The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-02-11
Samuel GOMPERs Gets
BACK At SOCIALISTS
Severely Scores Falsifiers Who
1mpugn His Motives in.
Attending Banquets.
Refers to Fact That Leading
Socialists Have Been Feast
ed by Millionaires.

! Socialists Have Been Feast
ed by Millionaires.
Washington, D. c. In the current
| issue of the Federationist, Samuel
Gompers comes back at the Socialists
for their criticism and abuse because
he is occasionally called upon to re-
spond to toasts at banquets given by
! men of wealth. His criticism is as fol-
lows:
! Recently a socialist at a meeting of
the New York Central Federated I'm
ion, held two days after the meeting
and the incidental dinner of the Civic
Federation, took occasion to attack the
President of the American Federation
of Labor for "mingling with the enc
mics of labor" eating 'scab bread"
and smoking ''scab CIGARS. OF course
no one who knows the consistent
! course Of the president of the Americ-
an Federation Of Labor has tried to
live, attached any credence to the at
tack, except the socialists who utter
! ed and repeated it, and the worst anti
union capitalist papers which publish
ed it.
We pay attention to the attack not
to convince the enemies of the trade
union movement, that is, the socialists
and the Parryites, but those who do
not know the facts and who may have
| their judgment warped by reason Of
the constant repetition of the SANDER.
It is not necessary to enter into a
discussion of the Civic Federation,
| other than say that it is an association
made up of representative men in the
ranks of organized labor and a large
! number Of great employers Of labor,
with representatives of the general
public, for the discussion Of the econ
| omic bringing about the rightful rela-
tons between the workmen and their
employers. It is not an association in
which men surrender their convictions
or the independence Of their positions,
nor are decisions rendered binding upon
any one. 1t seeks to bring represent
tative men in all walks of life together,
to be helpful to their fellows. 1t has
made conferences possible between or
gained labor and employers of labor,
including large corporations, when
without, it, many conferences would
been helpful in preventing conflicts,
and also in paving the way for the adj
justment of difficulties, and in no in
stances have these conferences, in
which strikes and conflicts were avoid
ed or adjusted, been other than help
full to labor. So much for the Civic
Federation itself.
But the socialists, who take every
opportunity to decry the trade union
movement and declare that strikes are
futile to protect or promote the inter-
ests Of the working people, attack the
| trade unto1istss when the effort is
! made by them to avoid strike; or to
bring one to an honorable and ad-
vantageous close. And it is because
the trade unionists, by their practical
course, bring, success and advantage
to labor that the political socialists
realize that their predictions are
! groundless, their philosophy unsound,
| and, therefore, gleefully distort any
| course which the trade unionists may
| pursue.
Concede, for the sake Of argument,
| that there are enemies of labor who
| attend the meetings and the incident
|
is it possible for trade unionists to
controvert their position unless by
meeting them face to face, and as
stoutly and as ably as they can, pres
ent the contentious and demands which
organized labor makes upon them and
upon modern society?
| During the meeting referred to, and
which was the cause of the last soci-
alist attack, the representatives of la
! Dor as manfully and as strongly as
could be, presented the position Of
organized labor.
For verification whereof we refer to
the printed proceedings of that gather
ing.
| A few years ago the socialist candi-
date for president of the United
States Mr.. Debs, was the guest of the
Millionafres' Twentieth Century Club
at Sherry's, New York. Did the soci-
alists charge him with ''mingling with
the enemies Of labor" or of eating
''scab Bread" or Of smoking "scab
cigars?" Did the socialists denounce
Lawrence Groundland, the socialist
writer, when he, few years ago, was
the guest Of the Millionaires' Coterie
|
ganizers and spokesman for these
things? The American Labor Union
placed boycott on the Boot and Shoe
Workers. union label; on the union
label Of the Brotherhood of Papermak-
ers, and threatened a boycott on the
union label of the Cigarmakers' Inter-
national Union. Did the socialists in
New York Or elsewhere critice or de-
nounce these anti-trade union acts and
tactics? mot On your life!" And the
reason is not difficult to find when it
is known that the American Labor I'm
! ion is the natural offspring Of that
piratical union-wrecking concern, the
Socialist Trade and Labor. Alliance"
| Now, as to facts in the case in point,
those who know anything Of the prac-
tlce of the president of the American
Federation of Labor are aware that
1t is his custom to abstain from par
taking of the things at the festive