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The power that most insistently upholds American standards is the trade union movement. It has established and maintained them

ALIEN

LABOR LAW

NEW YORK'S in many industries. It is the fighting force that is striving to restore them where conditions of work and low wages have driven out workers with American standards of living. For years it has been fighting to restore American seamen to the vessels on our lakes and oceans and has won that victory. It has been endeavoring to shut out the hordes who displace American workers because their lower standards of living conform to low-wage ideals.

The working people are primarily national and patriotic. Practical patriotism was the motive of the legislature and, of the working people of New York in passing the law to prohibit the employment of alien laborers on the public works of the state. The purpose was to give the first chance of employment to American workmen, to American citizens.

This the highest court of the state of New York declared rightful and lawful. The state when acting as an employer had the right to spend the people's money to promote the greatest welfare of citizens.

However, those who profit by paying low wages to aliens, thereby exploiting both American and immigrant workers, have tried to create the impression that the discharge of alien laborers obstructed work on the subways, and thereby increased the already grave conditions of unemployment Employers have used every agency to disseminate false ideas of the reasons for stopping the work. When the court declared the law constitutional, work was stopped in the subways and canal construction because alien laborers had been employed in such preponderant proportions. Employers tried to create the impression that citizen workmen could not be obtained. Yet the bread lines of New York City were a matter of national information. The proportion of American born men and women in those bread lines was a proof of ghastly want and suffering which exist for American workers. The representatives of the organizations of the various trades employable on the construction of public works declared that they were ready at any time to supply a full quota of workmen, native Americans or American citizens who are now unemployed. The legislature of the state of New York failed to appreciate the tremendous principle involved and amended the law so that it no longer guarantees protection to American workers and American standards from necessitous workers of alien lands who by undermining the basis of American welfare threaten the entire national superstructure.

The unemployment that exists as the result of many causes, but particularly because of the European war, emphasizes the danger that threatens · American citizens and workers if some protective measures are not taken to ward off the crowds of immigrants that will flee from the desolation now being wrought in Europe.

Bills to secure such protection have been passed by overwhelming majorities of Congress but three times presidential vetoes have blocked the will of the people.

While the Burnett Immigration bill was under consideration by Congress, we addressed a letter to Congressman Burnett in regard to the bill and

documents which we transmitted to him which disclosed the fact that opposition to the bill emanated from the corporations that employed alien laborers for their own financial gain. In the letter was the following statement:

"The nations engaged in the conflict will undoubtedly do everything within their power to keep the strong and the healthy at home. They will do everything in their power to encourage the emigration of the weak or incapacitated men and those whose health is partially undermined."

Shortly afterwards a former Commissioner of Labor of Texas, Joseph S. Myers, now at El Paso, Texas, wrote us as follows:

"An investigation at our ports along the Mexican border, and a review of the testimony before boards of special inquiry, will establish the correctness of your position. For some time the Mexican military authorities have been furnishing free transportation and otherwise encouraging the emigration of men, women and children who were unfit for service in the army or unable to work. Every train coming to our border from interior points in Mexico is crowded with people of this kind.

"In view of the situation confronting us as to Mexico, as stated, how can your predic. tion as to European nations be regarded as incorrect?"

The condition on the Mexican frontier is only an advance guard of the hordes of maimed, enfeebled, unfit immigrants that will throng our ports in greater numbers than ever before.

Immediate action must be taken to protect the workers already on American soil. Gaunt necessity is already terribly present. Unemployment is making men and women desperate. America's workers demand adequate protection. There are American workers looking straight into the gaunt eyes of starvation. They have no work-they can find no work.

Shall they be given an opportunity, protected from those who would take away their work and the bread from their children's mouth?

This is the question organized labor has put to our citizenship.

Sometime ago President Wilson related this as a bit of professional experience, "Most of the pupils of most of our universities systematically resist

U. OF P. FROWNS ON FREE SPEECH

being taught." A Yale professor was quoted as saying that the human mind has infinite resources for resisting the introduction of knowledge. A recent experience indicates that some students even after they have received degrees and have become instructors in institutions, still resist the introduction of knowledge. The incident referred to is the refusal of the provost of the University of Pennsylvania to permit the President of the American Federation of Labor to address a meeting of students on the University campus.

