The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-12-21
PRESS ON SAMUEL GOMPERS

PRESS ON SAMUEL GOMPERS
So closely has Samuel Gompers beef
identified with the history and develop
ment of the United States that most PEG
pie forget, if they ever knew, that he wa
not born in this country, but in England
In no way did he affront the American
ism of the most American members of thu
organizations he has headed. On the
contrary, his loyalty to the country Of
his adoption has been evidenced by 6
continuous record of service in behalf OF
a great group of our citizenship. His
attitude towards the supreme court or
occasion, and his sympathy with the strik
ing policemen of Boston are superficial
reactions rather than fundamental char
acteristic. Possibly he felt forced into
positions in crises which in his calmel
moments he would have avoided.
Whatever uneasiness he may at times
have aroused among those who hold the
constitution in veneration, his last words
have served as the subject of many an
approving editorial, even in papers that
frequently differed with him in the
course of his life. These words were
"God bless our American institutions.
May they grow better day by day." In
the opinion of the New York Evening
World: ain his dying words Samuel
Gompers gave expression to his hearts
desire" The morning World calls him
the "assimilated immigrant" and finds
that "of his devotion to the nation as it
stands he gave conspicuous and convinc-
ing proof during the World War;" while
the Washington Post declares he de
served the thanks of his countrymen for
his stalwart patriotism during the war
and his strong opposition to communism.
1t is recalled that Mr.. Gompers always
sturdily opposed any linking of American
labor with an international movement.
He abhorred the soviet.
His service to labor the Washington
Star epitomizes as follows: at is i'm
possible to estimate accurately the con-
tribution of Samuel Gompers to the ad-
vancement of the welfare of American
workingmen in the course of his nearly
forty years of service at the head of the
greatest and most representative organ
ization. He has stood for the shortening
of the hours of labor, for higher scale
of pay, for improvements in working con-
ditions. He has been an advocate of arbi-
tration in the settlement of issues be-
tween employers and workers. Although
at times he supported strikes, he was not
militant in his general policy to the point
of favoring this method of settling dis
putes, which he recognized as wasteful
and harmful and evil in its effect. His
death leaves vacancy which it will be
difficult to fill"
The Gompers attitude towards strikes
the Kansas City Times also discusses:
"Mr. Gompers believed in the strike as
an ultimate weapon, but he prevented far
more strikes than he sanctioned. He was
constantly called upon to arbitrate labor
differences. He gained for labor some
immunities and exemptions that are not
believed to be fair to either capital or
the public, but his service as whole has
been helpful to both as we'll as to labor
itself. He thoroughly believed in the
principle of arbitration and was an active
member of the National Civic Federation,
composed of representatives of labor and
employers, and designed to establish bet
ter relations between these contending
forces"
AS to a successor to the dead leader the
Chicago News makes the following OBJ
Eervations: ''There is apparently no man
now in the labor movement with the
genius for leadership displayed by Mr..
Gompers. Undoubtedly there will be a
place when the federation meets next
October, and it is doubtful if any one
will be permitted to hold the post for
term of years anywhere approaching that
accorded the founder of the movement.
Whoever is elected, it may be assumed
that he will not markedly alter the course
charted by the leader who is now dead.
Certainly he will not be permitted by the
constituent unions to direct organized
labor into new and untried paths"
In the South the comment is no less
cordial. According to the New Orleans
Times-P icayune: "To Samuel Gompers,
more than to any other single man in
America, it is probably due that here the
men who work with their hands as we'll
as with their minds have remained proof
against provocation into disloyalty to the
70, In of government and the arrangement
of Iociety which is ours. -. Perhaps IN
= INIT months he has done his greatest
, k for social peace on the Western
continent. For it is no secret that, since
long before the Gales election in Mex
leo, his influence has been exercised upon
Mexican industralists to argue them out
of the one-time dangerous tendency to
attempt to initiate the Russian expert
ment down below the Rio Grande. Word
from Mexico now is that the danger, once
very real, is now passed" And the At
lanta Journal: Potent in the social pro-
gress of his own country, Samuel Com
pers was interested in the lot of the
worker everywhere, and was liberal be-
aiever in all that made for international
cooperation and creative good will.
There lived no sturdier liegeman to the
faith"
The Savannah News is among those
deeply impressed by Gompers' last
words: "The last words the great labor
leader would have his country remember
are to be themselves protected and cher
ished and strengthened. His last utter
ance was a fine civic sentiment and
finer patriotic sermon" And the Mem
phis CommerciaI-Appeal: "Never during