The Connecticut labor press. (New Haven, Conn.) 191?-1921, 1919-05-10

LOT LABOR as Mrt henderson meeker
nature would have summed. He is only
sons ancestor probably drew a good
bow at Hastings. Why, then, does Mr..
Gonpers, instead of counting the Ger
man Socialists like Mr.. Henderson, re-
peat in every speech, a veritable Amer
lean Cato Germany must be beaten;
the war must be fought to victory?
THE question is answered by Mr..
Gompers himself in the words quoted
above: I must be citizen of America
before l can be citizen of the: world
Perhaps the coarsest of all the mis-
takes made by Germany was with re-
gard to the reality of American citizen
ship. Germany laid stress on the ethnic
factor, and it is no doubt considerable
element in American life. 1t gives all
kinds of Americans, for example,
curiously tired feeling when they read
| our wel1meant eulogies on themselves
and their institutions. A nation which
derives from every race in Europe is
| not likely to be hattered when we
assume that its main duty is to take its
stand by the Mother Country for the
! preservation of the common interest of
Anglo axondom'-which, it seems, in
cludes India, West Africa, and the
| Hokojoko Islands. America does not
happen to he 'Anglo-Saxon.' even if we
are But though America is not Eng
| lish Except as regards the bases of law
and language), America is American
With America neutral, personal and
racial preferences assumed extraordin-
airy warmth, and took the most lawless
form. But with America belligerent,
the ranks have closed marvelously.
ITO what are we to attribute gen.
eral loyalty hardly equaled in any Euro
pean country? Something is due, no
doubt, to the peculiar directness of the
American intellect, which is as sharply
distinguishable from our own habit of
cloudy compromise as the thoroughgo
ing heat and cold of the American con-
tinent are from Our trimming climate.
Still more, no doubt is traceable to the
! school system of the United States.
which brings vivid and even crude
Americanism into the homes of Italian,
Hungarian, Galician, Scandinavian, and
German parents. But IN the long run
| the most powerful influence is the demo-
| cratic and Republican temper which, if
it does not kill the spirit of sectionalism,
at least scotches it The immense bulk
of the United States does not prevent
an intense localism. Every American
has his home town. as well as his home
State, and it thus results that the most
cosmopolitan community on earth is also
the least international. Mr.. Gompers'
| citizen formula might be extended thus:
I am first of all citizen of Big Lick;
am next citizen of the State of Mis-
souri,; am next a citizen of the United
States; and after that (when l have
| tirne) am citizen of the world
What do they know of England asks
Mr.. Kipling, who England only know?
what can they feel for the British EN-
pire who decry either their native Bolu
wayo or their native Chipping Sodbury?
British Imperialism has made. one mis-
take in seeking to turn Englishmen ant
Scotchmen into Britishers. British
Labor has made another in trying to
regard itself as part of the international
: proletariat' Both have begun at the
wrong end. One can be good Eng
| lishman first, and all sorts of things aft
erwards enthusiastic for the British
| League of Nations. One cannot safely
reverse the process, and that we exist
at all today is due to the splendid fact
| that the average EnglishInan, Scots
man, and We1shman, despite all exhorta-
tons to think imperially and proletar-
ianly, insisted at the critical moment on
thinking nationally.
"In this context it is highly significant
that, while there is colossal Labor Or
ganization in America, there is no Labor
Party in Congress. MI. Gompers has set
his face like flint against all pressure
to form one, and has declined all in
vitations to be nominated himself. He
thinks the welfare of Labor should not
! be confused with other national inter
ests, but should be the concern of all
parties This pure wisdom does not of
course, prevent the American Labor or
ganization from bringing strong and
successful pressure to bear on all kinds
of matters in which the working man
is specially interested. In fact, Mr..
Gompers has taken an enormous part IN
State and Federal politics. But, like the
millionaires themselves, he recognizes
the indeceney of open sectionalism I'M
der a democratic constitution. 1t is
something altogether repellent to the ma
tiona1 temper. Class interests exist in
America as elsewhere, and are pursued
with equal selhshness. But the point is
that the sectionalist is forced by public
sentiment to clothe his sordidness with
at least the show of public spirit.
The British Labor Party cannot be
blamed because, coming late in the day,
and finding markedly selfish parties in
possession, it has fought for its own
hand. 1t could scarcely do otherwise.
But when it is beginning to aspire to
| control national destiny it should seek
larger models, and, since there is little
indeed to copy at home, it would do bet
ter to turn to Mr.. Gompers and Amer
lean Labor than to Trotsky and Rus
sian Bolshevism, or to our German
friends whether they follow Scheide-
mann or HaaSe.