The Voluntary Basis of Trade Unionism; S. Gompers

No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion. If we seek to force, we but tear apart that which, united, is invincible. There is no ·way whereby our labor move ment may be assured sustained progress in determining its policies and its plans other than sincere democratic deliberation until a unanimous decision is reached. This Mr. Compers, president of the American Federation of Labor from 1886 to 1924, included these remarks in his final presidential ad dress to the AFL Convention, EI Paso, Texas, 1924. [367 ] may seem a cumbrous, slow method to the impatient, but the impatient are more concerned for immediate triumph than for the education of constructive develop ment. As I review the events of my sixty years of contact with the labor movement and as I survey the problems of today and study the opportunities of the future, I want to say to you, men and women of the American labor movement, do not reject the cornerstone upon which labor's structure has been builded-but base your all upon voluntary principles and illumine your every problem by consecrated devotion to that highest of all purposes-human well-being in the fullest, widest, deep est sense.

We have tried and proved these principles in eco nomic, political, social, and international relations. They have been tried and not found wanting. Where we have tried other ways, we have failed. [368 ] PEACE AND WORLD GOVERNMENT WARS aren't what·they used to be. Men went off to the Spanish-American War with all the excitement of camp fire boys on a picnic. Some of them got hurt, of course, and a number succumbed to various diseases. But, as wars go, the Spanish affair was just barely big enough for heroes. One of the heroes of the fracas in Cuba was Theodore Roosevelt, who spoke deprecatingly about the venture. ""It was not much of a war," he said, ""but it was the best we could do at the time." Such levity was not entirely out of keeping with the temper of the period, but that was three big wars ago. Now, after the experi ence of the past half century, it is unnatural to jest about war. The next world war which looms on the horizon holds out the prospect of unrelieved horror; little· hero ism, no glory. Hence the urgency behind our search for any device which gives promise of staving off the im pending catastrophe.