The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-17
DAVENPORPS DEBAIES
ON THE PLATFORM WITH LEAD
 FRS OF LABOR.
Samuel Gompers Says the Speeches of the Antf-Boycott AssociatiOn's Attorney Are Such as to
 Make Socialists.
Advertiser Bureau,
 Colorado Building. Wa al,fprfop May 1G

Make Socialists.
 Advertiser Bureau, Colorado Building. Washington, May IS. The series of debates in different parts
 of the country between Daniel Daven. | port of Bridgeport, Conn, representing American Anti Boycott Association, ana various Socialist leaders, over the uues.
 tion of socialism and its relation to the eight hour bill pending before Congress which has been in progress since the ad.
 journment of that body, has attracted considerable attention.
 MT. Davenport claims that not only are the employers of the country opposed to the bill but that the individual workmeu | are not in sympathy with the efforts of organized labor to secure its passage. He
 maintains that the workingmen are op- posed to any movement to limit by law the held of their endeavors to eight hours l In any one day and on the contrary they demand the right to work as long as they | please.
 In opposing the bill MT. Davenport charges that "very many, if not all of the leaders of these labor organizations are open and avowed socialists and are
 using these organizations for the purpose
 of propogating their doctrines" These statements of Mir. Davenport were taken
 up by the socialists who have seized the opportunity to become identified with and
 the defenders of the labor organizations ana he has since been debating the , proposition with their representatives before large audiences in various cities. In commenting on this fact Samuel Gonpers. President of the American
 Federation of Labor, said:
 when before the House Committee on Labor in connection with the eight hour pli MT. Davenport both by direct state- ment and by insnuations endeavored to convey to the committee the notion that the whole proposition Is of a socialistic character and that the Socialists, who- ever they are, are behind the bill irving to push 1t to passage. In reply 1t may not be uninteresting to say, first, that for more than fifteen years the subject mat ter or committing the American labor movement to socialism has been reflected and that at no time was overwhelmingly rejected as at the last meeting of the American Federation of Labor, held in Boston in November of last year.
 The several propositions aiming to conit the American Federation of Labor, politically or otherwise, were reported upon unfavorably and the unfavorabIe report was overwhelmingly adopted des- pite the misrepresentations of the manu- facturers associations and their represen- tatives and the private employers asso- citations and their attorneys I might say further, in refutation of the in sinuation he has made that If the Social ists had their way they would not now be pressing this bill; that the bill would not even have been called to the atten- tion Of Congress.
 MT. Davenport confuses the mixture of organized labor with crime; I do not be- lieve that 1t Is possible for him to dis associate the organized effort of wage earners for their material improvement from violence and crime and Iawlessness when as matter of fact 1t is known 10 every student of the labor movement that wherever the organizations of labor are strongest that there the greatest in- dustrial peace obtains. Mir Davenport insists that there cannot be any sunda- mental change between the relations of employer and workmen and that any at- tempt on this line will lose to the em- ployer the control of the business in which he Is engaged: that he cannot sue ophy on which this statement is found ed is fallacious.
 MT. Davenport. of course. appeared before the Labor Committees as the rem resentative of an anti-boycott associa- tion-a private institution, he said-and he went out as an organizer He says that for good reasons he cannot give the names of his clients. I can only say that we do give our credentials; we told the committee who we were and what we were and whom we represented: and by whom we were directed to go there and to say that there are now two million perhaps a little more. but not less than that number-of organized men and wo- men in the American Federation of Labor.
 The employees of Baldwin & Co, of Philadelphia. to which MT. Davenport referred In his testimony before the House Committee on Labor, are to considerable extent unoraginezd. will venture to say. however. that at a meet ing at which my eloquent friend Mir Davenport. would address them in op- position to the eight hour day, and some representative of labor would address them in favor of the eight hour day, that a secret ballot after the addresses were made would show a vote practically unanimous in favor of the eight hour day. Of course, if asked questions by an employer who frowned down organiza- tions or if asked the question by an at torney for a secret employers society the chances are that they may want to hold their jobs.
 Whether intentionally or otherwise" |" he concluded, ''as a matter of fact. it Is such as Mir. Davenport who create socialists"