LABOUR'S PEACE PROGRAMME

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 277, 19 August 1919, Page 8

LABOUR'S PEACE PROGRAMME

MR. SAMUEL GOMPERS ON IDEALS OF RECONSTRUCTION

A FORCEFUL ADDRESS

In his address at the opening of tho 39th Convention of tho American Federation of Labour, Mr. Samuel Gompere reviewed the reasons Labour had in supporting the war and the charactor of flint support, and then took up tho pressing matters which the transition to peace wild, bring in which Labour must bear a conspicuous part. "The American people were 100 per cent, determined to goo to it that the opportunity of the democratic peoples of tho world to live their own fives should be made secure," ho said. "To lid it seemed that if tho representatives ol militarism and autocracy should wit in. the war, there would bo no portunity of freedom genera%, nor could there ; be room in the whole world for a well-ordered and well-developed Labour movement to protect the rights and interests of the working people. Our movement has made good, there has not been any question as to the straightforwardness of our course.

"The war, for all practical purposes, is over, and the day for reconstruction or readjustment is at hand.' , Tha war has brought into play new thoughts of the rights of man, has brought into play and developed the thought that tho relations between nation and nation must be better than they have ever been in tile history of the would, and that the relations between man and man must be just, whether ho oocupy a position of supposed power or wealth, be ho an employer, be he a skilled mechanic, or n difceh-digger.

New Concept of Right. "The workers of America, the workers of the world) are determined that this new concept of the ro.ations between ninn and man, and this new concept of the right of the workers to have a voice in the ■determination of the conditions of their labour and of their lives shall be recognised. "1 am very proud and gratified to know that to a very large extent this new concept is beng accepted and expressed by employers, yet there are other employers, who, like the Bourbons of old, never forgot anything because they never learned anything. Untold numbers of men and women gave up thoii lives that the principles lor which the var was conducted should lie made living issues, not. ior the war itself, not for fignting, not ior taking other human beings' lives,, but. tor an ideal, tor a piinciple. These are the thoughts that piompted the men and the women of our time to make such tremendous sacrifices—sacrifices unknown ia any othei period ot the world's history. In. making tliose sacrifices it was not the intention that the principles for which we '-■vntended in making those sacritiea should bo lost when Cud war was won. "Well, in the ySar of grace 1919, san'cUned by more tha'-i four years of bloodletting, tho day of tyranny and autocracy, whetliei it be in the'political life ur the industrial bie of our people, has Vwe. It' aiy employer beiieves that industrial autocracy or industrial despotviiii is going lo prevail in tho United ciaces oi America i)e has counted and is counting without his host. "'l'Li principles for which this Labour ff.oveuient has been contending from its very inception must coins to lull t'rui-La-l. We are making no unjust or unwarranted demands upon society .or ujwn erapioyers as suoli, but for the service walch tho men and the women of Labour give'to society, a service without which civilisation itseif i.onld perish, we insist upon a return that shall give us iiie opportunity to live a full rounded iii'e—ourselves, our wives, our children, i,ur dependants—and to make of this country of ours and of this world of ours a place worthy of tho civilisation of our time."