The University of Pennsylvania offers courses in economics. Economics deals with all things concerned in the affairs of man to earn a living. It includes consideration of wages, hours, and other labor problems. Workers who earn wages and who have lived with labor problems know something about them. The President of the A. F. of L. has given fifty years of his life to labor and

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labor problems. The students of economics naturally turn to the official representative of the trade union movement of America for information on labor questions. Instructors of economics in Harvard, Cornell, Chicago, Columbia, Yale, Michigan, Wisconsin and other colleges and universities have asked us to address students. It remained for the University of Pennsylvania to resist the introduction of knowledge of the trade union organizations of over 2,000,000 citizens of the United States.

The trustees of the University of Pennsylvania have established a policy of discouraging certain kinds of instruction. Last year it was rumored that two liberal-minded instructors who refused to "interpret" truths according to the trustees' limitations and to bind their consciences to conventional formulas were to be dismissed. A group of students rallied in defense of these instructions and of free speech, free thought, free instruction. Theirs was not an attitude of resistance to the introduction of knowledge but was a demand for the right to receive uncensored instruction. Theirs is the common cause of all who have fought the battle for free speech and free press.

When the A. F. of L. convention met in Philadelphia last November some of the students of the University invited us to talk to them. Because of the demands of the convention work, we were unable to accept the invitation then, but promised to make such an address later. The address was made March 5 in St. James Hall. Provost Smith refused to permit the meeting to be held on the campus. Posters announcing the meeting were torn down and the University paper refused to print notices.

This occurred in free America in a university partly supported by state funds. And universities are regarded as authorities and sources of truth. They have a tremendous influence in molding the minds and thoughts of future citizens, men and women who shall occupy prominent places. And yet one of these universities ventures to deny her students the right to information. Why? Surely not because they feared truth, for truth makes people free. Is there some pernicious influence that dictates the policies of the university? If the sources of knowledge are corrupted or restricted, is not that university becoming a menace to progress and national welfare?

But there are six hundred students in that University who propose to uphold American ideals of free speech and who have formed a permanent organization for the maintenance of their rights. They express their views thus:

"Whereas, Mr. Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, has been prevented by the University authorities from delivering an address on the campus, despite the expressed desire of students to hear him, 400 students of this University, after discussion, have adopted the following resolutions: That we protest against the exclusion of Mr. Gompers; that we further protest against any attempt to prevent the discussion of public issues at the University, and in particular against any attempt to bar an invited guest from the campus because of his views or political or social affiliations; that we form a permanent organization for the furtherance of our views; that a copy of these resolutions be sent to the provost, the Board of Trustees, the secretary of the faculty and the following publications: The Alumni Register, Old Penn, The Pennsylvanian, The Red and Blue, The Punch Bowl and the Philadelphia daily papers."

Freedom of speech and freedom of instruction are necessary for the welfare of the Republic. Any infringement upon these rights is a menace that immediately arouses thoughtful, loyal citizens. The students of Pennsylvania have the sympathy and the good will of all, and especially of the organized labor movement. For the fundamentals of liberty the working people find common cause with all humanity.

The trustees and officials of Pennsylvania and all universities will do well to cease resistance to the introduction of knowledge. Students, like all mankind, will not resist being taught when instruction deals with the real stuff and experiences of life.

We were suffering from a severe cold and hoarseness, but regardless of personal consequences and vocal difficulty, addressed the students at St. James' Hall. We felt that the brave young men should not be disappointed in their manly stand for free speech. In a few days after the meeting we received the following grateful and appreciative letter:

DEAR MR. GOMPERS:

PHILADELPHIA, March 8, 1915.

