
millions upon millions of dollars and
ask them the same question, and if
they are truthful with you they viii
tell YOU they want the earth.
eS. ADMIT the ldDOTlDS CldSS6S
want more and if I read thesigns of the
times correctly, my friends, the work
ingmen of this country are going to
get more and they will never cease in
their struggles for more until the worth
of their labor is appreciated. We are
determined that we shall continue in
our work because we realize that in
unity alone is safety to the wage earn
ers-"
Taking up the subject of strikes, Mr.
Gompers said:
I'VE don't want strikes if we can
avoid them, but we won't run away from
them. Laboring men will not strike if
there is a better way out and for the
very reason that we don't want strikes,
we are organizing every day so as to be
able to strike at any time, and we viii
find there will be no necessity for
strikes at ALL"
In conclusion Mr.. Gompers said:
I'VE are organizing every day AL
ready 200, 600 men are on our rolls, and
by the end of the nineteenth century
two million Of men will be under the
banner of the American Federation of
Labor. With two million wage earners,
organized, my God, it seems to me
that injustice can not endure a day.
There is no right for which the Ia
Dor movement does not stand. and no
wrong against which it does not pro-
test. With the coming of the twentieth
century I beg of you to give your best
thought to the solution of the great
problems of the day, not by force of
conflict, not by shot and shell, not by
resolution but by sincere and earnest
Efforts