In England, where the most strenuous law now obtains having provisions which it is said it is your purpose to offer for adoption by our Congress, strikes, cessations of work have occurred in many instances, more instances than exist in the United States at the present time. The men of labor of our country are carrying on their work with but the slightest interruption anywhere. They are voluntarily surrendering rights they have enjoyed under the Constitution and the laws and the spirit of our country. I appeal to you not to attempt to take by the force of law what the men are so generously and patriotically volunteering. Very respectfully, yours, SAMUEL GOMPERS, President American Federation of Labor. Is there to be found in the above correspondence or elsewhere any justification for Mr. Blanton's charge that I threatened a revolution in the United States during the war or at any other time? On August 14, 1918, I sent the following letter to President Wilson: AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, SIR: The Senate Committee on Military Affairs has incorporated a provision in the new draft act stipulating that those registrants who are placed in exempt or deferred classes shall become subject to military draft if they do not remain steadily at work when physically able. The amendment in this respect reads as follows: 66 'Persons engaged in occupations or employments found to be necessary to the maintenance of the Military Establishment, or the effective operation of the military forces, or the maintenance of national interest during the emergency, provided that when any person shall have been placed in a deferred or exempted class for any of the reasons in this paragraph set forth, he shall not be entitled to remain therein unless he shall in good faith continue, while physically able to do so, to work at and follow such occupation, employment, or business; and if he fails so to do, shall again become subject to the draft. The President shall make regulations for enforcing this provision." This provision clearly means that the act will provide not military draft alone, but draft for all labor in occupations at home. The membership of the American Federation of Labor has but one purpose in this war to win the war. Its purpose is to so conduct itself as to give the greatest possible strength to our country. The American Federation of Labor has given every service at its command to make the military draft a success thus far, and it will continue to do so. It has voluntarily rendered full and unselfish service in industry. It has taken great pride in giving freely its best service to the Republic. The American Federation of Labor must, however, protest most emphatically against any measure which aims to place the working people of the country under draft compulsion in industry. American labor would at once regard such a measure as a direct attack upon its integrity and affront to its pride in past achievement and a suspicion concerning its motives for the future. It will be unnecessary for me to recall to you the record of conduct and achievement made by American labor since our country entered the war, but may I call to your attention the fact that in England, where there exists legislation affecting labor in a much more compulsory manner than in the United States, there has been a record of more widespread disaffection and stoppage of work. American workers ask but one thing, and that is that they may have the opportunity to work under conditions that will permit them to give their best service to the country. They are ardent in their desire to serve fully and continuously. They recognize fully what is at stake in this great struggle. They need no compulsion, and I am sure I voice their views when I say that they will feel the keenest resentment at any attempt to compel them to give that which they are already giving gladly in a cause which they hold more sacred than life. It seems to me improbable that this proposed compulsory legislation meets your conception of what needs to be or ought to be done, and I express to you the protest of organized labor against the contemplated compulsory provision in the belief that it will find agreement in your own view of what is just and right. Respectfully, yours, Hon. WOODROW WILSON, SAMUEL GOMPERS, President American Federation of Labor. President of the United States, Washington, D. C. Is there to be found in the above correspondence or elsewhere any justification for Mr. Blanton's charge that I threatened a revolution in the United States during the war or at any other time? In addition to the reasons given by me in the letters submitted above I had this in mind. Many of the workingmen of the United States were chafing under the restraint which was put upon them against their joining the Army and the forces in France. They were eager to join in the physical conflict upon the German military autocratic machine and one of the causes, unintentionally omitted in my letters, was the fact that the officers of the labor organizations of the country felt obliged to help tranquillize the men and impress upon their minds that their work and services in the workshops in the United States were as important as the duties of the men upon the firing line. Mr. Blanton also refers to the Flag Day parade of representatives of the American Federation of Labor and union men of Washington. The American Federation of Labor convention (June, 1919) had adjourned at Atlantic City for the delegates to come