Great Falls daily tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1895-1921, 1920-02-13
Poindexter Says Drive
to Capture Congress
and Control President
Game Of Union Chiefs.
Autocracy of Leaders Is
One That Would Starve
People to Win, Asserts;
Knitted r. r. Workers.

Utica, y. u, Feb. 12-Charges that
behind the announced plan of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor to obtain the
election of congress and a president
favorable to its policies. exists a sinister
move Of small coterie of labor leaders,
who have grown powerful by the con
tributions they have levied on labor, to
set up a government within a govern
ment. were made here by United States
Senator Miles Poindexter. of Washing
ton. in an address before the Utica Re
publican club
The farmers and laboring men Of
America, he asserted, have in every
crisis been the great bulwark of our pub
lie institutions and they will not follow
the mistaken dictatorship of government
within the government.
viii Be Sad Day for victors.
The government within the govern
ment' is not ruled by labor. but is an
autocracy of few leaders who would
not only impose their will upon labor
itself. but would extend it. not only by
the ballot but by strikes and starvation
Of the entire people Of the United States.
it is as obnoxious as the invisible gov
ernment against which the people pro-
tested in 1912
There is no question of the right of
the American Federation of Labor to
secure control of congress and of the
presidency BY way Of the ballot box. if il
can do SO in accordance with the pro-
clamation it has just issued It will be
an evil day for the United States and.
most of all. for labor itself, if any class
in this nation. whether employees or
employers in industry, capital or labor.
should succeed in any such program but
that is one Of the perils which the nation
must face as the price of free govern
ment.
Right to Throttle Not Free.
Mr.. Gompers curses congress but is
not specific in his complaints. On the
contrary, the announcement states that I
all Of the essential legislation in labor's /
bill of grievances of 1906 was enacted. /
This proclamation states that the free |
institutions of the country are menaced +
but the only specific reference is to the /
proposed anti-strike legislation The I
right to throttle the transportation Of 4
the nation on which the lives of the
people depend is not one of our free /
institutions
The officials of the American Fedora
ton of Labor oppose not only the anti
strike legislation but oppose the estab- I
lishment of government tribunal for the
hearing and settlement of industrial dis .
putes. The position of Mr.. Gompers is .
that these questions must be left to the .
labor unions themselves, to settle under
the compulSIon OF tying up transpOrta- I
tion and essential industries. This would 4
seem to present clearly the issue Of gov
ernment by due process of law or gov
ernment by coercion. /
Says Leader Killed Benefits. /
ITO claim the right of any private
organization to lay an embargo upon the
peoples supply Of food and other essen
tials Of life is to claim the right Of
private and civil war by ono class in the
community against the community itself.
Labor as the foundation of our in
dustrial structure is entitled to every
consideration-per the first CON
sideration-at the hands Of government
and, in general, it has received such con
sideration. The railroad bill as reported,
contained liberal provisions for profit
sharing and other beenfits for labor
These were opposed and stricken out at
the insistenca Of the Officials of the
American Federation of Labor. presum-
ably because it would tend to lessen the
control of these leaders over labor