The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-12-04
BOYCOTT UPHELD
AS LAST RESORT
FEDERATION CONVENTION DE-
cLAREs FOR ITS USE WHERE
ALL ELSE FAILS - coMPERs
SAYS 1T IS NECESSARY LEGAL
3 AND MORAL WEAPON.

The right and propriety of using the
boycott as an aggressive and defensive
weapon of warfare when all other
means fai. was forcibly and clearly
affirmed by the American Federation
of Labor in session in Toronto Can
ada, last week. John Mitchell en-
ployed the opportunity given him by
the discussion of the subject to make
known his views on it in one of the
most powerful and impressive speeches
ever heard in labor assembly.
Only a Last Resort.
The question came up on a report
submitted by the committee on boy
colts in which that committee deelar-
ed: r
I'VE concur with the sentiment ex-
pressed by the committee on boycotts
at the Norfolk convention, that the
boycott should only be resorted to
after all efforts at adjustment have
failed, but when instituted it should
be made so effective that speedy
agreement between the firm and union
affected viii follows M '4
+ Committee Agrees WITH Gompers.
The report then Quotes what Presf-
dent Gompers said on the subject in
his annual report to the convention.
and continues: n
with the sentiment expressed and
the policy enunciated your committee
is in most hearty accord. The wares
of the labor boycotted enterprise, to
the eye, are made up of the products
of naturei fashioned by the hands of
more or less unskilIed workers: but
to the individual with the capacity for
analysis there is visible the blood and
innocence of the child the health and
virtue of the woman, and the dis
puted and denied right of the toiler
to collectively bargain for the sale of
labor.
But under present conditions the
boycott is a necessary legal and moral
weapon, and one that, as the presi-
dent well says, there should be no
hesitation to resort to when other
remedies fail and the occasion de-
mands the unusual and drastic anti
dote. Lawyers associations, medical
societies, scientific bodies, even the
fraternal societies, all forms of COM
bined human endeavor-an resort to
the boycott to achieve their legiti-
mate, and inI some instances f1legiti-
mate ends. Why then should not the
labor union have that right with it's
cause a just one, and its desire the
betterment and uplifting of those who
follow the scriptural injunction, In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy
bread?' If an individual has the right
to refuse to patronize, then that same
individual has the right to enlist the
sympathies of mis- fellowmen, and 1t
follows that If the two have the right
to refuse to patronize, then labor in
combination has the right to refuse to
patronize.
When to Boycott. Be.
I'VE say that when your cause, is
just and every other remedy has been
employed without .result-boycott.
I'VE say that when the employer has
determined to exploit not only adult
male labor, but our women and our
/ children, and our reasoning and APP
peal to his fairness and his conscience
will not sway him-boycott.
1--WE say that when labor has been
oppressed. browbeaten and tryannized
boycott.
1--WE say When social and political
conditions become so bad that ordin-
airy remedial measures are fruitless-
boycott.
And finally we say, we have the
right to boycott, and we propose to
exercise that right.
SIN the application of this right Of
boycott, to paraphase the president,
we .nronose TO strive on and on