Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1923-02-15
Farmer And Laborer Must Unite
To Eliminate The .Niddlenan
Samuel Gompers Says Labor Is
Anxious to Cooperate
With Farmers.
Written Specially for The Leader
By SAMUEL GOMPERS, President,
American Federation of Labor
Autocaster Service

AutOCaSter Service
Washington, D. c., Feb. Isl have
been asked to set forth in very limited
space some expression regarding the
relation between industrial wage earn
ers and farmers and also in relation
to the future of American politics.
Both are exceedingly important sub
jects.
Antagonists of all workers seek to
convince both farmers and city work.
ers that their interests are antagon-
istic Labor believes that farmers annd
city workers, both being producers of
the necessaries and comforts of life,
are entitled to a reward which is not
only adequate return for their labor
but which enables>them to live in ac-
cordance with American standards.
The factor that makes city products
cost~more than they ought to cost in
the country and that makes country
products cost more than ought to
cost in the city is the collection of
middlemen who stand between city
and country producers and who add
nothing of value either in production
or distribution.
Wall Streets Wish.
Wall Street would like to have farm
ers and city workers look at each 9TH
er and not see what stands between.
When they look at each other they
ought to see what stands between
them, robbing both. When they do
that they inevitably realize their I'M
ity of interest, their common ground
of action and their need for friendly
understanding and cooperative re-
lationship.
Every useful, productive person in
the United States has a unity of in
terest with every other useful pro-
ductive person in the United States.
If we could get rid of those who
exist mainly to exploit we should have
much less troubles than we now have,
the wheels of production on the farm
and in the city would run much more
smoothly there would be much more
production in both places and he pro-
ducers would be much more adequate
ly rewarded.
1t is necessary at this time to say
but little regarding American labor
in politics. American labor in politics
is much like American farmers in pol
itics as recent events have proved.
American labor and American farmers
getting together in politics merely
that the rank and file of American
citizenship is getting tired of govern
ment by politicians, and particularly
of government by stand-pat and re-
dictionary politicians and is determin-
ed to bring about government in the
interests of the people. We believe
thoroughly in Lincoln's idea in that
respect
What Both Want.
Wage earners and farmers alike
are tired of subsidies and tariffs and
special privileges designed to enrich
special interests and believe it is time
that government began to take ac-
count of humanity instead of dollars.
American labor proposes to use the
political machinery of the United
States to that end, and it proposes
to cooperate to the fullest extent with
the farmers of our country. We do not
propose to dissipate our energy in
any forlorn third party hope, but we
propose to make our energy count in
every section of the United States in
the interest of humanity and in the in
terest of government that will consi-
der humanity.