davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
ompers lnterprets New Significance Of Labor in Wa
Organza tion's Ideals in Future Are To Be Attanet
Through Same Evolutionary Paths That Have
Led to Present Achievements

ica." The desk near the centre of
the room was untidy with that def
mite untidiness of a man who has a
system of placement Of his own.
And l could not help noticing two
bottles Of headache tablets, one OF
them empty. A black skull cap lay
carelessly at one side. When the
labor head came in | saw a man
surprisingly small in stature, an old
man who had seen and done much in
the world, who held responsibility
and enjoyed it and had been mel
lowed by it. His head is almost
bald but for little tufts of gray
curly hair here and there that help
to give his face kindliness. His
forehead is broad and high, the fore
head that marks many human1-
tarians. The lower part of the face
is energetic, we'll commanded, dis
ciplined, the eyes shrewd and
careful.
When I had explained my purpose
and had presented my questions Mr..
Gompers called his stenographer.
The stenographic report of his an
swers follows:
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
Will Continue
To Make Better World

"It means little to the labor move
ment of America what it has been
called or how it is interpreted, par
ticularly by those who do not under
stand it, or those who are opposed to
it either from interest or from the
standpoint of those who would capi-
talize to a vote-getting machine the
evils which still remain unremedied.
"The American labor movement,
observing and counting with the con-
ditions as they exist, undertakes to
secure the greater protection of the
rights and interests of the wage
working people of the country and to
promote their welfare by every hon
orable means. From every angle and
upon every field the American labor
movement has taken advantage of
every opportunity presented in order
to press home upon the government
and it's agencies, upon employers,
upon society, the necessity for the
recognition of the co-equal rights of
the workers with all other people of
our country. The plan is to make a
better day for the masses of the. peo-
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10

The cruiser and her convoy passed on
down over the horizon. The storm got
worse. For two hours the Ramapo
steamed slowly into its teeth, alone on
the ocean, she and her thousands Of
men waiting, while in the operating
room the surgeon balanced himself to
the more regular plunge OF the vessel
and saved the mans life.
The ordeal of the ncverending series
of storms was sufficient to try mems
souls, unoccuped by other worry. But
over the Ramapo hung another threat
the menace that envelops any vessel
that faces out across the Atlantic.
"Watchful waiting"-the men Of the
+ Ramapo grew to know the true inward
agony of the word. Always to watch
To stand for a four-hour watch in the
scanning the battling waves for the
sight of the white periscope trail. To
tread the deck, your ears ever strained
for the dull boom below that might tell
of torpedo driven home. To sleep,
with one half of you wide awake, ready
to jump to your appointed post while
the vessel dropped swiftly away be-
meath your feet.
The thing got them. For the first
it: Then into the talking came note
of defiance, as though each man we're
telling his fellows that he wasn't afraid.
Then they stopped talking about it en-
tirely.
Then one morning the section that
awoke to the twitter of the boatswain's
pipe caught new emphasis in the old
navy cry:
"Third section on deck, relieve wheel
lookout, speed cone and ammunition" :"
Especially the lookout. They had
reached the farfung limit of the war
zone.
"We walked about that day as though
we knew the decks were made of dyna-
mite. You kept watching and listen
ing. You didn't know quite for what
A little stream of foam would send
your heart up into your mouth. 1t was
fairly quiet that day. and the soldiers
were on deck. They were worse than
we, for they didn't have anything to
40, except just sit around and think Of
what might happen.
There was one darkey who sat away
off by himself with battered old ac
Gordon, and sang 'Gwine Away
those were all the words, and he sang
until I thought he'd drive me % off INV nv
nut-.just 'Gwine away, gwine away.
gwi-ii-ine. a-a-awa-ay.' 1t got to be-
| terrible"
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
The Troops Stood
By the Rail and Checred

