The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 24, 1927, Page 9

PP mes The A..F. of L. Officialdom in the Last War and ihe Next On April 6, 1917, President Wilson declared war on Germany and her allies. On March 12, 1917, a month before, a special enlarged meeting of the executive council of the American Federation of Labor was eonvened at which were present 148 representatives of 79 affili- ated national and international unions, railway brotherhoods and the five departments of the A. Foot 2, This conference, which it has since been learned was organized under instructions of President Wil- son, adopted a declaration setting forth “labor's” attitude toward the bloody conflict raging in the eastern hemisphere in the event of American par- ticipation. The “concluding paragraph of this dec- laration, which officially committed the labor move-~ ment to the war program of the House of Morgan, reads as follows: “But despite our endeavors and hopes, should our country be drawn into the maelstrom of the European conflict, we, with these ideals of lib- erty and justice herein declare as the indis- pensable basis for national policies, offer our services to our country in every field of activ- ity to defend, safeguard, and preserve the re- public 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 the name of Labor, labor officaldom sent out the call for labor to die for labor’s enemies. In the name of Justice, labor officaldom sold the American working class to the class justice of the war mongers. In the name of Freedom, labor officialdom called for support of a government which suppressed labor and filled the prisons, state and federal, with the flower of working class manhood and womanhood. In the name of Humanity, labor officialdom called for support of the most inhuman war ever waged, a war which ended in a peace more horrible than the battlefields, a war fought to determine which band of robbers shouid get the biggest share of the loot sweated from the workers in capitalist and colonial countries, Samuel Gompers himself was appointed one of the seven members of the Council of National De- fense. Under its auspices were organized the var- ious sub-committees, including the Committee on Labor with Gompers as chairman. Among the names of the members of this “labor” committee appointed by Gompers were Ralph M. Easley, now secretary of the National Security League, as secretary; Gertrude Beeks, then assistant to the secretary of the National Civic Federation; Elisha Lee, then general man- ager of the Pennsylvania Railroad; Frankel, one of the vice-presidents of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; C. E. Michael, Na- tional Association of Manufacturers, August Belmont, Daniel Guggenheim, Cornelius Van- derbilt, John D. Rockefeller and George Pope, president of the National- Association of Manu- facturers. With Gompers on the Council of National Defense was Daniel Willard, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Here we have the real beginning of that famous friendship which later resulted in Gompers endorsing efficiency unionism as typified by the “B. and O. plan.” : Other members of the Council of National De- fense were, in addition to the secretaries of the de- partments of war, navy, interior, commerce and agriculture, Howard E. Coffin, automobile capital- ist, Bernard Baruch, capitalist and Wall Strect op- erator, Julius Rosenwald, head of Sears, Roebuck ‘and Company, Godfrey of the Drexel Institute and Franklin Martin representing the medical profes- sion. The Council of National Defense with its various sub-committees became the actual government of the United States. With practically absolute power it ruled the masses in industry with regard only for the eco- nomic and political interests of the capitalists and their agents who dominated these committees, Seott Nearing in his pamphlet “The Great Mad- ness” furnishes some enlightening facts. Nearing says: Mr. Willard’s sub-commit: on “Express” consists of four vice-presidents, one from the American, one from the Wells-Fargo, one from the Southern and one from the Adams Express Company. His committee on “Locomotives” consists of the vice-president of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, a vice-president of the Porter Locomotive Company, the President of the American Locomotive Company, and the chair- man of the Lima Locomotive Corporation. Mr. Rosenwald’s committee on “Shoe and Leather Industries” consists of eight persons, all of them representing shoe or leather companins, His committee on “Woolen Manufactures” con- sists of eight representatives of the woolen in- dustry, and his committee on “Supplies” con- By WILLIAM F. DUNNE sists of a retired business man, and one repre- sentative each from Sears, Roebuck & Company, the Quaker Oats Company and Libby, McNeil & Libby (meat packers). The same business control appears in Mr. Baruch’s committees. His committee on “Ce- ment” consists of the presidents of four of the leading cement companies, the vice-president of four of the leading cement companies, the vice-president of a fifth cement company, and a representative ef the Bureau of Standards of Washington. His committce on “Copper” has the names of the presidents of the Anaconda Copper Company, the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company, the United Verde Copper Company and the Utah Copper Company. Mr. Murray M. Guggenheim is a member of the same committee, His committee on “Steel and Steel Products” consists of Elbert H. Gary, chairman of the United States Steel Corporation, Charles M. Schwab, of the Bethlehem Steel Company, A. C. Dinkey, vice-president of the Midvale Steel Company, W. L. King, vice-president of Jones Loughlin Steel Company, and J. A. Burden, president of the Burden Iron Company. The other four members of the committce repre- sent the Republic Iron & Steel Company, the Lackawanna Steel Company, the American Tron & Steel Institute and the Picklands, Mather Company, of Cleveland, Perhaps the most as- tounding of all the committees is that on “Oil.” The chairman is the president of the Standard Oil Company, and the secretary of the commit- tee gives his address as “26 Broadway.” the address of the Standard Oil Company. The other nine members of the committee are oil men from various parts of the country. If before the entry into the war, the American workers had been scourged with nettles by the use of the ordinary machinery of capitalist government, they were scourged with scorpions by the tyrannical exercise of the power of these National Defense Council committees with Samuel Gompers, president of the American Fedération of Labor, as one of the seven men in control of this huge machinery of oppression. So much for the united front in industry between the official labor leadership and labor’s enemies: But the united front against the masses was not confined to industry. Acting in conjunction with the Council of National Defense, Senator Walsh of Montana drafted and introduced the