SAMUEL GOMPER8 MILLION
DOLLAR EXECUTIVE
(Continued from Pag* 1)
I took the none;.' Stunned by
the Mew, I fell in a chair. My
wife, all tenderness and sympathy,
seeing I, didn’t understand, as
claimed:' ‘Good God, Sam, how
LABOR DAY GREETINGS
JAMES J. HARRIS COMPANY
GENERAL INSURANCE
Fire—Aviation—Casualty
FIDELITY AND SURETY BONDS
Johnston Bldg. Telephone 5-7311
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
LABOR DAY GREETINGS
HUTTIG SASH & DOOR CO.
MANUFACTURERS AND WHOLESALERS
1018 Joy Street Telephone 2-2146
CHARLOTTE. N. C.
LABOR DAY GREETINGS
HOTEL CHARLOTTE
237 W. Trade St. Rhone 2-1121
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
could you uk such a question?
Don’t you know I resented the
insult?**
Seeing the great need for clos
er co-ordination in the labor
movement, Gompers in 1881 helped
form the Federation of Organised
Trades and Labor Unions of the
United States and Canada. Five
years later this became the Amer
icait Federation of Labor and
Gompers was elected its first
president.
Hie AFL’s membership at its
founding was 150.000. Gompers
was voted a magnificent salary
of $1,000 a year, but at times
there was not even enough money
GREETINGS
Borbre Realty Co.
REAL ESTATE—RENTALS
Tel. 4-3049
1512 Central Avenue
Charlotte, N. C.
Better Floor Sonders
Compony
Free Estimates — Prompt Service
Guaranteed Work
Ed r C lessee ^APtsLkdf aaJ
v iv«v *WrP wmw
Finished
Goad Work on All Type: Floors
815 Providence Rood
Dial 2-0980
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
GREETINGS
BUSH'S PURE
OIL SERVICE
101 East Moreheod
Phone 5-9164
Charlotte, N. C.
"Be Sure It's Pure"
for office supplies. Headquarters
were in an eight-by-ten shed room
on the premises occupied by
Cigarmakers Local 144.
Gompers carried the entire ad
ministrative load of the new fed
eration, aided only by his chil
dren. He wTote all the copy for
the AFL’a first publication, the
Trade Union Advocate. He was
labor's voice at legislative hear
ings and at public and private
gatherings. He went from state
to state on organising tours and
assisted in a substantial way in
the formation of nearly 30 inter
national union.
In 1897 in West Virginia, he
helped organize the United Mine
Worker’s first successful strike,
ignoring a drastic state injunc
tion because he regarded injunc
tions in labor disputes as uncon
stitutional. The most dramatic
injunction case in which he was
involved was the Bucks Stove and
Range cases in 1908, when he de
liberately violated an injunction
by including the company’s name
on a published “unfair list.” He
was sentenced to a year in jail,
l ut never had to servo the sen
tence because by the time the
case had been appealed the whole
way to the Supremo Court, the
statute of limitations applied. But
the six-year legal fight over the
case laid the groundwork for the
Clayton Anti-Trust Act which
limited the uae of injunctions in
labor disputes.
Gompers had arrived at a defi
nite trade union philosophy dur
ing these- years. He believed that
unions should uae their economic
power to win wage gains and im
prove working conditions, expend
ing their resources only as there
was a reasonable chance for
worthwhile gains. He was un
yieldingly opposed to alliances of
labor with political philosophies
or political parties.
A move at the 1901 convention
to involvve the AFL in the social
ist movement was soundly de
feated when Gompers, after de
elarinjj^Ahgt he had thoroughly
ftudieW^ocialism and its advo
,
...
Every person’s sense of security, like peace of mind, comes largely from
within. Worry, or lack of it, comes from the way we face up to our
problems in our day-to-day living. One worrisome problem every man
has is whether his family will have enough money to live on if he dies.
Life insurance can solve that problem. Wonderful things are being done
with life insurance these days by folks who face up to their responsibih
ties and use life insurance to help them drive worry out of their lives.
hcm‘s soueru/uo you cauoo RfGtfTA/OIV
CALL UP YOUR FRIENDLY LIFE OF GEORGIA AGENT
He'vnll be rfad to tell you what his Company is doing for other people just like you.
