The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-24
AN UNSAFE COUNSELLOR.

Samuel Gompers. President of the American Federation of Labor, is credit ed with being a man of sense and dis cernment, and he is frequently held up to public view as one who deprecates the use of violent or unlawful methods in dealing with labor troubles. Recently Cardinal Gibbons declared that ''the whole force of organized society should be employed to defend the non-union workingman in his right to sell his labor where and when and for what price he pleases."
 Certainly this is sound doctrine. The right of a man to work for his living ought to be unquestioned and inalienable until he is guilty of a crime which de- prives him of his freedom. Mir. Gompers practically agrees with this when he says:
 I agree with Cardinal Gibbons that the non-union laborer has, legal right Co work No one denies that right. But or ganized labor holds that it is morally outside of the union Tn his trade or call ing. He has the legal right to refuse to enter a union, and he has the legal right to sell his work at his own price, That fact is not questioned, But it Is also the legal right of the union WOrkingman to say that he will not work with him. It is not all right on one side and all wrong on the other.
 This is an agreement with Cardinal Gibbons though of course all will not agree with MT. Gompers that it is ''mor- ally wrong or in any other way wrong for a woie,ing man to refuse to become a member Of the union. His right to re- main out is just as well grounded as is his right to work for a living where and for whom he chooses, and no right-think ing man can successfully controvert that position. And We admit that the union man may have a legal right to refuse to work with the union man. though we do doubt his moral right to make such distinction. Leaving those questions out of view, however, we come to another expression made by NIT Gompers which is not sound. He said:
 We denounce and oppose violence. If any Individual In d union commits crime We expect the officers of the law to enforce the law. Any attempt on our part eo apply discipline would be preju- dicing his case before it went to the jury. The labor union deals with the economic conditions of work: the government, rep questions of law and order. Organized labor asks for no exemptions from the law, but 1t protests against distortions of the law by the courts.
 But. when questioned as to what should or would be done with union man who has been convicted of crime, he replied:
 He is usually expelled. I have tried, though, to persuade the unions that they should neither reject any man nor, when he is once a member. expel him. If the union is weak il amounts to little: if the union is strong, expulsion Is tantamount to denying him the right to work.
 Is not that a direct admission or asser- tion on the part of the head of all the labor unions of the country that the or ganizations represented by him should not assist in preventing or punishng crime? It is virtually saying that man who belongs to a labor union is really not amenable to the law, or, at least, that no other union man should assist in enforcing the law and punishing the guilty. And if q man belongs to the union he must remain in good fellowship and be considered in all respects the equal of the most exact and scrupulous iaw-abiding man in the community
 If thSse are MT, Gompers's true senti- Haents We do not hesitate to say that he is not safe man to give counsel and advice to right-minded working men.