Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-12-18
GOMPERS PASSES
AWAY in TEXAS
Veteran Labor Leader Dies
in Hospital at San
Antonio.


Grafton of Labor, died here at 10
o'clock Saturday morning. At that
time all the members Of the executive
council of the Federation of Labor
were called to his room.
The primary cause Of death was
acute heart trouble with pulmonary
oedema, complicated by advanced
nephritis and arterial apprehension
Mr.. Gompers' last illness began in
Mexico City, where he was attending
the Pan-American labor congress. Be-
cause of the high altitude in Mexico
City he was hurried to the United
States and to a hospital at San Anto-
MO in the hope that lower attitudes
would aid his recovery.
Samuel Gompers was born in Lon
don on January 81, 1850. His father
was a cigarmaker and Samuel was the
eldest of eight children. He came to
America in 1868.
Interested in local labor movements.
Gompers became the head and fore
front of the American organized labor
movement. In 1881 he organized the
American Federation Of Labor as a
national association of labor unions,
and with the exception of one year
he was its president continuously
from that time.
He saw it grow from a coterie of
small locals to a national organization
with a membership of more than
100000. He spent several of the
later years of his life in fighting > 4
tocracy abroad and radicalism in or
gained labor at home.
The conflict ended, he went to Paris,
where he helped to organize the in
ternational labor congress.
The worldwide unrest which fol-
lowed the conclusion of the World war
did not spare American industry. Boil
shevism early lifted it's head. Ex-
planning it's menace he said: There
has always been radical element in
the labor movement that has tried to
destroy the very forces which have
protected 1t all these years. It is this
element which makes it so hard for
organized labor to make it's demands
effective. The American Bolsheviki
have earned for labor countless enc
mics and have represented us in an
unfavorable light.
Six months after these words were
spoken, of more than 300 strikes in
various parts Of the United States, it
was reported that ouly 81 were "au-
thorized' 0y the American Federation
of Labor.
He charged German labor with hay
ing helped precipitate the world
struggle, blamed prohibition for caus-
ing unrest in the United States,
urged labor union of the two Ameri-
cas-, denounced a United States SEN
atorial investigation of Mexico as
ePrussianism," supported the League
of Nations, assailed the open shop
platform of the United States Cham
Der of Commerce, demanded that Ash
atics be kept out of the United States,
pleaded for the release Of all ''pOliti-
cali anG wartime prisoners, including
Debs, opposed the establishment by
the Washington administration of a
department .of welfare, praised Presi-
dent Harding's world disarmament eff
forts, and approved Americas plan to
aid famine-stricken Russia.
Among the laws Gompers framed,
supported or originated were the eight
hour law for government employees;
the various state laws fixing hours of
labor; laws establishing Labor day as
the workingmen's holiday the federal
workingmen's compensation law; the
law limiting the use of injunctions in
labor disputes; the law exempting
labor unions from prosecution as COM
binations in restraint of trade, and
the law regulating punishment for
contempt Of court.
He belonged to the Masons, Odd Eel
lows and Elks.
He was the author Of numerous
small pamphlets in the nature Of tracts
on labor questions wrote book on
the world labor movement, and edited
the American Federationist the Off
Throughout his career Mr.. Gompers
refused to become identified with any
political party, taking the position that
he could be of more service to the
cause of labor by holding himself aloof
from identification with any single po-
litical organization.
Mr.. GOmpers was twice married.
His first wife, Sophia Julian of New
York, died in 1919, shortly after the
celebration of their fiftieth wedding
anniversary. They had three sons and
a laughter, the latter, nurse in
France, died during the war. On April
Is, 1921, the labor leader, then seven
ty-one years old, married Mrs. Ger
trude A. G.. Neuscheler, ehirty-eight
years old, music teacher.
H~.e C4nr pf ReIYra0rf Rites