The Connecticut labor news., 1923-07-06
Praises GOmpers f or Many Fine Acts and Then Plays Him and Labor for Demanding the Right to Live in Comfort.

Here's some great bunk
 handed out as Kindly advice
 to Samuel Gompers by the Bos-
 ton News Bureau and seized upon
 eagerly by the Open Shop" crowd. For those who do not
 know it, The News Bureau Is the
 official organ of the New Haven Road and mouthpiece for New England's Wall Street." State Street of Boston. Read it-then don't weep-angh. Addressing MT. Gompers it says:
 "You are seventy-three years of age. No less than forty-one times you have been elected to the presi- dencN of the American Federation of Labor. Very likely you yourself are doing what the public naturally tends to do, you are balancing the books, computing your gains ,esti mating the future
 "In your career we find many things to admire. You have moulded the federation to your own ideas of craft unionism- You have made it's annual conventions great forums for labor discussions. You have permit ted minority expressions of extreme radicalism in every convention over which you have presided, and you have presented majority endorsement of revolutionary programs. You have stood steadfastly against recognition by the federation of the Russian Sow let government and you have checked the attempts of our own reds to 'sovietize' the American labor move ment. You wrought manfully for de- mocracy in the World War You re- fused to organize the labor unions into political party movement. Many times you have stated your ideas in words that grip the mind and stick in the memory-1 want the stars in the heavens. My aspirations know no limits for my fellowmen'
 "The more the pity, therefore, Mr. Gompers, that so many things in your career must be condemned by every lover of American democracy Your federation began with a noble purpose, but 1t has developed into an agency of oppression big enough and powerful enough to dictate arro- gantly to the vast majority of the population. .I. lJ
 Exploits Masses.
 Designed to be an implement for the emancipation of the toilers,' 1t has become a merciless exploiter of the masses of our people. You your self many times, especially in the last four years, have appeared before the public as a demagogue rather than statesman, as a disingenuous wriggler impaled by the keen thrust of logic, as partisan bound to dodge at whatever cost any public admls- sion of the paramount claims of the general welfare upon labor as we'll as upon capital and all other classes and institutions, Thus, you appeared, MT. Gompers, in your debate with Gov of Industrial Relations, in your ex- aminations at the hands of Samuel Untermyer of the Lockwood Commit l tee in your exchange of letters with Newton D, Baker, formerly secre- tary of war and now president of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. | And now when the public has begun to rebel against your autocracy you raise the cry of onspiracy-capital is l plotting to destroy the labor unions.
 "Fie, MT Gompers; you know bet ter than that. The worm is turning, | that is all Society is coming to the ] point of refusal further to submit
 Do you ask bill of particulars, MT Gompers? What about the more l than twenty thousand strikes in six years, with appalling losses to our wealth and comfort? We. ask you anew the question you dodged in 1o2o-When a dispute between capi- tai and labor brings on strike af- fecting the production or distribution of the necessities of life, thus impair ing the public health, has the public any rights in which controversy, or is it a private war between labor and capital? And again you reply that you never ordered a strike in your life! You know, and the public knows, that to be a subterfuge. We have read attentively a great quantity of your speeches and articles and we have failed to find any recognition of the interest of the general public in
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