Espionage Act, which, when it became law, was the means of jailing thousands of workers, who placed loyalty to the labor movement and to their class before allegiance to American imperialism. Enacted without a single protest coming from the official labor movement, the Espionage Act was the father of the equally vicious criminal syndicalism laws enacted by a majority of the states. These too met with no opposition from the official labor leader, altho they became in the hands of the capi- talists and their agents a method by which even the ordinary activities of the unions were outlawed and hundreds of workers jailed for long terms, te The paralyzing effect of the united front of labor officialdom, the capitalists and the government can be estimated by the fact that with the exception of the long and bitter strike in the metal mining and smelting industry in and around Butte, Montana, in 1917, NO MASS STRIKE IN BASIC INDUSTRY TOOK PLACE DURING THE WAR, altho the cost of living shot skyward. Just as the suppressive purposes of the Council of National Defense were expressed in the Espion- age Act, so the State Councils of Defense which also were organized as united fronts of labor of- ficialdom with local capitalists, busied themselves with the application of the state criminal syndical- ism laws as well as with the enforcement of the federal Espionage Act. (When I was tried and con- vieted of sedition in Helena, Montana, under the provisions of the state sedition law, the principal witnesses for the prosecution were the governor of the state, a copper trust lackey, and the president of the State Federation of Labor.) Labor officialdom, big and little, national, state and local, with practically no exceptions, became part of the war machinery. Union officials worked hand in hand with the department of justice and the military intelligence service to railroad “trouble- some” workers to jail. The captains of industry became the counselors and guides of the labor lead- ers, Charles Schwab, head of Bethlehem Steel, toured the shipyards with labor officials and appeared on the platforms during Liberty Loan drives with his arms around their shoulders, all members of the unholy alliance hoarsely urging the workers to speed up production and “give until it hurts.” Liberty Loan committees, community war chest committees, Red Cross committees, war saving stamp committees, four-minute speaker committees, ie oe home defense committees, “minute men” the organ- ization of volunteer stool pigeons—all carried their quota of labor leaders, Gompers himself organized, financed by a juicy sum from President Wilson’s emergency fund, the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy, com- ‘posed of renegade socialists and union officials, to put down all expressions of mass discontent. The fury of the labor leaders who deserted to the camp of the imperialist enemy during the war, against working class victims of the machinery of suppression who filled the prisons when the armis- tice was signed, had not subsided a year later, The Atlantie City convention held in 1919 passed a resolution dealing with the Espionage Act and other war time laws which contained the following: “No recommendation is presented for a gen- eral pardon of all those who have been sen- tenced under the espionage act or in connection with industrial crimes.” It was not until the great majority of political prisoners were pardoned, their sentences commuted, or expired, and the industrial depression which made millions jobless had disillusioned the masses as to the announced purposes of the war “to make the world safe for democracy,” that labor officialdom took a stand for amnesty. The blackest chapter in American labor history was written by labor officialdom during the last war. Gompers is\dead but Gompersism lives. The so-called wartime laws have become part of the legal fabric of American capitalism. The state criminal syndicalism laws are on the statute books, Labor officialdom maintains its united front with imperialism, Vice President Matthew Woll of the A. F. of L. is acting president of the National Civic Federation. , Communists, left wingers, a labor party, amalga- mation of the craft and occupational unions into industrial unions, militant struggle against Amer- ican imperialism at home and abroad, all are fought by labor officialdom as viciously, if less effectively, as during the war. The militarization program of imperialism is ac- cepted by the official leaders of the labor move- ment. The entire executive council of the A. F, of L. visited the military training camps previous to the Detroit convention and gave to the capitalist press a statement officially endorsing this pet pro- ject of the war department. A united front is maintained with the officialdom of the American Legion by A. F. of L. officialdom. President Green cables to Paris; “Howard B. Savage, “Commander American Legion, “Paris, France. “In behalf of the officers and members of the American Federation of Labor I extend greetings and the assurance of our continued cooperation with the American Legion upon matters of mutual interest,” President Green and the president of the New York State Federation of Labor drive a rivet in the keel of the new cruiser Pensacola to the popping of photographers’ flashlights, flag waving and cheers from the assembled imperialists, The preparations for imperialist war are to be Seen on every hand, Already American imperialism makes war on Haitians, Nicaraguans and all other Latin American peoples who challenge its invasion. In China American imperialism builds six gun- boats for special duty in Chinese rivers and bom- bards Chinese cities, Imperialist rivalry grows. The imperialist front against the workers’ and’ peasants’ government of the Soviet Union is wel- comed by American labor officialdom. The offensive of the capitalists against the unions and the whole working class develops, Labor officialdom follows the policy of the state department in its foreign policy and does nothing to strengthen the labor movement at home. On the contrary it weakens it by joining with the capitalist class and capitalist government in attacking the Communists and the left wing—the most loyal and militant section of the labor movement, (Washing- ton, Sept. 14.—The United States department of labor for some time has been backing the conserva- tive elements of American labor in their campaign to rid their ranks of Communism. . . , close cooperation between the conciliation service of the labor department and the department’s immi- gration bureau in handling this problem.—Dispateh to the Boston Traveler.) Labor officialdom is getting ready to betray the labor movement in the next war on a scale which will dwarf the efforts it made in the last war. They will succeed only if our party and the left wing fails to expose them before the working class and build a labor movement strong and conscious enough to deal with traitors at the top and in its ranks, READ THE DAILY WORKER EVERY DAY ,