Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1902-08-19
CHILDREN
Make Some Men
Rich.
Their Bones Ground
Into Dollars.
Samuel Gompers Speaks on the
Labor Problem.

Mountain Lake Park, Nd, Aug. 19.-
Several thousand persons greeted
Samuel Gompers, president Of the
American Federation of Labor, who
delivered an address before the Chau
tauqua assembly on Labor and Cap
ital-the Workman's Side of the Story,
President Mitchell of the United
Mine Workers of America, who was
also to have spoken, was unable to be
present because Of the serious situation
in the anthracite field.
Mr.. Gompers prefaced his remarks
by saying that the average mind looks
contrary on labor's side of the question.
"The newspapers, without any attempt
on my part to charge them with unfair
ness, usually present the labor ques
ton from the standpoint of the EN-,
ployer. They either get their informa-
tion from employers or their represen-
MLifec. IL ID tuc suluc oiu 5toly
because it is the men and the women,
the representatives of labor, who suffer
from the same old wrong. There is
no short cut to emancipation"
Mr.. Gompers declared that the labor
of young and innocent children is the
great evil that needs reformation,
MANY states, particularly in the south,
have no law whatever to prevent the
practice. Men get rich" he declared,
''from the labor of children whose
bones are ground into almighty dollars.
1t is a sad commentary. Men walk the
streets in idleness in the textile dis
tricts while the mills are filed with
busy children. Instead Of labor being
Drowned with honor and dignity, it's
Hghtful heritage, it Is a question of
low much labor can be squeezed out
II the laborer and how little wages he
ran be forced to accept in return"
Mr.. Gompers discussed the question
Of shorter hours at length, declaring
the countries of long hours were decid-
edly backward, and denied the allega-
tion that the movement to shorten
hours would mean the decadence of the
United States as a great producing
power.
He declared that there was no
creator conservator of the peace than
the labor organization. zone hundred
and fifty thousand men in the anthra-
cite field have been engaged in silent
struggle for three months and there
has been less violence than is commit
ted at picnic of ordinary people upon
ordinary occasions. The men strug-
Cling today have been reduced to n
state Of serfdom, but in the past three
years they have been recast and their
characters remodeled. Their manhood
is aroused and ! believe, as God is my
JuuBe, lHe WOIsl lne miners nave ma
TO confront Is past" Great applause)
Mr. Gompers declared that the law
yer was incompetent to discuss the in
dustrial question. THE lawyer lives
sin and studies the past he declared.
p'While being faced physically forward
he is mentally in the dark ages"
This observation was brought out by
the alleged remark of Mr.. Ross, q
legal representative of the Delaware,
Lackawanna & Western railroad re-
Gently, that there can be no arbitration,
that the miners must first return to
work and then companies will discuss
the matter with them. Eve demand
the right to be heard by counsel" de-
clared the speaker. Just imagine the
miner being forced back to work with