impressed than you with the necessity of effective political action and the proper use of the ballot by labor in labor's own interests. Let me assure you that the trade unionists whom you met at Cincinnati are not at all backward or too conservative; they simply desire as a result of their experience and knowledge to couple practical action with their enthusiasm, and immaterial in which way or upon which field the labor cause is contested, they have been, are, and will be shoulder to shoulder with the advance guard of the grand army of labor.

As for your suggestion that the resort must be to the sword, I prefer not to discuss. I only want to call your attention to the fact, however, that force may have changed forms of government but never attained real liberty.

Liberty, the conception of which is a matter of growth, a matter of education, and is a matter of progress, proceeds in the same ratio that the people conceive their rights and will manfully, heroically, and with self-sacrifice stand for it, and which no power in the form of government can withstand. It is the purpose of the tradeunion movement to instill this greater manhood, this greater self-reliance, this intelligence, this independence in the hearts and minds of the workers, which, when once conceived, can not be driven out by sophistry, poltroonery, or by force.

You say that I know you are "not a trade unionist." No, I did not know this, and I assure you that when I read your statement in the letter I was more than surprised. I have heard quite a number of strange statements in my life, but it was reserved for you to make the strangest of all, that of being president of a great trade union to declare that you are not a trade unionist. I really can not see how you can reconcile your action to your declarations. I know that if I were not a trade unionist I should not only declare it, but should act it. I would not be president of a trade union; I would not even be a member of a trade union. I would, if I were not a trade unionist, if I were an opponent of trade unionism, I would get out of the trade union and out of the trade-union movement, and I would fight it. I would not occupy so questionable a position as being the president and member of a trade union and declare myself an opponent of it.

You say that "there is little sympathy existing between the laboring men of the West and their Eastern brothers." I doubt it. I believe that there is more real sympathy between them than many would have us believe. I think such declarations a great wrong in the face of existing conditions, when all the forces antagonistic to labor are united and uniting still more in their effort to hold the workers in check, to suppress their efforts and oppress them in their struggles for emancipation.

The forces of wealth understand the necessity for common concert of action. They do not divide upon theories; nor do they divide upon geographical lines, from some men coming from one portion of our country and others from another, and I regret to see a man of your intelligence, and of your position, and of your influence, declaring that there is little sympathy between the working people of the West and other portions of our common country. We can not overcome the slightest antagonism to our efforts; we can not achieve the slightest advance or progress in our interests; we can not achieve the smallest right which belongs to us by scattering our forces.

I earnestly hope that the convention of the Western Federation of Miners will stand true to the colors of their union, and though they have been defeated in their Leadville strike, they will declare with other men who have fought in the great battles of life that though defeated they are not conquered, and that they will organize more strongly and firmly, more earnestly and aggressively than ever before; and while organizing the men in their own trade or calling and allying themselves with their fellow-organized workers from all parts of the country without regard to trade, calling, nationality, religion, or whatever section of the country they may come from, let us stand united in defeat as well as in victory. It is only by such sterling qualities called forth in defeat which shows our true manhood, our ability to take up the battles of labor and never say "die."

And yet, Brother Boyce, I say it to you in all candor, and all friendliness, and I ask you to consider this matter well; I ask you in the name of the great interests committed to your care, the great influence you wield with your fellow-workers of the Western Federation of Miners, that you use that great power to unite and solidify the forces of labor in our country and fight, and fight hard, against any attempt that will seek to force an entering wedge to divide the workers in our movement. With assurances of my high regard, I am,

Fraternally, yours,

SAMUEL GOMPERS,
President A. F. of L.

N. B.-I am writing this to you, not for publication, but what I regard as my highest duty toward you and your organization and toward the workers both East and West, North and South. S. G.

Mr. SAMUEL GOMPERS,

Mr. Boyce to Mr. Gompers.

BUTTE, MONT., April 7, 1897.

President American Federation of Labor, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR AND Brother: Yours of the 28th ultimo is received and contents noted with much care and interest. After mature deliberation I am fully convinced that no two men in the labor movement differ so widely in opinion as the president of the A. F. of L. and the writer. If you will show me what good results can accrue from trades union without action we might understand each other. The trades-union movement has been in operation in our country for a number of years, and through all these years the laboring masses are becoming more dependent. In view of these conditions, do you not think it is time to do something different than to meet in annual convention and fool away time in adopting resolutions indorsing labels and boycotts?

If force never attained real liberty, then your letter is conflicting in its parts. However, that is something unworthy of space at this time.

Well, if I have made the strangest statement you ever heard in your life in declaring that I am not a trades unionist, I hardly see how you could escape strange things so long. I believe I will partially follow your advice and get out of the trades-union movement; but I digress when it comes to fighting it. I may also inform you that I am not the president of a trade union or a member of one.

