A LESSON FROM RUSSIA.

Taihape Daily Times, 27 April 1918, Page 3

A LESSON FROM RUSSIA.

Only a few years ago the name of Mr. S. Gompers, the American Labour Leader, was anathema to Capital, ana the, great body of employers. 'At the begining of the war he was looked upon as a pacifist of the most pronounced type, to whom the war meant nothing and was a matter of no concern, a Radical, and a man of extreme views. All this is chnged, 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 pacifist, but now, he said, he was “a redblooded fighting man,” and American workers were fighting men. He then showed how the Bolsheviks have indirectly influenced American 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, we 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 are show, ing their heads here. If the so-called Radicals of America could have their way you would find the people of tne United States in the same position as the people of Russia are in now.” For that reason, he proceeded, American Labour would not attend a peace conference with the representatives of Labour of enemy countries, because it was useless. If German Labour wanted to talk peace terms it must first smash the German autocracy, and the only message American Labour had to send to German Laboru was: “We are fighting now, and unless you smash the Kaiser and his autocracy we will smash them for you.”