The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1921-09-02
Struggle Has Been Long and Bit
ter, but the Victory Is
Secure.
EMPLOYERS HAVE SEEN LIGHT
Workers, by Heroic Efforts, Succeeded
In Maintaining and indicating
Constitutional Rights - Will
Be No Turning Back.
BY SAMUEL GOMPERS,
President of the American Federation

President OF the American Feoeratlon
of Labor.
Employers have not come willingly
or readily to see that it is just anu
right and wise that those who work
should have their proper voice in help
ing to shape and determine the condi-
lions Of life and labor. But we have
come far. BY the token of progress
made we know more progress is to be
made.
1t is Just a little over a decade since
the scorn, which those who dominated
the thought Of society felt for the life
and the rights OF labor, was expressed
by a United States Judge when, with
John Mitchell and Frank Morrison, |
received sentence to prison because l.
had dared to print and to speak the
protest of labor against injustice. Mr..
Mitchell and Mr. Morrison were SELL
fenced to six months Imprisonment,
respectively, and l to one year. What
we had done was to discuss the merits
of case that was before the courts
the Buck Stove and Range case.
Carried to the Courts.
Back of that event was history made
by fighting. The National Association
of manufacturers had taken the posi-
ton that the organized labor move
ment must be destroyed. The Anti
Boycott association was formed. Every
pressure that could be mustered
against organized labor was brought
to bear upon it, including the pressure
of suits in the courts to abridge the
constitutional rights of the freedom Of
speech and of the press. That battle
was probably the most concentrated
effort of employers to break down the
fighting spirit and the fighting ability
of the working people.
The result was that the working peo-
pie maintained and vindicated their
constitutional rights and their right TO
own themselves and to secure agree'
ment with their employers by collec-
tive bargaining; for the purpose" OF
bringing employers to realization OF
the fact that they had the right to es-
tablish better relations and secure bet
ter conditions: they made secure like
wise their right to cease work-t0
strike.
Labor in Days Before War.
When, early in 1917, the clouds of
war began to become apparent to dis
corning men, a call was issued from
the Headquarters of the American Fed
,rrto oS1<
ing the officials and leaders of the ma
tional and international trade unions
to assemble in Washington on March
r., The die had not been cast for war
at that date. But the representatives
Of the great American labor movement
then adopted unanimously declara-
ton that, come peace or come the bit
ter DAYS of war, there was but one
place for labor and that was under the
flag, for the flag and with the flag.
The words of the conclusion of that
declaration will bear repeating, for no
expression like it has been uttered in
any other land. Thus spoke labor on
March II, 1917:
owe, the officers of the National and
International Trade Unions of Amerl-
N in national conference assembled in
the capital Of our nation, hereby
pledge ourselves in peace or In war.
in stress or in storm, to- stand unre-
servedly by the standards of liberty
and the safety and preservation Of the
institutions and ideals Of our republic.
I'm this solemn hour Of our nations
life. 1t Is our earnest hope that our
republic may be safeguarded In It's
answering desire for peace; that our
people may be spared the horrors and
the burden of war; that they may
have the opportunity to cultivate and
develop the arts of peace, human
brotherhood and higher civilization.
"But despite all our endeavors and
hopes, should our country be drawn
into the maelstrom of the European
conflict, we. with these ideals of liber~
ty and justice herein declared, as the
Indispensable basis for national poll
cies, offer our services to our country
in every field of activity, to defend.
safeguard and preserve the republic
of the United States Of America
against its enemies whOmsOever they
may be, and we call upon our fellow
workers and fellow citizens in the
holy name Of Labor, Justice, Freedom
and Humanity. to devotedly and patri-
otically give like service"
Labor in True Light
With this emphatic pronouncement
of labor's devotion to the republic, to
the great democratic cause Of the
world, and with other developments
that came quickly in those days on
the eve Of war and in the days that
followed so rapidly when war became
q grim and real thing among US, en-
ployers everywhere came to see that
the American labor movement was
something more than had been pic
tured to them through the prejudicial
briefs of. their hired lawyers. They
came to see it in something Of its true
light, They came to understand it as
one Of the great protecting bulwarks
of democracy. More than that, they