The labor world., 1922-06-17
HARDING SHIP SUBSIDY
PLAN OPPOSED BY A. F. OF |.
Continued from page ~


delegates, a Urited States ruled by
the Judiciary and not the people.
The law" said La Toilette, lis
what 1.-The courts say it is. and not
what the people through congress
enact. Even the constitution Of the
United States is not what its plain
terms declare, but what these nine
men construe it to be-"
Mention of Chief Justice Taft
brought Kisses from the convention.
Federal judges, nctabl Judge An
dersOn of Indiana and Judge Nc
Clintick of West Virginia La Fol-
lette branded as petty tyrants' and
arrogant despots
1t is said by veteran delegates in
attendance that no convention Of
the Federation ever presented finer
front to the world. No convention
has ever gone into session in higher
spirit or with gree ter determination.
President GOmpers sounded the
keynote on the opening day in re-
plying to the address of welcome.
1--WE are in no mood to give up lib
critics, no matter what power may
seek to steal them, or what subtly
may he employed" he said.
The toiling masses of America"
ho said in his response to the ad-
dress Of welcome delivered by the
mayor of cincinnati, have few
traditions of the old, as have the
toilers of other countries and older
civiiZa tions, but in our own Ameri-
ca we have emerged from a. con-
dition of servitude to understand
ing by the great mass Of the work.
ers of the sovereignty Of the citi-
zenship, Of the equality of oppor-
tunity which must come to the great
toilin@ masses of America.
I'VE do not fool ourselves into a
fancied security as to the obsta cles
which have been and are being
thrown across our pathway. On the
contrary. We understand the designs
Of those who would weaken the
spirit or crush the hopes Of Ameri-
can labor for absolute freedom. We
shall go forward and onward more
determined than ever that there
shall not be imposed upon our brows,
the type OF the Man With the Hoe
The mayor said this gathering
was a conference. He added that
conferences are the great distinctive
advances which have been made by
the human family as against the
exercise of force to compel obedience
to the will Of one. Amen, TO that
sentiment and to that declaration.
This is conference. Of the accred-
tied representatives of the rank and
file Of American labor. We would
extend the conference spirit to our
employers.
1--WE ask and we invite American
employers to sit with us around the
table, not in any jug handled move
ment inauguratcd by themselves in
which they dominate in fact and in
spirit, but to meet with us, they as
employers and we as workers, to
discuss, to ascertain and determine
for some reasonable period at least,
an agreement governing the matters
which effect both factors in indus
try, and not forgetting the rights of
employers and Of business. but hav-
ing as the most essential consider
alton regard for the human euua-
ton in industry. We want confer
ences.
THE open shop as our adver-
saries term their antaeonistc move
nnent, or. when they cloak it hypo-
critically, the American Plan,' rob-
bins patriotism of its most glorious
name and committing a devilish act,
is not the result Of conferences.
There can lie no genuine conference
less the employers and employees
stand upon an equal footing of re-
sponsibility and power, fearless Of
the lash Of unemployment or dis
charge because Of their consistent
attitude toward the people they rep
resent
Executive Council.
SmoUdccing resentment of organ
lied labor toward the courts. which
IN the past year have rendered sew
eral adverse decisions, broke out in
all-consumine fire of wrath at the
American Federation of Labor's
opening session Of its forty-second
annual convention.
Not even the United States SUI
preme court. whose august body
heretofore has gone hncliticized pub
ilcly, escaped in the report of the
executive council of he Federation,
which devoted itself in large mca-
sure to a criticism of the entire ju-
dietary.
t'nfaltering arraignment of the
Judiciary for alleged increasing hos
tllt!es' toward labor, led a recon-
mendation of the executive council
to the convention that an "appeal
be made to the higher ourt of pub
lie judgment and that the public