Salt Lake Tribune | 1906-08-12 | Page 1 | Gompers Roasts Canal Commission

GOMPERS ROASTS CM COMMISSION Denounces Plan to Employ Chinese Chi-nese Laoor as a Direct Violation of Law. ; WASHINGTON, Aug. 11. Samuel .Gompcrs, ' president of tho Ariierican .Federation of Labor, today issued a statement concerning the action of tho Isthmian Canal commission in deciding Xo introduce Chinese coolio labor in tho work of constructing the canal across the Isthmus of Panama. The statement is as follows: "It seems that those in charge of-the Panama canal constraction have regard for neither law nor. principle. First, in the most extraordinary manner, the eight-hour law is annulled in the greatest great-est public work ovor undertaken by the Government, under the pretense that conditions there are different than they are in the United States. It must appeal to the voriost tyro that if eight hours of work is rcgardod as sufficient in the comparatively temperate climate of the United States, certainly ten, eleven and even more hours of labor a day in the pestilential and miasmatic atmosphere of the Panama zone aro not only improper but outrageous and brutal. "The existing law excludes Chincso laborers and coolies from tho United States or nny of its possessions, Tho Panama canal zone is an American possession, pos-session, and it is 3S much a violation of the law to bring Chinese coolies there as it is in other portions of our country. coun-try. "Some time ago in an interview I had with Chairman Shonts, I protested against the employment of Chincso coolies in the Panama canal construction, construc-tion, as had boon published in tho newspapers it was the intention of Mr. Shonts to do. He thero and then emphatically em-phatically stated that it was not the intention then to omploy Chinese coolies and they would not be employed under his administration. "