Samuel Gompers' Story
Oneal, James
Samuel Gompers' Story A R.V1.W by JAMES ONEAL SfYtSTY YEARS OF LIFE AND LABOR- A* Autobiography. By fitmurl Gompert. Two Vohtmtt. p!,w York: E. P. Dutton Sc Co. J!0 00-> __ WHEN the...
...But justice to ths living requires thst they be challenged, for, aa Wendell Phillips once said, men often speak with ten-fold authority "when they speak from the grave...
...Hayes was a Socialist...
...When the heroine shouted, "It's Barradt or'Hell," we wsre conscious-stricken to find Ourselves secretly consigning her to the nether region...
...Of Mr...
...He could evcapsy tribute to both Marx and Eagell as two great men who undwetood t\f -fti»t<yital...
...Gompers' participation offer very interesting reading...
...You roasted old Bill Lorimer and the Senate for lettin' him in and you promised that some day we'd get mad and grab ballots or musktts amf do something...
...II' is doubtless difficult to write an Interesting story about an uninteresting person, conssquently we should peihaps be not too harsh In our TWticUm of Mr...
...Bttause of his'intimate relation to tkt development of the modern ti»de union movement no other man wui capable of writing an enduring book that would be a monument to the trade union struggle of tha past fifty years...
...Gompers, 'despite illness, proceeded to the Detroit convention of the A. F. of L. and exposed an attempt of ship subsidy agents to get trade union approval...
...Gompers generous enough to concede that the American Railway Union led by Debs won the Great' Northern strike...
...However, it was only a short time before he avowed anew his pre-war and during-the-war attitude...
...Lsst summer you celled lots of us pole-cats but you can't go back to your Chinese dreams in dirty Springfield that easy...
...The earlier Mr...
...There was a groping for practical policies with little, past experience to guide...
...A child reading this book would not distinguish its story from resl events as he does actual fairy tales or tales of obviously impossible tdventure, and yet in no particular does this volume deal with reality as a child meets it...
...We suspect, however, that while Mr...
...I personally know that Debs never at any time changed his view of the war...
...is the "most effective" LaberOrgaalsation in the world...
...Gompers still accepted the distorted myths of 1917...
...Not even on circus days...
...It only prohibited the use of this particular fund for this purpose...
...tt.oo...
...By Alexander Black Indianapolis...
...Gompers dealt with Appleton and Bowerman...
...He presents no evidence but merely observes that the victory was due "to influences brought to bear other than organization...
...Berger declined to be a party to a deceptive game by the politicians of the capitalist parties...
...Perhaps we should have loved him for his goodness and amiability (as most of the women In Jhe story did), but we just couldn't...
...Let's start now...
...Old stuff, Vachel...
...Gilda doesn't savvy your stuff, but you'd savvy hers in a song and make Mary Plckford's publicity seem scarlet...
...We weren't a bit frightened when the heroine dashed in and announced that the villsin waa out of jail and on the trail of tha Incomparable Bsrrsck...
...Moreover, comparison with the trade union movement in other modern nationa shows that we hsve a smaller percentage of the total population organised than any other country in the world...
...This was true not only of his Socialist Comrades in the trade unions Jbat also of those who organized the L|bor party in 1886 and nominated Henry George for Mayor of New York City...
...You'd want to get on...
...The first one is rich in personal reminiscences, in anecdotes of the early struggle, and visusliies for us moderns many of the problems that faced the pioneers of fifty years ago...
...The storv shows a little boy developing in very unique surroundings, without parents, with almost no companions, giving vast range to his imagination as he wanders by the sea or in | the woods, or explores the forbidden regions of his own dwelling, He is permitted to overcome obstscles with much the same magic power as is met with in fairy tales and is allowed to have some of his dreams come true...
...Neither is Mr...
...Hayes admired this effort of Gompers and said to the latter: "Good for you, Sam...
...On the war as a whole Mr...
...Gompers was too sure of himself and had not enough confidence in the value of honest even though dlesenting opinions...
...A similar situation prevailed in Fianee snd Italy...
...It should have a popular sppeal...
...You'd be impstient fsrthor up, in the theatre, where men talk about women and women about men with themselves and each other—the immemorial ping-pong that the Chinese Nightingale knew all about these lsst few thousand years...
...He declared this "» contemptible lie and ths man who uttered it untruthful...
...Black was not hims*1f tremendously taken np with his I heto) he expected us to bi so, and that insult we cannot, witfi dignity, accept...
...By the late nineties his vfews had set...
...Fortunately, Paul U. Kellogg and the late Arthur Gleason in their "British Labor and the War" have presented much valuable material...
