The Washington herald., 1920-11-22
UNION
G0AL-GOMPERS
Labor Will Stand Firm in
Demand for Workers
Consideration.
WELCOMES ENGINEERS
Increased Productivity Can
Come by Cooperation.
Says A. F. Of L. Head.


business, labor and governmental circles.
| BY SAMUEL GOMPERs.
President American Federation Of Labor.
Production is the great world
problem OF today. We cannot escape
the problem. We must meet It and
come as near to a solution as may
be possible. or we shall suffer.
Mere expenditure of more muscle
power will not bring us out of the
difficulty; it is the intelligent co-or-
dination of effort and the proper re-
ward of effort that we must arrive
at.
Organized labor stands firm and
will continue to stand firm in it's
demand for a proper consideration
of the workers in industry. 1t will
not suffer standards to be broken
down. 1t aims Constantly at i'm
provement of standards.
What American genius is called
upon to accomplish today is so to
guide the machinery of production
as to meet the needs. while providing
for labor a just reward and a proper
share in the business of determin-
ing conditions and policies.
Trade Unions Oner Best.
The trade-union movement offers
its best, and it has the right to hope
for the best from those whose
sphere lies in the management and
guidance of industry. The trade
] union movement welcomes every
thought and plan, every device and
readjustment that will make ex-
pended effort more valuable to hu-
manity. 1t bars the way only when
it is sought to make the worker pay
the bill for his own increas<d ef-
fectiveness as a producer.
The workers in industry and the
great engineering minds in industry
have in common the greatest inspi-
ration in life-service to humanity.
There has already been estab-
lished a strong bond between these
two creative forces. 1t will be we'll
for the world IL this bond can be
made stronger. / believe the great
rank and file of our people are re-
solved to remove injustice and to
make possible for all useful people
higher. fuller. finer life, with more
of freedom and more of self-expres-
sion for all.
Production Adjustment Needed.
Almost at the heart of this great
human aspiration Is >the practical
business of adjusting the production
OF those commodities upon which
modern civilization rests its exist
ence.
The workers and production
means the workers and the life of
the nation. spiritual and mental, as
well as physical The worker has
always given-he has given even
unto the bitter dregs of a broken
life and an embittered soul.
The last drag upon the workers
heart and brain, upon his enthu-
siasm. upon his simple efficiency, is
the idea OF production for profit
alone.
The greatest single achievement
for progress possible is the substi-
tuition in industry of the ideal of
production for service, and not for
profit alone. The profit ideal con-
stricts the creative productivity of
both managers and employers
1t is a great attribute of human
nature that it will fling itself prod
igally into expenditure of effort
that offers opportunity for the free
expression of the spirit and the
ideals of man. 1t is not enough to
have unclaimed, the bodies of the
workers. 1t will mean infinitely
more to the world when the re-
straints shall all have been removed
from the minds and souls of men
and women everywhere.
Adventure Must Come Back.
Every tendency and every prac-
tice of the labor movement have
been consciously or unconsciously
toward that end. The spirit of free
that a half century ago made of
American industry the marvel OF
the world must be brought back.
The men who first threw railroads
across America have little in COM
mon with the men who today go
through an endless repetition of
identical motions at a machine or
bench in a crowded factory. There
is a spiritual difference that direct
ly relates to the sum total of hu-
man accomplishment.
Perhaps 1t will take all the effort
of the labor movement and all the
thought Of all of the sciences to re-
lease the energy that is withheld
by the spiritual cramping and bind
ing of the millions. 1t is the re-
lease OF this will to achieve, this
spiritual desire to serve. that must
be freed for the coming civiliza-
tion.
The Engineer's Complement.
To the idealism and aggressive
ness of the labor movement the
technical skill and the inventive
genius of the engineer are fitting
and needed compliments.
The labor movement cannot and
will not sacrifice anything from its
militancy, because that is the jewel
of its being, the heart throb of its
existence. But it can and does well
come every hopeful effort toward the
development OF a higher and better
and freer manhood and womanhood.
The labor movement Is entitled to
this cooperative joining of honcsr
effort and the world Is in painful
need of it. There is a duty to man
kind that is above and beyond all,
other duty. and men everywhere are
today called upon to answer that
high summons.
The workers and production
there Is the heart of the struggle for
liberation. Liberation is the an
swer, and only through liberation