New Britain herald., 1918-12-02

ture to say that I have done a hum
dred thousand times more than you
have, miss"
shouted something unintelligi'ble
about the freedom of Ireland. Mr..
Gompers retorted:
II am for Ireland by the Irishmen
of Ireland, not by the professional
trishmen of America" Later nettled
by another interruption, the labor
leader suggested that if any of the
Questioners had any desire to speak
let him hire a hall and talk there"
In his address Mr.. Gompers assert
ed that at the time when it was not
certain whether the people of tho
country would be united in the war,
it was the organized labor movem ent
of the American Federation of Labor
which called into council the repre-
sentatives of labor in America and de-
termined what the attitude Of lahor
would be in the event of peace or
war. Labor has kept faith, lie added
I'm my judgment, we are in sraver
danger now than at any time during
the war;" he continued. Peace con-
ferences are not always domino ted by
the spirit Of freedom and justice and
dem ocracy and it has occurred that Il
people which have secured i'll their
own country an element Of freedom,
a degree of freedom, was forced or
yielded voluntarily these rights at the
peace table drawing up a peace
treaty.
II call your attention to this fact,
that in the United States when a
treaty has been negotiated with an
other country or other countries and
that treaty is ratified by tho senate
of the United States, it becomes the
supreme law and any law upon the
statute books in conflict with the
terms of the treaty is wiped off the
statute books and becomes nil. The
working people Of the United Statos
have struggled hard, have made many
sacrifices, have been misrepresented
and maligned and their motives i'm
pugned and their honor questioned,
but, fighting true to the line, we have
secured in the United States Of Amer
lea. from our federal government and
from our state governments and mu-
inequalities rights written into the
law
in fighting political autocracy we do
not want and won't consent to have
an industrial autocracy take it's place.
All the Bolsheviki are not in the
ranks of labor.
Il know of no more dangerous ut
terance made during this entire war,
dangerous to the very safety and
peace and progress of our people and
Of our republic, than was uttered by
Mr.. Barr about two weeks ago. It
was said of the French Bourhons that
they never forgot anything, and that
they never learned anything. And it
it true of this type of men in Amer
lea. Industrially they want to live in
the year 191S-1919, but mentally they
are living in the sixteenth century.
They have in mind they are mas
ters of all they survey, that it is the
position of baron and serf-of master
ard servant. Well tnat may 80 some.
where, but it doesn't go here Here
we propose to make the conditions of
he such that every woman shall be
a queen and every man a sovereign
We'll, you know it is the old quack
medicine which the old school of DO
lltical economists always prescribed
for the body industrial whenever there
was any grave question, AID question
of importance, industry, commerce.
hnance-cut wages, cut wages, cut
wages as a remedy for industrial
stagnation. If what 1 have said has
my point, it is it's application now
What the devil does Mr. Barr and
his type think we have made all these
sacrifices for?
All the delegates from the coun-
tries sitting at the peace table and
devising the terms of the treaty, are
not prompted by the highest spirit of
freedom and justice and democracy.
We have helped to make this fight,
we have helped to bring about this
victory, and while we are fighting for
freedom and justice over there we are
going to maintain the freedom and
the justice and the rights of the
masses of the people over there.
The time has gone by when tho
working people of America can again
be put in the shackles, that the labor
of human beings is a commodity or
an article of commerce., We have now
upon the statute books the principle
in law and in fact that the labor of q
human being is not commodity, is
not an article Of commerce, and that
Us we'll as being laborers or workers,
we are human, with the same rights
of sovereignty before the law a Well
as to lead our everyday lives. A prin-
riple of this character is now too sa-
cred to be bartered away to the re-
dictionaries who may desire to stem
the tide of democracy the world over
I'VE have secured the freedom of
the seeamen, right of the seamen to
own themselves when their ships arc
in safe harbor. Oppressed labor
where the flag of the United States
flies is abolished and we are not GO
ing to permit any coterie Of men to
barter away the freedom we have
gained after so MANY years.