Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-09-04
.DISLOYALTY IN AMERICA
.DENOUNCEDBY WILSON
IN OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
In Message to Samuel Com
pers, Wilson Gives Hearty
Approval to Alliance for
Labor and Democracy


to be held at Minneapolis next Tuesday
, and the task it will undertake of sup
pressing disloyalty has been given by
President Wilson in a letter to Samuel
Gompers. president of the American
Federation of Labor and chairman or
the alliance.
The letter. made public here, denounces
those who seek to ignore Americas
grievance against Germany and insist
that a nation whose citizens have been
fouIy murdered under their own flag,
whose neighbors have been invited to
join in making conquest of its territory
and whose patience in pressing the
Il claims of justice and humanity has
been met with the most shameful pol
icy of truculence and treachery, does
not know its own mind and has no conn
prshemsible reason for defending it
self"
While our soldiers and sailors are
doing their manful work to hold back
reaction in its most brutal and agrees
sive FORM" the president wrote, I'VE
must oppose at home the organized and
individual efforts of those dangerous
elements who hide disIoyalty behind
screen OF SpeclOuS anu eNASlNS pnEdScS.
| The letter follows:
My Dear Mr.. Gompers:
"I am sure that you understand that
my inability to accept the invitation to
address the Minneapolis conference of
the American Alliance for Labor and
Democracy is due only to official neces-
sity, and not in any degree to lack of
appreciation x the Importance of the
occasion. The cause you and your fell
II sst. he
lcause we are defending with arms.
CONFERENCE PRAISED.
while our soldiers and sailors are
doing their manful work to hold back
reaction in it's most brutal and agrees
sive form, we must oppose at home the
organized and individual efforts of those
dangerous elements who hide disloyalty
behind screen of specious and evasive
phrases.
81 have read with real pride the
names of the men and women who are
to take part in the Minneapolis confer
ence. Not one but has a record of de-
voted service to fundamental democ-
racy; not one but has fought the long.
hard fight for equal justice, Drawing ev-
| cry bitterness that the humblest life
might know a larger measure OF hap
| piness-
with all my heart I want them to
feel that their devotion to country is
in no wise a betrayal of principle. and
that in serving America today they are
serving their cause no less faithfully
i than in the past. I, myself. have had
sympathy with the fears of the workers
of the United States; for the tendency
OF war is toward reaction, and too Of
ten military necessities have been made
an excuse for the destruction of labor
iously erected industrial and social
| standards.
These fears. happily, have proved
to be baseless. With quickened SYM
pathies and appreciation. with a new
sense Of the invasive and insidious dan
gers of oppression. our people have not
| only held every inch OF ground that
has been won by years of struggle, but
have added to the gain Of the tewentieth
| century along every line of human bet
| terment Questions of wages and hours
of labor and industrial readjustments
have found a solution which gives 10
| the toilers a new dignity and a new
sense OF social and economic security.
1 beg you to feel that my support has
not been lacking and that the govern
ment has not failed at any point in
granting every just request advanced
by you and your associates in the name
| OF the American worker
AMERICAN BATTLE LINE.
mo one VINO IS not blind can fail to
see that the battle line of democracy
for America stretches today from the
fields Of Flanders to every house and
workshop where toiling, upward-striv-
ing men and women are counting the
treasures of right and justice and lib
erty which are being threatened by our
present enemies.
| at has not been a matter of sur
prise to me that the leaders in certain
groups have sought to ignore our griev-
Iances against the men who have equal
/ ly misled the German people. Their in
sistence that a nation whose rights have
been grossly violated, whose citizens
have been foully murdered under their
own flag, whose neighbors have been
invited TO join in making conquest of
its territory. whose patience In press
ling the claims OF justice and humanity
has been met with the most shameful
lpolicy Of turbulence and treachery,
their insistence that a nation so outrag-
ed does not know its own mind, that 1T
has not comprehensive reason for de-
Tending itself. or for joining with all
It's might in maintaining free future
for itself and it's ideals. is of a peace
with their deafness to the oft-repeated
statement of our national purposes.
| rs T., perhaps, that these forces of
lantagonism have not yet learned to
know the voice of that America we love
and serve? 1t may well be that those
among Us who stand ready to forward
the plans of aggression bred in secret
do not understand the language of de-
mocra,.y when il proclaims the purposes
OF war in terms of a peace for the peo-
lples that shall be untroubled by those
to whom men are but the pawns in their
lstrugCle for power and gain.
FIND OF BLOOD AND IRON.
But true Americans, those who toll
here for home and the hope of better
things, whose lifted eyes have caught
the vision of a liberated world, have
said that of the policy of blood, and
iron there shall be an end and that
equal justice which is the heart of de-
moeracy shall rule in it's stead.
May not those who toll and those
who have made common cause of the
larger hope for the masses of mankind
take renewed heart as they think of
these days when America has taken its
stand for the rights of humanity and
the fellowship of social and information
al Justice?
Sincerely yours,
WOODROW WILSON"
| he