cheered and laughed and shouted but
we didn't. We were too tired, Just
plain worn out. Any one who has been
on transports crew knows all there
is to know about the agony of antid-
patton. We just sat and looked at the
green hills and the green roofs and
the green waters of the bay, and pres
entity those who weren't on watch went
to their hunks and had a good sleep
They had brought their men across
safe, which has come to be habit Of
the transport service. On this trip
,hey were fortunate and no one hao
been lost aboard the Ramapo. A sup
erstltion is growing among the trans
port men that on each trip TO Francs
some man has to pay his life as Davy
Jones.s tee for safe crossing. inns
time 1t was marine from the cruiser
mat accompanied them. wase
washed him overheard and he was nos
seen again.
The sick bay of the Ramapo was fun
Of those who had been wounded ID
their battle with the Atlantic, men
prulsed and cut, and few with bonss
broken from being thrown against lh' ,.
movable objects by an all too movaD'::
snip. There were also q score o.
troops who had been hurt when
sea broke into a troop space, taxing
the wall with it. One of the trans.
ports anchors had been torn avs.
and her forward deck had been stow
IN by one enormous wave. That VIZ
all, but warships have come out OF
general engagement with less injun.
II have just come off a watch tnss
lasted until dawn came up over u.
quiet bay and the quaint gray house, ou.,
that ramble up the hill. We have pu.
all our troops ashore, and ! suppos..
Will start back again in few os!ii !i
now. You get thrill when you ies,
that you have gone through WITH
tough job and seen it to the guy,
That's what we have just done ssS aS
we know that there are others aae''
of US.
"A few minutes ago, four destroyssss
that were lying asleep like watch ousi
at the entrance of the harbor, si?p..n ;..o
their moorings and started out =. .a.
the dawn. Not a sound. scarcey II
ripple. as they swung into Int, ,,.a.s ~
trailed away toward the horizon : A;ss. ~.
somewhere they had caught the, MA hss
less cry for help, suppose, ana .sss .,sf
were on their way, at speeo 10. al
than locomotives could be driven ~
long ago. ~.
They melted into the morning m,ss .,s
and suddenly | realized that they W., -,
there to see us through. and tina. ,ss a
were there to bring to France the M IN
that are going to help stamp out 1
kaiser's gang. Somehow, | am w; +.
that they put me on transport s~s
stead of dreadnought. 1t
as though we were doing more g VI
win the war, somehow. even II H..
ever hears about US.
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
They Saw Periscopes
In Every Wave

Down in the troop spaces soldiers
were singing to keep up their courage
In the quarters of negro regiment at
least hundred crap games were al
'eady in progress. Up in the crows
nests lads only a few times at sea were
already on the watch for submarines
and seeing periscopcs in every wave
top
, That night, the storm hit them.
Wed been on the Ramapo for two
weeks then. All that time she had been
fast TO the dock. We had come to
regard her as something dignified, i'm
posing, filled with stability. She wasn't.
The wind got up and she rolled
Then the wind got higher and she rolled
some more. The dignified imposing old
tub wallowcd and washed and lurchcd
Each minute she invented a new way
TO spill you out Of your bunk, or skid
you across decks.
"lt was amazing, and it grew TO be
positively indecent. If you were sud
denly to see your aged and respected
grandmother atnrt TO do hoochic-
koochic, you'd know how we felt"
All through the night, the section
on watch. had no time for peaceful
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10