I presume we are all striving for the same purpose. That purpose is to elevate the laborer, not to array one against the other or imitate the present deplorable struggle between the A. F. of L. and K. of L.

I can assure you that, no matter what action the western miners take with reference to the A. F. of L., it will not be hasty, nor calculated to injure the labor movement; but now, as ever, I am strongly in favor of a Western organization.

Fraternally, yours,

EDWARD BOYCE.

THE COMMENT.

Perhaps it may be true, as Mr. Boyce states, that there are no two men in the labor movement who differ so widely as he and the president of the A. F. of L., but if that be so the one must be right and the other in error. They can not both be right. While this effort is not to prove Mr. Boyce in error, it is believed that his own letters place him in that position.

It is difficult to understand what Mr. Boyce may mean when he speaks of "trades union without action." As a matter of fact these terms are the very opposites to each other. Trade unionism means action, action consistent, persistent, and never ending. In truth, trade unionism as contrasted with other forms of organization of labor is action versus declaration, practical results versus a will-o'-the-wisp chase. Trades union without action? Look at the struggles of the toiling masses throughout the country on trade-union lines; see the achievements already wrought; see the rights already secured; see the movement of a number of trades which have secured the universal enforcement of the eight-hour work day. Is that trades union without action? Whole industries have maintained their rates of wages, their reduced hours of labor, in spite of the unparalleled four years of industrial, commercial, and financial crisis. Is this trades union without action? While, on the other hand, the workers who have been unorganized were compelled to suffer reduction of wages, one following upon the heels of the other so swiftly as to stagger them almost into a benighted and helpless condition, a condition from which only the assistance of the organized workers on trade-union lines will be enabled to lift them.

Trades union without action? The willingness of more than a hundred thousand members of trade unions recently in one city to risk or make the sacrifice of their employment in order to achieve justice and right for one trade; the almost entire abolition of the sweat shop in many trades. Yes, the struggle of the Leadville miners, so heroically fought out. Are these deeds of valor and successes "trades union without action?" It is true that the object for which the Leadville men went on strike was not achieved-that is, the increase in wages they demanded was not accorded. But is there any miner, any delegate to your convention who does not realize that, though success was not achieved in securing the increase, a most potent influence was exerted for good along the whole line in the interest of the miners and of all labor, and that the near future will witness a better opportunity to secure the desired advance? No just cause has ever been finally defeated. The cause of the miners at Leadville is a just one, and the heroism with which it was contended for on trade-union lines must inevitably bring success.

One might as well be asked what the achievements of the human race are from

unrecorded time as to inquire what good results accrue from trade unionism. There is not a right which the workers now enjoy, either as men, as citizens, or as wageearners, which is not due to the trade unions of our own and other countries.

It may not be generally known, but it is nevertheless a fact, that prior to the organization of the trade unions men were imprisoned, branded upon the face with hot irons, limbs cut off, and thousands hanged to the gibbet because of their desire to have an humble voice in the regulations of the conditions of their employment. Organizations of labor in any form were illegal, a conspiracy, and a crime punishable with the dungeon, whipping post, the branding iron, and death.

There is no purpose to impress you or anyone else with the notion that because the right to organize has been secured, because the workers may now stand erect and declare for their rights and proclaim their grievances, and to organize for the achievement of the one and the abolition of the other, that for these reasons the trade unionists are contented or satisfied. On the contrary, the progress made, the achievements secured, the greater manhood which the trade-union movement has aided in developing in our workers, has simply given us a taste of that freedom, that justice to which our whole movement is consecrated, aspires to, and determined to conquer. It is, indeed, incomprehensible how an officer or a member of the Western Federation of Miners can declare that HE IS NOT A MEMBER OF A TRADE UNION.

A trade union is the organization of the workers of a given trade or calling, organized for the purpose of protecting, advancing, and benefiting the members of that trade or calling and wherever possible to aid all wage earners to attain the same end, the same purpose-the final establishment of labor's rights.

If the Western Federation of Miners is not such an organization, it is true that it is not a trade union. If, on the other hand, the purposes of the organization are as they have just been briefly stated, then the Western Federation of Miners is a trade union, and it will beyond doubt continue to be a bona fide, aggressive, and persistent trade union, standing shoulder to shoulder with the other great trade unions of the country, and battling, struggling, at times making sacrifices, to the end that labor shall be finally disenthralled.

Of course it is deplorable that there should be any conflict between two organizations of labor, as intimated by Brother Boyce, but it is submitted to your calm judgment that dividing labor still further or creating a new organization, founded upon sectional lines, in our country is not calculated to either heal the breach or restore unity or harmony.

