A review of the Federation's attitude in politics is given in the following letter of Mr. Gompers to the New York "Times": "You assert, on the basis of a circular letter issued by the Executive Committee of Labor's National Non-Partisan Political Campaign, that the American Federation of Labor has reversed the policy which it has followed so long and has become a separate political party.' The Times' thinks it sees proof of this in the sentence: 'Here (in the primaries) a smashing effort can be made to nominate members of trade-unions for elective office.' "The American Federation of Labor has not become a political party, nor has it changed its established policy. It has abandoned no principle, nor has it changed any of its principles. The American Federation of Labor is pursuing the course that has been pursued since its establishment. "The American labor movement intends to elect its friends and defeat its enemies. If it can nominate friends and defeat its enemies in the primaries it intends to do that also. The workers always have voted in the primaries. This time it is the intention to be more vigorous in securing the nomination of men who will truly represent American manhood and womanhood. If union men can be nominated, so much the more certain will labor be of victory in the elections. Or is it the concept that the workers, as workers and citizens, have not the right to elect liberty-loving, patriotic Americans, simply because of the fact that they are workers, or is it the purpose to continue to select members of the lawyers' clubs of America of whom there are over 350 in the House of Representatives alone? "As for the principle involved, I quote from the official announcement sent to all organized labor at the opening of the 1906 campaign: "We still stand by our friends and administer a stinging rebuke to men or parties who are either indif ferent, negligent or hostile, and, whenever opportunity affords, to secure election of intelligent, honest, earnest trade unionists, with clear, unblemished, paid-up union cards in their possession. "The same principle was declared in 1908 and has been reaffirmed in every succeeding campaign except when suspended during the war. Labor's concern is to see that its enemics are defeated and its friends elected. If enemies can be defeated and friends nominated in the primaries it is a step in the process of election, and one which labor does not propose to overlook. To say that such an exhibition of interest and of citizenship constitutes the formation of a political party is to resort to a distortion which I feel sure the Times' would not wish to permit in its more scholarly moments. 66 It Organization of a political party is a definite act. requires the taking of certain steps. The American Federation of Labor, so far from taking these steps and committing this act, is definitely opposed to the formation of a separate, partisan political party, and the records leave no doubt on that point. "The Times' accuses the American Federation of Labor of a curious forgetfulness of facts.' It is the Times' that forgets; the Times' is, however, right in saying that union. labor candidates are to be nominated and elected if possible.' To that end labor and all those who are friendly toward labor and who have at heart the best interests of American citizenship will bend every legitimate effort. And they will bend the same effort to defeat those who have, by their records, shown themselves to be enemies of labor and foes of human progress. "Is it not a fact that many citizens vote to support the candidates and party which, in their judgment, protect and promote their rights and interests and oppose the candidates and party which, in the judgment of the voters, are regarded as hostile to their rights and interests? Are the workers to be denied that right or criticized because they are pursuing a similar course? "Let there be no misapprehension. This is an hour of trial, a time of testing. The despoilers of the people shall not escape unscathed. The right which the labor men and women propose to exercise is an American right. It is more; it is an American duty. If fear has crept into the hearts of the betrayers it is well. They have much to fear. The large mass of our people is aroused. It understands what its enemies are seeking. It is going to fight, and the fight will not be without its victories for human freedom. "SAMUEL GOMPERS, "President American Federation of Labor. "New York, March 27, 1920. Times,' March 29, 1920." The move to organize, in February, 1920, a State Political Labor Party was severally condemned by Mr. Gompers in the following, given out by the A. F. of L. “HEADQUARTERS, AMERICAN FEDERATION Of Labor, "WASHINGTON, February 19, 1920. "Mr. WILLIAM MITCHELL, Indiana State Labor Party, Indianapolis, Ind.: "Dear Sir.