By SAMUEL GOMPERS, President, American Federation of Labor. That Asinine Canard: "Gompers Desecrated the National Flag!" Socialist Methods versus Trade Union Methods. And You, Too, Senator Heyburn. Vol. XIX. DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS AND VOICING THE DEMANDS OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT FEBRUARY, 1912. "PUBLIC OPINION" AND LABOR. By SAMUEL GOMPERS. How do the wage-workers as a mass get their opinions on the subjects which most closely affect themselves? What in this respect are the sources of their information? Do they read with sufficient attention the trade union reports, the testimony of experts, the evidence of official bureaus, the "dry statistics" which embody facts of the utmost importance relative to the working classes? Or do they merely glance at occasional daily newspaper sensational stories or the disconnected meager or misleading summaries of serious writings regarding their own general condition? These are queries not infrequently put to trade union officials by men. interested in social problems. In reply, it is to be said that the work of educating the rank and file of union members in such matters has of recent years made much progress. Most of them are today qualified judges of testimony respecting statements of fact bearing on labor questions. The primary school in this education is the union meeting. There the members listen to reports of their own committees that deal with such subjects as wages, hours of labor, conditions of employment, unemployment, sickness, industrial accidents, state of the labor market in their respective occupations, and the proceedings of all sorts of societies that on occasions connect up with their own union work. A sufficient number of union members are readers of the general run of publications on social questions to be enabled to take the floor at a meeting when any particular point on such questions is up and give the rest of the members the practical information regarding it necessary to intelligent action. Yet, it is to be noted, just as hope springs eternal in the human breast, the tendency is strong in many among our American working classes to No. 2. |