\
v-it 1
A
"She learned to walk li':e that ir
our parts assembly plant." '
cates for over 30 yearsfsaid flat
ly: “I am not only at variance
with your doctrines, but with
your philosiphy. Economically,
you are unsound, socially, you are
wrong; industrially, you are an
impossibility.”
To those, however, who claim
that these and other incidents are
proof of Gompers’ opposition to
political action by labor, there are
other episodes which reveal his
real political philosophy.
“We must be partisan for a <
principle and not for a party,” he
told one AFL convention. “Labor
must learn to use parties to ad
vance our principle, and not allow
political parties to manipulate us
for their own advancement.”
And of course, his famous dic
tum: “Support your friends and
punish your enemies” has for
many years been the political by
word of the entire labor move
ment. AFL membership had
| boomed to three million by 1919 1
| and, as Gompers had predicted,
I its political influence grew with
■ its size. After the re-election of
; President Wilson in 1916, Post- '
! master General Burleson phoned
Gompers to say that he, more
than any other individual, had
been responsible for the victory.
Under Gompers* direction, tne
AFL algo used its influence to
gain legislation providing for
workmen's compensation, protec
tion of women workers, restric
tions on convict labor, mine and
factory health regulations, estab
lishment of the U. S. Department
of labor and state labor bureaus,
curbs on child labor and enlarg
ing of the public school system,
the last two always particular in
terests of Gompers.
After serving with a number of
federal agencies to promote the
U. S. war effort during World
War I, Gompers was named by
President Wilson to attend the
peace conference in Versailles, He
Was responsible there for the cre
mation of the International Labor
Organization.
The Russian Revolution, hailed
by many as “The dawn of a new
day for humanity," impressed
Gompers in a different way. “We
shall progress by the machinery
of democracy.” he declared, “or
we shall not progiess. There is
no group of men on earth fit to
dictate to the rest of the world.
It is this central idea of bolshe
vism that make the whole of it
outcast in the minds of sane
men."
He never deviated from this
philosophy. His last words, when
he lay d^ing in a San Antonio,
Tex., hotel room on December 13,
1924, shortly after being re-elect
ed again by the AFL, were: “God
Mess our American institutions.
May they grow better day by
day.”
GREETINGS
|obr Cob Compony
AH Cobs 2-Way Radio
Equipped
631 North Tryon St.
Mol 3-5115
Charlotte, N. C.
There is a Raker Cah in
Year Neighborhood
GREETINGS
BELVEDERE ESSO
SERVICENTER
275? Roinh F#rry Um4
PboM 5*9252
ClMrloff*, N. C.
C DAVID SMITH, Dm*.
LABOR DAY GREETINGS
For • Good Boy in o Used Cor Visit
HAMMETT USED CARS
We hove o complete stock off used ports ffor oil mokes
" automobiles
4114 North Tryon St. Telephone 9232
CHARLOTTE. N. C.
LABOR DAY GREETINGS
FROM
R. C HICKS
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Fiedmont Bldg.
Rhone 4-2861
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
LABOR DAY GREETINGS
from
HOTEL SELWYN
ONE BLOCK FROM THE SQUARE
134 West Trade Street Telephone 5-1411
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
GREETINGS TO LABOR
HENNIS FREIGHT LINES, INC
1529 North Try on Street Phone 6-6471
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
LABOR DAY GREETINGS
INTRSTATE ROOFING & ASPHALT CO.
520 West Palmer Street
Telephone 3-2116 P. O. Bex 1086
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
LABOR DAY GREETINGS
" % v ^ f>- V
E. H. Jacobs Southern Division
THE BULLARD-CLARK COMPANY
3600 South Boulevard Extension
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
GREETINGS TO LABOR FROM YOUR FORD DEALER
ALWAYS BRING YOUR FORD
BACK "HOME" TO US FOB SERVICE
S/ord
HEATH MOTOR COMPANY
SALES AND SERVICE
318 West Fourth Street Phom 5-8441
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
LABOR DAY GREETINGS •
Davis
Construction
Company
/ CHARLOTTE, N. C