Republican farmer., 1919-10-03
THEY HAVE HARVEST TO REAP N0uI'' SAYS
 G0MPERS 0F CAPITAL
Systematic Effort To Eliminate American Workers Has Brought Capital to Point Where They Must Suffer the Consequences.

Washington, Sept. 26-The right of the employees to have some voice in determining the conditions under which they work is the paramount issue in the strike of steel workers, Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of La bor, told the Senate Investigat- ing Committee today. After hearing Gompers for more than three hours, the Senate Commit tee abandoned it's plan to examine to- morrow, William z. Foster, secretary of the Steel Workers committee, who has been attacked in the House of Representatives as a, radical and an I. W. W.
 Appearing as the second witness for labor, MT. Gompers was first ask ed by Chairman Kenyon to define the issues in the controversy.
 The right to be heard is what the steel workers are asking above all else,'' MT. Gompers said. ''The right to speak with their employers through their own representatives, to have some voice in determining conditions under which they work.
 ''The right of workers to associa- | ton has been denied--denied with all the power and influence, and wealth of the steel corpora tion-denied by l brutal and unwarrantable means. Tt has been said that most of the 1 men taking part in this strike are of foreign birth and not naturalized l citizens. That may be and no doubt 1 it is true. The largest proportion of steel corporation employees are of for ] eign birth, but these men were i brought here by the companies. i There was for years a systematic 1 effort to bring in these gangs from 1 Europe. There was a systematic ef- l fort to eliminate Americans. They have a harvest to reap now. The steel companies brought about the state of which they now complain D i "Under the efforts of the steel cor | poration the hours of labor were aI- ways abnOrma1ly long. They never 1 seemed satisfied until they had their 1 men toiling seven days a week, 365 l days a year. When the shifts chang 1 ed, from day to night, they got them
 
 ] The right of association, the at- 1 tempt to organize, met with the l sternest opposition by the steel cor i poration.
 1 The appeals coming to us from i their employees were for help in or 1 ganizing. But most of the efforts were slaughtered by the detectives and 1 the agencies in the company pay. 1 More than sixty per cent. of all the 1 private detective agency effort in this { country has been devoted to spying | on employees, in mines, and mills. They ] have been used as agent provocateurs i to induce men to some overt act, to i get them to strike too soon" l As he described the "dogging" of | employees by detectives, Gompers em- i phasized his words by pounding ire 1 quently on the table.
 i Tn the steel industry he contin- 1 ued. linen were discharged for mere l ly talking of organization, or for | grum bling
 There have been numbers of men
 watched so closely that when they
 rented a hall the proprietor was told
 fo lock the doors against them. Their
 meetings on rented ground have been
 broken up. The men were run down,
 dispersed and some assaulted" Gan you give instances of that last
 practice?" asked Senator Sterling, Re-
 publican, South Dakota.
 'Yes, at McKeesport," Gompers re-
 eponded. Since this strike the offices
 of the Iron and Steel Workers there
 have been closed against them.'' T suppose that has been done on
 the theory that collection of crowds would create disorder" Senator Ster-
 ling remarked.
 T don't know the theory" MT. Com pers said. But I do know the pur-
 pose. It was to prevent the leaders
 from counseling with the men and making the strike effective
 Only in the event of war, the labor leader declared, should the rights of free speech and assembly be -~.trict- ed. They should not be, he said, 1Or a ''privateering corporation"
 T know that many of the public authorities in districts of PennsyIva-
 mia. are under the direct domination of the United States Steel Corpora
 tion,'' the witness declared, pounding the table.
 '"The whole conduct of the strike in Pennsylvania shows,' MT. Gompers asserted, that whatever helps the cor
 porations against the workers will
 have the support of Pennsylvania au-
 thorlt1es. The corporation declares
 that it proceeds to run under the mis-
 nomer---the so-called open shop---but with all their power they have tried to keep a closed shop---closed against the union, closed against union men.
 Tn response to the many request !, for organization from the men W,
 sent few agents into the field som. years ago. They were arrested, driv en out of the towns, one of them st
 bludgeoned that he died. That wa
 four or five years ago. He was lief ferson Davis Pierce, of Worcester
 Mass.'
 Gompers told of the final decision , of the American Federation of Iabo , in 1918 to organize the men and de
 scribed the methods used to financ, , the work.
 , You have dealt with the policy O the steel companies trying to exclude
 union men," Senator Phillips, Repub
 1ican. Colorado, said. "Is the polio.
 of the unions to try to exclude non
 union nen?"
 -It is the policy of the unions t
 try to organize all workers Gomper said, adding that in all his experience
 he had never known a workman ''vol
 1 untarily refusing to join union o