— Your telegram of February 14, in which you are joined by Messrs. John Hessler, Charles W. Kern, A. A. Fessler and A. S. Kidd, received; it is as follows: "We, the convention of the Indiana State Labor Party, is session February 14, 1920, stand opposed to the political declarations of the American Federation of Labor asking labor to elect their friends and defeat their enemies. We assert that there can be no compromise on candidates who run on a ticket whose platform is made and whose campaign is financed by big interests. We assert that the political policy of the A. F. of L. is impractical and has been absolutely unsuccessful. Therefore we stand for the labor organized by and for the workers themselves as the only consistent method of protecting labor's interests in the various political departments of our Government. "WILLIAM MITCHELL, "A. A. FESSLER, A. S. KIDD. By what right do you assume to declare the work and the policy of the American Federation of Labor to be impractical? Surely the results achieved in the interests. of the workers demonstrate the utter fallacy of your assumption. "By your declaration you assert the practicability of the course you declare you will pursue. What experience have you had with your political party upon which to base so absurd a claim? "Forsooth, some men understand not only that which is charged but the virtue which is proclaimed of political and financial honesty and dishonesty. Perhaps thorough investigation of the political and financial virtues may be a proper subject of inquiry after a political party shall have been in existence more than a day. "Of this one thing you may rest assured that the day of reckoning is at hand for all of those who are in antago nism to the cause of labor, and for those who are subtle and equally guilty, even though they clothe their actions in the robes of pretended friendship. "When you shall have learned the lesson of the real struggle of labor and the cause for which our movement stands, you may become penitent for the gross injustice you have done by your pretension and your course. "The effect of a separate political labor party can only be disastrous to the wage-earners of our country and to the interests of all forward looking people. The votes that would go to a labor party candidate would in the absence of such candidate go to the best man in the field. In no case would they go to an enemy of labor. "There can be no hope for success of labor party candidates. The effect, therefore, of a political party will be to defeat our friends and to elect our enemies. "Labor can look upon the formation of a political labor party only as an act detrimental to the interests of labor and exactly in line with that which is most ardently desired by those who seek to oppress labor. "The welfare of American humanity demands, in this hour of national crisis, that there be success at the polls. This is not the time for experimenting with political theories which are proved false at the outset. The workers of America must use the tactics of success. They must have results. "Results will not be obtained by injecting a labor party, so called, into the struggle. "Those who are determined to be blind to the facts of the present and past will, of course, rush on to disaster and calamity. This the American labor movement will not do. It rejects and repudiates the fallacies of blind theorists, and will have nothing to do with those treacherous follies that are suited only to the purposes of labor's enemies. "Your telegram is an affront to the labor movement and an assault upon the interests of that great body of Americans who are determined that the present campaign shall result, not in the destruction of our liberties, but in the opening of the way to national progress and the enlargement of opportunities for human welfare, safety and happiness. "SAMUEL GOMPERS, "President American Federation of Labor.” NATIONAL LABOR PARTY In November, 1919, a convention met in Chicago to form a National Labor Party. Its sponsors were revolutionary Socialists, and it was opposed by the leaders of the American Federation of Labor. The National Labor Digest for January, 1920, says: "John Fitzpatrick, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, and chairman of the steel strike committee, determined to keep himself in the limelight of radicalism, has turned his attention from the steel strike to the formation of a new labor party. At a recent convention in Chicago, called for that purpose, birth was given to a political organization which bears the distinct earmarks of radicalism. The call for the convention was issued by Fitzpatrick. This alone was enough to establish that the gathering would be dominated by the Left Wing element. "In his address of welcome to the thousand or twelve hundred delegates in attendance at the convention, Fitzpatrick urged: the formation of a labor party, although the American Federation of Labor opposed the plan at its recent convention.' "Socialists and extremists who dominated the convention responded to Fitzpatrick's 'battery' and immediately proceeded to elect Max Hayes, of Cleveland, Ohio, formerly member of the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party, and, until last May a member of the party, permanent chairman of the convention. Chairman Hayes addressed the gathering and then and there outlined the principles upon which the new party was to be founded, saying: 'The National Labor Party will make demands for free speech, free press, free assemblage, and for release of all so-called |