The Connecticut labor news., 1922-04-21
GOMPERS DENOUNCES COURTS USE OF MJUNCTIONS, URGES BEERS FOR WORKERS,
 FAVORS BONUS AND PLAYS LAWYERS


 pressed by the American Federation
 ot Labor, i'll the perpetuatlon ot the l institutions of the United States.
 | The greatest indictment against
 modern industry is that 1t gives no
 opportunity for the workers to find l joy in life. 1t Is all COmner ClallSm
 and if Organized Labor can bring
 one little ray of sunshine into our lives then there should be and IS joy
 i'll us in fighting for the right. To- day is, as has been said, a great day. It's Easter Sunday, glorlhed, sanctl- 1 fled and joyous day so what more meet than that we should assemble | here to contemplate what further we can do for humanity and ourselves. | The old times were not so good
 as the times now, bad as they are, and although we are beSet by com | merCiallsm, even ln our courts, we can hope to see ahead. l have a general contempt for the members of the bar, | excepting, of course, your honored mayor and counsel with Us here to- l day, who by the course they have pursued i'll assisting their fellow men, ! have reincarnated the true spirit ot l advocate which Is what lawyer was l originally intended to bean advo- | care of the people or a cause and not of selfish interests. These two, at l least, are real tribunes of the people. l Ninety per cent. of all investment IS | founded on confidence called credit with money simply as a medium ot expression of that confidence. But | too many of those opposing the work CT fail to see anything but the money and are therefore losing III confidence ! of the people as whole. Thus we must have the Labor movement. La i bar has taken women and children from the shops and mines and placed them in schools and the sunshine and | who will say that the future race will not be better for their having been so looked after. For the children of to- day are the mothers and fathers of tomorrow and 1t IS indeed glorious to | feel that we have been able to give | them at least some of the joys and privileges we perhaps are not able to have for ourselves. The future of our country and the world depends on
 them and they must depend on us ] now for their chance to do good.
 Labor intends to give it to them.
 Higher wages, shorter work day | and better sanitary conditions which Organized Labor demands can be had l by Organized Labor without bene- hitting non-union men also. The laws l that we secure that check imposition on Organized Labor also checks 1t | on those who are not organized. Or ganized Labor bears the brunt of the battle, makes the sacrifices for those | to these benefits. The labor move ment, as every other great movement, was born Ill hunger, not hunger for | food perhaps, but hunger for the bet ter things of life. It must go through l the crucibles and tests and become | purified as every other great move
 ment and great man has had to do No great man or movement was ever recognized during their lives.
 They have been reviled, made martyrs
 and crucihed even as those Christians l of the early days who were thrown to the beasts but went snlllngly 10 their deaths secure in their faith i'll
 their great cause. Why then should
 we not also, on this great day, the pioneers of a great movement for
 humanity, go smilingly on with our sacrifices that our loved ones and our
 fellow man may reap the benefits?
 Labor may at times be forced to
 take a receding step but it bides it's
 time and when that comes not only l recovers the lost ground but even goes forward. So be not discouraged
 there Is no drive powerful enough to l force American Organized Labor
 back into serfdom Don't however drive your bargains too hard. Labor
 Is and must be loyal to our country
 and itself and if it continues SO there
 is no force that can drive 1t back
 docilely to slavery.
 We have all had pounded into us
 that so-called great patriotic slogan,
 Back to Normalcy.' What it appears
 to be, however, is to drive Labor back
 and 1 wonder how much farther they
 will try, to drive Labor back before
 we reach Back to Normalcy" Their
 to cut wages and oppress the work
 CTS without thought or heed to the
 fact that every time they cut wages
 they reduce the consuming power of
 the people and make the depression
 more acute. The only way, the safest
 way, to return to normalcy, whatever
 that may mean, is to pay the highest possible wage the industry will bear. Then industry will revive The work
 CT will be able to buy what he needs,
 the merchant will sell his goods and buy more from industry, then indus try can go ahead in its own line, the government benefit too, and thus the
 whole people and the circle will be complete. If there is such a thing as
 normalcy then it will perhaps have been attained
 "What would conditions be today if we had no labor unions? No check
 on those who seek for their own self ishness to subdue the worker? There
 would be surely chaos and slavery in 1 industry R11t there iS Or0anized I a.
 submit to an Industrial Aptocracy in
 the United States. Organized Labor
 in the war was 100 per cent. loyal. It
 made it's sacrifices and it MADE | GOOD. But as soon as the war was
 over and the armistice signed what
 did Labor get? It was met with
 concerted effort to crush the spirit of i the American workers. to split their