The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-29

strike Allen commanded less demon
strative, but none the less earnest,
attention.
A Tip to Chicago.
Strong indications that the Repub-
lican party will be bidding for trou-
BILE if the Chicago convention writes
into the national platform a plank die
tated by trainers of any radical labor.
was seen in the remarks Of Governor
Henry J. Allen of Kansas in his de-
bate with Samuel Gompers at Carnegie
hall last night.
The political party in the forth
coming campaign that has not the
conservative courage to stand out and
pledge to the public protection against
the wrong and terror of industrial
warfare will travel down the pathway
of cowardice to defeat" Governor AL
len said.
New York, May 29.-The relations
of capital and Dor, the right to strike
and its legitimacy as regards the eff
feet on the public; the Kansas indus
trial court law and its significance to
the future of the working man, were
discussed from all angles in a re-
markable debate last night in Carne-
gle hall between Samuel Gompers,
president of the American Federation
of Labor, and Gov. Henry j. Allen,
of Kansas.
Governor Aliens main contention
was that government has the right to
protect the public against strikes
when it's welfare is imperiled, while
Mr.. Gompers held to the argument
that no law can prevent a man from
stopping work if by doing SO he may
benefit himself and his family. Mr..
Gompers labeled the Kansas industrial
court law the "un-American slave
law" and Governor Allen declared he
had taken away from Mr.. Gompers
his divine right to order a man to
quit work.
Both Checrcd and "BOoed."
The oratory of the debaters was
punctured by frequent cheers and
booes by adherents of both sides and
occasional questions shouted from the
floor and the balconies.
In support of the right to strike,
Mr.. Gompers 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 school rooms, while the
strike in the needle trades broke UP
the sweatshops when laws had failed
to do so.
Governor Aliens Industrial com
mandment was. You shall not con-
spiIe to shut down the industry neces-
sary to the welfare of the people,
when the general public says we
have had enough of this" he said,
It's over.
Who controls the divine right to
quit work? ?" Governor Allen asked.
He was answered with cheers and
booes.
Was No Decision Bout.
The debate called for no decision,
the committees in charge having pur-
posely divided the house equally be-
tween supporters of each speaker.
E Mr.. Gompers. in championing Ia
1,fe
partisans when he said with evident
emotion that the working man who
wouldn't try to benefit his condition
was "a poltroon to himself and So
ciety."
Governor Allen scored a point with
there is to be a government of justice
there can't be any part greater than
the whole.
He alluded to the attitude of the
American Federation of Labor in the
approaching election towards unfriend
ly officeholders as "a movement to
uniohize the congress of the United
States"
Does Not Prosecute Labor.
The Kansas court does not prosecute
labor, Governor Allen said, but it pro-
against labor. and the public against
either or both.
A feature of the debate was Aliens
effort to get Gompers to answer this
question: when a dispute between
capital and labor brings on a strike
affecting the production or distribu-
ton of the necessaries of life, thus
threatening the public peace and i'm
pairing the public health. has the pub
lie any rights in such controversy, or
is it private war between capital and
labor?"
IF you answer this question in the
affirmative, Mr.. Gompers, how would
you protect the rights of the public ?"
The labor leader declined to answer
it, asserting that it was a catch ques-
ton.
At another time, while Mr.. Com
pers was referring to the poverty of