Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1925-01-30
GOMPERS
THE GREAT ACTOR
By WILLIAM ENGLISH MAILING

By WILLIAM ENGLISH WALLING
shall attempt no appraisal either
Of Gompers the man or of his life OF
work. / want to speak only Of the
heritage he left US and of one part
OF that heritage, the part that seems
to me to be the most valuable.
How do we find what is strongest
and most typical in a man? We anal
we, as with Lincoln, his most salient
trait. With Lincoln It was his human
touch brought out in the vital stories
with which he illustrated every situa-
tion-stories that show q breadth and
depth Of humanity that makes Us
think rather Of our very greatest
writer's than Of any statesman history
records.
Gompers' leading trait, it seems to
me, was his sense Of the dramati.
He rose to every occasion--and the
press and the public have recognized
that he rose to every occasion. He
fully realized the dramatic circum-
stancs Of his death and, what is still
more amazing and less widely known,
he pretty clearly foreshadowed nc
ultra-dramatic circumstances Of his
funeral.
Here is the very key to Gompers'
outlook on life. He staged his pub
lie appearance with brilliant sue sess
because he was a consistent and a
Woodworking actor throughout his
entire career. He played his part in
his minds eye-whether in private or
in public-not before the persons in
the room or the audience in the hall,
but before all the people Of this
country.
A few years before the war he took
up a role before. another and an
equally large audience, the labor
movement of the world. And since
the outbreak of the world war he
played his part always in his own
imagination and often in fact before
all civilized mankind.
Have I exaggerated? No, l have
not yet done him full justice. For,
during at least one, if not two decades,
he gave a large part of his time to
his records and those of the organiza-
tion which created him and which he
created. He was appearing then in
his minds eye, as he will appear in
fact, before the following generation.
Not a letter, not a speech or an
article, not an act of any Importance
during the decade in which l knew
him best but was directed in the
main--if not wholly-to this great
audience. And not a ripple of APP
plause or disapproval from that aud
fence failed to affect his sensitive
ears.
With that larger audience always
in view, he regarded labor as a part
and not as the whole. He was in all
ways the opposite of the savage fan
atics that are enslaving and destroy
ing in the name of labor on the other
side of the world. He unified the
wishes and ideas of his organization
and made them articulate; he never
for one moment tried to impose any
doctrine or purpose of his own. And
he succeeded in preventing all would
be dictators inside and outside the
movement from gaining an intellect
ual or moral ascendancy.
With his active and alert imagina-
ton, his Tightening quick intellectual
intuitions, his knowledge, his ripe
philosophy and his moral power, he
became more than the leading actor
in his movement, he became its actor
manager and he cast his associates
and his entire organization for parts
before the same great audience.
American labor, he taught, had its
part to play before America, before
the world, and before history. It had
an original role not following but
rather leading the labor Of more back
ward and less fortunate countries.
It's duty was to select its own role
and not to play any part chosen for
it by superior and outside persons.
Samuel Gompers made American
labor conscious Of itself, Of its own
individuality and peculiar destiny.
He was no prophet, to him prophetic
and democratic leadership were a
contradiction in terms. But he left
his movement strong and united, con-
fident yet modest, and above all, its
own absolute master, free either from
the direct control or the moral intel
lectual influence Of schemers and
idealists alien to the movement who
would use it for their ends.
He made American labor, or helped
to make it, the greatest and the most
Loyalty democratic of the volunteer
forces making toward democratic
progress in the world today. And he
did his part toward really momentous
achievement because that achievement
had become the conscious and DELHI
crate aim of every waking hour of a
great spirit, valiant and unresting
energy and an effective brain.
BIRTH REGISTRATION
IN NORTH DAKOTA
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