Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-11-21 | Page 6 | Patriotic Labor

PATRIOTIC LABOR. The Socialistic, or Bolshevik), element ele-ment in the American Federation of Labor has been most effectually squelched by the action of the annual convention at Buffalo, which has indorsed in-dorsed tho stand taken by Samuel Gompers, Frank Morrison and other officers of-ficers of the great organization. Out of a total of -loO delegates present, only fifteen went upon record as being opposed op-posed to the United Stales in the war with the German kaiser. The garment workers of New York were the only ones refusing to sustain their-xdiief and they are no longer worthy to be called American citizens. Mr. Gompers made a powerful speech and he was ably seconded by Max S. Hayes of the International Typographical Typographi-cal union. Hayes has always hebi very pronounced views as to the rights of labor, la-bor, but he is intelligent enough and patriotic enough to see where the duty of labor lies in "this crisis. Mr. Gompers stated his position with intense earnestness earnest-ness and with a show of deep feeling in closing tho debate and left no doubt in the minds of his hearers as to where he stood in this war. In closing he said: N I am not neutral in this war. Pacifist as I have been all my life, when I find there is a band of murderers mur-derers abroad and I fail to defend my children, I am not a pacifist, but a coward. President Wilson and the members of his cabinet were peace-loving iucd; I know of no militarist in their number. But now they are fighting men. And T publicly declare now that I am a fighting man and will continue to fight for the country to which I owe all, the country which I love and in which my hopes and aspirations aspira-tions are bound up. I propose to do a man's duty in helping to make this war the last war of this world. All my energies shall be laid at the feet of America and of our allies to do what L can toward the establishment of democ- racy, even in Germany. These words should be taken to heart by every union labor man in the country, coun-try, for they mark the boundary line between the patriot and the traitor, and there is no middle ground for weak, colorless and cowardly individuals who are always endeavoring to avoid taking a decided stand in anything that comes up. There have been a great variety of labor troubles since the war began, and without doubt many of these have been fomented by enemies of the .United States, while others have been engineered engi-neered by anarchists who have been lying in wait for years for an opportunity oppor-tunity to overturn the existing order of tilings and reduce the whole world to the present level of Russia. But many of these direct action" advocates are in jail and those still at large are closely close-ly watched. These men sought to cover up their war upon society by donning the cloak of union labor, but failed utterly. ut-terly. The American Federation of Labor, '.he United Mine Workers, the Aline, Mill and Smeltcrmen 's union have set their faces against any more strikes while the war is in progress, and we believe the railroad brotherhoods will find some method of settling their present pres-ent difficulty. There are still some discordant dis-cordant elements, but in view of the decided stand taken by the Federation of Labor at the Buffalo convention we are satisfied that a great majority of disputes between employees and employers em-ployers will be settled by both parties submitting to arbitration, which "will no doubt be compulsory in case they do not agree. Samuel Gompers is entitled to great credit for his share in bringing matters to a focus in the ranks of labor.