We found ourselves in the position as to whether the labor movement, the spirit of the labor movement, could live if it were possible for kaiserism and militarism to dominate.
Official luncheon and reception tendered by the British Government to the American Federation of Labor Mission, Hotel Carlton, London, August 30, 1918.
IT is not often that I find it difficult to express the
thoughts and emotions which arise in my mind
caused in this instance not only by the representative
men here assembled, but also by the kind references
made to my associates and to myself.
Perhaps I had better start by telling an anecdote which occurred in the early history of the United States and find its application to myself. It was before the days of efficient railroads in our country and a southern Senator was about to face a new campaign for reelection. Traveling from one part of the state to another, he met quite a number of people whom he knew and others whom he did not know. While riding in a buggy driven by his negro driver, two men came from the sidewalk in the opposite direction and one of the men said quite audibly to the other: "Do you see that distinguished man riding in that buggy? He is a wonderful man, he is a truly great man." And the negro driver nudged the Senator and said to him: "Say, boss, I wonder who he means, you or me?" In this labor movement of America we may say, as did Admiral Schlep after a great naval battle in the Spanish-American war: "There is glory enough in it for us all." And he who contributes even but a slight effort to obtain the common object is deserving of as much praise as the man who has larger opportunities.
A few days before I left Washington to proceed to an Atlantic port to embark on this trip, I had the honor of an interview with our great President, Woodrow Wilson. In addition to introducing to him the labor man who was to act as President of the American Federation of Labor during my absence, I wanted to bid him au revoir and to ask whether he had something that he would like me to say to the people of Great Britain, France and Italy. Many of you men, all of you, know of him, but it is given to very few to know the man. Your great Ambassador, Lord Reading, knows the man. I am profoundly grateful to have had the privilege, in part at least, of knowing him. The President's answer to me was something like this:
During the civil war, President Lincoln desired that a message might be conveyed to Jefferson Davis. Mr. Lincoln had learned that possibly the proposition which might reach Mr. Davis would end the struggle between the north and the south. You know that at that time, men who led great movements and great countries were gentlemen. Mr. Lincoln asked a Washington newspaper man to convey the message. Then the representative of the press asked Mr. Lin-coin if he had any other special message to convey, and Mr. Lincoln, in his wonderful way, said:
"I had better tell you a story. There was a little girl about seven years of age. It was her birthday, and she had been given a set of wooden blocks with letters on them. The child had played with them all day and in the evening she was so tired. Just before retiring to her bed, she went down reverently on her knees and folded her chubby hands, but she was simply too tired to give expression to her evening prayer. She took the blocks of wood and letters and threw them on the floor, and said: 'O Lord, you know what I want to say. Let me say the best thing you want me to say. Good-night, Amen.' " And the story of the President stopped abruptly there.
And so I have really no message from the President except that I know his spirit, a man of passions, a man of strong convictions, deep of feeling and of high idealism. But, if I may take the privilege of conveying the message of the blocks of wood impatiently thrown down upon the floor that evening, I have the right to say that the President and the people of the United States are with Great Britain and France and Italy and all the allies in this struggle to the end.
Speaking as one who in part represents the great masses of the people of America, I will say that we are whole-heartedly in this struggle. Perhaps I can do no better now than to read from a declaration made by the responsible officers of the organized labor movement of America, a declaration made on the 12th of March, 1917, nearly a month before President Wilson appeared before the Congress of the United States and presented the indictment of crimes and brutality against the Imperial German government. Somehow, many believe that that declaration made by the organized labor movement of America had much influence in conveying to the President of the United States and to our Congress the realization that the toilers of our country would stand behind them and our government faithfully and whole-heartedly in the determination of our course.* *See appendix, page 289, for declaration of March 12, 1917, from which Mr. Gompers read.
That declaration was indorsed by unanimous vote of the convention of the American Federation of Labor held last November. That is the spirit of our country.
We found ourselves in the position as to whether the labor movement, the spirit of the labor movement, could live if it were possible for Kaiserism and militarism to dominate.
The labor movement represents perhaps the almost inarticulate yearnings of the people—many, many of those who have perhaps not the intelligence or the understanding or the courage to express their own hopes and ideals. Wherever in the whole world tyranny and injustice prevail within any country, it is the masses of the people who are compelled to bear the burden. The labor movement is the expression of discontent of the masses with all forms of wrong and injustice. I shall not undertake to say that we, of ourselves, express that in the wisest manner; we do the best we know how.
I have learned to know man, to know something of his weakness and something of his strength, and it is my purpose to endeavor to express the best collective thought of the masses of labor. I am quite willing that the so-called "intellectuals" may enjoy themselves in their self-assumed mental superiority. We organize the best we can to work out our own destinies as best we can and as best we know. The chain is no stronger than its weakest link; no army can move faster than its slowest companion in arms, and he who undertakes to drive or lead a movement faster than the great mass of workers understand and appreciate, will find himself high and dry. We apply ourselves to our everyday problems, not to bring about a cataclysm or a social revolution every year. There are some who are anxious to and who declare they will inaugurate a system for the attainment of all rights and the abolition of all wrongs at nine o'clock to-morrow morning without fail, provided it does not rain. Our work is to make to-day a better day than yesterday and to-morrow a better day than to-day, and to-morrow's to-morrow each a better day than the one which has gone before, to work out the disenthralment of the great wage working masses of our country upon an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary basis.
