A LESSON FROM RUSSIA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1823, 7 May 1918, Page 2

A LESSON FROM RUSSIA.

ONLY a few years ago the name of 'Mr S. Gompers, the American Labour Leader, was anathema to Capi- , tal and the 'great body of employers,

At the 'beginning, of the war he was looked upon as a pacificist of tho most pronounced type, to whom the war meant nothing and was a matter of no concern, u Radical, and a man of extreme views. All this is changed, because the war has made changes inevitable, and Mr Gompers has come to be looked to by,. Capital as a man, of Conservative instincts,' whose voice and example have kept Labour true. In a recent, speech, Mr Gompers admitted that once he was an ultra pacificist, but now, he said, he was “ a red-blood-ed lighting man,” and American workers were fighting men. He then shoAved how the Bolsheviks have indirectly influenced Anxerican Labour by saying: “The Bolsheviks have not given the people land or bread or peace, and, instead of finding the- great people of Russia standing erect and fighting for their homes and their lives, wo find them praying for mercy. This Radical gang has done that, and'to it must be laid the charge of the undoing of Russia. And they arc showing their heads here. If the so-called Radicals of America could have their way you Avould find the people of tho United States in the same position as the people of Russia are in noxv.” For that reason, he proceeded, Amei’ican Labour Avould not attend a peace conference Avith the representatives of Lcfbour of enemy countries, because it Avas useless. If German Labour xvanted to talk peace tenns it must first-smash the German autocracy, and the only message American Labour had to send to German Labour Avas: “We are fighting noAA T , and unless you smash the Kaiser and his autocracy Ave will smash them for you.”