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Show j Gompert la Right j SAMUtl. (jOMI'LRS, veteran laNr leader, d-, plas sane and substantial leadership in holding hold-ing fast t the determination to keep the American Amer-ican Federation of labor off the shoals of the soviet government of Russia. (iompcrs has come In for considerable censure within the ranks i of the American tabor unions as i result of his refusal to heed a small but noiy clamor (or recognition of the soviet government. We believe that the conservative element i in the organled bodies of labor in the United i States see that holshevism has nothing In common com-mon with the working man. I aboring men who seek recognition of the soviet authorities are not possessed of full Information or eKe tliey are not given to clear thinking. No one clats in Russia has suffered more than labor from the rule of Lenin and Trotky. The progress of the) labor movement In Russia has been wipej oul anJ the working man now finds himvlf withtiut the promised eae ani without hii organization. The Russian worker knoi Ion; before this (hat bol&hevism Is but an avaricious dictatorial projfram and is not denned o carry ctaa or general benefits. So it is that the wiser leadership leader-ship in other parts of the world refuse to be hoodwinked further by the meMages of Lenin and Trotzky and so it is that (iompcrs earnestly and Consistently advises the American Federation of Labor to refrain from the emotional outbursts which characterised the first successes of the bolshevik!. bol-shevik!. The soviet government is on the downgrade because it has nothing to offer the people as a whole. It is not representative of popular desire; It is not even a dictatorship of the proletariat.1 The proletariat suffers along with the intellectuals when his interests conflict with the personal desires de-sires of the soviet leadership. In the face of these facts it is difficult to understand hy some members of organized labor seek recognition of this government. Recognition would constitute indorsement of a scheme which automatically suspends the whole creed and program of organized or-ganized labor. The American workman can ill afford to recognize what he cannot indorse and so the rank and file of the American labor forces must stand with (iompcrs because a reversal of this thought mould invite disaster for organiza- tion. |