Always the Fight for Freedom
The present war discloses the struggle between the institutions of democracy and those of autocracy. Democracy cannot be established by patches upon an autocratic system. The foundations of civilized intercourse between individuals must be organized upon principles of democracy and scientific principles of human welfare. Then a national structure can be perfected in harmony with humanitarian idealism, a structure that will stand the test of the necessities of peace or war.
Twenty-sixth Convention of the United Mine Workers of America, at Indianapolis, Ind., January 23rd, 1918.
THERE comes upon me a feeling which is inexpressible because I am standing before you this morning in this great convention of the United Mine Workers of America. When I see you here assembled—and I am informed more than sixteen hundred duly accredited delegates representing the coal miners of America are here, the men who in modern industry are of prime importance—my mind wanders back to the past when the men in the organized movement tried to bring about cohesive organized effort, and when I compare the conditions obtaining now with the conditions existing then, it is enough to make one's heart swell with pride if he has had but the slightest part in helping or has made some little contribution to the tremendous achievement, scarcely believable, of those who held the fondest hopes for the organization.
I shall not attempt to portray or even recite the wonderful transition and transformation of the miners from a position of docility, of poverty and misery into the full stature of manhood, conscious of your strength, wonderful in your achievements, and yet holding yourselves and your organization under such control that you have up to this time commanded the respect, the confidence and the admiration of every liberty-loving, humanity-loving American citizen.
It is a privilege to be permitted, much less to be invited, to address this great convention. I found it gratifying that I could take the time from my other duties to come to Indianapolis and to say a word to you which I trust may be timely and helpful; for in this great hour of the world's history it requires all the man power and all the brain power and all the wealth and all the sacrifices which may be necessary that not only liberty but that manhood shall prevail as the guiding thought of the world's progress. It is a popular thought to discuss the question of war, and we are all of us compelled, whether we care or whether we do not, to concern ourselves with the fact that we are in war. We have had, perhaps, within the past few days, the first direct effect of our being in war; and if I have the time and the opportunity I shall address a few words to you expressive of my opinion upon that subject. But we have not otherwise realized the fact that we are at war. You men who know me know that I have been all of my sixty-seven years of life a pacifist until less than four years ago. I was willing to go to the fullest length that any man could think or devise to prevent an international war. I believed that the civilization of our time, I believed that the humanitarian spirit in the hearts and the minds of men, was sufficient to protect us against a struggle of this character.
When we knew that the great scientists of the world were burning the midnight oil for the purpose of discovering any agency or application that would ease the pain or cure the diseases or prevent the ills of our fellow human beings, it seems almost appalling to think that over night the war could have occurred. But it came. The marauder, the modern autocrat, willed it that the peace of the world should be disturbed, that humanity should be stopped in its onward march toward a higher civilization. Everything was to be dominated as his autocratic, imperialistic and militaristic mind developed. Never in the history of the world was there a man or a group of men who had so thoroughly planned for the militaristic domination of the world as was expressed by the dynasty and the group of the Imperial German Government when it made war, flagrantly, brutally and without the slightest consideration of the human side of the people of the world.
Yes, the invasion of Belgium, the ravishing of that little country, the crushing of Serbia and Roumania, the great juggernaut of this great militaristic machine, going on and on and on, was brought about by that autocratic and militaristic government. Whatever the outcome of this titanic struggle, the pages of history will record to the great honor of that little land, Belgium, the wonderful protector of the human race, that it was Belgium that halted the onward march of militarism and gave the world time to breathe and at least prepare itself to meet, to check and drive back the invader.
My thought comes back to the change that has come over the real pacifists of the world. I don't mean this lip service, I don't mean these anti-American demonstrations—I am speaking of those who were willing to sacrifice themselves that peace might be maintained. When the war dogs were let loose and it was shown that this tremendous preparation had been going on for over forty years, so far as I am concerned I am willing to declare here and now, quite freely and frankly, I threw my pacifism to the winds and there came the transformation from a pacifist to a fighting man.
When Belgium checked the army of Germany the troops of France and England combined just held and moved the German army backward. That was not on the schedule for the militaristic campaign of the Kaiser. He was checked and he knew, his military advisers and commanders knew and know now, that as soon as they were checked it meant the beginning of the end, for it is writ in the stars that the God of truth and righteousness and justice will prevail. And then came the change. The policy of German statesmanship was then to drag the United States into the war by any means; hence the sinking of neutral ships, of innocent merchantmen, and the killing of men, women and children, upon the high seas. Without attempting further to elucidate, this killing of innocent men, women and children was on and the word pledged to our government broken, just as ruthlessly as was that pact between the governments of the whole world that Belgium's neutrality should be maintained at all hazards. As that treaty was torn to shreds as a scrap of paper, the pledge given to the United States by the German government that this rapine and murder would not be repeated, was broken without the slightest compunction.
