The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-05-31
HIGHT TO STRIKE
POINT AT ISSUE
American Federation of Labor Pres
ident Attacks While Governor
Of State Defends.

New York, May 29.-The relations
of capital and labor; the right to
strike an dts legitimacy as regards
the effect on the public; the Kansas
industrial court law and its signific-
ance to the future of the working
man, were intertwined in remark
able debate tonight in Carnegie hall
between Samuel Gompers, president
of the American Federation of La
Dor, and Gov. Henry j. Allen Of
Kansas.
Governor Aliens main contention
was that government has :ne 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 man from
stopping work if by doing so he may
benefit himself and his s,mliy. Com
pers labeled the Kansas industrial
court law the "un-Amerlcan slave
law" and Governor Allen declared
he had taken away from Gompers his
divine right to order a man to quit
work.
The oratory of the debaters was
punctuated with frequent cheers and
boosts by adherents of each side, and
occasional questions were shouted
from the floor and the baIconies.
In support of the right to strike,
Gompers declared that the coal min
ers strike took boys out OF the mines ;
that the textile workers strike
brought children out Of the mills and
put them in the school room, 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-
spire to shut down the industry nec-
essary 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." Allen asked. He was an
swered with cheers and boos.
The debate called for no decision,
the committees in charge having pur-
posely divided the house equally be-
tween supporters of each speaker.
Mr. Gompers in championing labors
privilege to strike, electrified his par
tisans when he said with much emo
tion that the working man wno would
not try "to better his condition was
a poltroon to- himself and society,""
Governor Allen scored a point with
his friends with the assertion that II
there is to be government or justice,
there acan't be any part greater than
the whole.
He alluded to the attitude Of the
American Federation of Labor in the
approaching election towards un-
friendly officers and movement to
unionize the congress of the United
States"
The Kansas law does not prosecute
labor, Governor Allen said, but it
protects labor against capital, capi-
tai against labor and the public a.
gainst either or both.
A feature of the debate was Aliens
efforts to get Gompers to answer
this question:
"When a dispute between capital
and labor brings on a strike, affect
ing the production of distribution of
the necessaries of life, thus threaten
ing the public peace and impairing
the public health has the public any
rights in such a controversy or is it
a private war between capital and la
: Dor?
"If you answer this question in the
affirmative, Mr.. Gompers, how would
you protect the rights of the pub
lic?"
The labor leaders declined to ans
wer it, asserting that it was a catch
question.
, Another time while MIR. Gompers
was referring to the poverty of some
workers man in the gallery shout
ed: "How poor are you?"
: H..o,, ,,,o, o1o;p1,, ooporad OF tho