pie, the wage workers, than yester
day; and to make tomorrow and to-
morrow's tomorrow each a better
day than the one which has gone be-
fore.
"The American labor movement
recognizes that there is and can be
no end to progress; and to set forth
a goal as a tinality is to negative the
necessity and the continuity of prog
ress.
"There is no necessity for a re-
vision or reinterpretation of the aims
of the American Federation of Labor
1t is, as it has been, engaged in the
concentration CT all effort to make
life the better worth living in every
respect every day of the existence of
our peoples.
"With that purpose in view and
that policy pursued there is con-
stantly going on a social regenera-
tion of the working people, and it
stands out conspicuously as against
those who believe in a cataclysm for
a reconstruction of society. The
work. the activity, the purpose of the
American Federation of Labor, are all
mediate problems and the achieve
ment Of the immediate needs and
making the workers the stronger
thereby in numbers, in power, in in
fluencc and enabling them to meet the
new problems of each minute of each
day, of each month, of each year, and
decades and century.
"To-day there is an entirely differ
ent conception on the part of all the
people, employers, the government, as
to the rights to. which the workers
are entitled, the representation in all
the activities Of industry and govern
ment, and the responsibility which
rests upon the workers. The workers
in turn demand that they shall have
the fullest opportunity of participa-
tion in meeting these responsibilities
and aiding in devising and advising
and administering the affairs which
affect the masses of the people. That
has been accomplished by the COM
prehensive policy, methods and prac-
tice of the American labor movement,
and without the establishment of a
labor party. The American Fedora
tion of Labor is not only an economic
body; the unions of labor of America
are not only economic in power, but
they are also political and sociolog
ical.
"The ideals have not been at
tanned, but great achievements and
progress have been made and through
evolutionary paths, not revolution
airy. This principle and policy con-
form to the institutions of the Re-
public of the United States, and
while our Republic is not perfect,
while it has its shortcomings, the
shortcomings Of the human, it is bet
ter than any other country on the
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
that is to be responsible for the
added meanings that are to come out
of democracy"
Trade Union Was Born
Of Labor's Need

1t is for that reason that I went
to interview Samuel Gompers. I un-
dertook the interview knowing that
the labor movement as it is ex-
pressed by the American Federation
of Labor is bearing an increasingly
heavy fire from radicals who believe
in an absolute revision of govern
ment and industry. Trade unionism
in America is not propaganda for
distinct ends. 1t is immediate in it's
aims, born out of the necessities of
labor. 1t has taken it's shape ac-
cording to labor's needs. 1t does not
theorize about the divisions of So
ciety, although its activity is a con-
slant struggle for more extensive
recognition of it's own rights.
By the confusions and divisions
of the present war other groups
aiming to represent labor and indus
trial change in the United States
have tended to lose their identity.
In the same measure, the American
Federation of Labor and Samuel
Gompers have gained. And with
this definition of identity has come
responsibility; the responsibility of
interpreting American labor to labor
in Europe and to America itself.
Samuel Gonlpers is not an easy
man to interview. Years of leader
ship, years in the open field, in
scores of battles and with every kind
of big artillery trained upon him,
have made him cautious and dis
Greet. Moreover, to the busy man in
Washington the old style of inter-
view in which the interviewer asked
the interviewed more or less vaguely
about anything that happened to
open up for discussion is only an
annoyance. 1t is both unproductive
and untruthful.
Accordingly, 1 framed four ques-
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
BY Ralph Block

COME men absorb so large a
~ part Of the field they work in
and in turn give to it so much
Of themselves that they cannot with
any truth be viewed singly and alone.
Their individual significance has be-
come merged in a group of signifi-
canoe. They are movement or they
are nothing at all.
Samuel Gompers is one of these
: men,. When you meet Samuel Com
pers you meet the American Fedora
ton Of Labor and that part Of the
labor movement in the United States
which it represents. You may also
meet in him fragments of Dutch
caution, derived out of The Neither
lands some generations back; Brit
ish tenacity, an inheritance from the
England he left in boyhood; and a
curious mixture of Jewish shrewd-
ness and idealism. But it is the
labor movement which is the largest
part Of him, the movement with
which he has been identified since
he was a child laborer in London,
and which owes the greater part of
its development and present form to
his interest, devotion and guidance.
He is an important man in Wash
ington. He is important just as
labor is important and essential to
the prosecution of the war. He is
one of the six members of the ad-
visory commission to the Council of
National Defence. But his impor-
tance finally stems from a greater
cause, cause which is inescapably
a part of the causes for which the
- war is being fought. War gives
freedom even as it puts into bondage,
and undeniably this war has freed
the voice of the worlds labor, given
= tongue to its cause and forced a re-
spectful hearing from the world. If
the end of war means a new rein
tegration of society, it is labor that
will profit by it, labor that is to take
place in the new councils and labor
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10

