SAMUEL GOMPERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 17, 22 January 1919, Page 7

SAMUEL GOMPERS

“CZAR” OF LABOUR.

It, is i;o ordinary man whose word has for 30 years been lav/ to 'the working millions of the United .States. _ In all but name Sam Gompers is a Cabinet .Minister; a moulder of American policy; a tower of strength to Labour all the way from Arctic Yukon to the ■Mexican Gaidf; I consider Woodfrow Wilson tho most aristocratic ami unapproachable Chief Executive who has ever “reigned” at tho White House in a national crisis. Yet Wilson himself (writes W. E. Fitzgerald in the Pall Mall Gazette) travelled three hundred miles to Buffalo in order to extol the “Old Man” (Gompers is now 69), and set forth “his patriotic courage, his large vision, his statesmanship, and genius for team work on a large scale.”. In no country on earth —it of course, a continent —is Labour so difficult to'handle as in the United States. Millions of the worker's speak no English at all, and the clash of .State and Federal laws makes organisation and protection, extremely difficult. In this enormous welter the haggard and sturdy little figure of Old Alan Gompers stands out like a luminous buoy in a furious se,a. “Life is a struggle,” he tells American Labour. “But remember that, impatience to win all may lose us everything.” Sam is the apostle of sanity and moderation; this is the secret of his' .abiding hold. _He represents the aristocracy of American workers—perhaps three millions out of thirty millions or more.

AN INCORRUPTIBLE. “Everything for the nation,” is Gompers’ war-time motto, “but codling for private profit.” This thickset, jerky little man, with big glasses dollars a year. Ho “tallied it over* with the wife,” and declined. He also refused a nomination to Congress. The biggest plum ever offered to the Old Alan was from a great manufacturing- concern. This was a cash douceur of 45,000d01., andl the life, tenure of a sinecure job. But Sam is a man with a mission, and to that mission he has clung ever since 1882. I will not , pretend that Gompers is not comfortably “fixed ” as our new Allies put it. His salary as president is £I2OO a year; but the workers know that, the Czar of Labour is assuredly worthy of his hire. He bad no schooling, this Jew,, beyond four casual child-years in a primary school over here. That child was a cigar-maker in our own East End. He was a pacifist Jin, .America’s/ neutral time; but as the German plot thickened, the sagacious Wilson called. Sam to Washington, andi made him a member of the National Defence Committee.

“In the name of American Labour/’ says this .rugged veteran of a thousand “wars” to the German people, “I say you cannot talk peace with us now. Nor shall you talk of International Conference, 'Either you smash _ your autocracy, or we will smash it for you.” Thi|t is “plain United States” and “open diplomacy” with a vengeance ! The man’s power is enormous. He hjus no objection ito miraculous baew machinery 7 . He scouts the idea of restricting output, he welcomes the dilution of skilled labour; but: “We will not have it at the call of hysteria, or at the demand of greedy and profiteering employers who see in the world-war the chance they are always looking for —to dilute and destroy the standards and safeguards of Labour.”

MASTER OP THREE. LANGUAGES /

It is safe to say that if Czar Compere were not “behind the President like a stone wall,” America’s avalanche of aid would be halted, or even dissolved!. His robust voice rings out above the anarchy of the I.W.W. leaders and extreme Socialists of the West. It shall be our task,” he ordains, “to interpret America's, _ democratic spirit and- purpose in this conflict to our fellow workers—especially to those of foreign birth—and to combat every form of propaganda which tends to weaken the loyalty and devotion of tho masses'and, their willingness to strive and sacrifice for the nation at this critical hour. •

As a lad in America, young Gompers educated) himself. There were books propped up on his work bench, so that —as ho recalls: “I used to forget whether I’d eaten my lunch!,” He is inw the master of three languages, and' his Washington war work begins before dawn. America has profound respect for Samuel Gompers. Universities like Harvard and Cornell invite him to lecture; the Secretaries of War, the Navy, and Labour consult him. so do the bureaucratic chiefs of shipping and aircraft,, ordnance, munitions, and' transportation. He has no desire to convert nonunion workers,, like those of the motor shops, the steel mills, and shipyards. Nor does sMr Gompers concern himself with coloured labour. If men like to join the great federation, well and good; if not, lob them, go their own way outside the central fold. His ideal ts a ladder of betterment for the wageearner. “Its plan,’’ 'as he says himself of the American Federation, “is to make to-day a better day for the masses of the people than yesterday was.”