Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1924-08-22
REPLY TO
WILSON SKATERS
DAVIS LABOR CLAIM

WASHINGTON, D. c., Aug. 21.-
President Gompers and former Sec
retary of Labor William B. Wilson,
now associated with the democratic
national committee, have exchanged
letters on the labor record of John
W. Davis. The result is a total
eclipse of the labor record claims of
the democratic standard bearer.
Mr.. Wilson asked that the A. F of
L. executive council postpone its po-
litical decision until after the mem
bers of the council or representatives
attended Mr.. Davis notification cere-
monies at Clarksburg. Mr.. Gompers
eplied that this is utterly impos-
sible and inconceivable."
"The suggestion could be made
with equal propriety that we attend
the acceptance ceremonies of Presi-
dent Coolidge, so as to prevent being
charged with party partisanship,"
said President Gompers.
Mr.. Wilson claimed that Mr.. Davis
stopped a general railroad strike
when he, as solicitor general of the
United States, secured a decision
from the United States supreme
court upholding the Adamson eight
hour law.
President Gompers showed by the
records that a mediation commissions
appointed by President Wilson aided
the railroad managers and represent
atives of the railroad brotherhoods
in reaching an agreement before the
supreme court made its decision pub
lie.
"It was the machinery of the labor
movement and not the supreme court
and Mr.. Davis which prevented the
threatened strike" said President
Gompers, who recalled that the medi-
alton commission consisted of Presi-
dent Willard of the B. g. o. railroad,
Secretary of the Interior Franklin
Lane, you and myself"
Mr.. Wilson replied that the reason
the mediation commission secured an
agreement that made a strike impos-
sible was because it ''leaked out"
Saturday night, that on the following
Monday the court would uphold the
Adamson law.
To this statement, President Com
pers replied that it is "quite strange
the leak has now been disclosed for
the first time in 10 years."
"It is very strange that with this
secret disclosed" President Gompers
continued, at was necessary for the
four members of our 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,
so that it was early dawn of Monday
morning when the signatures were
appended to the agreement by which
the eight-hour day went into effect
and the strike was averted."
Complete and detailed denial of
every claim that Mr.. Davis framed
or assisted in the phrasing of sections
6 and 20 of the Clayton law were
made by President Gompers.
"Those sections were the work of
Representatives Clayton and Carlin.
Mr.. Davis did not frame these sec
tions and he did not contribute to
their phrasing," said Mr.. Gompers.
Regarding the Clayton act, which
labor regarded as of tremendous inn
portanec, it may be interesting to re-
call that the words, as used in the
act-'the labor power Of a human
being is not a commodity or article
of commerce'--were written in Sena-
tor Cummins' Office in the presence
of Secretary Frank Morrison, Arthur
Holder, then A. F. of L. legislative
representative, and myself.
Mr.. Wilson's intimation that labor
should remember that the democratic
party passed labor legislation,
brought this reply from President
Gompers:
ut was a republican congress, with
Abraham Lincoln as president, that
abolished human slavery in Ameri-
ca. If the reasoning employed in
your letter were to be followed, it
would logically ensue that labor and
the people generally must for all
time follow the republican party
the party of Coolidge and Dawes-a
party which has shown itself to be
composed of and tied up with the
sordid interests of the mighty few.
"That the democratic party in it's
brief control of congress-and with
the martyred Wilson at its head
enacted into law a fair concept of
human relations and human freedom
can no more bind US forever to that
organization than the Emancipation
Proclamation could bind US forever
to the republican party"