The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-04-23
HANDS OFF" LABOR
ASKS SAM GOMPERS
BEFORE COMMITTEE
You Can't Bring the American
WOrkmen Into Legal Straight
Jacket" He Declares.
LOCKWOOD COMMITTEE
PROBES BAD PRACTICES
Believes That the State Should
Not Give Suffering Contrac-
tor Redress in Courts.
tRy The Associated Press)

(By The Associated Press)
NEW YORK, April 22.-samuel
Gompers, president of the American
Federation of Labor today appealed
to the Lockwood investigating COM
mittee to keep handsoff organized la
Dor, and let unions of the building
trades industry. put ther own house
in order
When Samuel Untermyer, counsel for
the committee asked Mr. Gompers
what he would say if he knew the
committee contemplated recommend
ing to the state legislature that laws
be enacted ''to halt the abuse of powel.
by labor unions. by holding union mem
bers responsible as individuals for
losses sustained to contractors through
these abuses" the veteran leader half
rose from his. seat and replied:
Il should not only object; I should
protest such action"
Asked what alternative there might
be he said patience, while organized
labor exerts itself to correct these
abuses within the Organization"
Then at the suggestion OF Mr.. Tn.
power" TO bring unions Of the build
ings trades industry to cease prac-
tfces which he confessed We're unfair.
unwise, uncalled for and not in keep
ing with the principles of organized
labor"
Mr.. Gompers declared, however, that
relief must come from within the
American Federation of Labor not
from new laws, asserting, you can't
bring the American workman into a
legal straight Jacket"
Mr.. Gompe9s had been on the stand
since yesterday when as "a voluntary
but unwilling Witness" he appeared
at the opening of the committees in
vestigation into Tabor and labor
abuses in the building trades" At the
close of today's session. the committee
adjourned until May 3, when Mr..
Gompers will be asked to resume his
testimony.
In the meantime, Mr.. Untermeyer
announced, he would ask Mr.. Gompers
to make good his offer to aid the
committee by suggesting how the
building trades might be purged OF
labor abuses without interferences by
the state
The labor leader sat for three hours
today and listened to a long recite Of
acts which, according to testimony
offered by union officials, contractors
and workers, before the committee in
the IS months of it's existence. has
abstructed building and according TO
Mr.. Untermeyer, blocked attempts to
relieve congestion. house shortage and
excessive rents by the construction OF
cheap dwellings.
Mr.. Gompers said he had not known
that, as recited by Mr.. Untermeyer,
the briclxlayers on six such buildings
in Brooklyn struck at the lunch hour
last Monday for an increase from SO
20 $12 per day and got it. He also
was not aware he said. that a similar
strike under like circumstances oc-
Cured in New York yesterday where
the workmen exacted promises of$13
per day before returning to the job.
He did not know he declared that
plumbers unions OF New York had
been closed to candidates except
brothers and sons of members since
1920; that plumbers refused 10 install
certain modern fixtures because they
employed less labor hours than other
klnu, one Hdu COIlpelIHu OH
employer to pay his men several hours
overtime because they waited ten
minutes after the whistle for their
weekly wages. The plAsterers union
forbid the use of molds for interdra-
ton in any building but the one for
which designed, in order that the mold
makers might remain steadily en-
ployed. More than 100 mantles In
tended for installation in a New York
MOTEL, were destroyed because they
contained a percentage Of cement, and
the plasterers refused to install them,
that an imitation marble wall in the
same hotel, was destroyed because 1t
did not meet with the approval OF =
union delegate and his executive com
nlittee: that certain unions had a rule
that when only one man was required
for the Job he should receive a fore
mans wages; or that contractors from
other cities on jobs in New Yorf1.
were required to pay the union scale
prevailing in their resident city. II II
was higher than the scale here.
All these practices aIr. GOmpers de-
tcontinued On Page Thrssl