The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-26
ACTION CONGRESS MUST BE ELECTED,
 DECLARES GOMPERS
Says Present Congress Has Shown Almost Eagerness to Do Wrong Thing at
 Every Turn
ny AssocIated Prss,

By Associated Press
 Washington, April 25.-Sweeping charges that the present Congress has failed the nation with completeness and aban- don." are made by Samuel Gompers, pres ident of the American Federation of Labor, in the current issue of the Amer ican Federationist.''
 America must get rid of the veto Con- gress and elect an action Congress" he says. "The no Congress must give place to yes Congress-
 The labor leader asserts Congress has failed on the peace treaty, in reconstrue- ticn, and the high cost of living and that i. also has failed in an intelligent com prehension on every great question af- fecting the lives and welfare of our peo- ple''
 The "sins of the present Congress- he adds, were of commission as well as well as omission" as there had been almost an eagerness to do the wrong thing" the enactment of the railroad bill being cited as d shining example
 MUST FACE TASK
 There must be a Congress which will turn it's face to the task confronting the American citizenship in the true spirit of American institutions" MT. Gompers [ says. "A co&stant genius for accomplish ment must replace an ill considered mania for restriction and coercion.
 America cannot play forever the part Of a peevish child in international re- lations The affairs of the worid are the concern of the United States. There may be proper limits to which this con- cern may go, but there is no longer any such thing as absolute divorcement from what transpires elsewhere.
 The blind and bigotec action of Con gress in refusing to deal intelilgentiy with the peace treaty has made 1t lm- possible for the United States to mani fest the proper concern in these atIalrs.
 PURPOSE IS PLAIN
 "On our own continent there is the same need. For weeks a senatorial subcommittee had been going up ana down the country gathering testimony, the evident purpose of which can be put to infiame the mind of those who think little and who take much on faltn. Al periods all too frequent the United States is brought to the verge of war With Mexico. It is not difficult to see the evidences of satisfaction on the part or predatory interests at each of these pe- riods, nor is 1t difficult to discern the propaganda which fosters the deVetop- neht of them.
 ..Falsehood, villification, studied mis- representations are the weapons constantly in use by those who to serve their own ends would precipitate war between these two American republics. If is no longer possible to feel with certainty that high government orficiais have not been made the tools and paWhs of those who seek intervention, the lat est form for which is Contamination.
 A RECORD OF FAILURE
 "At home. across our borders and over tl,e seas Congress has made for tselI a record of failure. a record of stupporn oI,position to that which is good.
 .sDemocracy must mean equality or op- portunity It must mean the sovereignty af +ha masses. It must mean absence Of dopaination by a select ruling class or caste or clique.
 "Congress has done much in recent ,,onths to indicate hostility to these prin- ciples. Powerful forces in the United States are seeking to wound ana crippis democracy They do not want equanly or opportunity. They want an unfair an- ,sntage in inc industry of the nation. ln inc legislatures of the nation and Tn the courts of the nation.
 .yvhen the labor movement protests aeainst the pressure Of those Wno wouio turn backward the tide of progress aaa deny the sunlight to lives but pust emers- ing from the dark, II speaks Wien ausno ity. aos sneak and it must be heard. Where the effort is made in industry to crowd men and women backward and downward, we will resist and resist and resist, for l. is better to resist and lose than never to have resisted. Where the effort is made in the nahs of Congress and legislatures, we Will re- sist and resist and resist
 we will resist with all our power the recollection of those who have been false to the truth which humanity placed in them"