Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1925-10-16
SALIENT POINTS OF
PRESIDENT GREEN'S
OPENING ADDRESS
Must Earnestly Work to OBJ
tain Own Righteous Legal
Standing, Says Green.

ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., Oct. 15.-
In opening the forty-fifth convention
of the American Federation of Labor
President William Green made an ad-
dress that stirred the delegates to
high pitch of enthusiasm. Salient
points in the speech, which stressed
the humanitarian purpose Of orga-
nized labor, were as follows:
We represent the great humane fac
tor in industry, the men and women
who serve society, who perform hon
est toll and who yearn for the enjoy
ment of higher and a better life.
Is there a cause more inspiring, a
cause that will move men more pas
sionately than this great cause of or
ganized labor that combines within it
all the features of economic solidarity,
of brotherhood, of fraternity and of
common accord? And so it is no
wonder that laboring men and women
of America face the issue daily, and
sacrifice hourly because the cause of
organized labor that we represent
moves men to sacrifice and to action.
Our work is the work of humanity.
We propose to carry forward in an
aggressive way, without relaxation or
compromise, the great work of organ
ization. We propose to carry forward
in an aggressive way, without relaxa-
tion or compromise, the great owrk
of organization. 1t is our purpose to
mobilize the economic strength of the
workers in every city, town and viii
lage of the American continent. We
realize that the salvation of the work
ers lies first in organization. That
is prime necessity, for only with the
mobilization of the economic strength
of the workers can we reach out and
wiring from hostile and reluctant em-
ployars that degree Of social and in
dustrial justice to which every work.
ing man and woman is honestly en-
titled.
So our great mission is to organize,
yet to reach out and bring into the
fold those not associated with us. We
must preach the doctrine of trades
unionism; we must carry the message
and we must educate the working
men and women of our nation, and
through that process bring into this
great industrial army the toilers of
the nation, moving as one army, eco
inomically strong and unassailable.
We must earnestly work to secure
our own righteous legal standing here
in Aroar;oo W. raoI;1a that x1a bax,a
been handicapped-if may use that
pression-hampered and limited be-
cause some of the courts of the ma
tion have seen fit to usurp powers
and to align themselves, if you please,
upon the side of the powerful en-
ploying interests of our country.
Through the use of judicial decree,
not a construction of our law, but the
order of the court, the opinion of the
court, the will of the court, labor has
been restricted in the legitimate ex-
ercise of its economic power. And if
we have right to exist in America,
if we have a right to use the only
power the workers possess in an or
derly way, then we demand that the
courts shall allow us to be free in
the exercise of that right.
1t is our purpose to carry on the
struggle for the realization of that
degree of social justice to which the
workers of America are entitled. 1t
is wonderful when we examine the
record and understand the progress
the American labor movement has
made. In the face of tremendous
opposition, of puch misunderstanding,
we have succeeded in advancing the
cause of the workers through legis-
lative enactment. And in this great
fight we have in mind the children
of America. We have in mind also
the, opposition we encountered in
fighting for the protection of the
children and the child life of America.