Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1923-10-12
PRESIDENT GOMPERS MAKES
OPENING ADDRESS At
PORTLAND CONVENTION
CONTINUED from Page y

think that there is some general |
misc0neepti0n Of the term radical /
fheer are so many varieties Of them. /
| believe in the expression Of con /
serYatiYe demands, radical IN the
effort to get them. The devil Of the
thing is that those who would ABE
themselves as Radicals "a a rule.
know nothing Of the great, fundamen-
tai principles Of the labor move
ment or of the ideals toward which
It i striving. 1t takes all sorts d
people to make up a nation, and Il
takes all sorts Of people to make up
q labor movement. All We ask Is
that this labor movement of America
and all America shall be and continue
TO be a movement Of wage eafneIs,
for wage eaners, and by wage earn
ers.
immigration Is Responsible.
I'VE are not always able to de
termine who these shall be. The ttade
union movement has not the choice
of the material with which it must
work. Big Business, large employer
of labor have kept Il wide oDen
channel for years for the purpose OF
bringing peoples to our country so lar
below the standard of life and work
which prevail in America that it has
been a matter of little choice with u.
We have held and hold that if Ire
hordes Of men from these backward
countries of Europe are brought into
the United States, with all Of the
omissions and commissions upon their
heads, if they are good enough to be
brought to our America for profit
they are good enough for US to Try
to organize them and make bet.rI
Americans out of them. And If, here
and there, there Is Red or a Rad
cal, it is not our fault, but the sin
must be upon the heads OF those who
brought them to America. We realize
that so long as they are wage earn
ers and organizabe we will organize
them, not as Reds and Radicals, but
to try to make better men and better
citizens of them. And not only DO
they regard us as an opponent worthy
of their steel, but they have felt it
point of contact.
Unity of Action Vital.
"While sitting upon this platform
this morning we heard a beautiful
orchestra rendering sweet, artistic
music. 1t brought a thought to my
mind quite aDropos of this matter
which | have just for a few moments
been presenting to you, and 1t &C
CURED to me-what, after all, Is
music but a succession of harmonious
sounds. Now one member of that
splendid orchestra might entertain Us
with his renditions, but there were
about a hundred of them. Suppose
they had by a majority of ninety
eight to one, decided they would work
in harmony and then render their
pieces of music in harmony with each
other to attain one common purpose
this succession of harmonious sounds
and suppose, for instance, the piccolo
player and the drummer, being the
two in the minority, would say, mo,
we will not be bound by you ninety
eight, you reactionaries." One Of
them will say, 81 am going to blow
my piccolo just when | feel like it,
and the other one will say, "l'll beat
the drum to beat the band"-l Won
der, if any such a performance had
been given this morning. you would
have risen and given the cheers of
approval to this wonderful orchestra,
each man knowing the part that he
has to play in the accomplishment of
the given whole, harmonious sound.
The application is exactly the same
with our trade union movement.
Unity With Farmers.
"Your governor, both your governor
and our friend, and his honor, the
mayor have spoken well and truth
fully upon the condition of the farm
ers of our country. ! wonder when
the time shall come-and let us pray
that it may be soon-v-when the men
on the farm and the men in the fac
tory and workshop and mine shall
come. together for the purpose of pro-
tecting each other and all against
their common enemy, the common eX-
ploiters? When | had the honor and
the privilege of addressing the wheat
conference at Chicago a few months
ago, upon the invitation of the conn
mittee having the conference in
charge, | called attention to this
specific thing; that the difficulty with
the farmers, the trouble with the
farmers was that they were led by
gentlemen farmers, by political farm
ers, by trust farmers, by fertilizer
trust farmers and magazine owner
farmers, and that what they wanted
and the goal to which believed
they should strive was, as the Ameri-
up of wage earners, for wage earn
ers, they wanted a movement of
dirt farmers, real farmers who are
working upon the soil
Face Common EXploiters.
1.-The antagonists, natural or ignor-
ant, have at all times and up to the
present time, fairly successfully kept
the agricultural and industrial work
ers from each other. They have con-
sistently interjected something as a.
sehism between the two. Some of the
statisticians employed by that par
ticular interest to which | have re-
ferred have pointed out a certain class
of workers and a comparison of their
daily wage with the income of farm
ers upon certain products. No refer
ence was made TO the fabulous profits
made by the stock iobber, by the eX-
changes, by the money lenders and
the Intermediary commissioners, and
no on both sides. who, of the popula-
ton of America, are the greatest
users and consumers of the farmers
products, if not the great mass of
the wage Gamers, and who are those
who use and consume the products of
mans industrial labor if not the farm
ers? The profiteerS on both sides
have taken more out of the products
of each than are given in the form
of returns to the farmers and wages
20 the workers.
There is an abiding faith | have
that in our America, slow moving as
we often are, the trend of events and |
the intelligence and stamina of our |