The Connecticut labor news., 1923-12-01
ANOTHER FOSTER CLAIM SMASHED! He Didn't Organize Chicago
 Stock Yards

| Here's another w. z. Foster claim
 smashed by evidence. In the conven-
 ton of the Illinois State Federation
 of Labor, Victor A. Olander analysed
 every phase of Fosterism He went into the Foster claim that the Chi cago stock yards district was organ ized in accordance with a plan de- ve1oped by Foster and in accordance with Foster methods.
 ] Olander showed that the stock yards organization was planned by American Federation of Labor men, that 1t was in complete accord with | A. F. of L. laws and methods and | that Foster had nothing to do with the making of the plans. Further more, Foster was allowed to help in the campaign only because 1t was be- lieved that he had renounced his old beliefs and had come to see the truth
 of. the A. F. of L. position and of it's
 principles.
 Here, in part, is what Olander said about the famous stock yards cam paign:
 Delegate Foster has left the inn pression that the plan of organipa- tion in the stock yards campaign was
 originated by him. He told an un-
 truth, and he knows 1t. He left the impression Intentionally that the | American Federation and its organiz- CTS had nothing to do with the origin or the carrying out of that plan. He | told an untruth, and he knows it. That plan, one clearly within the pol l icy of the American Federation of La l bor clearly within the laws of the l American, Federation of Labor, sup ported by the international unions within the American Federation of Labor, was presented to President Gompers by an organizer of the American Federation of Labor, John of the American Federation of Labor, by John Fitzpatrick, and, also, by John Kilkusky-you know the name and you know what happened after wards.
 Away back in 1904, after the stock yards strike, John Fitzpatrick talked over with me, and with mum Der of other delegates who are On this boor, and who will recall what 1 say, plan to re-organize the stock yards district, and he meant to change in the form of the organiza- tions. Among the active men that 1 recall in those days, talking over that plan twas Joe Morton, one ot the vice-presidents of this Fedora ton, present in this convention; Ed yard J. Evans, of the Electrical Workers present in this convention, and 1 am sure there are number Of others who recall what took place even that far back.
 John Fitzpatrick, reared in the stock yards district, himself worker in the stock yards, living even today in thes stock yards district, saw what was going on there, and year after year watched the situation, making one attempt and then another attempt to bring about organization among those workers, under the plan that w. z. Foster says he originated. long before Foster was heard of in Chi cago.
 Year after year John Fitzpatrick, who seemed to breathe the hopes and aspirations of the people back of the yards talked that plan over. It was no secret, because 1t came on the koor of the Chicago Federation of La Dor in each of those years. Then came the war situation, out of which came, as you all know, great oppor- tunities for organization, and John Fitzpatrick said to me, as he said to Morton, Evans and others: The time is approaching when know the plans we have talked about can be carried out
 "Mr. President, incidental to this was the fact that Delegate Foster had