to Washington to protest against prohibition. They came here voluntarily and those who took part in the parade were volunteers, men and women who believed in liberty of conscience. The charge that men were fined $5 who did not parade was nonsensical untruth. Mr. Blanton also says that in the parade of October 28, 1919, when the labor organizations of Washington held a demonstration in my honor, that those who refused to parade were fined $5. This too, is nonsensical untruth and in line with all other statements of this Member of Congress. I was a guest of the labor organizations of Washington and therefore had no authority to dictate what arrangements should be made in my honor. Every statement made by this man Blanton before the Rules Committee was composed of pure misrepresentation-not a single idea, not a single statement that he uttered has even a semblance of truth. It was manufactured testimony, which he gave under his assumed prerogative as a Congressman. While I have been singled out by Blanton for attack, his underlying motive is to place an unwarranted stigma on the organized labor movement. He knows not the truth and would not tell it if he did. I pass over many of the statements he made because of the fact that his main charge that I threatened revolution if the work or fight rule were enforced, is shown by Secretary of War Baker and Provost Marshal General Crowder to be false. There was never any such statement made by me, and Blanton knows it. Indeed, there was no such thought harbored in my mind. No such thought ever entered the mind of a member of the American Federation of Labor, let alone was it ever expressed. Labor's honorable and patriotic service and record before, during, and since the war are such that millions of bleating, blatant Blantons and his prototypes can not destroy it. March 17, 1917, 148 representatives of all the national and international unions affiliated to the American Federation of Labor, five unaffiliated organizations and five departments of the American Federation of Labor, met in Washington and declared what labor's position would be in the event of war, as follows: "The present war discloses the struggle between the institutions of democracy and those of autocracy. As a Nation we should profit from the experiences of other nations. Democracy can not be established by patches upon an autocratic system. The foundations of civilized intercourse between individuals must be organized upon principles of democracy and scientifis principles of human welfare. Then a national structure can be perfected in harmony with humanitarian idealism-a structure that will stand the tests of the necessities of peace or war. 66 We, the officers of the National and International Trade Unions of America, in national conference assembled in the capital of our Nation, hereby pledge ourselves in peace or in war, in stress or in storm, to stand unreservedly by the standards of liberty and the safety and preservation of the institutions and ideals of our Republic. "In this solemn hour of our Nation's life, it is our earnest hope that our Republic may be safeguarded in its unswerving desire for peace; that our people may be spared the horrors and the burdens of war; that they may have the opportunity to cultivate and develop the arts of peace, human brotherhood, and a higher civilization. "But, despite all our endeavors and hopes, should our country be drawn into the maelstrom of the European conflict, we, with these ideals of liberty and justice herein declared, as the indispensable basis for national policies, offer our services to our country in every field of activity to defend, safeguard, and preserve the Republic of the United States of America against its enemies, whomsoever they may be, and we call upon our fellow workers and fellow citizens in the holy name of labor, justice, freedom, and humanity to devotedly and patriotically give like service." In 1917 the People's Council, an organization of representatives in sympathy with Germany, began holding meetings throughout the country to consider what provisions ought to be made to protect the interests of labor during the war. It had no connection or affiliation whatever with the American Federation of Labor and was merely a self-constituted body working in the interests of our enemies. A meeting of the Workmen's Council, a branch of the People's Council, was called in New York City in May, 1917. Because of that call there was apprehension lest the wage earners of that city should be alienated from the best interests of America and from cooperation with the American workers. Realizing the serious situation and in conjunction with the Central Federated Union of New York, I called a conference in that city of the workers, at which a local organization was formed and given the name of "American Alliance for Labor and Democracy." The declaration on which the conference began work was as follows: "It is the sense of this conference that it is the duty of all the people of the United States, without regard to class, nationality, politics, or religion, faithfully and loyally to support the Government of the United States in carrying the present war for justice, freedom, and democracy to a triumphant concusion, and we pledge ourselves to every honorable effort for the accomplishment of that purpose." When the insidious efforts of the enemy of our country had reached out into many of our States, it became clear that the true representatives of labor and democracy in this