Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1903-01-16
GOMPERS ON STRIKES
THE BEST PREVENTIVE IS FOR LABOR
TO BE PREPARED.

Samuel Gompers, president Of the
American Federation of Labor, lee
tured ON strikes before the League For
Political Education in New York re,
Gently. He said in part:
"In the cold, hard. callous view Of
the average employer and the average
professor of economy the labor Ques-
tion is mere matter of buying and
selling a thing. They speak of the
market price of labor. In the whole
world this is the only thing for which
the buyer sets the price.
"The seller sets 1t In the stores and
for all other commodities, and labor is
the only exception. This fact had its
origin in slavery and serfdom, and our
present discomfort with 1t is manifest
ed by the people in desire to have a
voice in determining the conditions
and the price under which labor and
labor power shall be bought and sold.
1.-The movement is begun in spirit
of conciliation and for the benefit Of
the whole human race. If buyer and
seller are unable to agree, there enters
spirit of opposition, and finally there
Is strike.
"The question is met on the same
inhuman and inhumane level in which
it is viewed by the employer. The peo-
pie decline to sell their only wealth ex-
cept under fairer conditions. The pro-
duction of wealth is discontinued to
determine anew the conditions under
which it shall be produced.
L..
ing the resources of the country, the
genius and ingenuity of the people and
the advance in the methods of protec
ton, the workers declare that their
share of wealth produced is not COM
mensurate with that to which they are
entitled. They insist on better homes
better surroundings, better opportuni-
ties for the cultivation of all that is
good, and strike is justifiable If 1t is
necessary.
II don't say that or the organization
with which 1 am allied advocates
strikes. No man has devoted any part
of his life to the discussion, of the labor
question or to helping the wage earners
In the labor movement but has done all
in his power to prevent and avert
strikes.
II have yet to find one such in my
third Of century of connection with
the labor movement who is an advocate
of strikes.
"We don't want to strike. There is no
fun in a strike, no enjoyment. There
Is some experience of an unkind and
unsympathetic character. But people
who won't fight when driven to the last
resort will never have their honor or
their interests respected. There are
some things worse than strikes-degra-
dation, decentralization and cowardly
manhood. There comes a time when to
refuse to strike is to sign the enslave-
ment of the workers.
"All history has proved that the best
preventive of strikes is preparedness
for them. That may sound to some peo
pie like preparing for Industrial war;
but it is not so. If peace is to be pre-
served in the world of nations, 1t must
come from one of two things-all ma
| tions being armed or all being dis
armed. If one nation is armed, 1t is
madness for another to remain un-
armed.
"The employers of modern times are
in their nature organizations fully
equipped for assault against workmen.
The possession of wealth is in itself an
industrial armament of the employing
classes to carry out their own sweet
will, and the best manner of prevent
ing impositions and the exercise Of
tyrannical powers the invasion Of the
rights of others, is to make them i'm
possible or too expensive.
"In olden times slaves and workers
manifested discomfort by taking up the
bludgeon or dirk for personal venge-
ance. In our times organized wage
earners are contributing u few pennies
a week or Il month to a fund which
shall be an-armament for the working
people, so that at the last analysis
they may say that they want voice
In selling their labor, in determining
hours that shall not be burdensome
and in demanding share of the
wealth they create and If it is neces-
sary to strike the fund will supply
bread to maintain the long siege"
|
that strikes were always elevating, as
men to replace those thrown out Of
work in an unsuccessful strike were
either previously unemployed or prob
ably not getting as high wages, while
those out of work could not do worse
than trade places with the Others
though, being of superior moral cour-
age and stamina, they would probably
maintain their previous level.
What would be the present condi-
tions if it were not for the strikes Of
early times In this country and Eng
land he said he would rather leave to
the imagination than attempt to de.
scribe.
OF the coal strike he said that II
was the outbreak of desperate men
against the conditions that had pre-
vailed for twenty-five years, and that
deplorable as were some of it's results,