At last we were in the war, we were dragged into it; we could not keep out of it if we would. If we had not come to the assistance of the peoples representing the democracies of Europe I have not the slightest hesitancy in believing that it meant the choice of going over to fight or having them come over here to fight. Four years ago when I had the great privilege of being with you in your convention—to be exact, four years and three days—the only war of which any of us knew anything was the war in the convention. And I may be a bit scarred and wounded, but I am still in the ring. No one here or in the broad domain of our country imagined in January, 1914, that within a few months the whole world would be in conflagration and countries at each other's throats. Events have come and gone that were little dreamed of in our philosophy, and from that year up to the present time the world has been at war. We cannot be neutral; there is no such thing as neutrality in this war. You are for autocracy or democracy, there is no other choice for individuals or for nations. Spain, the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland are not neutral; they may have proclaimed their neutrality, but they are profiting or cowed by the war, and hence their sympathies and their coöperation are given to either one or the other side.
I do not want to assume the attitude of the great orator of the Continental Congress, but I cannot live when the whole world makes for unfreedom. I counted it an honor, as I felt it my duty, some years ago to challenge the decision and the action of the courts because they denied me the right of honest, free expression. I took the chance to defend the principles of freedom and suffered the indignity of having been sentenced twice to imprisonment for a year because I dared maintain the right of free speech and free press. When I could not endure the gross injustice of taking from me and my fellows the right of freedom of expression, you can rest assured I protested, and will protest again, any attempt to strangle the manhood and womanhood of the world to silence and failure or prevention of expression.
I realize the contrast between the conditions of peace and those of war. The government of the United States, with singular unanimity, the sole constituted authority of our republic, decided to declare that we are at war with Germany and later with Austria. There is no other way provided by which that action can be taken. That specific decision having been made that a state of war exists between America and her Allies against the imperial governments of Germany and Austria, everything that I can do to adjure my fellow workers and my fellow citizens to do to make the victory of democracy sure, I am going to advise, even if it be with my last breath. A month before war was declared a conference was held in the city of Washington in which the representatives of nearly all the national and international trade unions participated. In that conference a declaration was made and unanimously adopted.* *On page 289 of the appendix will be found the declaration of March 12, 1917, read by Mr. Gompers.
Since then our country has been at war. We desired to place ourselves in a position where we could establish the best possible relations with the government and the men and the women of our labor movement so that the greatest degree of coöperation and wholehearted support would be given on both sides. We have had agreements made between the governmental agencies and the representatives of our movement, so that in the struggle for freedom and democracy abroad we should not lose our freedom and democracy at home. You have it in your own organization, for your own honored former president, Brother John P. White, is in an influential, helpful position in one of the greatest governmental agencies in which the men of your industry are primarily affected. What is true in regard to him is equally true of nearly all industries of America. We propose not to surrender the standards of life and living during this struggle, except it be to save the Republic of the United States and not for private profit. We will make any sacrifice which may be necessary to make our triumphs sure, but we are not going to make any sacrifices that shall fill the coffers of the rich beyond the plethoric conditions in which they even now are.
If there was any evidence required to show the great heart of the leader of the world's democracies, that evidence was given when the President of the United States visited the Buffalo convention of the American Federation of Labor and gave his great message to the hearts and the conscience of the workers, of the masses of the people of the whole world. That message thrilled every human being capable of any sensibility or feeling. It was wonderful! It was a pledge of the common concept for humanity. The world is changing. This war, upon which first I looked with horror beyond expression, I regard now as a rejuvenation of mankind and the establishment of a higher concept of justice for all time to come. It means that all great transformations in the interest of humanity must have a baptism of blood, and the blood that is now so freely flowing is the baptism, not of this war, but of its transformation from a war to a crusade in the interests of humanity.
In this present day condition in which we find criticisms and attacks being sown broadcast anywhere and everywhere it is timely for labor men to consider lest we, too, may be swamped by passionate appeals or by misleading purposes. It is a tremendous thing, it is an almost unbelievable task, to work out the military, the naval, the industrial, the commercial affairs of a country which were based upon democratic ideas and ideals, upon a peace footing, and to expect that this democracy should transform the whole field of human endeavor from a peace basis to a war footing without making some mistakes. We would sacrifice our lives rather than give up our democratic institutions; but bear in mind that democracy is likely to make mistakes. takes. These mistakes are the penalties we pay for the exercise of the principles of freedom and democracy. And that apples to our own organization as well as to our government. If we want to have democracy we should be willing to pay some of the penalties of democracy because of our mistakes.