face of the globe and we arr ,o,.u
to help to make it better" eS'as
I asked him one more question.
know to some extent r,..
the policy and method of the Amasas may
can Federation of Labor is. Va. Z;
a time when there is so much d;sSsnMa IA
sion over policies of social eeus' rssus
struction, when there is so m~aS
prophecy that there will be SSa nsa
way of living after the war, that u.
war has stimulated the social coa NV
science of the people all over ~.
world wonder if this gathering ~
events will have any effect upon ~.
method of the American labor NOV. ,as
ment, or whether it believes II Az.
achieve these ends through the sams as
processes ?" '"'as
His reply, also stenographic, fo,
lows:
"The ends will be achieved throp,,
the same processes: under the im'
petus and spirit of our wartime s;tm'
alton and experiences they win !.
auickened. The masses Of the nav ~
pie are thinking more keenly than psst y,
any other time in the history of M. n.
country or of the world, and a mnss
larger proportion of the people viii
be ready to ACCEPT the leadership ana
the purposes of the American lahos
movement in it's pressing home unon
government and employers the rieht.
which the workers have been too lona
denied and the wrongs abolishas
which have been too long endured
Even to-day there is a larger deers.
of democracy in the practice of onr
everyday lives, in industry as we'll as
in our national affairs and interna.
tional relations, than at any time IN
the history of the country, and Of ths
world"
Mr.. Gompers once wrote:
"The philosophy on which state
socialism is grounded-the ineyi
table development of capitalism in
every industry to the point at which
the wage system must be aban
doned'--is countered by that other
philosophy which teaches that every
one who has courage enough and in.
telligence enough may at once, in
the present state of social progress,
clear away sufficient of the hurtfu,
effects of capitalism to permit for
himself an independent course"
That was written eight years ago,
but I do not believe he has changed
since then.
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
Policy of A. F. of L. Has Brought About Different Con-
ceptons of the Rights of Workers and the
Responsibility of Government

tions to present to Mr.. Gompers.
They were broad questions, rather
than specific, intended to draw from
him some indication off the future
programme of American labor. If
possible some Interpretation of la
boris stand in America today. in
contradistinction to the attitude of
labor in England and the attitude of
radicals in and out of America. Be-
fore | prepared this friendly in
QUESTION | read some of Mr.. Com
pers's own writings. l was struck
by several things in them. One of
them was the great devotion to the
interests of those who labor anc
his intense longing for "the better
day when the industrial strife and
bitter feeling engendered by our eco
romic development may be as
suaged." The others were his deep
ly seated knowledge of practical as
opposed to theoretical development
and his hostility to any doctrine that
is vague or not capable of rewarding
effort with some immediate result.
The questions as they were finally
presented to him were in this form:
Labor in the United States has
been called pragmatic and oppor-
tunist. 1t has been said that your
leadership has been response to the
nature of American civilization, its
freedom for the individual, its hun
dred paths of opportunity and its
untixed state. Does your experience
at the head of union labor in Amer.
lea affirm this Interpretation, and
does the Interpretation still hold
good?
Do the economic, social and indus
trial changes produced by the war
IN the United States warrant any re-
VISION Or reinterpretation Of the aims
OF the American Federation of Labor?
In other words, does the apparently
growing inclination of English speak
ing peoples to extend democracy to
every phase and activity of life call
for more comprehensive philosophy
of social regeneration on the part of
American labor?
What differing conditions in Eng
land and the United States have pro-
duced, on the one hand, the British
Labor party, aiming at "A New Social
Order" and, on the other hand, a
continued federation among American
trade unionists of the present COM
petitive system?
How best-rationally, evenly and
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
She Slipped Down
The River Out to Sea

Let US call her the Ramapo, because
that isn't her name. Let US say still
further that she was formerly, before
they hauled down the Red, White and
Black and hoisted the Stars and Stripes
the Fuerst Adolph, which she wasn't,
and one of the crack liners in the Ger
man merchant marine, which she was.
In the dusk of a winter afternoon she
slipped down the river and out to sea.
unobtrusive in her gray war paint.
Several thousand troops were in the
troop spaces" below decks. These are
formed by ripping out costly woodwork,
silken fittings, wondrous decorations,
once used in the first class cabins Of
the Fuerst Adolph, and setting in, in
their place, barracklike chambers Of
raw, heavy wood. In these dolorous
dungeons the men in khaki are to sleep.
If the weather be stormy there they are
elso to live until the storm abates.
Landlubbers must be below when the
wind blows high, which Is wise for
their safety, but hard on their stom-
achs.
The troops were all kept below while
the transport slowly slipped down the
stream and the shores grew blurred be-
hind her. Then her engines quickened.
Her bow made it's first curtsey to the
cminous Atlantic swell. and she was on
Ter way across. From now on, for day
on day, a torpedo rightly placed might
cause a greater loss than the attack of
an army corps ashore.
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10

