New-York tribune., 1918-12-10
Labor Leaders
Froaun Upon
Party Plans
Continued from page 1

federation and labor member on the
War Industries Board; Coils Lovely,
executive board member of the Inter
national Boot and Shoe Workers
Union; James Lord, president of the
Matthew Woll president of the Inter
national Photo Engravers' Union; John
T. Frey, editor of "The International
Moulders' Journal; John j. Manning,
secretary of the Labor Trades Coun-
Gil of the A. f. Of L.; Santiago Iglesias,
president Of the Porto Rican Fedora
tion of Labor; Robert Maisel, director
of the American Alliance for Labor
and Democracy; Thomas Rickert. presi-
dent of the United Garment Workers of
America, and Barney Larger, it's gen
era secretary, James P Holland. presi-
dent of the New York State Fedora
tlon of Labor; James Roach and Will
lam Collins, organizers of the fedora
ton; George w. Perkins, president of
the Cigarmakers' International Union;
Hilda Swenson, Ann Hogan and Rose
chnejdermann, representing the Wom-
ems Trade Union League; Ernest
Bohm Thomas Rock, William Kohn,
John Sullivan and Thomas Curtis. rep
rcsenting the Central Federated Union,
and James Coughlin and James P.
Boyle, president and vice pres ident of
the Brooklyn Central Labor Union.
Cites European Situation
Comparing the American situation
with that in other countries, Mr.
Gompers outlined the following:
In Germany, instead of labor union
movement, there is a labor political
movement dominated by the Social
Democrats. Under the Bismarck policy
labor had no chance for growth. Trade
union meetings were forbidden. The
Socialist parlamentarians cared moth
ing for industrial and economic
strength, confning their activities to
those of 4 political nature.
France fas an insignificant labor
movement, when the Socialist (politi-
separate and distinct French labor
delegations were represented at the
nter-Allied conference in London on
September 16 last, he said, and their
combined twenty votes were controlled
by Socialists.
Labor in Great Britain, he continued,
is neglectinS its economic organization
for the sake Of its political activities.
The British Trades Union Congress, he
said, is practically controlled by So
cialists of the Ramsay Macdonald type.
Two and half million labor men are
paying dues into the Labor party, re-
ceivng nothing in return except this
brilliant lc&dership-ln the political
field.
President Gompers told of his own
attempts to form political party of
labor in 1885, supporting the Henry
George movement. The labor movement
suffered, he said, and he abandoned the
idea. Labor leaders paid more atten-
ton to vote getting than to winning
strikes or securing wage increases, he
said.
What America Has Done
When the industrial crisis of 1906 07
swept England and America, he said
England, with its Labor party, suf
fered more than America. where labor
paid its attention to increasing its
power indusNiaily. America has had nc
Dred Scott decision, he added Yet
America during the last twelve years
has achieved more remedial legislation
than England, citing the Clayton act
and the seamen's bill.
After all, what counts in this world
is economlc power, not political power,'
said Mr.. Gompers. Witness the Social.
lists. What stand have thev taken n
the Mooney case? How have they
solved the riddle of freeing him from
jail? BY general strike, if you please
BY use OF economic power
Never in Americas history has there
been so great Il necessity for unity OF
action. American labor durino this wa1
has accomplished three times what Eng
land has accomplished without po
Aucal party of its own. If labor zoe.
INTO politics it will have to get votes
and labor will decline from powerful
economic unit to vote-catching ma