I have no brief to speak for the administration of the government of the United States or of any of its representatives, but this I do know, and am willing to voluntarily attest to it, that they are prompted by the great purpose, first, that America shall win in this war, and second to do justice to our people during the struggle. They are men of great mental power and activity. To think that this great transition could take place without some mistakes being made is to expect the impossible.
I am not going to find any excuse for mistakes. I have in advance said that they are part of our very lives and system. As a matter of fact, who could have made a greater mistake than the one-man power, the Kaiser of Germany, in starting this thing he will never be able to finish? With all his plans and all his aids, he made that mistake. They were on the road to great industrial and scientific and commercial success in Germany; they had an enviable position in the world's affairs, but they wanted to establish their military, imperialistic, autocratic influence and government over the whole world I have not spoken German in this last couple of years. I acquired the language when I was working in the factory, and I am going to use a term that has been used by the Germans—"Deutschland ueber alles"—Germany over all. That is not an expression of the day before yesterday, or three or five or ten years ago; it is a motto coined over forty years ago—"Germany over all." My friends, place one military dictator, if you please, at the head of the affairs of our government and he will make as many if not more mistakes than have been made by the administrators of our affairs, though they be civilians. And how would the workers fare in the struggle in the meantime?
Even the order issued a few days ago I regard as an absolute necessity. You know there is now a discussion to repeal or modify the Sherman Anti-Trust law. I am not going to offer any excuse for the railroads, they have been lax so long, but the Sherman Anti-Trust law forbade them to do what now the director-general of the railroads has the right to do. The jam had occurred and was increasing and something had to be done to relieve the situation. If the ice king has interfered there can be no help for that. I think there is one mistake in the making, and I trust it will be changed or modified. I refer to the closing of the industrial and commercial plants of our country one additional day each week. I think it is a mistake to have a whole day such as Monday idle, involving from Saturday afternoon until Tuesday morning. I believe if the order were changed so that instead of there being ten, nine or eight hours as a day's work, the same, power should be exercised and a universal seven-hour day proclaimed during the war period, we would have practically the same results in the conservation of fuel and all other needful commodities; there would be the same conservation and it would not do violence to the history, the traditions, the work and the practical operation of industry and commerce. I trust that the suggestion may find lodgment somewhere and bring about that change; but if it does not, I am going to obey like a soldier of America, I am going to yield my judgment to the judgment and the actions of the men in whose hands the destinies of our Republic are placed. Because the suggestion or advice I may offer may not be accepted, does not entitle me during the war to balk or refuse to coöperate with my fellow citizens and with my government.
I think I ought to make reference to something which is arresting our attention and the attention of the whole world. I refer to the present situation as it exists in Russia. We have all done our share to be helpful to the Russian people. We were all enthused when the revolutionists overthrew the Czar of that country, established a revolutionary government and fought on and on until there came upon the scene these people who call themselves the Bolsheviki. The exact meaning of that term is not known to every one. It is simply the Russian word for what we would call Maximalists, those who want the maximum of anything and everything and will not compromise or yield to anything, will not accept anything but the uttermost, the maximum. What is the maximum? All that you have dreamed, all that I have dreamed, all that any one has dreamed and hoped for, that must be accomplished and put into operation at once or else we refuse to live and be with our neighbors of different judgment; we refuse to accept the natural law of growth and development; we refuse to permit industry to be carried on to its fullest extent, so that as in the movements of labor in England and the United States, there may be obtained something better, to make life and work better to-day than yesterday, better to-morrow than to-day and better each succeeding day, so that every day, to-morrow and tomorrow, and to-morrow's to-morrow shall each be a better day than the day which is past.
They refuse to permit such a growth, such a development, but want it all; and, like the dog in the fable who, having a bone and seeing the shadow in the water and the shadow being larger than the bone itself, dropped the bone and jumped for the shadow and lost both. To expect that the world shall establish the highest ideals of ownership, of property, of work, of life by edict and without the transition from stage to stage is like expecting an infant just crawling and beginning to walk to enter into a marathon race as a contender for victory. The result of that activity of the Bolsheviki is this, that because of their supposed radicalism they have lost all. As a nation which does not function, an army that will not fight, a people that for the time being cannot act together through this Bolsheviki, the people of Russia are crawling upon their bellies and asking for mercy at the hand of the modern assassin, the Kaiser of Germany.