...The *t<Jry would Us** ended far more plaUstbl/Jf Another thing we And it hard,!* forgive the mutho* ie for the crta* inal way in which ha haa shattered our illusions with.respect to»iG»en« wich Village girls...
...Wrap your ears around these notes* Gilda Gray and grapefruit cocktails shaking, shaking 'em down, down where the alligators laugh themselves to death at the dredges inching into the Everglades...
...Harcourt, Brace & Co...
...If one were to so characterise a victory won by the miners or the garment workers we would expect some mention of the "other" influences, and if it were not forthcoming it would be considered a prejudiced statement...
...An unpleasant account concerning the misdemeanors of one fantastic Scotchman, his religious wife, and various other exceedingly unreal people—written without imagination or any great discernment —unusually bad for a first novel...
...The calliop's gone to the storehouse, went about the same time Uncle Samuel shaved off his moustache and made a date with the manicure before he left the shop—or thought he did...
...Gompers himself, cannot be reconciled with the version Which Mr...
...YOU'RE.out of date, Vachel...
...Gompers was right...
...Many of us have, but that he ever changed his view of the war is upthinkable...
...It i* as though one were to go back\o Bancroft snd Hildreth for their American history instead of to McMaster, Beard, Becker, Schlesinger, Turner and Beer...
...Yet,"*h spite of all this, we couldn't get thrilled...
...One feels that the trade union movement in this country would be greater and more powerful, that leading industries still unorganized would be organised, If Mr...
...It is a pity that Mr...
...But h» goes on to observi that when Debe was in Washington "he allowed the foessage to be brought to me that he had completely changed his point of view...
...The reader will inevitably turn to the reminiscences of Bebel, Bernstein, Liebknecht and other great men who have fought the good flght for the workers and then passed on...
...Black's ekar* after* had spoken, We ahouldhave felt much mors kindly1 disposed to* wards them, but they did tjXafc-o all of them—and ft wsi exceeding!* painful to listen...
...He was active in the pgrty, spoke in the campaign and acted In important committees...
...But this "rider" was a dishonest makeshift of the politicians as Berger himself explained...
...Gompers' participation in the movement te release Eugene V. Debs from Atlanta penitentiary we know...
...There were hiany sacrifices to be made, and Mr...
...Gompers made them cheerfully as others did...
...The Government had ample funds for such prosecutions and it could draw upon other funds as it actually has...
...An incident which he relates of Max Hayes indicates his point of view...
...Moreover, the Knights of Labor, with its organization by territory snd membership open to non-wage workers, could not serve as a permanent basis for a trade union movement...
...We are still marvelling at the ingenuity ef the ait that cmated this and other similarly distracting sentiments...
...Debs may have modified his views on some quest'ons...
...Debs has always had the habit of saying publicly what he believes...
...Had he recanted in prison he would not have stayed there as long as he did...
...To the bookish child, to whom a life of fantasy makes a greater appeal than actuality, such a book could not be recommended in spite of its touches of beauty, its appreciation of poetry, and ita lovely Illustrations (two by Arthur Rackham and others by the author's daughter...
...And—it hurts to repeat it—*ut this Is what she sslds "Tksl boy Stseo/s the goods...
...On the contrary, he transferred his quarrel to the Socialist 'arty as well...
...The new personality emerged in the last half of the nineties after the quarrel with the Socialist Labor ptrty...
...Another personality gradually emerged from the new organization...
...He" could also agree with the criticism made by the Marxisns of the Lassallians who urged organization of Labor parties before the trade unions were strong...
...A member of the trade union could a Democrat or a Republican and lot incur suspicion...
...If only she had just sat there, leaning hack gracefully and smbkinfe and reveal* i her pretty knees and smdnrgsge ment*, we might have forghOtt...
...Hayes has been one of the most effective trade unionists in the A. F. of L. In 1899 Mr...
...EUoworik Tori...
...Victor L. Berger voted against the "rider" to the sundry civil bill in the 62nd Congress, which provided that no part of the funds appropriated by the bill should be used in criminal prosecutions of trade unions...
...You would say that, you prancing relic...
...o«e who remember the modest •attributions that cam* from indl«"d also from trade unions "thst campaign to keep the train ««•»* will furnish their own comment, On pages 606-7 he states that a delegate at the Amsterdsm meeting of tbe International in 1919 charged him with being in "the pay ef the capitalistic clsst...
...It fell to Mr...
...Socialist, Single Taxer and trade unionist cooperated...
...I, p. 87) that the A- F. oCL...
