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Show I FEDERATION IS I OIVENWELCOME President of Buffalo Chamber of Commerce Draws Stirring Hj Picture of Labor's Duty. H HAS SEEN WARS FAIL Victory for Germany Means Slavery for American Peo- pie for Generations. k BUFFALO, N. Y Nov. 12 With an appeal to all American worklngmen to pace their full and undivided force behind the fighting men at the front and a stirring: picture of what labor may expect If Germany wins the war, Professor A. A. Landon, of the Buf-falo Buf-falo chamber of commerce, today wel-corned wel-corned the American Federation of Labor at the opening of its convention here. A former laborer himself, who has seen first hand in Europe how troops in the field give their lives and blood for naught when . workers at home engage in disputes instead of putting all their energy into keeping the fight-ing fight-ing men supplied, Mr. London ap-pealed ap-pealed to all labor to sink everything in a tremendous effort to do its part in the war. Fighting for Freedom. "President Wilson," said Professor Landon, "has said we are fighting a war for democracy. We are not only fighting a war for democracy, but a war for industrial freedom and self-protection, self-protection, a war to hold that which we have now. "Victory' for Germany would mean slavery for the American people for generations to come and the people who work will be the greatest suf- "I spent the summer of 1915 and 1916 in France and Italy, doing what I could in helping them in their efforts 10 increase the efficiency of their in-dustries in-dustries so. that they could hold back the German army and possibly defeat them. In 1915, England was in a very sad way. Why Canadians Were Sacrificed. "I was In England when the Prin-cess Prin-cess Pat Canadian regiment was liter-ally liter-ally cut to pieces. You know they went in a' full regiment of 2400 men and came out with less than 150 men a,nd eight officers, and most of them .wounded. I was talking to a young Canadian officer from Montreal, who used to be a salesman and therefore a worker in civil life, and he told me that they had run out of ammunition; that the artillery had run out of shells and that they had to crawl out on their bellies, leaving approximately 2300 men behind, dead and missing. They even had to witness one of their officers crucified before their very eyes. British Labor Failed. "And what was happening in Eng-land? Eng-land? A large shipment of munitions that I was assisting on was completed and ready to ship and could have been Hl used and should have been used in H this very battle upwards of 300,000 Hj pieces of munitions entirely com- plcted wiih the exception of a small Hl firing pin. I was told that they could Hl not be delivered in less than three fl weeks for-the reason that the working- 1 men were taking their usual summer's 1 holiday. Think of that! While their H own brothers and sons and relatives were undergoing 'he hardships and Hl tortures of hell and the very nation H was in danger! "And now we arc in this war and this convention is going to give the an-H an-H swer so farsas you aro concerned to H the American people and to our allies, B , ,ahd last, but not least, to the emperor H 'of .Germany. And I want to say to you H that, so far as we have gone, the an- H ' swer Is on the side of Germany. We H are still washing our dirty linen and H we have not as yet settled down to a H realization of our condition. Tho Ger- H man propaganda is a broad one In the H land and may be numbered among your H dolegates. And why not? They wore H in the house of parliament In Eng- H land; they were In the duma of Hub- H :sia; they were in the chamber of dcpu H ties in Italy; they were in tho cham ber of deputies in France. They had Greece by the throat and, if such is tue case, why should they not be in our own legislative bodies, national, state and municipal? And if there, I repeat, why not here, and if here how are we going to know him? He won't tell us. We can only judge by his actions and how he approves this great problem of winning the war. Must Stand on Results. "It matters not what a man claims as a reason for justifying the retarding retard-ing or holding back of our war activities. activi-ties. We must stand on results of any man or any body of men who assume to get In the way of the results of winning this war for democracy, civilization civil-ization and humanity is on tho side of Germany, regardless of what his method of reasoning may be. What Shall We Sny to Soldiers. "Do you Imagine that under German rule you could possibly have the rights you now have under a democracy? democ-racy? Ask any man who has come from Germany. Ask him why he left Germany! He will tell you the answer, an-swer, if he is honesL If we continue to argue among ourselves as to the right and wrong of this principle and that principle and if we continue trying try-ing to satisfy our personal ambitions and our pocketbooks at the expense of our national efficiency, what will we say when our boys return from France? How are we going to explain ourv negligence to them when they return re-turn legless, armless and eyeless (If they return at all), knowing that the reason for it was that we failed to back our boys at the front. That the boy's very father refused, for some reason or other to make him another shell to shoot or another bayonet to defend himself or refused to load a sufficient suf-ficient amount of food supplies on ships so that he could be fed, or refused re-fused to build ships so that the food and clothing, comfort, even medical supplies might be carried to him across the sea. What are you going to tell them? How are we going to square ourselves with him and how are we going to square ourselves with our conscience? con-science? y uisagreemenls un-American. "Personal disagreement here or efforts ef-forts to take advantage of this war, either by capital or labor is un-American and if the men are not loyal to the nation they should at least be loyal to their own flesh and blood. "If Germany wins this war it will be because she has beaten us to our knees. If she beats us to our knees how do we know that Belgium will not be a side show compared to what Germany Ger-many will do to America? And it will be no time then to say 'I don't know,' because we do know. It will be no time then to say that 'I wish I had done differently,' because it will be too late. National Spirit Must Be Re-born. "May we not hope that a national spirit may be reborn here. May we not hope that a message will come from this convention into tho vory teeth of the kaiser, saying to him tha't this Is a democracy, that marching shoulder to shoulder in France is the rich man and the poor man, everyone striving to the common end hoonr and victory for democracy and self-preservation self-preservation and being sure that we have given to' those sons of ours and those brothers of ours who are in France everything that could possibly be required so that they may do their work well; so that they may be a credit to American traditions; so that they may never be able to say 'why didn't you back me up. Oh! Father, why did you stop when I was suffering suffer-ing and hungry. Why didn't you hcip me?' " |