The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-29
GOMPERS-ALLEN
 DEBATE STAGED
 IN CARNEGIE HALL
Kansas Law Labeled as Slave Law" While Gov ernor Declares GOmpers
 ShOrn of Divine Right
By Associated Press

New York, May 2S.-The relations of capital and labor; the right to strike and it's legitimacy as regards the ef- feet on the public; the Kansas indus trial court law and it's significance to the future of the working man were intertwined in q remarkable debate to- night in Carnegie Hall between Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, and Gov. Henry J. Allen of Kansas.
 Governor Aliens main contention was that the government has the right to protect the public against strikes when its welfare is imperiled, while MT. Gompers Leld to the argument that no law can prevent a man from stop ping work if by doing so he may bene- fit himself and his family. Gompers labeled the Kansas industrial court law the "un- American slave law and Gov ernor Allen declared he had taken away from Gompers his divine right to order a man to quit work.
 The oratory of the debaters was punctuated with frequent cheers and boos by adherents of each side and oc- casional questions shouted from the
 
 In support of the right to strike Gompess declared that the coal miners strike took boys out of the mines, that the textile workers strike brought children out of the mills and put them in the schoolroom. while the strikes in the needles trades broke up the sweat shops when laws had failed to do so.
 Governor Aliens comment was "Y ou shall not conspire to shut down the in- dustry necessary to the welfare of the people,"
 When the general public says we have had enough of this,' he said, 'it's S over"
 "Who controls the divine right to quit work?' Allen asked. He was an- ~>swered with cheers and boos.
 yhe debate called for no decision, the committees in charge having pur- posely divided the house equally be- tween supporters of each speaker.
 Mir. Gompers, in championing labor s privilege to strike, electrified his par tisans when he said with much emotion that the working man who would not try to benefit his condition was a poltroon 10 himself and society.
 ALLEN SCORES POINT
 Governor Alien sored a point with his friends with the assertion that if there is to be a government of justice, there cannot be any part greater than the whole.
 He alluded to the attitude of the Amer tcan Federation of Labor in the ap- proaching election toward unfriendly of- ficeholders as a movement to union Ne the Congress of the United States.
 The Kansas court does not prosecute labor, Governor Allen said, but it protects labor against capital, capital against la bor, and the public against either or both.
 A feature of the debate was Aliens ef- forts to get Gompers to answer this ques- tion:
 When dispute between capital and labor brings on strike affecting the pro- duction or distribution of the necessaries of life, thus threatening the public peace and imparing the public health, has the public any rights in such a controversy or is it private war between capital and lahor?"
 If you answer this question in the af- firmative MT. Gompers, how would you protect the rights of the puhlic?"
 The labor leader declined to answer it. asserting that it was a catch question. At another time while MT. Gompers was referring to the poverty of some workers, man in tle gallery shouted:
 How poor are you?'
 Gompers was plainly angered at the question: lie demanded the mans name amid shouts of encouragement from his followers, and when the labor leader hac referred to the disturber's remarks as "a cowardly, ungentlemanly insinuation,' the labor men shouted with glee. ~
 One shouted: "You tell him Sammy that's the stuff"
 Governor Allen, in conclusion, charged that Gompers' remedy for war is more war.
 Mine" he added, "is peace conditioned on the impartial judgment of responsible government
 Within year. the governor predicted the best friends of he Kansas industria law would be the laboring men of Kan