Weekly journal-miner., 1915-11-10
LABOR HEARS OF PROGRESS MADE
 PAST YEAR
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COUNCIL TELLS OF IN PREFERENCE BY MA TONS NOW AT WAR.
By Associated Press.


 Presentation of the annual report of the executive council featured the opening day of the 35th annual con vention of the American Federation of Labor which opened ncre today for two weeks session. President Samuel Gompers presented the re- port which pronounced the year past the most momentous in the history of organized labor and one of extra ordinary stress for the labor move mcnt, testing as it had it's very eX- istence
 There is not a country, and there lis scarcely a relation in the common life says the councils report, that does not show some effect of the terrible war that is being waged in Europe. From our present viewpoint these effects are primarily destruc- tive. Whatever of constructive value shall come out of it all, will depend upon the wisdom, the ability and the statesmanship Of the real statesmen of the nations. But at present we see customs, institutions, and the re lationship that are the result of years of struggle and persistent effort to realize ideals, swept away by the great tide of destruction and lost iii the clash of arms, the smoke of the battlefield, and in the tcrrors of naval warfare
 Describing the effects of the war upon organized labor and American customs and institutions, the report deals at length with attempts by in terests of belligerent European na- tions to interfere with the peaceful pursuit of American industries.
 Some of these movements it says, "have been genuine, others have been created by individuals and inter ests that were really unneutral. These movements have taken various forms; some have tried to influence the poli- cies of the state and governmental authorities of our country; others have tried to work upon public opinion and still others have sought to use the good name of our labor movement to further the interests of some foreign country"
 High tribute was paid the working men of the nation through whose pa triotism the report says, these plans have perished and the movements so far have been futile.
 "Thc efforts to use the working men of our country have been of two kinds the report continues, 'one to get through them the endorsement of the foreign policy to place an em> bargo upon so-called munitions ot war, the other has been to Stir up in dustrial contentious and disputes and thus interfere with the actual process of production so that products to be sent abroad may be stopped. Foreign | agencies have been trying to corrupt ! ly reach some of the organizations of the workers but they have not sue cceded. There is nothing touching the industrial and commercial life of i America that it not of interest to the warning nations"
 The holding of a Worlds Labor Congress at the same time and place that peace delegates meet when the war is ended, is recommended in the report as necessary in order to infuse the spirit of humanity and democracy into this political conference" In order that the position of the United States working men in this regard may be fully representative of the country's uanamous voice of labor. the report recommends that all In tcrnational Unions be urged to give the plan their support.
 The report covers the recent in- vcstigation by labor leaders of the Dick Military Law In that connec ton, it says:
 Up to the present we have rcceiv- cd no complaint nor have we learned or any act in which the military arm . of the government has misuscd the Dick Law to offset or curb the as , pirations of the working people of I the land. We refer particularly to the r situation in Colorado last year. The 1 corporations had practically coerced , and intimidated the officials of the |, State and had over-ridden the laws [, of the State There is not nearly so grave danger in the Dick Law as here is in the menace threatening our institutions through the private detective agencies and the private ar q ny of gun men," a Attention is also called in the re- a port to the work of the United States | Commission on Industrial Relations. [ -hairman Walsh and the labor re- $