The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-12-27
'Gonpers Was
A Protector of
ALL. Grafters
WILLIAM q. FOSTER
Continued

grafters. He himself apparently did
not take money from the employ
ers, nor did he accept their many
offers of political positions. He got
his reward for his treason to the
workers by being maintained as
president of the A. F. of L., where
he basked in friendly publicity and
lived as a wealthy man. All the
worst labor takers gave him their
active support. For years it was
automatic that the more of a labor
faker the more of a Compensate.
Skinny" Madden, Sam Parks,
Simon O'Donnell, Frank Feeney,
Robert Brindell, Matthew VOL,
George L. Berry, ct al, were Comp
ers' bosom friends and co-workers.
On their like his rule was based.
Whenever and wherever building
trades takers were exposed sGomp-
ers never failed to defend them to
the last. Likewise in other indus
tries. In the 1920 convention of the
A. F. of L. Mahon, head Of the
Street Garments Union, was accused
correctly by the Detroit Federation
of Labor of running an "open shop"
sheet metal works in Detroit. But
the charges were smothered and
Mahon was whitewashed. Charac-
teristically, Gompers, in his book,
Seventy Years of Life and Labor
(Vol. 1, p. 34O) thus defends the
traitorous conduct of the steel
workers leaders Jarrett, Bishop,
Weihe, Mutt, and others, in going
over to the employers, saying:
at was not that they were cor
rupted, but they were weaned
away; the organization paid them
very meager salaries, less indeed
than that of first class man in
the industry"
Is graft diminishing in the build
ing trades? This is difficult ques-
tion. Some factors appears to make
against it in it's old forms. The EN-
ployers, becoming constantly more
trustified, have less and less need
of the trade union leaders coopera-
ton for the maintenance Of hard
and fast local monopolies of labor
and material which exclude outside
competition. And it is upon such
illegitimate cooperation that the
typical building trades graft system
is largely based. Moreover, the
growing strength of the employers,
and the breaking down of the skilled
trades through specialization tend
to weaken the position of the build
ing trades unions and to make it
somewhat more difficult for the
venal officials to carry on their
traditional policy of wholesale plum
der.
But, whether increasing or de-
creasing, the BUILDING trades graft
is practiced on wide scale and it
poisons and demoralizes the whole
labor movement.
PIundering the Workers.
In preceding chapters it has Leen
shown how the all-too-plentiful la
Dor takers accept Judas favors from
the capitalists and their political
henchmen in return for betraying
the interests of the workers. But
these misleaders of labor, who see
in the labor movement merely rich
field to be exploited for their per-
sonal advantage, do not content
themselves even with such extensive
forms of bribery and corruption. A
very large part of their program is
the direct plundering of the workers
and their organizations. This plum
dering assumes innumerable forms,
only the more important of which
are herewith touched upon:
A universal method of robbing tie
workers is through extravagantly
high salaries and expenses for union
officials. These run from two to
twenty times the common wage Of
the rank and file of the organiza-
lions concerned. The bureaucrats,
by virtue of their iron-clad control
of the unions, continue to screw up
their salaries and expense accounts
until they develop the incomes
capitalists. The practice is prev
lent in all the unions, and its effect
is widespread decentralization. In
many cases since our investigation
was made, the salaries here quoted
have been increased.
To Be Continued