For the past fifteen years there has been a constant effort made by the American labor movement for a clearer conception of our aims and purposes, and particularly to instill into the minds of the workers, first, the necessity of organization; secondly, the unity of these organizations, so that the weakest of us may feel strengthened by our affiliations and the strongest and most powerful of our unions to recognize the necessity of aiding the weakest members.

It may be true that the fullest success on these lines has not yet been secured, but practically our movement is in its infancy. As a matter of fact, your organization only became affiliated with the A. F. of L. July 7, 1896-less than ten months ago. There are still a large mass of workers unorganized and quite a number of those who are organized who yet do not realize the necessity for solidarity, which should be the mainspring of action among the organized workers. It is therefore easily discernable that, though some might wish a shorter route to labor's emancipationto labor's successes--the surest, the most practical road is that of intelligent trade unionism, making progress and advancing in the same ratio as the workers organize and become more intelligent, broadening their minds and enlarging their sympathy. The trade-union movement is not confined in its sphere of action. It can and does avail itself of any opportunity which presents itself, whether upon the economic or political field. It is as broad as the universe and as wide and high as human aspirations and human understanding. Many of us are impatient with the burning desire that it may move faster, but it can only keep pace with the ever-widening clearer vision, broadening mind, and keener sympathy of the working men and women of the country.

As already stated, the Western Federation of Miners became affiliated with the A. F. of L. on July 7, 1896. It declared the strike of the Leadville miners on June 20 of the same year. One can readily realize, in view of the great calls that were made upon the employed union workmen to sustain their fellow-workers during the industrial crisis of the past few years, that voluntary financial assistance could not be very readily given by them in aid of a trade other than their own. However, this would not have stood in the way in an earnest effort to assist the Leadville men had application been received by the A. F. of L.

You are already advised that the A. F. of L., at its last convention at Cincinnati, determined to undertake a movement for the purpose of establishing the universal eight-hour workday on May 1, 1898. Between now and that date every effort ought to be made to organize the working people of the United States, to thoroughly fed

erate them, to conduct a campaign of agitation and education, so that when the time shall arrive all may be prepared to insist upon its absolute enforcement.

The hope may be entertained that the eight-hour workday may be voluntarily conceded, but at least the workers should be organized and prepared to insist upon the establishment of that great boon to labor should it be refused. We ask you, yes, we appeal to you as one of the great organizations of this family of labor, not to take an action which shall mar the harmony or impede the progress of this truly noble movement. A large number of the toilers of our country are unemployed. We are taking the most available and practical means at our hands to aid them, to find employment for them, and to relieve the burdens of those who are overemployed. Do not part from your brothers of labor. They are flesh of your flesh and blood of your blood. They have the same trials, the same suffering that you bear. They are in sympathy with your every demand, for they are the demands of all labor. They are willing to heroically make sacrifices which will bring success, justice, and emancipation to labor. They are with you, eager for the struggles that shall disenthrall all mankind.

In the initial step of our movement would not the enemies of labor observe with glee that one of our links in the chain of labor's federation has torn itself asunder, and thus to that extent weakened our bond and presenting a ready opportunity for the enemies of our cause and of our people to rend us wider asunder and make all the easy victims of their voracious greed and avarice? It should not be, it will not be, if you are, which you are generally credited with being, earnest, sincere, aggressive, and intelligent workingmen, and union men, broad in your sympathies, sterling in character, and determined to do your share in the battles of labor for labor emancipation.

Sincerely hoping that your convention may be entirely successful and harmonions; that the fraternal relations so recently begun between the Western Federation of Miners in the American Federation of Labor with the other organized wageearners of the country, North, South, and East, may not be interrupted, but more firmly cemented, and that we may carry the banner of labor's rights aloft, maintaining the union of workers within the union of our country, I remain,

Fraternally, yours,

SAMUEL GOMPERS, President American Federation of Labor.

(Published by order of the executive council of the A. F. of L., Washington, D. C., May 1, 1897.)

I am aware that many labor organizations have passed resolutions which, in the light of the truth that will some day be known, are a condonation of anarchy, dynamiting, and murder. It is unfortunate for the cause of labor that this is true. If the banners of labor become tainted with crime the cause is doomed to meet disaster. They may secure the interest of demagogues, but the people who love law and order and are conservators of the free institutions of America will stand like mountain barriers in their pathway. No true union man who loves his country can afford to indorse the crimes for which Edward Boyce is responsible. Before passing further resolutions and smirching the name of labor they should seek diligently and honestly to know the truth.

Organized labor is as near and dear to my heart as to any man in America. I have been a member of it for twenty seven years. I have labored for the cause and been honored by my fellow-craftsmen. Organized labor has given me better conditions and wages than I could have enjoyed outside its ranks. I could not be a traitor to that cause and am not. But I thank God that I am an enemy of dynamiters, murderers, and destroyers of property-and that is what Edward Boyce means. Respectfully,

JOHN L. KENNEDY.