As representatives of the Pennsylvania men whom you addressed last Friday and who now are permanently organized for a free speech fight, we tender our sincerest thanks to you for the gallant aid you have given us. We hope and expect to repay your sacrifice of time and health by inaugurating a better and freer era in university life and to that end will certainly take advantage of your kind offer to address us again when you are in better health. Respectfully yours,

WALTER A. CRAIG
EDWARD B. GOWARD

PAUL T. BEISSER
EDGAR COPE, JR.
WILLIAM H. DU BARRY

The action of the university officials created the free speech organization. of the students and provoked great criticism even in that part of the press of the country which can not be counted as favorable to the cause of Labor. We quote the pointed criticism of two newspapers as a type of the protests. The New York World had this to say:

"Samuel Gompers is not one of the men to whom God in his infinite wisdom intrusted the property interests of the country, as Mr. Baer used to say. He had no reason to think he was entitled to the privilege of addressing a body of students on any subject within the precincts of the University of Pennsylvania. In that sanctuary of learning the youth of the land is carefully guarded against the wiles of heretics and blasphemers, and the gates of its temples are closed to all who have not proved by act and word their faith in the infallibility of vested rights.

"Any man who wants to go to West Philadelphia and talk to the undergraduates about wages is a disturber of the peace. That great and exclusive public forum is strictly reserved for persons absolutely free from any taint of radicalism. Under the wise quaran tine system in force there a stranger like Mr.Gompers who sympathizes with Labor is barred. Even rightful residents and members of the university staff at the first indication of the dangerous disease are liable to segregation and removal.

"If Mr. Gompers were an advocate of a 10 per cent. increase in railroad rates or a higher tariff on iron and steel, hosiery or carpets, he would have been eminently qualified to address a public meeting at the University of Pennsylvania with the official sanction and

in the august presence of the Provost. As a labor leader he fully deserves the stinging rebuke he suffered for presuming to accept an invitation to appear before the students."

The Washington Times handled the subject thus:

"The faculty of the University of Pennsylvania has precipitated a muss over the right of free speech and opinion at that institution. Some of the student organizations invited Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, to address them. His subject was "The Struggles and Aspirations of Labor," seemingly a proper enough theme. The faculty, overriding custom and precedent, forbade the lecture to be given on the college campus, thus placing the seal of disapproval on it.

"The student body, which for a long time past has been in a state of incipient antagonism to some of the attitudes of the faculty which have seemed hostile to academic freedom of speech and opinion, revolted. Six hundred of the college men hired a hall outside the university campus, and Mr. Gompers delivered his speech. When he was done resolu. tions were introduced and without a negative vote were adopted, declaring for free speech in the institution, and against the effort of the faculty to curb it.

"It is difficult to understand what could have been the purpose of the faculty in trying to suppress an address by Mr. Gompers, head of a great organization, a man who has spoken from the most distinguished platforms in this country, a recognized authority on many phases of an engrossing social and economic problem. Universities and churches have been opened to him and to others bearing the message which with moderation and ability he voices. The university did not prevent the speech; it probably provided a bigger and much more sympathetic audience than it would otherwise have drawn; and it managed to place itself in a position which a great university always finds peculiarly hard to defend."

ROCKEFELLER
RESPONSIBLE

"My conscience entirely acquits me of having done my very best," declared a rich young man before the House Committee investigating conditions in the coal mines of Colorado. The rich young man further declared that the duty of a stockholder is to see to it, in so far as his interests entitle him to a voice, that there are placed in office the ablest, highest minded, most competent men that he can select to have charge of the affairs of the company.

When that committee made its majority report at the close of the last session of Congress, it neither agreed that he had done his best nor exonerated him from personal responsibility for conditions existing in the coal mines of Colorado, but declared:

"We find citizens of other and far distant states who are financially and otherwise interested in this struggle; absentee owners-among whom is young Mr. Rockefeller, who, when examined in Washington, disclaimed any responsibility for conditions in Colorado, which have not only disturbed that state but have disturbed the nation and caused such loss of life and destruction of property. Absentee owners or directors by their absence from the scene of such disturbances can not escape their moral responsibility for conditions in and about the properties in which they are interested.

"Mr. Rockefeller, a large stockholder of the most powerful company in the state, has done a great deal for the uplift of people in other parts of the country and in foreign lands, spending millions of dollars in this work, yet he has not endeavored to improve the conditions of the more than 6,000 employes in the company with which he is connected and has not visited the state for more than 10 years.

"Mr. Rockefeller is a long-distance director, not having attended a meeting of the stockholders or directors of the company in ten years. It seems to have been his practice

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