The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-01-05
BY CUSHMAN REYNOLDS

Washington (LPA)-For half a
century Samuel Gompers person
lifted the burgeoning American
labor movement. The little cigar
maker dominated the scene through
his vast capacity for leadership,
his great loathing for human mis-
cry, and his persistence in follow
ing the course he believed right
for American workers of his time.
Sam Gompers was president of
the American Federation of Labor
from it's founding in 1886 until his
death in 1924 except during the
year after the 1894 convention
when he was squeezed from office
in a tussle with the Socialists. Be-
fore the AFL was founded, Comp
ers was first vice-president and
president of the old Federation of
Trades and Labor Unions of the
United States & Canada. In his life
as labor leader Gompers fought
not only the Socialists, but the
Knights of Labor, the Industrial
Workers of the World, the Com
munists, and = above all - the
bosses.
! Sam Gompers was born in Lon
don of Dutch-Jewish parents, on
Jan. 27, 1850. The AFL is celebrat-
ing his centennial starting with a
memorial banquet in Washington
the evening of Jan. 5. On his birth
day, the federal government will
honor his memory when the US
Postoffice issues three-cent Sam
uel Gompers stamp, first stamp to
honor a labor leader.
Gompers spent his early child
hood in London's poverty-ridden
east end. In fact, all his life was
passed in cities. He moved easily
in crowds, and, perhaps, it was his
experience in crowds that gave
him the great love of people that
marked his whole existence.
Money came hard to the Comp
ers family, and at the age of 10
Sam went to work. After a spell
at cobbling he turned to his faith
er's trade, cigar making. The
switch was labor's gain, for cigar
making, being largely a matter of
almost automatic manual dexter
ity, gave its practitioners free op-
portupity to talk and cigar makers
were a reflective lot.
In 1868, America seemed a gold
en- land to London's east enders
and the Gompers sailed to New
York. What they found in Man
hattan's lower east side, however,
was life hardly less difficult than
life in England. Nevertheless,
friendly Sam Gompers was soon
working in cigar shops, attending
lectures and joining debating clubs.
He joined the English-speaking
!. union of cigar makers, old Local
4 Is, and at II he married. In few
years he was to become a public
figure and remain one the balance
of his days.
! Gompers asserted his leadership
almost Immediately, rising rapidly
in the cigar makers union. By the
Iage of 26 he was president of
Union No. 144 and at 27 he was a
delegate to the national convention,
as he was to be until the end. In
1881, when he was 81, he took an
active part in forming the Fedora
tion of Trades and Labor Unions
of the United States q Canada.
This organization became the Am
erican Federation of Labor five
years later-with Sam Gompers,
of course, as president.
But before the AFL came into
being, Gompers' views and attitudes
were to be shaped by some vital
labor history touched off by the
financial panic of 1873. Wage cuts
led to ill-organized strikes which
were lost by workers in many
fields and which sounded the death
knell for previous attempts to form
an effective national labor body.
One strike which was lost was the
cigar makers own walkout in 1877
in New York. Gompers was black
listed, and the wolf haunted his
door for many months. But a new,
more tightly organized Cigarmak-
ers lntl Union was launched and
Gompers was on his way. Never
! theless, he made cigars himself
until 1887.
In the eighties, Gompers became
embroiled with the Knights of
/ Labor when the national leaders of
that historic organization became
overly impressed with their own
power. Had the Knights of Labor
been more far sighted they might
have welcomed Gompers who was
already deep in his fight with the
Socialists.
BY the time the AFL was form
ed, Gompers had arrived at the
cardinal tenet which marked his
philosophy, and which was rooted
in the realities of his time. This
was that workers, through trade
unions, should use their economic
power to score economic gains.
They should not hitch themselves
to political action. He demonstrate