The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-09-12
GOMPERS WARNS
MANUFACTURERS
Saws Lives Of WOrkingmen
Count For Nothing In The
United States
HORSE OF MORE VALUE
Head Of American Federation
Of Labor Before Congress
sional Committee

washington, Sept. 12-Samuel Com
pers, president of the American Fed
GRAFTON of Labor, closed his two days
testimony before the House lobby COM
1nittee last night with dramatic
warning to the manufactures of the
country, a defense of the Legislative
activities of the Federation and a bit
ter attack upon the Sherman anti
trust law as applied to labor unions.
Gompers spoke at the end of day
devoted to an inquiry into tine po-
Htfcal and legislative efforts of the
Federation. He began with a state
ment that in the United States, which
/ has BURST into Industrial life, there
is no feeling between employer ana
ernploye such as is found IN european
nations where Industrial life mas 10
some extent taken the place OF eer1-
dom and of relations between master
and man the product of centuries. In
europe he said this transition dad
been accompanied by deep feel1ng
for the empIoye, and IN consequence
those countries were decades ahead of
the United States in legislation Tor
the protection Of the lives of work
ingmen- ..,,.+ e,,.
nothing In the United States, SAID ne.
ct seems to me that the life of
horse is of more value than the lJfe
of human being to our manufacture
ers If this slaughter does not end
I do not know what our industrial
commercial, political and particularly
our human life, will come to-" The
manufacturers of this country, he add
ed, are opposed all acts of legislation
designed to protect the workingmen
Reviewing at some length the court
decisions against labor organizations
under the Sherman act, the witness
said:
The federation exists at the SUI
ference of an administration. Under
the Sherman law and the procedure
of the courts, the normal activities OF
the association in the exercise of pow
er no more than the individual exer-
cisas every day-the power to with
hold patronag@are restrained, and
three-fold damages can be claimed
and obtained
s.Tt seems to me the law is a bit
azkew or otherwise it would not per
init such q thing, he added with a
shake of his head.
The witness testified that he had
recommended to the house committee
the appointment of either Representa-
tive Lewis of, Maryland or Represen-
tattve Buchanan of Illinois as chair
man of the labor committee Lewis
was appointed, although not the high
est man on the list of Democratic
members.
He was asked at length about Mar
tin NJ MuIhaIFs effort to get the fed
Grafton to print his now famous let
ters and about his relations with Rep
reseutatdve McDermo tt, one of the
men involved by Mulhall. Gompers
said McDermOtt had been most in
sistenk that he take up the Mulhan
letters but feared at that time that
MulhalTs supposed repentance was
not genuine and only a ruse to get
the federation in the clutches of the
Nauufacturers association.
Mr. Gompers added to Wednesday
testimony by stating that the feder-
alton spent about $1,000 in its cam
paign against the reelection of form
er Representative Charles E. Little
dehd of Maine in 1905. The lobby
ting done by the federation, he
thought, was justified and in the open.