We have earned in the democracies of the world the right to express that thought and the right to work out this plan of evolutionary progress. In the United States of America we have made, through economic and political action, wonderful strides and progress. I hope that the time may come when in Great Britain, France and Italy and in conquered Germany there shall come the recognition in their laws of the fundamental laws enacted by the government of the United States, with the freedom not only of the seas but the freedom of the seamen. And in passing, I do not think that I ought to fail to say a word of the great appreciation felt in America for the splendid services performed by the Seamen's Union of Great Britain in this cause. In the United States, there is the Clayton Anti-Trust Law and the first sentence of section six of that law reads like this: "That the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce." I will repeat: "The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce." It is a refutation of the old concept that the master had some proprietary right in the life and the labor of a human being. The labor of a human being is part of the human himself. It cannot be differentiated from him without taking the laborer himself. But the purpose of my referring to it is that in the labor movement of the United States so much is at stake. We had been marching from the old time slavery of more than fifty years ago until the workers of America were indeed sovereign citizens equal with all other people in different walks of life. To have permitted the menace of autocracy to overcome the democracy of Great Britain and of France and to have dominated America would have meant the beginning of the end of it all.
We saw the situation; our hearts bled at the outrages committed by the murderous government of Germany. About twelve millions of the population of the United States are German, either by birth or extraction. In addition, we had the German reservists who were in the United States and the organized German propaganda. There was a tremendous problem presented to our people and our government. Though we saw and knew what we knew, and suspected what we suspected, our country was not in a position to take up the just cause which otherwise it might have been enabled to do. But when similar outrages and similar murders were committed against our own people and when our own men, women and children, engaged in honest business and traveling either for business or pleasure, were murdered in cold blood, the people of the United States and their governmental representatives were wrought up to a pitch of white heat and demanded that war be declared.
Under the constitution of the United States, the power to declare that a state of war existed between our government and the Imperial German Government was vested in Congress. The men of labor in the United States are proud in believing that the attitude of the labor movement, as set forth in the declaration of March 12, 1917, prior to our country's entering the war, in support of our government in peace or in war, greatly helped to clarify the situation.
Now, here we are; we are in this war, or, may I say that it has ceased to be a war, and is now a crusade? Our men of labor of America are engaged in this war; our fighting boys have been coming over here. During the Civil War there was a song composed, and generally sung in the North, addressed to Lincoln, the President of the United States at that time: "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand strong."
So we say to you, our allied nation, and unto the other allied nations, "We are coming, brothers, in the struggle, five millions strong," and, perhaps continuing that statement by quoting President Wilson, himself: "Why stop at five million?" We are giving our manhood and we will give all that we can of our wealth and in sacrifice in order to win this wonderful struggle. I think it was Kipling who in the early stages of the war said: "If we lose the lights of freedom go out over the whole world." I think that is true. I am persuaded that it is true, but I also am persuaded, I am convinced, that we dare not lose, we cannot lose, we will win.
Just a word about our mission. We have come here for the purpose of endeavoring to unite the workers of Great Britain and of France and of Italy to stand with us and we with them in one solid phalanx to make good the declaration of American labor on March 12, 1917, to stand behind our respective governments in winning the war.
You have done such wonderful things in Great Britain in raising an army as you have. You have held the line against the Hun, and we are profoundly grateful. Your line of ships were the last forces against which the Hun would have to go. You have turned out wonderful products in quality as in quantity.
We have sent over about one and a half millions of our fighting forces, the best we have of our fighting boys, to join with and fight with your men.
The men and the women of labor of America are' bent upon the production of the fullest quantity and quality of all that is necessary for our fighting boys, not only of America, but for the people and soldiers of our allied countries. May I state here two facts that stand out as to what we are trying to do? About eight weeks ago one of the great shipyards in the United States offered a prize if the men in the yard drove one half million of rivets within a week. The prize was given, and about two weeks before our departure from the United States the company gave a banquet in honor of the men in the same yard with the same tools who had driven more than a million rivets in a week. You know, or have read, that a few weeks ago a ship was launched within twenty-seven working days from the time its keel was laid. Last Monday, two weeks ago, a twelve thousand ton steel vessel was launched within twenty-four working days from the time that its keel was laid. Our shipyards are busy, our men are working hard in factories and workshops and mills and mines. The men know that every blow struck with the hammer is a blow at German autocracy.
In our country we have reached the point where representatives of labor are not only in the Cabinet, as in the Cabinet of Great Britain, but labor men are in the Council of National Defense, in every activity or agency of the government, both federal and municipal. We have not yet reached the stage of perfection. I am afraid we never shall, we will have to hope yet. We are making progress, we are bringing about a better understanding and coöperation; we are endeavoring to work out our problems and give whole-hearted support to this tremendous enterprise in which our Republic is engaged. We realize nothing is nearly so important now as winning the war. In the meantime, we hope and expect, as we have the right to expect, that every effort shall be put forth that the standards of home life shall not go down, but that on the contrary, we may share each other's burdens and hopes and help in their realization. We are going to stand by you men. We hope and expect, as we confidently believe, that the sturdiness of Britain, the spirit of Belgium, the gallantry of France and the impetuosity and the spirit of America will win this war and give the opportunity for the people to live the life of peace loving men and women; that we who were pacifists before this war and almost in the twinkling of an eye transformed into fighting men—that we would go along with the work of our everyday lives in working out this great problem of life and duty, aiming to attain the highest degree of unity and brotherhood, the highest that the world has ever known. To help in such a crisis and to live in such a time and to contribute to this achievement is a privilege of which every human being should be proud.