...We pay as we go, old boy, and we get good stuff—at least the advertisements said it was...
...I'd be afraid to take you into the banks and the jewelry stores...
...Brief Reviews IMAGISA...
...J!0 00-> __ WHEN the announcement wei made a few months ago that the autobiography of Samuel (ampere would soon appear it left giny of us in an expectant mood...
...who hsd no mandate to speak for British Labor...
...The (fade unions of the world changed «i polMes, methods and outlook, ™ut t Mr...
...Although industry and society have witnessed a proround revolution since that period, Gompers did not change...
...Bryan, too, Bill Bryan, smooth and shiny like an Edam cheese (another plater you played to win), shaking 'em down by talking 'em out...
...He gives the impression that the visit of himself and his delegation abroad was a triumph, in Labor circles...
...Tho Bobbs-MsrriU Compa . tt.OO...
...This one asomeA to be endowed with all tha a**oa» Male, possessing straight bobbed hale and cigarettes an<) fantastically 90U ored gsri.ienta...
...Gompers passed away before muck that he had written could be challenged...
...Gompers, to his credit, be it said, died a poor man, and no man acquainted with his csreer would charge him with accepting money from the enemy, yet the charge at Amsterdam, which made him indignant he makes against the Socialists in the csmpsign of J908, Mr...
...He pointed tiut that it did nift prevent prosecution of trade unions...
...Black's "Stacey...
...He ached In the thrall Vt his wish...
...To the busy, active child, who only reads occasionally, it could probably do no harm...
...Maybe you have heard this and have sewed up your heart with the gut of the cynicism that is strongest when it's wettest...
...You'd look at the dull eyes of the musty-faced men andi boys, and a few women, you'd see their little bodies and the money in their pockets, their saviags books, and you'd envy the ballyhoo, the fairy tale of strength, health, earning power and love that ha spins out in worn words—words that live and quiver and shoot sparks because he stands in a cold wind, the skin over the plaited muscles of his shoulders and neck pink and warm—ths little dream of lost things, a dream that costs them nothing but a little twinge when they light their next elgarette...
...But the reader i« impressed by the fact thst not only a new organization emerged from that struggle...
...By Julia...
...Only onse did we find ourselves relenting * little and that was when the hero contracted pneumonia and almost died, Ijut a* soon a* ho began to »hOw sIjfo* ot reCoVWy we were con»c!eus of a kejMi'arnse 6t diappolntment...
...The lecond volume emphasizes the conviction that the Gompers of the eighties is a different man from the Qoppcrs of the last twenty years...
...Make a poem about it, Vachel, a good one, easy to read, something that boy* can get drunk on...
...I could find some one to tell you there wssn't even that much sense to it...
...Why hadn't ihey let him die...
...Then you can die and talk things over with Lincoln and Altgeld and Buddha and Christ and Andrew Jackson, and Judith, the dancer...
...Gompers reports himself as making the following retort: "What have 1 sai0 or done, Max, to win praise from you It must be something awfsl...
...Tk» former associated with Socialitta oiwthe best of terms...
...y Truth and candor compel these judgments...
...Gompers, the tolerant, open-minded man of the eighties, gives way to the dogmatic and intolerant man of the modern Period.'" He appears as the custodian of a set of opinions- that no »an in or out of the unions must question...
...No matter how loyal the "*'ali«t might be to the trade ®"ioH, he was considered anti-La•or because he desired the workers 10 organize their voting power in a Wrty of their own...
...Painful To Read A Review by THERESA SUCH STACEY...
...The documents which they present, some of them official communications from Mr...
...On second thought it is probable that Fate dealt kindly with him, for to have challenged some statements would likely lead to bitter controversy...
...Men and women are made for something, you'd ssy, wouldn't you ? What do they call babies that play with building blocks too long 7 You'd be crtss-eyed with perplexity if you heard maimed exheroes talking about the way the next crop Is to be mowed snd shouting that the victims can look out for themselves, forgetting which generation cold-decked them ten years ago —that is, you would be puzxled until you remembered why the newest member of the lodge gets the most fun out «f giving the works to the new candidates...
...That "rider" could be attached to every such sundry bill and it would offer no protection to trade unions whatever...
...Had the compliment come from a Democrat or Republican this autobiography would hardly have reported that sort of an answer...
...Notwithstanding all of his efforts, we continued to find Stacey a singularly dull, jSattraetive male) one whtse dreams of ultimate fulfillment came in the form of a gen-' erous benk account and whose imagination could conjure up no more nutritive recreation than a certain dancing pavilion in his little home town...
...He could tolerate views which he did .not share and work with the men who held thim...
