The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-16

Steel Trust recognizes no unions Samuel Gompers started out to fight this trust by assessing every member 10 cents. ] Mr. Gary heard this while he was smoking a $1.5O cigar and said, "A ten cent war-huh.'
 ''The American Federation of La bor can't cause the manufacturers of this country to lose any sleep. be- cause the workers are divided. In the metal trades alone there are 60 organizations.
 What is the American Federation of Labor? It is really composed of eleven men, and seven of them are in the Civic Federation, eating out of the hands of capitalists
 There are 27,000 unions in the American Federation of Labor. They all believe in craft autonomy. There are 27,000 different working agree ments all expiring at different times. What chance has one of these unions got to use its greatest weapon-the strike?
 eff one strikes, the others keep working to earn money for the boss to use in fighting the strike. The American Federation of Labor has decreased numerically during the 2,O0O,O0O members. For the sake of argument we will admit that they have that number. If they have they have received s480,000.000 in dues during the past ten years. Living is higher and therefore your wages are lower despite the fact that in ten years you have paid $480,000,000 to keep wages up. It is evident that this country would be better off if there was not a trade union in this city
 s"The trade unions are doing every thing they possibly can to keep the workers of this country from becom ing organized. Their apprenticeship system makes every union an un- natural father They limit the num- where from $25 to $500 for an initia- tion fee.
 ''The glass bottle blowers have been charging $500 to get into their union, and now they are going to raise it to s1,0O0 to keep out the foreisners. A man in this country will raise a fam fly of boys and then go to his union learn a trade. When the trades un- ions deny them they go into the army. the navy, become tramps or are found in the brothels of the big cities.
 ''The workers of France are wise. They refuse to raise food for violence. Where they used to raise four boys they raise one and look after him." ture of a great labor leader whom he called John, meaning John Mitchell. He said that as a member of the Civic Federation he was in the "cage of lions sucking a $6,O00 bone" He add ed. "John after robnobbing with the mine owners lost his strength. With 147. 900 back of him he was on the brink of victory. The President of the United States was going to take the mines by right of eminent domain. The mine owners saw the peril. They entreated John to compromise. He did. The battle was lost and the United Mine Workers organiza tion now has S3,000 instead of 147,O00 nnem- bers.
 Look on Johns third finger. You will see beautiful sparkler. When Francis Robbins of the Mine Owners Association gave it to him he said. John, you are the greatest labor lead CT in the world
 "I want every worker to recognize his power. Just think what would happen if every workingman would save enough to last him for a week and everybody should stop working for a week Learn that the most ordin- ary worker is better than the preach CT, and that any man who produces is better than the judge on the Su- preme court bench"
 The speaker concluded with a de- scription of the conditions in the mines, and at the close he was heckled by a dozen unionists who were pres ent who differed with him about the usefulness of the trades union. He insisted that he wanted a union that would take into one organization every man who worked in an industry, from the floor sweeper to the patternmaker, expert mechanic and shipping clerk.
 The hecklers told him that he was preaching discord when he came to this city and urged the formation of another machinists' union, which would mean division of the craft in this citY