JAMES R. SAYRE, Jr., & CO. Second wharf below Centre Street Depot DEALERS IN MASONS' MATERIALS Building Brick; Fine Pressed and Ornamental Enameled Brick and Hollow Brick; Fire Brick; Fire Tile and Blocks, all shapes and sizes; Fire Clay and Fire Sand; also Adamant, Windsor Mortar, White Sand, Lath, Drain Pipe, Lime, Plaster, Cement. By SAMUEL GOMPERS, President, American Federation of Labor. Common Sense Applied to the Sherman Act. The Trade Unionists in the Presidential Campaign. Referendum Election of American Federation of Labor Officials. FLORY HOISTING ENGINES STEAM & Adapted for Contractors, Pile Driving, :: :: GET OUR CATALOG AND PRICES :: :: Reading Hardware Co. Milford READING, PA. MAKERS OF BUILDERS' HARDWARE FINE DOOR LOCKS AND "READING" LAWN MOWERS Design BRANCH OFFICES: NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, CHICAGO, 50-52 Franklin St. 816 Arch St. 63 West Lake St. SAN FRANCISCO, 149 N. Montgomery St. CEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS AND VOICING THE DEMANDS OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT MARCH, 1912. Vol. XIX. No. 3. LIVE LABOR TOPICS OF THE DAY. Gompers Speaks for Labor. The Organized Assault Against the TH HE American labor movement, under the American Federation of Labor [said Mr. Gompers]. has been the most peaceful and law-abiding in the world. This is a matter of history; any one who knows anything about modern economic movements knows it. Now, when these two McNamaras-two poor, misguided fanatics, out of two million workers-are driven to hopelessness and pessimism by a policy of oppression and resort to violence, the professional enemies of labor at once come out to charge their crazy acts to organized labor and its management as a whole. The American Federation of Labor needs no defense from such attacks. It has absolutely nothing to hide; it invites the closest examination of its records and affairs. Personally, as President of the Federation for all but two of its thirty-one years, I take the same position. It is impossible that my policy and record can be different from those of that body. I am a member of a family of workingpeople; my father and grandfather worked McClure's, February. at a trade. There are now four living generations of union members in my family, starting with my father, a cigarmaker 84 years old, and ending with my oldest son's daughter, a stenographer. I worked at my trade twenty-six years, and the members of my family have been, are, and expect to remain wage-earners. We belong with the workers, and we want to stay where we belong. The Men Who Started the Federation. Thirty-four years ago, when I was a young man working at my trade in New York, I became one of the group of men whose efforts resulted later in the formation of the Federation of Labor. The ranks of organized labor had been decimated by the industrial troubles following the Civil War. One of the greatest obstacles to permanent organization was that the strong men in labor unions were constantly being lured away from them by better opportunities in politics or business, which their influence as labor leaders had opened to them. The group of men to which I belonged pledged themselves that, come what would, we would remain in the ranks of labor. (201) |