The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1944-01-13

SOmeHmeS ReCkleSSty.
Once book was written about the
life of great man. 1t was called
Seventy Years of Life and Labor
Folks are talking about it again, after
about twenty years, because it has been
re-issued in a one-volume edition.
Originally it was in two big books, 50
big that a number of persons said they
had read it, but hadn't.
Like great many books, it wasn't
written entirely in the language of the
man whose life it chronicles but it did
contain Il lot of his philosophy and Il
great deal of history 1t made some
big points.
The reason there is new talk about
this book is that today we are again
at some sort of a cross roads, where
we face the issue of how much the
state is going to control and how much
is going to be left to nOn-state control.
Samuel Gompers, whose seventy
years of life and labor were devoted To
getting people to do things for them
selves is being re-quOted by some who
for decade have been busy reaping
some of the fruits of state action
To-day Il lot of people are finding out
that they aren't as crazy as they were
Il little while back about having the
state do too many things.
There are some who look back long
ingly to the Gompers slogan of pure
and simple trade unioniSm, when you
didn't have to have battery of law
yers to work out a wage contract, nor
get permission from the government
to do it.
Gompers fought lifetime for volun
tary institutions, meaning mainly vol
untary organizations of labor. with
which the state should have nothing to
do. a great many wish that condition
could return.
In politics Gompers went out to re
ward friends and punish enemies" and
it was that principle that started the
knockout for the reacrionary and graft
ing politicians of the days of Uncle
Joe Cannon.
The policies of the unions in the
Gompers days were simple and easily
understood. The philosophy was deep
and great many accepted it without
understanding it especially well.
Gompers stood 50 firmly that many
took his word for things and followed
without question.
But things happened. After he died
there came the great depression and
then came Franklin ID. Roosevelt The
gOvernment-the State-Stepped in and
saved the nation from bankruptcy. The
banks were closed and cleanSed MIRA
came with the blue eagle Came social
security and savings insurance and the
Wagner Act, among many other things.
1t was the New Deal.
Unions Surged ahead, under the
aegis of state authority-the Wagner
Act.
AS history will see it, the war burst
over us almost in Il breath with the
result of the Wagner Act and its ac-
companying legislation, all of which
WOve Il new web of state authority.
What the war has done had to be done.
Well, we are where we are. \ grow
ing number champ at the Bit and wish
the power of the state could be shaken
They would like to hope again for
pure and simple trade unioniSm and
for ''vountary institutions
There may be some turn back to-
ward those things There may be some
fumbling toward another earlier AEL
cardinal aim-democracy in industry
But the odds are that whatever il
is we come to when this war is over
will be Il compromise between those
who would like the state to retain its
power or to have more and those who
like the state to shed its power
Civilization grows daily more COM
pick. Thee are many who get no pro
lection from ''voIuntary associations,
or so ii is held. \ power is needed that
can referee and that can act for all.
There are many arguments.
Above all, there is today no GompCrS
to champion his philosophy well.
In the world to come there will be
Il philosophy and Il practice worked
out of the needs of that world. If it is
disappointing to contemplate that fu-
ture, that's how it will have to be. We
cannot 90 back, even though we may
want to.-CMW.