The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-08-26
.GOMPERS ANSWERS
SENATOR SHERMAN
Makes Public Reply to Illinois
Solon Who Attacked Labor
Chief in The Senate.
ASSERTS ASSAULT WAS
MADE OUT OF MALICE
Evident He Wanted TO Strike At
Labor Movement And Used
Gompers To Do It With.

OAAA H~A . = v Nv - w AV4As
ORANGE, N. j., Aug. 24.-Samuel
Gompers, president of the American
Federation of Labor, speaking Mon
day before the thirty-eight annual
convention of the New Jersey Fedora
ton of Labor, answered the attack
made on him in the United States SEN
ate recently by Senator Sherman. It
was Mr.. Gompers' first public reply
and he concluded by promising that
the senator would have further rea-
son to consider him a "public
nuisance"
Mr.. Gompers said he was not "tem-
porary head of the labor federation,"
as Senator Shermon is reported to
have called him, but that he had been
its president for 80 years. OF funds
raised in behalf of the Los Angeles
dynamiters, the labor leader said:
when they pleaded innocent we
went down in our pockets so that
they might have a fair trial. When
they pleaded guilty we abandoned the
whole thing That's the extent of
our wrong doing"
the integrity and purpose of Presi-
dent Gompers in his leadership Of
the federation were adopted by the
convention.
Mr.. Gompers also made public the
contents of a letter he addressed to
Senator Sherman as answer in part
to the attack the senator made upon
labors chieftan, and accepting the
challenge of Mr.. Sherman to meet him
in Illinois and debate the questions
brought out in the attack. This is
Mr.. Gompers' reply to Senator Sher-
man:
"A few days. ago, among num-
ber of things that you took occasion
to discuss in addressing the United
States senate when the Merchant
Marine bill was under consideration,
you made violent attack upon me
personally. =. - .- 49,. 80
= IT shall not undertake here to make
answer to your MISREPRESENTATION OF
me; your wilful malicious. false, and
unwarrantable accusations and in
situations, they may we'll be left for
discussion at some other time. But
there is not a. word I have uttered.
AOA OH dSCAO11 udVS kdhSI, OuI "HlCH
has been directed and approved by
the American Federation of Labor
and its rank and file. The only in
ference of your attack, therefore, is
not upon me personally or officially,
but upon the policy, principles and
activity of the A. F. Of L. and the
whole body Of wage earners who
have been and are striving in an
American fashion and lawful manner
to secure a better standard of life,
and equal rights and concepts of these
rights with every other citizen of
our Republic.
after assuring the president of the
senate that you would not occupy the
floor so long as the last time you in
dulged in some comments on the
shipping bill, you then. by way Of ex-
planning your position upon that bill.
declared "Mr. Gompers is a public
nuisance" 1t is a, necessary infer
marks Immediately. following consti-
tute the grounds for your Judgment.
The natural Interpretation of your
various assertions is that the
political policy of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor is displeasing to you.
and inevitably raises the question
whether or not you would have stig-
matized the president of the Ameri-
can Federation Of Labor as a public
nuisance, if he had publicly endorsed
the members of the United States SEN
ate, including yourself, had you voted
in favor of excluding associations Of
wage earners from the application of
antitrust legislation.
"And I am again constrained to
wonder II you would have stigmatized
me as public nuisance, had you
found me plant and usable in fur
If you though my personal influence,
or the influence of my office, could be
secured by offer Of reward, whether
money or office. ~z>s~.:., ....-..-.
From both the tone and the con-
text of your remarks upon the Mer-
chant Marine bill, it IS evident that
you are addressing ell those who
shall vote at the polls in the Novem-
ber election, rather than the law
makers who constitute the United
States senate. The insinuations you
make are calculated to appeal to the
prejudiced, but they are repugnant to :
honest men who have regard for the
good name Of man who for years +
has CONSTRUCTED the best that is in
him to the cause Of humanity. -.
= II have never attempted and do
not now attempt, as I have not the
power to deliver the vote Of any man
or group of men. am entrusted
with the affairs Of the American Ia
Dor movement as guided and decided
by, the rank and file Of the workers
of America. r
IF the truth which I state as to
the antagonism toward labor and la
boris interests and the interests of
the people generally, is intolerable to
you, or to any other man, that is not 8
my fault. Il. is impossible for me to
be either tyrannical or rbitrary. for
there are no such power vested In the
president; Of the American Fedora
kCsstinsed q Pass s.l