The Washington herald., 1906-10-16


While radicalism is the most conspicu-
Gus feature of the country's politics ut
present there is another feature more
Distinctly new, and it Is this which the
thoughtful student will watch more care
fully and study more profoundly as the
campaign proceeds than the lurid course
of radicalism. The other feature to which
We refer has been introduced by Samuel
Gompers and his fellow-OfIicers of the
american Federation of Labor
For the first time IN cur history the or
ganiZcd labor forces Of the country are
asked by their leader to go to the polls
and vote as a unit for only those candi-
dates for Congress whose records or
whose pledges place them in harmony
with certain specified purposes of the
American Federation Of Labor. The
movement is not partisan in the sense
of being allied with either of the two
great parties. The membership rolls Of
the Federation show a potential voting
strength Of two millions, scattered from
ocean to ocean and from the Great Lakes
90 the Gulf, and embracing every charac-
ter of toileT who exhausts Drawn In
sweat. That these two million voters are
Of equal intelligence and patriotism with
"a like number of citizens that might be
selected at random from the other four
teen million voters of the country. il
would be absurd to deny. Il is for this
reason, with its manifold ramifications
through our national life, that the effort
10 introduce the American Federation Of
labor into our politics as a distinct and
sentient entity is Of peculiar interest
The issue was squarely joined in Repre-
sentative Littlefeld's district in Maine
last month. President Gompers and some
OF his most experienced workers in the
cause of organized labor went there and
for weeks exerted their utmost ef-
forts with the members Of their organiza-
tioR against AIr. LittIefeld. He was elect
cd by a majority more than 5000 below
the normal In the face Of his greatly re-
duced vote, Mr.. Littedeld declared, some
what in spirit Of petulant boastfulness.
il seemed ar the time, that the fight made
by Nr. Gompers had helped instead Of
harming him. The returns. indeed. show
that Mr. LittIeheld led the ticket in his
home county. and it is u fact that the
majorities of two other Republican Con-
gressmen elected the same day were re-
duced quite as much as Mr.. Littledeld's.
although they had no such opposition.
any deduction as to the relative strength
OF the candidates. however. is reduced
TO a manifest absurdity by the fact that
prohibition was the overshadowiug issue
in all other parts OF Maine.
The point Of chief national concern.
then, still remains to be developed. II is
whether the 100000 votes enrolled in the
a F. of L, or the mass Of them, can be
cast IN bulk-can be controlled and direct
ed. This point contains the germ of a
vast social evolution If the germ shall
be fructifed BY the leaders Of the present
movement. it viii be the first long step
toward permanently grouping Americans
into classes. It may Eurcpeanize our
whole social organization.
Under the existing dispensation, the la
borer Of to-day becomes the employer of
labor tomorrow Napoleon was proud to
boast that every private in his uncon-
querabIe legions carried in his knapsack
the baton Of the marshal Every Ameri-
can who expends muscle for a wage feels
that there is within him the power and
before him the opportunity whereby he
may exchange the blouse of the laborer
for the coat of the capitalist. We believe
this feeling is as alive and buoyant and
determined to-day as ever it WAS. II il
IS diving. or even if it is lethargie. the
whole mass OF our citizenship needs a
stinulaHt. The result in November Of the