The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1919-12-27

"
The Tribune has been asked to reprint the letter that Mi
Campbell, president of the National Milk Producers Assocu
IN. recently wrote to Samuel GOmpers, presidant oI III
nerican Federation of Labor, in reply to an invitation fro
r. GoRpers to participate in a conference that met last rrlod
Washington. The letter, while it passes some criticism Q
Gompers and those who have been running away from nj
.h the labor movement, is worth reprinting for the spirit
that pervades it. 1t runs as follows:
II fully agree with you that the farmers of the
country have many common interests with the tOilers
of the cities. 1t is unnecessary to enumerate them.
"But the events of last year, and particularly of
the last few weeks, have in my opinion alienated
much of the good will toward organized labor that
was previously in the heart of the farmers.
"For this condition you may not be responsible,
nor sane and conservative members of the A. +. of L.
II think that | can appreciate the difficult posi-
ton you hold; but at this moment your team is run
ming away. We, as farmers, would be glad to aid in
stopping them, but not to ride in the wagon.
awe do want the right to collectively sell our
farm products and the right to buy necessities col
lectively.N But we do not ask the right to impose our
collective agent upon any purchaser. nor the rlgnt
to tell any purchaser that if he does not want our col
lected products at the price we name, that he must
arbitrate; or that he must not supply his wants from.
any other source, if he would avoid trouble.
1--WE do not ask through legal enactment, nor in
the court of public sentiment any such un-American
advantage. There are some radical differences, I fear,
and with roots reaching down too deep for affiliatiOn
at this time.
Law and order are words that have not yet
been erased from the vocabulary of the farmer, and
cannot be with ease. He believes in the open shop.
He is not opposed to labor unions. He may be divided
in sentiment upon the right to quit work, to strike,
and under what circumstances. But the right to con-
tract between menis to him a sacred one.
with the coal mining strike now on: with the
railroad strike threatening; with labor unions at the
throat of the nation under present conditions; with
starvation and the fortunes of winter cold but a few
weeks or days ahead; pleasant contemplation is not
offered for the converting Of such a conference as the
one you suggest.
Farmers do want some relief, but they will only
ask such relief through channels provided by the con-
stitution and laws of the country.
'Now, MI. Gompers, l may be wrong in writing to
you of these things, for you have many times pro-
tested that the conditions above were not to your lik-
ing. But they exist and are in the saddle in the name
of organized labor. If your conference is for the pur-
pose of rededicating both labor and agriculture to the
support of the constitution and laws of the country;
to the preservation of law and order; to needed
changes of law through lawful means; to Just main
tenance of property rights; to fight bolshevism and
radical socialism; to punish violence; to suppress the
red flag; to justly benefit the condition of labor and
agriculture without injustice to others, then | am with
you heart and soul"
Mr.. Campbell has written something that is worth DC
ring over. His letter contains a suggestion that both ag
llture and labor rededicate themselves to the constitution a
the country, the constitution and country for which so mu
rnerican blood has been shed.
The invitation is also to fight all forms of bolshevism a
ID radicalism, the influences that have been manifested
any of the strikes with which we have been recently Athlete