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Show 1 1 BOLSHEVISM SCORED I BY SftMUEL GOMPERS President of American Federa-1 Federa-1 tion of Labor Utters Last Word in Magazine WASHINGTON. Jan. 29. Writing 1 in the current number of the Feder-: Feder-: atlonist, official organ or the Amerl-can Amerl-can Federation of Labor, Samuel Gom-pers, Gom-pers, condemns Bolshevism, "com-, "com-, plctcly, finally and for all time." ; The American labor leader declared , Jic doubts whether the. propaganda which emanates from the Bolshevist organization itself is more effective I than that "conducted by those who claim to be entirely detached from Russian influence and Russian pay royys." Ho says ho doubts whether ( publications issued by Russion Bol-I, Bol-I, shevist agents have as great an effect in America as those "which like to be known as 'journals of opinion such as ' The Nation, The Dial, and The New Republic." i "Mr. Gompers. makes an extended ref- i crence to the nrguincnl that the Amer- lean people know little about What is f poing on in Russia and the argument j that jt is unfair and unwise to pass judgment. I "We do not have to wait for infor- i niation about the form of government j! existing In what is called soviet Rus- sla," he said, "all the Information ncc-! ncc-! essary to the passing of judgment on ! Bolshevism and the system of govern-' govern-' nient and as a state cf society, is at hand from sources that arc authentic. j The pica of those misguided persons i J in America who say 'Wait for facts be-j be-j fore passing judgment' is nothing ! marc than an excuse which it is hoped li will gain time for the Russian experi-nicnt experi-nicnt and enable it to spread to other countries." i Quoting from the new Bolshevist j constitution,' Mr. Gompers points out j that while the Fifth Pan-Russian con-J con-J gress declares for a dictatorship of the proletariat and the poorest peasantry, i great portion of the peasantry Is dis-' dis-' 'ranchiscd and t ho largest Bolshevist estimate of the proletariat calculates I ,hcm as only oue-fifth of the number I sf peasants. Even a fairly prosperous t working man, by this calculation, Mr. Jompers says, is not a p'rolctarian. Bolshevist statistics, he says, show ;j 'hal the Bolshevist minority dcc3 not even represent the masses of factory workers in Moscow, the Bolshevist stronghold. He quotes a dispatch from Russia trade unionists to W. A. Appleton, , president of the international fedora-Uon fedora-Uon of trade unions, which declares Tliat Bolshevists have split up the re-j re-j serve funds of trade unions, throttled the labor press, killed labor organiza-; organiza-; lions, split up trades unions as a class, and put down strikes by '"force of H i arms and plentiful executions." "In all concepts of freedom within H1 the American nation," says Mr. Gom- pers, "one fundamental principal Is (hat any involuntary servitude, that is, compulsory labor, shall not be en-j en-j forced upon the working people.' He j quotes the amendment to the federal constitutions and adds: "That concept and the spirit of that amendment have been entirely revers-i revers-i cd by the constitution of Bolshevist y Russia which provides for and cn- forces compulsory labor o The plea to withhold judgment is a a last desporatc attemupt to win favor from the American people for a sys-1 sys-1 tern of government which by the con-(1 con-(1 Tession of its own advocate and de-fenders de-fenders is foreign to every concept or the American republic. We know j about Russia. We know about Bol-shevlsm. Bol-shevlsm. We know the piteous story of cmelty and intolerance and we j C know the autocratic concept that un-1 un-1 derlies the minority dictatorship ' which is hailed to the. world by its H :J dupes and advocates as the most per-t per-t feet state of society yet devised. We )l know about it and we condemn it coni-li coni-li pletely, finally and for all time." |