New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-06-29

union wishes. Therefore tho habit Of
back scratching, familiar in all polit-
ical conventions, is not missing in ma
tional labor conventions.
On the league of nations there was
wide divergence Of opinions, exactly
as one will find wide differences Of
opinion in any considerable group Of
men and women. The only folks
really interested were convention
leaders, who sought to keep clear
the record Of having stood by the
Administration, and the Irish sympa-
thizers, who, careless Of what hap
pened the treaty or the league as
whole, were determined that nothing
prejudicial to Ireland's cause should
pass.
These Irishmen were in q minority
in the convention, but the 1rishman's
genius for politics made it easy for
them to make their point. To harm
less resolution that meant nothing they
tackled on amendments until the thing
had more teeth than shark. The
amendment that put most Of the in
cisors into the declaration was clearly
out Of order, but Gompers, wise parlia-
mentarian, ruled against his friend,
Vice-President James Duncan Ono rela-
ton, please, to the man from Seattle),
when that gentleman sought to make it,
Gompers knew that to do so would
be to invite an appeal from the chair
and an upset, and Gompers never fights
for the mere sake of being whipped.
The Irish had the votes, and he was
willing to let them have the results
The worthwhile things-resolution
calling for the removal of Burleson, for
better working conditions for under
paid government employees and better
wages for teachers, along with better
school facilities, shorter workdays for
all-these things went through easily
and without much debate.
1t was. on the whole, an average
gathering Of average Americans-just
such a gathering as one would find in
Chicago at Republican National Con-
vention or in St. Louis, where the
Democrats may meet, with this excep-
tion-absolute freedom Of discussion,
and no committee to kill things quietly
1t was such convention that, viewed
by one not familiar with the labor
movement, would have convinced him
that the idea that the labor movement
is thing apart, that the labor leader
is sui generis, is founded not on fact
but on fancy He would have found
average Americans eager to better
their condition and the conditions of
their families, just as he would have
found convention of bankers eager to
help their trade Cor profession), that
the labor men, like most human beings,
prefer their food cooked, that they do
not throw cuspidors at the clock or
chairs at the presiding officer, and that
all have an abiding faith in America !
and its institutions.
He would have found among them
no delusion that the United States is
place of perfect residence, but he
would have found confidence that grad |
ually, but none the less surely, the
United States is becoming q better !
place to work and live in.
In word, he would have found that |
could he get cross section of the
mass of 100000 men and women who |
make up the American Federation of |
Labor and could superimpose it upon |
cross section of the mass of 100000 |
600 people inhabiting these United
States. he would find the lines and the
markings to be amazingly alike.
In both there would be what the
chemists call trace of Bolshevism or
Its equivalent. On the plates it would !
not show red. 1t would be a ver,,
very faint pink