Through the Bolsheviki the whole field of operations is in greater danger. The Czar of Russia in his palmiest days could do no worse than the Bolsheviki have done. The Czar turned his soldiers upon the members of the Duma of Russia, and the Bolsheviki have sent their armed soldiers and sailors to disperse the Constituent Assembly, the representatives elected by the people of Russia; in other words, my friends, the attempt at constitutional government in Russia, where the people could assert themselves, has been at the point of the gun and the bayonet driven out of the hall of legislation. The Bolsheviki who dropped their guns when facing the Kaiser's troops turned them upon their own representative government.
My friends, the reason of that movement, the terrific situation, the terrible situation in which the people of Russia and the government of Russia are placed is a reminder to us, too, not only in our own country, but in our labor movement because we know that we have the Bolsheviki right in the United States! These men, if they had their way, would drive the United States government and the people into the same wretched, miserable, poltroon position. If they had their way the trades unions of our country would not be in existence. You know as well as I do that there was one organization of labor in the United States—I prefer not to mention its name—which was a Maximalist organization—they would have nothing but the most and would not consent to anything less. And now it hasn't the power to make even a decent showing, much less a good fight. If the extremists in the labor movement of America had their way the United Mine Workers of America might be known as a name but not as a fact; it would not have one of its representative men sitting in council with the governmental agencies in order to determine the conditions of industry and the life and the work of the toilers.
You have not secured all to which you are entitled, certainly not! My desire and demand upon society are for more and more and more, and never stopping in that constant driving movement for more; but I do know something of the limitations of our power, of our people, of our own selfishness and altruism, of our generosity and our weakness, and I say to you, my friends, let the voice of the men with experience, the men charged with the responsibility of carrying out the interests and the will and the welfare of the miners of America be heard—do not fail to heed their suggestions and advice. I am not discussing, nor have I in mind, any question of a controversial character in your convention; I am speaking of a general policy which experience has demonstrated. The time was not always when the miners were a great power. Every inch of effort and success was at the expense of great sacrifice, of tremendous expenditure. Don't throw that all to the winds.
What is it that Shakespeare put into the mouth of Friar Lawrence in his advice to Romeo when he rushes off? "Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast." Men of the United Mine Workers of America, make such changes as may be essential to your continual progress, but for the sake of yourselves, for the sake of the men who are going into the mining industry hereafter, for the sake of their wives and children and yours, for the honor of the memory of the men who have done so much to help build up this wonderful monument of honor and of strength, do not throw their experience to the winds. We do not know what is coming. This war is making changes every day; this war is brightening up the minds of men. Men think quicker, act quicker, conceive better, execute greater than at any time in the history of our country—and, I believe I am justified in saying, in the history of the world. New concepts are coming; the blood in men's veins is tingling; human brotherhood, in spite of sacrifices, is being held as the great ideal; the relations between man and man are changed; wealth, possessions are no longer regarded as of great importance. The thing that is important is human effort, coöperation, service to the government, service to the people, service to make life the better worth living; and this war, transformed into a crusade, when it is all over will have brought a brighter and a better day for all. The sacrifice is great, but who looks with regret upon the sacrifices made by our forefathers in establishing the Republic of the United States and achieving for the first time in the history of the world a declaration that there are certain inalienable rights and that among them is the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? That was said for America and its echo went throughout the world.
The war now, this crusade, is for the establishment of that principle throughout the world—the people of Germany included. Who regrets the sacrifices that were made to abolish human slavery? Who is not proud of the fights that were made that liberty should obtain? Who regrets that the United States entered into a war with Spain to wrest the Island of Cuba from the tyrannical rule of the Spanish monarchy? And so with this fight, so with this struggle, the future will regard any man in any walk of life who did something to make for the freedom, for the justice, for the democracy of the world in our time as a benefactor. The world will rise up and call him blessed for the part he has performed and the service he has rendered.
Now is the time that tries men's souls; now is the time to give service; now is the time when we should see to it that we try to uphold the great labor movement of our country. It is in accord with and is heartily pledged to the cause of this democratic Republic of ours, the Republic of the United States; it is committed almost unanimously to the great cause for which the world is now bleeding and which it will win. We shall not lose, we cannot lose. The whole history of the world, the songs of the poets, the dreams of the philosophers, the work of the toilers, the service of mankind, the scars and the battles and the sufferings of the past are all thrown in spirit in the balance, and the men and women of America, the men and women of fighting England, the men and women of gallant France, the men and women of outraged Belgium, the men and women of devastated Serbia and Roumania—the spirit of it all goes forth in one grand acclaim, victory and triumph for labor and democracy, the establishment of the universal brotherhood of man. That is the cry; that is the slogan; that is the shibboleth which will win for the world in the most glorious battle and triumph for human justice.