New-York tribune., 1918-02-12
.ompers Seeks
Eight-Hour Day
For Shipbuilders
Fixed Wage Scale in All
Government Plants Also
Is Urged
TStuf CorrcsDondeuce1

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11.-Arguine
for basic eight-hour day and a fixed
wage scale in all government ship
building yards, regardless of location,
as an element of cure for the ills of
shlpbuilding labor, and challenging en-
ployers to the acid test of investiga-
ton as to whether organized labor had
been ioatng on the job of "bridging
the Atlantic" Samuel Gompers, presi-
dent of the American Federation of
Labor, testified at length this after
noon before the Senate Commerce
Commission. Admitting that time had
been lost by strikes, he declared that,
with rare exceptions, they had been
for the purpose of getting higher
wages and not to enforce unionization.
Mr.. Gompers thought fixed eight
hour day, with time and a half COM
Pensatlon for overtime, and uniform
wage scales were necessary to the con-
tentmcnt and stability of labor. He at
trlbuted much of the present unrest to
the fact that higher wages were paid
IN some yards and in some districts
- oSAIA o as W charges OIL iOdL-
ing and that higher wages are accom-
panied by reduced production, which
Rave been made before the committee,
Mr. Gompers suggested that a special
committee visit q few representative
yards on both coasts and make a thor
ough investigation.
MI. Gompers was invited to discuss
the general attitude Of organized labor
toward the war, the government, So
clallsm and pro-German propaganda.
senator Hiram johnson started this
diversion by saying that, whereas no
one questioned Mr.. Gompers' patriot
Ism and lofty. motives, it had been in
tlmated that he was not accurately re-
iectlng the attitude of organized labor.
Il am not Sir Oracle" answered Mr..
Gompers. when I speak | voice nv
own views, but | am free to say that /
believe that the vast majority of the
members OF the American Federation of
LABOR accept my statements on these
subjects as 100 per cent theirs. I re-
gret to say that there is small ele-
ment that does not share my views"
He said he thought the vote on the
resolutions adopted by the Buffalo con-
ventlon OF the federation-22, 900 to 400
represented about the proportion of
loyalists to disloyalsts. He said that
organized labor as q whole stood TO-DAY
squarely on the resolutions adopted at
conference of leaders called nearly a
month before war was declared.
We are with the government of the
United States and the Allied nations
tor fight to finish, and nothing will
sult u.s." he said, "but a fight to a
finish. If democracy is to be defeated
let it be in a finish fight and not
through taro1 the ;, intrigues and deceits Of
Mr.: Gompers reviewed the fight of
the dominant patriotic element Of or
ganized labor against pacifsts, pro-
Germans, American, Peoples Coun-
cillors, the Socialist party, l. W. W.
and "devil-may-cares," all of whom he
we're honest
The outcome of the fight, he said. was
that If they had not been killed they
had at least been driven to cover. He
ironically described the American So
ciailst party as being composed of
eight nationalistic groups Of alien-born
parents domiciled in the United States.
which had created one American group'
the representative of the American
group, Adolph Germer, was the national
secretary-"and he is a German!"