The Tomahawk., 1919-11-13

: Washington, D. C.-General condi.
.tions have forced the most serious
break between labor leaders and poll.
ticians the country has known.
(. The most conservative labor, leaders
are for the time being pushed out into
the ranks of progressives and radicals
because their political friends have
become impossible. The conservatives
are not conservative to the point Of
sacrificing labor organization.
President Gompers simply had to
walk out of the rigged.up conference
Of capital and labor. The public rep
resentatives, among them Gary and
young Rockefeller, were nearly all
capitalists. Labor was asked to give
everything and the other side would
give nothing.
Now the threatened miners strike,
to begin on November l, makes the
big break a still bigger one. While
congress is debating about passing
the Cummins bill, with the anti-striKe
clause, the administration comes out
with the suggestion that strikes are
already illegal. 1t seems that during
the war, when labor was urged to put
its trust in politicians, the politicians
tackled a clause on one of the war bills
which may be interpreted as forbid
ding workmen to strike for better con.
diti0ns. Wilson also declares that the
tempest in the senate teapot over the
treaty keeps up the war with Ger:
many.
Forcing Issue Now.
All indications point to an agree
ment among all the big interests to
conduct an uncompromising war on
labor. Forcing of issues instead of
compromise is the plan. Politicians
OF both parties have to choose between
siding with them and with labor. The
dominance of the big interests in old
party politics forces the choice of the
former. Labor's friends" suddenly
lose all power to force any group like
the steel trust or the coal operators
to compromise or agree to arbitration.
They suddenly turn the whole force Of
the political state against the workers.
Labor's answer to the break must
necessarily be more thorough Organi-
zation and Independent politics. The
interests evidently feel they have a
fighting chance to hold the farmers
political support, and they may be
forcing the issue now because they see
this farmer supper: of old parties
weakening rapidly. But the way both
trusts and politicians have raided
farm prices in the last three months to
reduce the cost of living" has caused
more real thinking on the farms than
the interests realize.
Irish Answer Williams.
When Senator Williams of Missis.
sippi indulged his antilrish prejudice
to the limit of bitter and taunting
speech a week ago on the senate floor,
he probably under-estimated the Irish
love of discussion of any attack upon
themselves. Since, that unlucky after
noon not a day has passed but Will
liams has had to listen to lengthy
denials and ridicule of his statements
as to the military achievements Of the
Irish in the American Revolutionary
army and in the federal army of the
Civil war.
The Irish National bureau, which
10 q first-class press bureau located
here, instantly oset its historians and
its Investigators to work to prove that
the Revolution and the Civil war were
won chiefly by the Irish. Their har-
vest Of facts is large and astonishing.
They have overfilled Williams cup
of regrets by quoting General Robert
=. Lee as the final authority for their
claim that almost all Of the Irish took
the Union side in 1861, and that they
fought gallantly.
This Irish advocacy is a dangerous
political road to travel, except for
politicians who are in such peril that
they may as well take radical side
as stay and be run over. Slim Fein
has swallowed the Irish cause; Sjnn
Fein Is revolutionary and pro-labor.
Broadcloth-skirted senators from the
West, who have not had pleasant
smile for the American wage-worker
or farmer in years, arc trying to get
past the political goal OF 1920 by
hurrahing for Irish independence.
Williams speech was due in part to
his disgust at the hypocrites around
5 him. But now the Irish organizations
are making these other senators
jump higher through the hoop than
ever. LIZ.
They would strenuously oppose the
admission Of most of the Sinn Fein
agitators into this country; they
would welcome a state department
ruling that the Sinn Fein spokesmen
were disguised Bolsheviki.
Anti-strike Clause Fought. s
Railroad shop employees, locomotive
engineers, f1remen, brakemen and
conductors and each of the various
classes Of railway men employed in
maintenance Of the track and struc.
lures, are writing and telegraphing
to members of the senate and house
their protests against the Cummins
bin and their demand that the Plumb
~,1~~ - an~nAnIa anfA lov The (lun.