Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-12-29
VITAL THEMES
Compers' Soul Goes
Marching On
BY
WILLIAM ENGLISH FALLING

With the death Of Samuel Gompers.
it's undisputed leader, the American
labor movement and its policies will
be seen as the spontaneous, natural
and inevitable product OF American
conditions.
Gompers' mastery leadership con-
sisted precisely on recognizing all the
facts. He did not dream of infect
ing any theory or dogma into the
movement; he defended 1t vigorously
and effectively from all doctrines. ex-
cept those which have grown out of
the experience of the movement itself.
Gompers led American labor where
IL wanted to go. He held 1t together
he strengthened and invigorated 1t.
He made no attempt to lead 1t his
way; his way was the direction the
movement had taken from the outset.
His sole creed was American labor,
and American labor believed in him
because he believed in 1t.
The best proof of Gompers' success
and his most enduring monument will
be the fact that the movement Will
go straight ahead on its present
course without him. But that does
not mean there will be no change IN
its tempo. 1t will positively not
swerve to the right or the left. Every
single one of Gompers' lieutenants,
every single member Of the executive
council, is a guarantee of that. He
rose to every great occasion and full
filed every one of his major duties
TO the utmost But more or less in
cana citated since the war, he was I'M
able to summon the new energies
and time in his later years that would
have been required to give full effect
to the newer activities and policies OF
the federation--policies that called
for new methods as we'll as new
thought.
The federation's much misunder-
stood political tactics are not new,
they are a natural development OF 20
wears of experience. Gompers ap-
proved the political tactics Of the fed
Grafton and helped to shape them to
the last. With It's new president,
William Green, a tried and brilliant
leader, whose future promises to equal
that of Gompers himself, and the
other new men now in charge OF the
federation, new methods and machin-
cry are A certainty-and with them a
new efficiency with regard to every
one of its new policies. OF these i
mention the increase Of political &C
tivity, because II is one Of the most
momentous, and because it most in
terests the general public-and not
because the federation is likely to be-
come a mere political body or TO
launch a new party. Nobody who at
tended the recent convention at Ell
Paso could fail to see that the fed
Grafton was never farther from that.
The federation Is certainly not on
the point OF launching a British Labor
party in this country. But It may
we'll be on the point of devising tao
| tics and machinery that will make Its
f, present non-partisan Cor rather BIZ
| partisan) tactics more effective than
the British Labor party has ever been
or can soon hope to be.
! Those tactics are new 10 America
| and new to the world, and II success
| full would lead TO the greatest of all
democratic experiments. For they
would pave the way to the control OF
! all political parties not by organized
labor, but by great non-partisan or
CARNATIONS, Of which the labor move
ment is but a type. And they would
| lead the country at least in the di-
rection Of economic democracy. This
was the ultimate goal of Samuel Com
pers, and it will remain the goal of
the new leaders of the American labor
movement.
(Convrirht.-1ao4a