Evening star., 1920-01-13
by RAY STANNARD BAKER.
AR1Il'I.E VI


ARTICLE VI.
1t is now important, if we are really
to understand what is going on, to in
qure what are the massed forces behind
the present industrial struggle. For this
steel strike, this coal strike. big as they
are, are only skirmishes in far-fiung
battle line and we cannot understand
them unless We know the grand strategy
of the conflict, the diverse factions with
in both camps and who the real COM
manders are
Samuel Gompers is the type-fgure
of American labor; he is the most pow
erful and dominating leader American
labor ever had. but he is today in great
trouble. In this respect Gompers re-
sembles most other leaders in the world.
All leaders are in trouble. wilson is in
trouble. SO is Lloyd George. And fer a
simple reason: followers wont follow.
Pubiics have got out of bounds: they
wont stay in Old party lines. nor yet in
old union lines; they challenge author
ity and discipline. They gibe at insti-
tutions.
Gompers is one OF the extraordinary
men of America today. not only the
acter, a parsonage.
l shall never forget one vivid
glimpse ! had of him in London last
year. He was going down in some
triumph as a great figure to visit his
birthplace in the sums of the east end
Here, it was that his Dutch-Jewish
parents had lived here he learned his
trade as a cigarmaker; here as a boy
he spoke low Dutch.
l see him now Striding down the
street, a powerful squat figure. followed
step behind, by a looming bodyguard
of labor leaders. He was scattering the
assembled and gaping subjects of King
George, however well Injured to the sight
of potentates, to the right and left His
hat was set well back upon his head, his
chin was thrust forward and he was
throwing aside humorous remarks to his
followers. So l saw him once again in
Paris. So he strobe full-fronted through
out Europe, so sure OF himself and of
his entire equipment of ideas, so con-
Sclous OF the immense power of Amer
lean labor behind him, that he scat
tered to the right and left all peoples
OF all nations. He told British. French
ana Italian labor leaders, quite posi-
lively What they mus do to be saved.
GOmperS Like Clemenccau.
Gompers reminds one little of Gle
menceau-a kind of rougher Clemen-
lsn, but with many of the same quail
ties of physical and intellectual force
and vitality. Gompers. too. is a kind
OF tiger--an old man long habited to
power. able, obstinate. vain, honest-a
pattern of the pugnacious conserya-
tive. When the chairman of the SEN
ate committee told Gompers that he
could either sit or stand while testify
ing. he replied:
Il will do anything but lay down."
III
ne is in great trouble, and an account
OF what that trouble is will disclose
clearly the problems which today con-
front American labor.
For thirty-eig years. except one
Gompers has been president of the
helped organize it. He has done more
than any other man in shaping the
American labor movement
In its beginnings the federation rep
resented reaction from the policies
of the old Knights of Labor. The
knights did great work in their day:
they helped give labor a national
vision. but the organization was too
lndlscriminate in it's membership, too
centralized in it's control too vague
IN us purposes, and it made unfor-
tunate ventures into politics
Gompers avoided these mistakes. He
bulIt firmly upon narrow but strong
craft unionism; he encouraged demo.
cratic control; he eschewed politics
He discouraged Utopian schemes. he
urged labor to ask for specific things
and little at time; better hours and
better wages. and to clinch what they
got with collective bargains" with
employers. If anything was desired
from Congress or legislatures, labor
was to get 1t just as business men got
dates.
speak of Gompers as doing these
things: he was. of course, only one
of many leaders who represented the
recent years of American labor or
ganization.
Hard-Be .ded Policy.
Well. it was a practical, hard-headed
policy. and it has had a great influ-
ence in improving the material con-
ditions of the more highly skilled
groups of labor. Many of the craft
rich: They have fine halls and office
buildings, some have hospitals and
homes, some have pension and benefit
funds The A F. of l.. itself has
magnificent home office of the sky
scraper type at Westinghouse very
different place indeed from the clut-
tered little back Office where I first
called on Mr.. Gompers twenty years
ago.
Like all successful movements. labor
VI 3 SdH iIdtioi III America mas tended
to become institutionalized-t
church of labor. and Gompers is the
pope of it.
The leaders are of a very definite
type-practical. efficient, unima gina
tive business men. A group of labor
leaders of successful craft unions
cannot be distinguished today from
any ordinary group of American
business men. They are business men,
and many employers have found them
more than match. They are traders;