The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-02
NATION IN GRAVER DANGER NOW THAN ANY TIME DURING WAR, SAYS GOMPERS Labor Will Hold All She Has Gained in Way
 of Wages and
 Hours
OUTLINES PRINCIPLES
 OF HUMAN LIBERTY
 FOR PEACE TREATY
Men of Labor Have Vision of Better Life and Better Opportunities for Toilers, Declares
 Labor Head

New York, December 1.-The nation is in graver danger now than at any time during the war, because peace conferences are not always dominated by a spirit of justice and democracy, declared Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor in an address here tonight at a Jubilee" meeting of the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy.
 It had occurred berore, he said, that people who had secured certain amount of freedom in their own coun- tries were forced to yield, or yielded voluntarily, these rights at the peace table.
 He asserted that when the Senate ratifies treaty with another country provisions of such treaty become a Supreme" law, and said that the work ing classes of America, who had suc- ceeded in getting some excellent laws on the statute books, would see to it that none of these rights were taken away at the peace conference.
 T say with full knowledge of the re- sponsibility which my words carry" continued MT Gompers, that the work ing people of the United States will re- sist and make any sacrifice which may be necessary to prevent the industrial baron from riding on horseback over the mass of the people,
 MT. Gompers asserted that a month after labor had pledged itself to support the country in peace or war, during the trying spring of 1917, President Will son had declared war on Germany This pledge, MT. Gompers declared, had been kept by labor which was now destined to demand it's right
 LABOR TO HOLD GAINS
 While asserting that labor meant to retain all it had gained during the war in better wages. better working conditions and shorter hours, Mr Comp CTS said there was no intention to turn to any patented panacea for all the ills of human kind"
 He declared labor realized that "the course of the human family is one of growth and development and that utter revolution brings reaction in it's wake" Gradual, but steady improvement, he said, is the character of the labor move ment.
 MT. Gompers said labor has implicit confidence in the leadership of Presi- dent Wilson and predicted that he would be 'tower of strength" at the peace table, but he warned that "all delegates from countries 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"
 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
 The fundamental principles of hu- man liberty" laid down at the recent labor conference at Laredo, Texas, he declared, should be and must be in- cluded in the treaty of peace."
 The time has gone," he asserted, when the working people of America can again be put, in shackles. that the labor of human beings is commodity or an article of commerce."
 Asserting that "all the bolsheviki are not in the ranks of labor" MT. Comp CTS assailed those employees who wish to cut wages, to lengthen hours and to take away the eight-hour day"
 Tt was said by the French Bourbons," added MT. Gompers, that they never forgot anything and that they never learned anything. That is true of one type of men in America. Industrially they want to live in the year 19lS-1s19, but mentally they are living in the six teenth century. They have in mind the position of baron and serf-of master and servant. That may go somewhere, but it does not go here. Here we propose to make the condition of life such that every woman shall be a queen and every man 8 sovereign.
 VISION OF LABOR
 "The men of labor have the vision of the better life and better opportunities for the toilers. And endowed with the understanding of our rights as citizens of this republic we are determined to realize our fondest hopes, better now and much better for the countless mil lions yet unborn"
 The audience adopted resolutions com mending the record of labor during the war and indorsing it's demands for:
 NO lowering of wages Or lengthening of working hours
 "Relentless and immediate curbing of profiteering and an adjustment of the ! cost of living to point commensurate with income.
 Full representation of labor on all government boards and commissions having to do with the affairs of work ing people,