The Connecticut labor news., 1924-08-09
GOMPERS STAND
 ON POLITICS IS
 WORRYING PRESS
A. F. of L. Action on La Toilette Causes Query if Grand Old
 Man" Is Through.

The action of the A. F. of L. Execu tive Council in endorsing La Toilette and Wheeler and the declination of President Gompers to take up Labor matters with John w. Davis before any endorsement was given any candidate, has led to some speculation as to whe- ,ther "The Grand Old Man" was losing his grip. The wish might seem to be father to the thought but nevertheless the suggestion that Gompers IS through is going the rounds and will quite nat urally be spread until MT. Gompers, with his vigor renewed, comes out and shows themt where he stands. As i1- lustration of how the Executive Coun- Gil action IS being taken by the daily press the following editorial from the New Haven Journal Courier will sui
 flee:
 The attitude which MT. Gompers has taken in the present political campaign is so unusual, so lacking in precedent, that one is led to wonder if the secret of 1t is not his actual elimination as the grand old of the labor move nent. Adjusting himself to neutral ity which lacks the essentials of that mental state in several striking parti- culars, and is carried to point where 1y rebules the candidate of the demo- | +.~ 1oc thing to deserve such treatment at his hands and declines to find a date when they can meet and talk their differences over, presents a Gompers with which we are unfamiliar. The picture is SO unlike the original that the conviction forces itself upon one that his reign is over and his power seized by younger and more ambitious men.
 Tt has been the unbroken policy of Mir. G0mpers to keep the labor move rnent out of partisan politics and to uti- i 1ize it's power to defeat known oppo- nents of the organization. Even the
 only partial success of this attitude has
 not changed his views in this regard Whatever the dissappointments have been which protesting labor has been
 compelled to bear, it has remained the conviction of MT. Gompers that great CT disappointments would follow an at- tempt to maintain a separate and inde- pendent political organization Within a few months he has voiced his increas- ing lack of faith in legislation to bring about improved relations of capital and labor. He has urged that interfering laws be repealed, though 1t is fair to
 state that they originally met his ap- proval, in order that the two elements
 might the better fight out their own differences among themselves. This at | titude which has much to commend ii to ones approval is difficult, if not inn
 possible, to reconcile with an endorse ment of the political planning of Sen ator La Toilette. The La Toilette pro-
 gram calls for new and additional 1egis-
 lation of oppressive and dictatorial ! character
 | We have never concealed our admi-
 ration for the marked ability of Mr.
 Gompers. His leadership of organized
 labor has shown it in hundred ways
 He has accomplished great things for
 his people and the general public has
 been the gainer by them. In organizing
 ability constructive leadership, and
 persistent energy he ranks with the ab- lest of the captains of industry. If then, the counterfeit neutrality of the labor federation in this campaign does | signify his virtual retirement from the
 office he has held for so many years, and the transfer of power to men who
 hold to another vief of labor's oppor-
 tr1nity, the country is about to be intro- duced to new phase of the organized
 labor movement comparable, perhaps, Tn spirit to the labor movement in Great Britain. Whatever the outcome there is no leader in sight of Samuel Gompers' ability"