The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-09
GOMPERS CLAIMS TRUST LAWS FAIL ID COVER LABOR American Federation Chief Disputes Finding of
 Supreme Court BUSINESS CANNOT
 BE ON OLD LINES Says Toilers' Association Does Not Seek To Control Material
 Products As Do the
 Combines"
By SAMUEL GoMPERs

President American Federation of Labor Modern business cannot be con-
 ducted upon the old notions. Develop ment in industry does not admit of It.
 Development in transportation does not admit of it. The development and transmission of information does not admit of it.
 Organized labor has realized for q long time, and realizes now-perhaps clearer now than ever before-tfe necessity for the fullest and freest hand in the operation of business ana industry and the performance or la Dor, and that, in so far as interference by the government is concerned, .t should be of the least possible charac- ter,
 Since the United States supreme court decided that labor unions are punishable under trust penalties, We feel that it Is necessary to point ou- how widely different is labor union from a trust; for upon these vital and Fundamental differences of the two arr based the main reasons for the insist ence that the voluntary organizations of labor shall not, under the law, De ree.rded as in the same category as
 trusts and illegal combinations in re- straint of trade. Union Not a Trust labor organization Is not trust rone of it's attributes, methods, ar achievements in behalf of it's members and society at large can properly be confounded with whatever is pernicious and selfish in the activities of the trusts.
 ranization to monopolize the produc ton and control the distribution of ma terial products. The voluntary asso- citation of the workers for mutual bene- fit and assistance Is essentially dif- terent. Even if they seek to control the disposition of their labor power, inc power to labor is not material commodity. It is not product; it is the personal power of a human being. The human power to produce Is the antithesis of the material commodities which become the subject of trust coi.- troll
 The ownership of free man is vested in himself alone. The only req son for the ownership of bondmen or slaves is the ownership of their labor mower by their masters If free mems ownership of themselves involves thei! labor power, none but themselves are owners of their labor power. Wage Is His Own The product of free man is his own If be, by choice or by reason of his environment, sells his labor pow
 CT to another and is paid a wage in re- turn therefor, this wage Is his own.
 These propositions are so essentially true that they are the underlying phi ,osophy upon which is based the en- tire structure of private property. To
 question or to attempt to destroy these principles involves the entire struc- 1 ture of civilized society.
 The freemans ownership of himself and his labor power implies that he may sell 1t to another or withhold 1t; that he and others similarly situated may sell their labor power or with 1 hold 1t; that no man has even an inn piled right in the labor of another. ] that freemen may sell their labor pow 1 CT under stress of their needs or they may withhold it to obtain more ad- vantageous returns.
 Any legislation or court construction dealing with the subject of combina tions, corporations or trusts whic'.
 dea. in. control, curtail. or corner the