The Butte daily bulletin., 1919-06-16

some local police officers or en-
ployers ill-will.
Protests from both in and out OF
the department have resulted in lib
elalzing the deportation process to
an inadequate extent. An alien is now
permitted an attorney. and there is
evidence that Secretary Wilson is de-
laying further wholesale deportations
until the entire procedure can be
overhaulod.
One of the first steps in a sane
Americanization program is an
amendment to the immigration laws
providing for a court hearing in all
cases of deportation, and with the de-
cision in the hands of jury.
Outside the Gompers hierarchy Of
the American Federation of Labor,
la Dor men realize that the anti-bol-
shevik agitation is going to lengths
and is being pushed by interests that
make it Il serious menace to legiti-
mate organizing activities. Insofar
rs the movement has any sincerity.
his phase of it will frustrate its own
object. For it has been proved that
the best agency for raising the moral
INV StillltiS IOIulilpI anu lHt uOllt-
ical level of foreign-born workers is
the labor union and Francis S. Pea,
body. the biggest soft coal operator
in the country, has testified, some
what reluctantly, to the improve
nent brought by the unions in coal
mining towns. in the intelligence and
lcalth and morals of the population
md has admitted that there is a dis
tinct contrast in these respects be-
wcen organized and unorganiZed
fields. ''They learn. through these
debating societies. for the unions are
debating societies. said Peabody.
"They become distinct, argumcnta-
tive American citizens, and they I'M
prove in every way"
There are already enough obstacles
in the way of alien workers who wish
to organize for their protection and
advancement. In the big monopo-
lized industries, such as steel. they
spies and detectives, and discharged
summarily for so much as attending
a union or socialist meeting. Tho
Gompers leadership in the Fedora
tion of Labor and the heads of some
Of the important unions operating in
fields where immigrants are en-
ployed in large numbers have shown
a gross lack of zeal in encouraging
organization among the unskilled inn
migrant workers. Today the foreign
born workman who lares to assert
himself or to attend forbidden meet
ings will risk not only the loss of his
job, but the loss of his home and sud
den deportation from the country.
Even if the risk is not actual it will
| be present as Il reality in his mind.
In the Pittsburg steel district, the
ompany-controlled mayors and the
company managers make no distinc-
ton between l. w. w. and A. T.. of l..
| Both are alike "bolshevist" and
dangerous" Hero is the folly of
the Federation's policy of tolerating
| and even encouraging the persecution
of the socialists and |. w. w. 1t will
come home to roost, until the leaders
of the federation realize that their
present prestige rests on the favor in
which they are held by the privileged
interests, or until the rank and file
realize this.
The Federation's failure to organ
| iZc the unskilled fOrcign-bOrn work
ers has left for years Il great gap in
the American labor movement which
at last seems in process of being
filled. The L. w. W. tried to fill it,
with very limited success, at least in
the great industrial centers of the
east. Today it is being partly filled
by new organizations that belong
neither to the |. w. w. nor the A. +.
of L.. but that most resemble the
more progressive A. +. of l.. unions
In the textile industry, employing
100000 men and women, the Anal
gamated Textile Workers, fathcred
by the Amalgamated Clothing Work
ers and born of the strikes at Law
renee, Paterson and Passaic, is MAX
ing substantial progress. In Toledo
| there emergeS a new industrial union
of automobile workers which is chal-
longing the authority of the A. +. of
Il. unions with it's claims of superior
advantage for the industrial form oi
organization as opposed to the craft
form. These new unions stand out
clearly as an Indictment of the policl
Of the American federation of Labor
! They threaten labor solidarity, be
cause they are Secession move
ments The point is that such move,
ments are surely destined to multiply
and spread unless the A. +. of L.
radically alters its policy and the
quality of it's leadership. Secession
in labor movement is a dangcrou,
thing, to be avoided at all costs. But
in the case of at least two industries
the manufacture of mems ready
made clothing and the textile indus
| try-secession seemed to be the only
course open to men who were intent
on building up effective organiza-
tiOns.
None of the many Americanization
societies that have sprung up in re-
cent years has yet shown any willing.
ness to get behind the only agencies
that can accomplish the purpose
Most of these societies are run bs
| pseudo sociologists who are exploit
ing the ignorant fears of the rich
They are sending a swarm of investi,
gators into the homes OF foreignbor
working men. They are printing