Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1924-08-22
PRES. GOMPERS' REPLY TO
SEC. WILSON SKATERS
DAVIS LABOR RECORD

Washington Aug l6--PreSident Gompers and form
er Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson, now associated
with the Democratic national committee have exchanged
letters on the labor record of John w Davis The reSu
total eclipse of the lahorrecord claims of the Demo
cratic standard bearer.
Mr. Wilson asked thatthe A. +. of L. executive coun.
ell postpone lis political decision until after the members
of the council representatives attended Mr. Davis
notification ceremonies at Clarksburg Mr. Gompers re-
piled that this utterly impossible and ncOncevabe
"rhe suggestion could be made with equal propriety
that we attend the acceptance ceremonies of President
Coolidge TO prevent being charged with party par
tisanship,' said President Gompers.
Mr. Wilson claimed that Mr. Davis stopped general
railroad strike when he solicitor general of the United
States secured decision from the United States supreme
court upholding the Adamson eight-hour law.
President Gompers Showed by the records that a
mediation commission appointed by President Wilson
aided the railroad managers and representatives of the
railroad brotherhoods in reaching agreement before
the supreme court made its decision public
ut the machinery of the labor movement and not
the supreme court and Mr. Davis which prevented the
threatened strike said President Gompers who recalled
Willard of the B. & 0. railroad Secretary of the Interior
Franklin Lane you and myself"
Mr. Wilson replied that the the mediation
commission secured agreement that made strike inn
possible because it leaked OUT Saturday night that
on the following Monday the court would uphold the
Adamson law.
To this statement President Gompers replied that ii
is quite strange the leak has been disclosed for the
first time in 10 years.
at is very strange that with this secret disclosed
proeaant Easanes rnnti,hsd "it fe. tho
four members of commission the representatives OF
the four railroad brotherhOods and the railroad presi
dents to meet in session nearly all day Sunday and all of
Sunday night that it early dawn of Monday morn
ing when the signatures appended to the agree
ment by which the eghhour day went into effect and the
strike averted."
Complete and detailed denial of every claim that Mr.
Davis framed assisted in the phrasng of sections and
20 of the Clayton law made by President Gompers
"Those sections the work of Representatives
CLAYTON and Carln Mr. Davis did not frame these sec
tons and he did not contribute to their phrasng sad
Mr. GOmpers.
Regarding the Clayton act, which labor regarded as
of tremendous Importance may be interesting to recall
that the words as used in the acthe labor power of
human being is not commodity article of commerce
were written in Senator Cummns office in the presence
of Secretary Frank Morrison Arthur Holder, then an
F. of L. legislative representative and myself.
Mr. Wilson's intmation that labor should remember
that the Democratic party passed labor legislation
brought this reply from President Gompers:
at was Republican congress, with Abraham Ian
coin as president that abolished human slavery In Amel
ca If the reasoning employed in your letter were to b
followed it would logically that labor and the peo
pie generally must for all time follow the Republican
party-the party of Coolidge and Dawes-a party Wmcf
has shown itself to be composed of and tied up with h'
sordid interests of the mighty few.
"That the Democratic party in its brlef .control o.
congress-and with the martyred Wilson at It's mead
enacted into law fair concept of human relations an'
human freedom can more bind us forever TO ina
organization than the Emancipation proclamation cou'
bind us forever to the Republican party"