The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-22
The PRESIDENT TO LABOR MEN
SOME PLAIN TALK TO GOMPERS
AND 100 OTHERS.
II VIII DO All In My Power" He says, FOR
the LaborlnE ssan, Except to Do What
10 Wrons"--Rebukes Then for Position
Assured or S.Hour Law At Panama.

by Samuel Gompers, president Of the
American Federation of Labor, called in q
body at different times to-day on President
Roosevelt, Speaker Cannon and Senator
Frye, President pro tenn. Of the Senate,
10 present several grievances in regard to
the %eatment Of labor questions by Con-
gress and the executive departments.
An identical petition was presented to the
President, the Speaker and Senator Frye
complaining that the House COMMITTEES on
Labor was not treating proposed labor
legislation fairly. that the Chinese exclusion
laws are being violated grossly, that the
Eight Hour law is being ilagrantly disre-
garded in many cases; and that in other
ways the laboring people of the United
States are suffering from injustices which
the Government should remedy.
In replying TO the petition, which was read
to him at length President Roosevelt de-
livered a vigorous address to the labor
leaders. He told them that he would not
receive a petition in which q coordinate
branch Of the Government was criticised
were 1t not for the fact that the Executive
was made to share In the criticism. He de-
clared that the position assumed by the or
ganized labor bodies In regard to the Eight
Hour law on the Panama Canal was all
wrong; and that as far as the danger from
Chinese labor competition was concerned
the whole scare was a pure ohimera.
The President rebuked his visitors for
saying that no hearing was given prior to
the signature Of the appropriation bin
containing the publication in regard to
labor on the Panama Canal, and he said with
a great deal Of emphasis that the union
labor officers ~'accentuated too much the
differences between these who do one kind
Of labor and those who do another"
Speaker Cannon also rebuked the dele
cation for their attitude toward the House
Committee on Labor. The delegation who
called On the President and on Speaker
Cannon and Senator Frye consisted, in
addition to Mr.. Gompers, of several other
officers Of the Federation of Labor, the
members Of the executive council and 1O7
presidents Of national and international
labor bodies.
The petition; which is addressed to the
President, to the President pro tenn. Of the
Senate and to the Speaker Of the House,
recites the grievances In regard to which
organized labor complains in the matter Of
legislation enacted and that which. 1t Is
sought to have enacted.
COMPLAINTS OF THE LABOR LEADERS.
The first matter complained Of is the
eight hour bill, in which the efforts of the
Federation ave been in vain. Complaint
is also made against the provision In the
appropriation bill for the Panama Canal
which contains a rider to "nullify the eight
hour law and principle in it's application
to the greatest public work ever under
taken by our Government" The memorial
asserts that this rider was enacted without
hearings of any kind.
Complaint is also made against the failure
to enact a law which shall safeguard labor
from the work Of convict and penal insti-
buttons. 1t protests also against the propo-
sition to invalidate the Chinese exclusion
law and the reversal Of our policy toward
Chinese immigration, while complaining at
the same time that the present law is fla
GRAVITY violated. 1t also says that the
partial relief secured some years ago pro-
viding that seamen should not be COM
PEELED to endure involuntary servitude has
been seriously threatened and that a dis
position has been shown to extend to other
workmen the system Of compulsory labor
while the rights OF seamen have been denied.
Under the guise Of a bill to substitute
the shipping industry" says the memorial,
"a provision is incorporated providing for
form of CONSUMPTION which would make
compulsory naval service a condition prece-
dent to employment on privately owned
vessels"
The memorial declares that the terrible
and Unnecessary loss of life on the Slocum
and the Rio de Janeiro was due to the
undermining and unskilled manning OF
such vessels. Complaint is further made
that the anti-trust and interstate COM
merce laws have been perverted 80 as TO
invade and violate the rights OF labor, and
that efforts to obtain redress from Congress
have been in vain. Criticism Is also made
of the manner of enforcing writs of injunc.
ton and the failure of labor to secure re-
dress from Congress.
The petition then makes an assault upon
the Committee OF Labor OF the House and
declares that in the past two Congresses
it has been so organized az to make in
e~fectual any attempt labor has made for
TeuTesS' lBHOIunB Jn6 request OF hDOT
to appoint on that committee men OF ex-
p%erienoe, knowledge and sympathy With
organized labor. the committee. it asserts,
was made up Of those hostile to its inter-
The petition further charges that the
order forbidding Government
employees, under pain Of dismissal, from
p%etitioning Congress for redress forces
the surrender Of their constitutional rights.
The memorial concludes with this semi
threat:
Labor now appeals to you. and We crust
it will not be in vain. But if nerchance
may not heed us, we shall appeal to
the conscience and support Of our fellow
citizens
TIE PRESIDENTS REPLY
President Roosevelt's reply TO the Pc
tition Of the labor leaders was delivered
with much elaboration and with oharao-
teristic direction and emphasis, He said:
Mr.. GoMPERs: If your body objects to
he passage OF the proposed anti-injunction
Dill / have no question that you can stop 1t,
Ior there is not a capitalist concerned who
simply as a capitalist is not against il: though