SAM GOMPERS.

Northland Age, Volume 24, Issue 48, 26 March 1925, Page 4

SAM GOMPERS.

With the death of Samuel Gompers a great figure in American history passes. He was easily the most powerful Labour leader in the United States for nearly forty years. He was 37 years president of the American Federation of Labour and has for long been regarded as the mouthpiece of the worker. Almost 75 years of age at his death, he was organising among the workers when he was 14 years old. His leadership has been along sane lines. His loyalty to the workers has never been questioned by the rank and file, and it is noteworthy that he was a resolute opponent of the I. W. W., a few years ago when it was very strong in the States. He was opposed to revolutionary methods, and depended upon evolution by organised Labor working through trade unions He had no faith in a Labour political party, aiid always opposed its creation. After America decided to go into the war he was a strong supporter ot the Government’s war measures and proved a patriotic American. It is significant that without forming a political parliamentary party with its mob of professional politicians and endless arrays of industrial legislation, the American tradesmen is the highest paid worker in the world to-day and in most ways the best off. There is a moral in this for New Zealand.