Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-10-15
WHEN WILL LABOR ITSELF
SPURN ITS RED BETRAYERS?
Each Days News Development Piles up
Evidence That Evil Counsels Are Un-
dernnlns the Structure Of Industry

GdCH bdy NG~b bCNClOPIS'N ''~S - =
Evidence That Evil counsels Are un-
dermInlns the Structure Of Industry
"JOW," angrily demanded Walker d.
IL Hines, the most patient of all
directors general of railroads, "are you
going to deal with labor unions? They
do not keep their agreements and they
will not obey even their own leaders"
That outburst of wrath came uneX-
pectedly from an official whose subordi-
mates, down to the very switchmen,
firmly desire him to be seen and not
heard.
Columns of criticism could not more
clearly express the indictment that rests
against the wreckers within the Fedora
tion of Labor, nor could a two-hour
speech better suggest the desperate
plight of American trades unionism
under the red invasion.
If the various units in the allied
armies were to have gone wandering off
on wild adventures of their own, the
Germans would have eaten them up on
an easy march to world dominion.
That is precisely what many of the
big affiliated unions are doing as they
are Russianized one by one and led off to
disorganized guerrilla enterprises by
furtive lunatics who still believe that
they can upset the world.
If trades unionism in this country
isn't to be utterly debauched and dis
graced and rendered futile the Fedora
tion of Labor will have to invest heavily
in rat poison.
1t will have to be swiftly deloused.
1t is being betrayed and doomed to
disintegration by new crop of amateur
prophets.
Seventy big strikes are on in the
United States. Sixty-two of them We're
precipitated against the orders of the
federation officials.
The furious blast of excoriation that
Gompers wired to the striking dock work
ers of New York, who are out star
gazing on an emotional jag at the heels
of discredited agtators, carried note
of desperation. The astute chief of the
federation has been fighting purely de-
fensive action, retreating, waiting for
his Marne and obviously convinced that
the disorganized hordes into which his
organization is breaking will return
sooner or later with the hard-bought
wisdom of prodigals.
But the evil has already been accom-
plished. The red invaders of the Fedora
tion of Labor are the first good friends
fha% ho iripu 10, aF -
try have had since Roosevelt turned the
unwelcome light upon them.
A month ago the people of this country
were disposed to look doubtfully upon
the obdurate Mr.. Gary and his associates.
Had the steel workers followed a sane
course and gone along without the
dreamers and rioters and seditionists
there would certainly have been some
general questioning of the policies nsti-
tuted by the Steel Corporation in the
mill country about Pittsburgh,
Public opinion insures fair play sooner
or later. The country might have
blamed Mr.. Gary for refusing to treat
with the unions.
But Foster appeared on the scene. He
brought flock of amateur revolution
lists, crazed with undigested theory. The
ragtag and bobtail of the slums followed
him. Neurasthenics and assassins trailed
along later with their bomb-making ma
chinery in suit cases, established them
selves in cellars and Grated in the name
of the Federation of Labor The soldiers
at Gary uncovered machinery devised for!
deliberate murder by mail. And all of
the wretched and disgraceful business
was done in the name of the steel strikers
and in the name of the federation!
1t was easy then for Mr.. Gary. Dis
closures at the Senate hearings and at
Pittsburgh and Gary made it plain that
the Steel Corporation actually was fight
ing something new and big and ugly, and
that the issue of unionism was a minor
incident of the conflict.
|, Foster and his aides, the men who or
ganized the Boston police strike, those
who called out the New York longshore-
men against the orders of the federation
council have all helped equally to weaken
the trades union cause before thu high
court of public opinion in America. And
the only ones who have profited by the
newer radical leadership in the unions
are the unions enemies.
apivide the enemy and conquer Is an
| old rule In warfare Foster and tha