Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1923-08-31
UNIONS
LEAD WORLD SAYS
SAMUEL GDMPERS

American trade unionism leads
the world today in every phase of the
realm of organized labor activity" is
President Gompers' challenge to the
latest European critic Of American
trade uniOnism-Jan Oudegeest of
Holland, one of the two secretaries of
the International Federation Of Trade
Unions.
President Gompers wrote in the
New York Times in answer TO an in
terview with Mr.. Oudegeest by viii
liam Aehttron du Puy, an American
newspaper man, who was fer 3 time
attached to the international labor
office in Geneva. Mr.. du Puy's IN
terview was printed in the New York
Times.
Mr.. 0udegeest declared that Amer
lean labor ''has hesitated, floundered,
almost failed" and that st has been
improperly led by Samuel Gompers.
President Gompers pays little at
tenti0n to the personal attack on
him. He says he viii not worry about
Mr.. Oudegeest's judgment until it is
confirmed by the American trade
unionists who have for forty times
elected him president Of the American
Federation Of Labor. President
Gompers declared that there is not a
trade union movement in Europe as
free from internal discord, as free
from bitterness and disappointment,
as united and confident of the future
as the trade union movement of the
United States.
1.-THE condition Of labor in Europe
is not all due to postwar combustion"
he said.
Better Paid.
Labor in the United States is bet
ter paid than anywhere else in the
world. It lives in better homes. It
wears better clothes. It has more
leisure. It enjoys better food. 1t
has a wider margin Of choice in de-
termining how and where it shall
live. Finally, it has a better trade
union movement with which to
achieve more progress and improve
ment.
"Of what avail are the programs of
Europe if their concrete results are
inferior to the results of the efforts
of American labor? is notable that
the labor movements of Europe run
strongly to programs and formulas.
They make formulas for everything.
They establish them, decorate them,
punctuate them nicely, capitalize
them freely, make speeches about
them endlessly, gaze upon them wor-
shipfully-and no doubt this pleases
employers immensely.
"But the American workers prefer
an increase in wages, with all the re-
sulting opportunities, to q pleasing
formula framed on the wall.
"In America we lack Background
which is the direct source of the per-
sisting European love for theory and
formula. For that we are thankful,
though we marvel at the persistence
in Europe of medieval influences.
"All the countries of Europe might
well settle in Texas, one state of the
forty-eight in the United States. The
countries of Europe are actually in
dustrial, while the United States COW
ers an area 5000 miles across the
continent and roughly 1000 miles
from Canada to Mexico, the greater
portion of which is essentially agri-
culture.
Conditions Differ.
There is slight similarity of any
kind between the problems of labor
in. America and Europe, though Euro
pean dictionaries, intellectuals and
superior persons generally feel free
to tell us how to order our affairs
and how to enter the promised land
which is yet SO very far from their
own shores"
President Gompers calls attention
to declarations by the International
Federation of Trade Unions for a
general strike to "socialize industry
and general strike in the event of
war. AS these resolutions would
cause the American trade unionists to
surrender their autonomy, the A. F..
of l. has declined to affiliate with
the international
Largely under the influence of
Mr.. oudegeest," says President Com
pers, "the International Federation of
Trade Unions has developed impossi-
bic schemes, has Numbered into fail
ures, If not disaster, and has made
utterly impossible, at least for the
present, the affiliation of the Ameri-
can Federation Of Labor.
Il think may suggest without inn
propriety that European critics of
our movement set their own houses in
order before attempting intIlectual
suzerainty Of the United States Of
America"