country ought to call a national conference to make plain not only their position, but to disclose the disrupting, destructive purposes of the other movements. A conference was therefore called, to be held in Minneapolis beginning September 5. The persons who participated in that conference signed the following pledge: "The undersigned hereby affirms that it is the duty of all the people of the United States, without regard to class, nationality, politics, or religion, faithfully and loyally to support the Government of the United States in carrying on the present war for justice, freedom, and democracy to a triumphant conclusion, and gives this pledge to uphold every honorable effort for the accomplishment of that purpose, and to support the American Federation of Labor as well as the declaration of organized labor's representatives made March 12, 1917, at Washington, D. C., as to "Labor's position in peace or in war," and agrees that this pledge hall be his right to membership in this conference of the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy." President Wilson, who had been invited to attend, sent this reply: "I am sure that you understand that my inability to accept the invitation to address the Minneapolis conference of the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy is due only to official necessity, and not in any degree to lack of appreciation of the importance of the occasion. The cause you and your fellow patriots uphold is one with the cause we are defending with arms. While our soldiers and ailors are doing their manful work to hold back reaction in its most brutal and aggressive form, we must oppose at home the organized and individual efforts of those dangerous elements who hide disloyalty behind a screen of specious and evasive phrases." When the Council of National Defense was formed, President Wilson appointed me a member of the advisory commission, and I was made chairman of the committee on labor of the commission. Agreements were made, which were signed by the Secretaries of War and Navy and the president of the American Federation of Labor, whereby an agency was organized to deal with all labor relations. The object was to avoid as far as possible any cessation of work. The action of the representatives of the national and international unions of March 12, 1917, and the organization of the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy were both indorsed unanimously at the convention of the American Federation of Labor in Buffalo. President Wilson addressed that convention. In that speech he said: "While we are fighting for freedom we must see, among other things, that labor is free, and that means a number of interesting things. It means not 161476-20-11 only that we must do what we have declared our purpose to do, see that the conditions of labor are not rendered more onerous by the war, but also that we shall see to it that the instrumentalities by which the conditions of labor are improved and not blocked or checked. That we must do. That has been the matter about which I have taken the pleasure of conferring from time to time with your president, Mr. Gompers; and, if I may be permitted to do so, I want to express my admiration of his patriotic courage, his large vision, and his statesmanlike sense of what has to be done. I like to lay my mind alongside of a mind that knows how to pull in harness. The horses that kick over the traces will have to be put in a corral.” In June, 1918, the convention of the American Federation of Labor urged every workman to remain at his post in order to win the war. It said: "We must either voluntarily meet this great world need and crisis with a full appreciation of the far-reaching consequences of every industrial decision and action, or else we shall be deemed unworthy of the opportunities of free men, and a strong force will interpose to compel us to render the necessary service." Representatives of national and international unions affiliated to the American Federation of Labor served on many war boards and commissions. Three labor commissions were sent to Europe by the American Federation of Labor during the war to encourage those in the war-ridden countries to refuse to accept peace without a victory, and that result was accomplished. A meeting of labor representatives of England, France, and Italy, held in London in February, 1918, called aloud for peace on any terms. A conference held in September, composed of the same persons, declared there should be no peace without victory. In the February conference there were no representatives of the American Federation of Labor present. In the September conference there were. It was the American delegation to that conference, of which I was a member, which proposed the declaration that the war must be carried on until triumph had been achieved over the armies and government of the central powers. The commission of which I was chairman also visited France and Italy and encouraged the workers in standing for " no peace without victory." I had the privilege and honor of visiting and addressing in encouraging terms the men in several camps in the United States and many of those in England, France, and Italy. It was a great privilege to have had the opportunity and to have availed myself of it, to be at the battle fronts of the American, British, Belgian, and Italian Armies, to be at Chaumont, Mount Sec, St. Mihiel, Belleau Wood, Chateau-Thierry, Soissons, at Burlon Wood, Cambria, at Montebellon, Mount