The sun., 1919-11-02
Samuel GOmpers Now cites Abra-
ham lincoln!


ham Lincoln!
In his statement denouncing the
process of the Federal courts the
president of the American Federation
of Labor had the effrontery to call
ABRAHAM LINCOLN to the witness
stand in support of the defiance Of
law. Mr.. GoMPERs said:
ut Is still more strange that a ma
ton which may be justly proud of
Its ABRAHAM LINCOLN should now
reverse the application Of the great
truth he enunciated when he said
that as between capital and labor
labor should receive first and fore
most consideration
Mr.. GoAIPERs does not give The ref
erence that would enable us to ascer-
tain by context the exact sense in
which LINCOLN declared that as he
tween labor and capital labor should
receive first and foremost considera-
ton. There are dozens of conceiv-
able senses in which LINCOLN might
have said that. and said it with en-
tire truth, without warranting the
construction which Mr.. GoMPERs at
tempts to put on the remark for the
encouragement of strikers who under
his leadership threaten to paralyze
the industrial life of the nation.
But although without further and
more specific indication from Mr..
GoMPERs we cannot be sure what LIN
colin meant by his remark about capi-
tai and labor, we may be mighty sure
he did not mean that which Mr.. Com
~PERs wants the strikers to believe
LINCOLN did mean; namely, that his
sympathy would be with the promot
ers and organizers and leaders whom
the Federal court has enjoined. For
ABRAHAM LINCOLN laid down the fun
damentals of American patriotism and
loyalty and obedience TO law in an
address he delivered in Springfield,
Illinois, a dozen years or more before
Mr.. GoMPERs was born in England;
the speech from which we quoted for
sIr. GoMPERs's benefit last Sunday
this passage:
Let every American, every lover
of liberty, every well wisher to his
posterity, swear by the blood of the
Revolution never to violate in the
try and never to tolerate their vio-
lation. Let every man re-
member that to violate the law is to
trample on the blood of his father,
and to tear the charter of his own
and his children's liberty. Let rev.
erence for the laws be breathed by
every American mother to the lisp
ing babe that prattles on her lap;
let 1t be taught in schools, In semi
naries, and in colleges; let it be
written in primers. spelling books and
in almanacs; let it be preached from
the pulpit. proclaimed in legislative
halls, and enforced in courts OF JUS
tice And. in short let it become the
political religion of the nation, and
let the old and the young, the rich
and the poor the grave and the gay
of all sexes and tongues and colors
and conditions sacrifice increasingly
upon it's affairs"
That was the Americanism OF ABRA-
III nf
SAMUEL GoSPERs says the nation may
be justly proud; the man whose name
and fame SAMUEL GoNPERs offers to
his deluded followers as an authority
Tor the theory that in matters wherein
labor Is concerned labOrers may
rightfully become breakers of the law,
may defy the courts, If need be- for
their own interests, may even sub
stltute his construction and lnterpre-
tation of the laws of the land for the
constructions and decisions of those
laws constitutional interpreters.
And in the next breath SAMUEL
GOMPERs, having thus uttered to the
miners this false certificate Of license
in the name of ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
dares in the name of organized labor
10 threaten our nation with a wider
and more seditiors uprising in case
the defiance of the courts by the lead
ers of the soft coal strikers Is not
tolerated by the American people:
This injunction can only result in
creating new and more disturbing is
sues which may not be confined
solely to the miners"
Exactly what does Mr.. GoMPERs
mean with regard to his attempted
supergovernment and superjudlclary
within the American system, ABRA-