The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1911-11-17
REPORT OF GOMPERs
TO The FEDERATION
Predicts Great Change in Our
Method of Government.
President Of American Federation of
Labor Says Cant About "Mob Rule"
Is Mere DriVel-Views on
Mcnamara Case.

President SamueI Gompers of the
American Federation of Labor, in his
report submitted to the delegates Of
the thirty-frst annual convention being
held at Atlanta, Ga, predicted great
changes in American methods CT gov
eminent, particularly with regard to
political parties.
He gave to the referendum, initiative
and recall The unqualified inGCrseM trt
of organized labor and declared that 2
real, representative democracy n8G
never been known in the United STATE
because OF the general absence G.
those provisions
This standardization of judges" e
sa in defense Of his indol St1f tE.,
this sanctimonious cant aECut me /
rule, some Of which was in President
Taft's message vetoing the AI!-~nJ
statehood bill. is mere driyel."
MIR. Gcmrer's report, which CO.. g..
sixty closely printed pages and wGl!G
make mGIe than thirty columns in a
newspaper, says it leaves many S. J.
jects untouched or inaf cQuate!y ! O.
sented III the main the report os;>
clares for and says organized labor de-
mandS:
The referendum, the initiative anG
the recall.
Passage Of the SO-called anti-injr1c.
ton bills at the next session OF cor.
gress.
Restriction of immigration.
Further restriction Of CtnNiCt latn,
Legislation to relieve civil se-a.ce
employees from the executive C:de 8
prohibiting them to petition cons ress
Uniform laws for protection OF life
and health in factory buildings
A department of labor in the federal
government
Employers liability and workmen's
compensation acts throughout the di'-
ferent states.
Severe arraignment is made of So
called scientific management or eff
cheney systems.
With the membership now more
than l,750,000, the creates. il ITS his
tory and it's financial condition excel
greatest altrUistic institution Of the
tines, enters the thirty-frsi year Ct
its work" the report says.
"Labor's contentious of many years
have become merged or have rather
CO ordinated with those of the pro
gressive of all parties. The people as
a whole, irrespective of class, condi-
n
have declared for freedom in fact, and
not merely in name. They are taking
affairs political into their own hands.
I'm lieu OF the political boss and
his machine, we shall have leadership
of intelligence, pleading for public
justice, with adherents proportional in
number to the strength of the argu-
ments. The stuffed ballot box, the
false count and the perjured election
returns will likewise disappear.
EnCar the prevailing system C
cut and dried platforms and slated
nominations, preceded by fake pri-
maries. the ballot in our hands has
not been, in any adequate sense, either
q protecting shield against wrong or a
means of redress. We may not for
some time be entirely did OF the RUE
of parties.
If they be an evil, they are such as
are incident to all governments based
on popular suffrage l deem it ua-
wise. or rather impolitic, to waste our
energies now in efforts to abolish
political parties. Perhaps they are in
stitutional in all free governments
But if we can not destroy them We
many. by more assiduous and regu' az
exercise OF our privileges and RICH OF
citizenship, do much in the way @:
controlling them.
Mr.. Gompers takes up the McNa-
mara case at some length. He ex-
presses his faith in the Innocence -
the men now on trial at Los Angeles
for alleged dynamiting 0utrages and
denounces in unmeasured terms their
removal from Indiana to California