Grappa, and on the Piave, and a great honor to be with the armies of our country and of the Allies, to be with Marshal Haig during the momentous battle for the capture of Cambria, to be at Dunkirk while it was under bombardment, and in the front trenches and on the outer ramparts, as near to the enemy as any of our soldiers. I made three round trips across to France, two of which were during the brutal submarine warfare of Germany. It was my privilege and honor to have visited the grand fleets of the United States and Great Britain in September, 1918, when 75 miles of floating fortresses were on guard in the North Sea, and ready, upon any emergency, to engage the enemy upon the waters. Ask the President or any member of his Cabinet. Ask any officer of the Federal Government. Ask any commanding officer of our Army or Navy. Ask Gen. Crowder as to my loyalty and service. Ask Maj. Leadbeater as to the service I rendered in securing the production of the spruce needed for our aircraft program. Ask Mr. Hurley of the service I rendered in securing the production of lumber for our ship production. Ask Mr. McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury during the war, as to the services I rendered in connection with the soldiers' and sailors' and dependents' compensation law, or the services. rendered in helping to make the floating of our bond issues successful. Ask Lloyd George or any other loyal Britisher. Ask Clemenceau, or President Poincaire, or Deschenel, or any other loyal Frenchman. Ask King Albert or any other loyal Belgian. Ask Gen. Diaz or Gen. Bagolio, or King Victor Emanuel, or any other loyal Italian as to whether I was loyal and gave service in the common cause in which we were struggling. And if further proof is wanted ask the representatives of Germany and of Austria whether my services were of any value to the American and allied cause. I will submit their opinion as to my course as against the malicious or ignorant charge of Blanton against me. When the draft boards were being organized I was asked to name a representative of labor on each one of the appellate boards of exemption so that no discrimination could find justified charge or criticism. Thereupon I sent the following telegram to the president or secretary of every State federation of labor, and in the States having no State federation an identical telegram was sent to the leading central labor unions in the State: WASHINGTON, D. C., June 15, 1917. I have been asked to recommend one labor man to act as member of exemption board for your Federal judicial district. I ask you to submit to me the name and address of such a labor man in that district, one who is a true labor man and a loyal American. The purpose of labor men on exemption board is to avoid even the suspicion of discrimination or favortism in determining rightful grounds for exemption from military duty. Immediate action and answer necessary or your district may have no labor representation on exemption board. SAMUEL GOMPERS. But in addition to all his other mouthings Blanton has asserted that I am dictator not only over labor but over the actions of Congress. May I not say to you that there is not vested in the president of the American Federation of Labor the slightest authority or power over any man or men of labor in the country; that my duties are advisory, to suggest, to request, but never to trespass beyond, never to order, direct, or command; that in the matter of my course toward Members of Congress or its committees or toward the Congress itself it has been to appeal, to argue, to address myself to the intelligence of the Members of Congress, to endeavor to impress upon their minds the justice or injustice of a course they propose to pursue, and not only to speak authoritatively in the name of organized labor, but even to speak for the unorganized workers who are otherwise unheard and therefore unheeded. If that course is dictatorship, then Blanton is for once in his life right. But I submit, in this as in his general utterances, what he says is false, maliciously or ignorantly false. In his vicious or unbalanced mind and unbridled tongue he has not confined his malicious slanders upon labor and me. He has not failed to attack the character and good work and honor of the Members of Congress whom he has frequently stigmatized as cowards and poltroons. I regret exceedingly the necessity of taking the time I have in writing this letter, not only for the time it has taken from important work, but because it may also take some time of the members of the committee and of the Congress and others who may be interested to read it, and because I am compelled to burden the records of the committee's hearings with it. But Blanton is evidently laboring under the impression that if he throws sufficient mud and throws it often some of it might stick. I am wondering whether a commission might not properly be appointed to inquire into the sanity of Blanton. In the meantime I consign the "gentleman from Texas to the tender mercies of the Members of the House of Representatives and to his misrepresented constituents. No possible opportunity for the creation of sentiment favorable to the soviet idea is overlooked by the soviet propagandists in America. That the Russian Bolshevist government maintains in this country a continuous propaganda is no longer a secret. It is to be doubted, however, whether the propaganda which emanates directly from the Bolshevist organization itself is more effective than |