The Cordova daily times., 1923-03-05
BATTLING OUR FLAG OFF HIGH SEAS

Samuel Gompers, President of the American 1 Federation of Labor. in season and out of season for the past thirty years Democratic politician, has been travelling about the coun- try urging labor conventions to adopt resolu- ton opposing the enactment of legislation to encourage American shipping.
 1 MT. Gompers was active in promoting leg isation imposing upon American shipping labor conditions which, in injunction with the higher wage scale prevalent in this cou1- trv increases the cost of operation of an
 American vessel so greatly beyond the cost of operatin@ a European or Asatic vessel. that competition on the high seas is impossible without some form of special aid. Not on1v
 does American shipping labor under this
 handicap, but foreign shipping especially Brit ish and Japanese enjoys the advantaoe of Governmental subsidies subventions, favor able postal contracts and other forms of na- tional encouragement. Laboring for higher operatino costs on American vessels on the
 one hand, and fighting proposals to equa7i7" (competitive conditions between American and
 foreign shipping on the other, Mr.. Gomnors
 has a very effective system of destroying the
 American shipping industry. How this can favorably affect the interests of the American
 wage earner Mr. Gompers and his fellow Dem
 ocratic leaders do not stop to explain.
 It may be that MT. Gompers' birth and bow hood in London has nothing to do with his
 attitude American Questions The fact re mains that he always takes the European Iside of American political and economic is
 sues. He has always fought the protective |poHcy. He was partisan of the plan of
 American involvement in European politics as proposed5 5in the League of Nations coven-
 ant and battled bitterly aoainst any plan that would make the United States a real con- tender for the title, long claimed by his native England, of "mistress of the seas.'
 No greater harm has ever come to the cause of organized labor than the effort consistently made by MT. Gompers and his fellow Demo- crats in charge of the Washington headquart-
 CTS of the American Federation of Labor, to make unionism a mere tail to the Democratic kite. Regularly every four years MT. Gompers "delivers" organized labor to the Democratic party, and regularly the rank and file of or
 ganized labor refuses to be tdelvered' Be tween campaigns MT. Gompers busies himself trying to manufacture Democratic campaign
 thunder, just as now in going about over the country agitating against effective American |competition to British and other alien ship
 ping interests.
 As the result of this effort it will probably
 come about that within a few years the huge
 American Merchant Marine we built up at enormous cost under the stress of war, sacrifice
 ing hundreds of millions unnecessarily because
 of the successful fights Mir. Gompers and
 others have put up in years gone by againsf
 the peace-time construction of merchant ship
 ping, will be rotting in our harbors and the American flag will have as completely d1s- appeared from the high seas as it had during
 the period before the World War. This may
 bring joy in British shipping offices, activity l in British ship yards and employment flor