The Connecticut labor news., 1921-06-17
OPEN SHOP DRIVES LEAVES
 A. F. OF |. FIRMLY SET
IN OPENING CON- VENTION AT DENVER ASKS OPPONENTS TO LOOK TT OVER AND SEEK A RAY OF COMFORT''-MO RE PORT SHOWS ACTUAL IN CREASE IN NUMBER.

Denver, Colo., June 16-With an en- thusiasm and determination never ex- ceeded, the forty-fifth convention of the American Federation opened its sessions in the Municipal Auditorium here.
 The program provided by the Denver committee on arrangements was impress sive and beautiful The parade from lthe headquarters hotel to the Auditorium iwas led by 200 members of the Musicians Union.
 l President GOmperS, Tn opening the con- vention, delivered a brief address,, but lone that was well calculated to serve as 1.-the keynote to the deliberations that are tO follow.
 k No movement has ever been put to a greater test" said President Gompers, than the American labor movement. y |, But that movement, he continued, 'still |, faces the world unafraid, determined not ito take one step backward, not to raise a foot except to plant 1t one step forward for the progress and the freedom of the h,1man family.
 The campaign to destroy our move ment has been on for two and a half years, and so far as its effect Is con- cerned, 1 ask all to see this convention and the reports that will be laid before 1t and see If they can find some ray of comfort from these exhibits,
 Our movement stands intact, and be- fore the next snow flies we shall have passed the five million mark
 l. It is. notable that in the report of Sec retary Morrison the membership figures >for the Federation show no decline in membership beyond that accounted for by suspension and unemployment. As a matter of fact the Federation has more than held it's own, according to the bare figures and organized labor in America today is numerically, spiritually and mor- ally stronger than ever III its history.
 In his address President Gompers cited the issues that confront the workers, pointed to the necessity of the most pro- found careful deliberation and expressed the conviction that service to humanity would be the result of the deliberations. In part President Gompers said:
 Delegates, no movement Ot humans has ever been put to a greater test than the American trade union movement. Tried through the fires of antagOnism, bitter and relentless, by system ot cor ruDtion, of subordination-an attempt at SuDOrQ11at1On, pItSu1lldDly ulIu11 tllS guise of friendship and consideration, the drive has been made against our move 1nent and our men. It IS not necessary for me to enter into details, but our movement has survived all the bitterness, all the antagonism that could be leveled against it. It has stood its ground against corruption of the most gigantic character It faces the world unafra1d, determined not to take one step back kward, nor to raise a foot in that direC- tion, or to raise foot at all except to plant it one step further in the progress and freedom of the human family.
 "I shall not attempt to discuss either the theory or the practice of the so-called open shop'-not here-I have done so Ill the past and may be required to do so in this convention and after the Conven- tion IS closed. But 1 want to ask, not only you, but whoever may feel inter ested is it not a strange feature in hu- man conduct when we find that the em- ployers so many of them, all too many of them, business men, chambers of con-
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