SAMUEL GOMPERS.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16424, 18 January 1919, Page 11

SAMUEL GOMPERS.

"CZAR" OF LABOUR

. It is no ordinary man whose word has for 30. years been law to the working millions of the United States. In all but name Sam Gompers is a Cabinet Minister; a moulder- of American policy; a tower of strength to Labour all the wav from Arctic Yukon to tiie Mexican Gulf. I consider Woodiw Wilson tho most aristocratic and unapproachable Chief Executive ' illh ever "reigned" at the WhiU; Loose in a national crisis. Vet Wilson himself (writes W. E. Fitzgerald in the •'Pall Mall Gazette'") travelled tl.Jte hundred miles to Buffalo in prJur to extol the "Old Man" (Gompers is now 69), and set forth "his patriotic socage, his large vision, his statesmanship, and genius for team work un :i vart scale." . In no country on earth—it is, of course, a coutinent—is Labour so difficult to handle as in the United States. Millions, of the workers speak no English at all, and the clash of State and Federal laws makes organisation and protest ion extremely difficult. In tiiis enormous welter the hag-| gard and sturdy little figure of Old Man Gompers stands out like a luminous buoy in a furious sea. "Life is a struggle," he telhs American Labour. "But remember that impatience to win all may lose us everything." Sam is the apostle of sanity and moderation ; this is the secret of liis abiding hold. He represents the aristocracy of American workers—perhaps three millions out of thirty millions or more. AN INCORRUPTIBLE. "Plverything for the nation," is Gompors's war-lime motto, "but no- ) thing for private* profit." This thickset. jerky littlo man, with big glasses and forthright speech, is assuredly one of the incorruptibles. When he was earning £4 a week Governor Hill, of New York, offered Sam the post of Commissioner of Aibitration at 3000 dollars a year. He "talked it over I with the wife" and declined. He also I refused a nomination to Congress.

Tht- biggest plum <svcr offered to the Old Man wan from a great manufacturing coiiccin. Tins was a bash douoeur of 4o,000(!ol., nnd the life tenure of a sineenre job. But Sam is a man with a mission, and to that mission he lias thing ever since 18S2. I will not pretend that Gompers is not comfortably "fixed," as our new All ics put it. His salary as president is £1-200 a year: but the workors know that the Czar of Labour is assuredly worthy oF his hire. He had no schooling. this Dutch-British Jew, beyond four casual child-year.-, in a primary school 0 ,- er here. That child was a cigar-maker in our own East End. Re was a paciiist, in America's neutral timo; but as the German plot thickened. the sagacious Wilson called Sam to Washington, and made him a member of the National Defence Committee.

"In the name of American Labour." says this rugged veteran of a thousand "wars"' to the German people. "I say yon cannot tali: r>eace with us now. Nor shall \ou talk of International Conference. Either you smash your autocracy, or we will smash it for yon," That is "plain United States" and "open diplomacy'' with a vengoince! Thi-s man's power is enormous. He has no objection to miraculous new machinery. He scouts the idea of restricting outpnt. he welcomes the dilution of skilled labour: but: "We will not have it at the call of hysteria, or Ot the demand of greedy and profiteering employers who see in the world-war the chance tney are always looking for —to dilute and df>-,tn:y the standards and safeguards of Labour." MASTER Ol- THREE LANGUAGES.

It is safe to say that if Czar Gompsrs v. ere not ''behind the President like a stone wall,"' America's avalanche of aid would be halted, or even dissolved. His robust voice rings out above the anarchy of the I."VS.\S.

loaders and extremo Socialists of the West. "It shall be our task," ho ordains, "to interpret. America's democratic ""spirit atid purpose 'in this,* conflict- to our ..fellow workors-7-especially to those of foreign birth —and to combat every form of propaganda which tends to weaken the loyalty ana devotion of the masses and their willingness to strive and sacrifice for the nation at this critical hour. As a. lad in America, young Gompers educated himself. There were books propped ur> on his work bench, so that —as he recalls: "I used to forget whether I'd eaten my lunch!" Ho is now the master of three languages, and his war work begins before dawn. America has profound respect for .Samuel Gompers. Universities like Harvard and Cornell invite him to lecture; the Secretaries or War, the Xavy. and labour consult him, so do the "bureaucratic chiefs of shipping and aircraft, ordnance, munitions, and transportation. He has no desire to convert nonunion workers, like those of the motor shops, the steel mills, and shipyards. Nor does Mr Gompers concern himself with coloured labour. If men like to join the great federation, well and good; if not, let them go their, own wav outside the central fold. His ideal is a ladder of betterment for the wage-earner. "Its plan," as he says himself of the American Federation, "is to make to-day a better day for the masses of Lhu people than yesterday was."