waves were rolling at their worst,
twenty barrels of oil that had been
made fast on the we'll deck, broke loose,
and began to roll back and forth in
their narrow space like so many terri
Bile dice. Each of them weighed 200
pounds and they thundered about con-
tnualy as the sea swung the boat.
Several of them had come up hard
against capstans and stanchons, and
had burst like bombshells before the
section on watch was ordered down to
make them fast. A dozen men were de-
tailed to the job. For an hour they
fought on the we'll deck, where a mis-
step meant death, lodging the barrels
when they charged like so many mad
dened cattle, swearing .joyfully when
they were able to close in on one and
make it fast.
At last they Finished drenched with
oil, bruised and tired. The ten barrels,
remaining whole, were all corralled
and they turned to the upper deck. A
moment later, the grinding rumble be-
low told that the rolling of the ship had
shaken them loose again.
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
The Transport Starts
Out and Arrives

-, To the average American mind the
those OF France, and that is all there
is to it.
- There is much, much more. Most Of
this probably will never be told The
endless chain OF ships, many Of them
built in Germany, that carry men and
supplies to the immediate rear of the
war and then return for more have no
history.
Yet the history is there, latent and
waiting for birth. The fate of Amer
ica's part in the war, perhaps the fate
of the war itself, rests on the blue
jumpered shoulders of the transport
men. Their business is not to fight. un-
less cornered. Their task is not to de-
Tend so much as to evadc They are
responsible for the lives of thousands
Of temporarily helpless soldiers. They
and their ship drop down the bay and
out across the tracklcss sea to play a
desperate game Of tag, in which every
U-boat the Kaiser owns is at" and they
and their vessel the lone and unhappy
tagec.
Day by day they come and day BY
day they 90, and OF their doings only
the high lords Of the navy know. Peril
of storm and torpedo are theirs. Un-
relaxed vigilance and eternal warinegs
are their duty. And they are doing
their wprk. They are getting the men
acroSs. Up 10 the time thia vas writ
ten. no transport flying the Stars and
Gtripes and carrying her precious load
OF men and munitions to France has
lost in her deadly game Of tag. The
Juscania, it should be remembered, vas
= British ship.
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
the Mute ngorious Transports That Garry the Nations Des

That is what the men of the trans
port service. most Of whom enlisted to
fight and we're chosen to run, are doing
How they are doing it is only partly
told tale, caught here and there from
letters sent home from French ports
by sailors; from descriptions of the
trip over "Over There" recounted by
soldiers, recovered from the terrible
qualms Of seasickness and filled with
new found gratitude and admiration
for their brothers in the navy blue who
brought them safely across.
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10

through what evolutionary paths
can We arrive at industrial democ-
racy in the United States?
arrived for the interview some
minutes before Mr.. Gompers ap-
peared. I sat in a fine airy cor
ner room on the top floor Of the i'm
pressive Federation Building at
Massachusetts Avenue, awaiting his
arrival. On the walls we're auto
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10

graphed photographs of the last
three Presidents. A sectional book
case was full of books, among them
"Russia's Message" by William
English Walling, Bliss's "New En-
cyclopadia of Social Reform" Met
calf's "The Real Bryan" and in a
corner, copy of Mr.. Gompers's
own Labor in Europe and Amer
New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
A Wicked Looking
Barrel Spied Him

"The commander was pretty sore
and he showed it. He went down with
us this time to see we did the Job
right. The barrels were bouncing and
charging about. The deck was slippery
with oil and every once in so often