Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-09-16
astistsltaato',ls geaaias.
eoMPERs WARNS COUNTRY
Must be Change Of Attitude Toward
Labor Interests, He says.

Labor Interests, He says.
Samuel Gompers, president of the
American Federation Of Labor. closed
his two days testimony before the
house lobby committee last Thursday
night with a dramatic warning to the
manufacturers Of the country, a de-
fense of the legislative activities of the
Federation and bitter attack upon
the Sherman antitrust law as applied
to labor unions. ~. .gs l.4.-.
Gompers spoke at the end Of day
devoted to an inquiry into the political
and legislative efforts Of the Fedora
tion. He began with a statement that
in the United States, which has burst"
into industrial life, there is no feeling
between employer and employee such
as has been found in other nations
where Industrial life has taken the
place Of relations between master and
man, the product of centuries. In Eu-
rope, he said, this transition had been
accompanied by a deeper feeling for
the employees, and in consequence
those countries were decades ahead Of
the United States in legislation for the
protection Of the lives of the working
man. a-a
"The lives of workingmen count for
nothing in the United States" he said.
TT seems to me that the life Of a horse
Is Of more value than the life Of a hu-
man being to our manufacturers. If
this slaughter does not end, I do not
know what our industrial, commercial.
political and, particularly, our humane
life, will come to-" The manufacturers
of this country, he added, opposed all
acts Of legislation designed to protect
the workingmen. -....l
Reviewing at some length the court
decisions against labor organizations
under the Sherman act, the witness
said:
1.-The Federation exists at the suf-
france of an administration. Under the
Sherman law and the procedure Of the
courts, the normal activities Of the
Federation in the exercise Of power, no
more than the individual exercises ev-
cry day-the power to withhold pa
tronage-are strained and three-fold
damages can be claimed and obtained.
TT seems to me the law is bit as
kew or otherwise it would not permit
such a thing" he added with a shake
Of his head.
The witness testified that he had
recommended to the house committee
on committees the appointment of
either Representative Lewis, Of Mary
land, or Representative Buchanan, Of
Illinois, as chairman of the labor COM
mittee. Lewis was appointed, he said.
although not the highest man on the
list of Democratic members.
He was asked at length about Mar
tin M. Mulhalrs effort to get the Fed
GRAFTON to print his now famous letters
and about his relations with Represen-
tative McDermott, one Of the men in
volved by Mulhall. Gompers said Nc
Dermott had been most insistent that
he take up the Mulhall letters but he
feared at that time that Mulhall's sup
posed repentance was not genuine and
only an effort to get the Federation in
the clutches Of the Manufacturers as
sociation.
Mr. Gompers added to his former
testimony by stating that the Fedora
ton spent about $500 in it's campaign
against the reelection Of former Rep
resentative Charles E. Littlefield, Of
Maine, in 1906. -
"The lobbying" done by the Fedora
tion, he thought, was justified and in
the open.