The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1908-08-29
Corporate Interests Taking Their
Cue from the Notcsss ous J
!: Van Cleave<> sS'5
ACTIVITY OF VAN CLEAVE
WARNING TO WORKMEN
He Represents Employers Who
are Bent on Destroying Or
ganized Labor.

CHICAGO, Aug. 27.-Immediately
after the adjournment Of the Demo-
cratic. convention at Denver at which
MIR. William ]. Bryan was nominated,
Mr.. Samuel Gompers, head Of the
American Federation of Labor came
out with formal statement in which
he declared that every union labor
man should support Mr.. Bryan be-
cause he stood on platfrom which
was eminently satisfactory to organ
lied labor, while at the same time 1t
was eminently just to all interested
involved. Mr.. Gompers has continu->
ally since that time written and
spoken in favor of the election of Mr..
Bryan and In opposition to that of
Mr. Taft. In Chicago, in Cleveland,
in st. Louis the local branches Of the
Federation of Labor have approved
the course of the president of their
order. There has been practically no
serious opposition to the endorsement
of the Gompers policy. There may
have been individual labor leaders
whose loyalty to party exceeds their
ing to give interviews in opposition.
But they have been few, far between
and somewhat inconspicuous.
Van Cleave's Activity.
If any labor leader desires to know
on which side the contending forces
Of corporate capital and organized
labor have lined up, it might be we'll
for them to consider the fact that
the president of the manufacturer
association, Mr.. Van Cleave, Is an
nounced in all of the Republican pa
pers as having "flayed Bryan" Per-
haps 1t was a hard job for Mr.. Van
Cleave, but it is what his association
pays him for. Van Cleave represents
the great organization of employers
formed for the purpose Of combating
and If possible destroying organized
labor.
Manufacturers Association.
= lis forner head WAS a .smanufac-
turer Of cereal foods at Battle Creek,
Mich, one, Of the heaviest advertisers
in the country who can never print
an advertisement Of his own products
without giving two thirds Of the space
to attacks upon the system of union
labor.
Van Cleave is enthusiastic about
against organized labor and who. hand
ed down from one of the oppointive
judgeships which he held, an order
prohibiting and restraining and en-
joining such conservative representa-
tives of organized labor as T. M. Ar
thur and F. P. Sargent (the former
we all know, now dead from promul-
eating, issued any order of any kind
that would require, request or COM
mand any member of the Brotherhood
of Locomotive Engineers or the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen
from refusing to work-or in other
words request them to strike. This
was the entrance Of Taft upon poll
tics. This was his first stroke which
gave him national reputation.
Whence Taft's Support.
No doubt this is the reason why
as Col. Patterson said the other day,
his candidacy is acceptable to Wall
street, while the Roosevelt veneer
which has bene applied to him has
already worn off. Why should not a
man VINO would issue so sweeping an
injunction as that be acceptable to
practical men like E. H. Hartman and
]. ]. Hill? But why should he be
acceptable to organized labor? Work
ingmen have not yet forgotten either
Taft or his colleague Ricks and will
not soon. =
A Short Reminder.
The minds Of men being somewhat
short Of memory there may be some
5th, 1906, Mr.. Taft went into Maine
II l@f4
gressman Littlef1eld, than seeking re-
election and who was opposed by or
ganized labor as a unit. President
Gompeis lei the fight against Little
field. Taft led the fight in his de-
tense. In a staunch Republican paper
in Chicago, the Record Herald, under
the date line: Bath Me-. appears the
heading: Taft Bids Defiance to Or
ganized Labor"
Mr.. Taft was then in office. not
seeking it-if there has ever been a.
time when he was not seeking office.
The speech which followed was a di-
rect attack upon the methods of or
gantzed labor and a defense of the
Injunction, that weapon which he
welded so we'll years before.
~. Taft Always Hostile.
The record can be challenged to-
show any point at which Taft who
has now won the favor of Wall street.
has said no word In favor Of organ
ICED labor without coupling it with a.
much stronger recommendation for the
organization of capitalists and en-
ployers. He occupies the position that
the Republican party assumed when
after having been vainly ,implored for
years to establish a cabinet office, the
department Of labor, it tossed sop to
the labor vote by creating the Depart
ment Of Commerce and Labor and
Republican presidents ever since have
taken pains to see that representa-
time of the employing class should be
At Its head. Il g. " /: !;
d VI. Iafts bold deniance to organ