...Squint your eyes into the almanac if you wanta see how much we think of ballots...
...sneering tongues and casualties achieved while battling to save her "honor...
...Stscey" possesses all the requirements for a first-class cinema serial: mystery, murder, Intrigue, reformed crodks and a woman turned from the streets...
...There ain't no more Rachel Janes achirping along the Sante Fe trail— the gas get* in their throats...
...character of trade unions...
...It was i generous action on his part despite his contribution to the hysteria which helped to place Debs where he was...
...The calliop don't play no more...
...Lauren Ford...
...An Open Letter to Vachel Lindsay By PAUL F. SIFTON "I am the calliop, the calliop, the calliOp "Sizz-fizz, itzz-fizz...
...But like didn't* She spoke...
...It w«$ the beginning of the war betwen the A. F. of L. and the S. L P. The organization of the Socialist Party was a distinct repudiation of the S, L. P. and its methods, Mr...
...She was even «sr*« loss abou crossing her l.neas when she sat down and she had great, big, sparkling brown eyes...
...Thia littl* game allawed her to expand a notioh of education which seenfs to her very beautiful ani successful, though quite impossible...
...Of the modern countries, Great Britain, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg, Italy, Holland New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland outstrip us...
...M. P. F. THIS SORRY SCHEME...
...Here he will find a contrast Here are great men who tell the story of their lives without thst display of intolerance and sublimated opinion that too often confront us In the two volumes before us...
...II, p. j;"9) he writes that the Socialist *«d Special" train of 1908 was Ananced by anti-Labor Interests...
...The blase that aeerrtfd kim left her with an Incandescente thet pierced the dlrtne* of the twilight and the slanting rays of'the boat's ^stnps...
...It is not a modest man who writes (Vol...
...Mfe Black a gre.-t deal...
...It is certain that if he had he would not have quietly told some individual...
...The most cssual observer at that time was well aware 6t the fact that his relations w/n with fractions of tha movement that were subsidized snd patronized by their respective Governments...
...And I play every day—Well, ALMOST every day...
...There was no dogmatic type of trade unionism, no sectarian leader charging all others who disagreed with him as enemies of the organized workers...
...Gompers observes that "Berger exploded the Socialist Party's claim to Consideration as a Labor party...
...Gompers hod been possessed of larger vision and had welcomed and considered new ideas instead of insisting that the road to power had been finally charted...
...If only none of Mr...
...Gompers remained the "ompers of the nineteenth century...
...Somewhere between Gilda and Bill is tho kingdom of heaven, yo'i say...
...Gompers and some of'hi* closest associates to be the first to appreciate the necessity of a new organization confined to wage workers snd the struggle with the K. of L. was inevitable...
...What was unfortunate in this difference of opinion was the Hrsonal animosities that followed...
...Considering his controversy with British Labor there is a surprising absence of documentary material on this matter...
...Gompers raises a number of questions of a controversial nature...
...New York: B. P. Dutton Ths author ef thia took has played a charming little gan* with herself, much as ehildrsn do in their many adventure* into tka land of Make-Believe...
...In that^iuarrel Mr...
...The several chapters'devoted to the World War and Mr...
...It would enable the politicians to go before the country pointing to their vote for the "rider" as evidence of their "friendship" for the trade unions...
...Gompers offers...
...We are even behind the lesser nations such as Canada, France and Norway...
...Ry Bruce Marshall...
...You would be arrested and Roger Baldwin would have to work hard, so that the people could forget you, in a week and you could decide whether we are like bees storing honey or cliff-men storing stones...
...Tha investigations of noted scholars into war origips and myths are ignored...
...But you'd feel at home down in Union Square when the musclebound health boy gets his talky-talk flowin' strong...
...And muskets—don't make me laugh, it hurts—they're as much good now 'as willow whistles made up the stem...
...He would have announced it publicly...
...In England Mr...
...At ono point the author writes wat he never told a falsehood about a" opponents, and later (Vol...
...You might stroke the bsr* of gold snd run the jewels through your fingers snd say "With this we can make the world beautiful...
...But he could *0' he a Socialist and avoid cutting critiefsm...
...Lookit the last census if you want to know how many cars they is now...
...The S. L. P. contention that a political organization •konld have representation in central bodies of trade unions was Wong...
...Gompers does not mention W...
...The two large volumes of "Seventy Years of Life and Labor" are now before us...
...They can't build roads fast enough to hold 'em...
...Gradually there emerged the clear concept of organization of the workers by trades', a policy fitted for the industry of that time...
Vol. 2 • April 1925 • No. 14
