A Rabbit Keeper

A rabbit with a cork leg, wobbly ears and a false eye, its bodily structure fabricated of brown cotton, is paying a visit to Portland, Ore. The reason for this animal's visit is the opening of the annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor on Oct. 1. The rabbit is there as the mascot of the greatest cigarmaker in the world's history -- Samuel Gompers.

As the Federation of Labor goes into its 43rd year, it is the most influential labor body in the Western Hemisphere. The story of how it became what it is, really began more than 73 years ago. In London, east of the City, lies Whitechapel, a slum largely inhabited by Jews. There, in January, 1850, a son was born to Solomon Gompers, Jewish cigarmaker. That son was Samuel. He had but four years of schooling. At the age of ten he was apprenticed to a shoemaker; out of dislike for that trade he soon gave up that trade for cigarmaking. Those were the days of the Civil War, and his first serious reading was anti-slavery pamphlets. He became an Abolitionist.

In the midst of the Civil War, aged 13, he came to America. Before the war was over he had organized the first cigar-makers' union in New York. Since then he has devoted himself to leadership in the American labor movement.

Cigar-making is not a trade of such outstanding importance that it should command the labor of a nation; yet it helped Sam Gompers to his high place. The cigar-makers worked better when their minds were busy. So they arranged for one of their number to read to them while they worked, making their own cigars and an equal share for the reader. Sam Gompers became a favorite reader. Thereby he acquired a precise enunciation, a mellifluous voice and an effective oral interpretation of words. It also brought him a wide contact with English literature, to which he added a knowledge of the works of English and German economists.

Thus prepared, his vigorous personality was competent to handle the difficult situations of labor politics. His power of persuasion is only equaled by his fighting power, and it is rarely that one or the other is not triumphant.

In 1881 he helped to organize the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, reorganized five years later into the American Federation of Labor. He might have been its first President, but he declined and was made Vice President. The following year he was President. He has held that position ever since, except in 1894-95, when he was barely defeated by John McBride, leader of the coal miners. For practically 43 years he has dominated the greatest labor organization in America.

Br'er Rabbit, of whom the brown cotton bunny is a representation, was suggested years ago by Mr. Gompers' secretary, who detected a decided likeness between Uncle Remus' Br'er Rabbit and her chief. It was the play of wits between Br'er Rabbit and the enemies that sought to corner him that made the secretary think of the mental adroitness of Samuel Gompers in a similar situation. She found the rabbit "human looking, with a glint of knowingness in his eye, an all-pervading air of goodwill, an absence of bitterness in his make-up." So she purchased the cotton rabbit and presented it to Mr. Gompers. And " Br'er " has sat ever since as mascot on the labor leader's desk, has accompanied him on his travels.

His tenets:

As labor leaders go, Samuel Gompers is a conservative.

Organized labor is one of Mr. Gompers' ideals. " I can explain my position," he has said, " by a story. You see a boy whistling mightily as he approaches a yellow dog. He kicks the dog into the gutter and goes on whistling loudly. Then he comes to a bulldog. He looks at him but he doesn't touch him." Unorganized labor is the yellow dog; organized labor the bulldog.

One big union is an idea to which Mr. Gompers has always been vigorously opposed. Ho believes in autonomous unions within each trade, coordinated and assisted by the Federation of which he is leader.

A labor party is contrary to his principles. He fears it might split union ranks. Nevertheless his organization makes a practice of disseminating political information in regard to records of candidates for public offices and their attitude toward labor.

Government ownership he vigorously opposes, and one of his few great defeats was when the A. F. of L. Convention of 1920 voted for Government ownership of the railroads.

Woman Suffrage had his approval.

Socialism and Communism have always been anathema to him. He fought the propaganda of the Socialist Berger and still fights the radicalism of William Z. Foster and the " Soviet invasion " of the U. S. He has said in his speeches: "I pity the Socialists. . . . I have read all their books. I know all their arguments. . . . I do not regard them as rational beings. ... If the lesser and immediate demands of labor could not be obtained from society as it is, it would be mere dreaming to preach and pursue the will-o'-the-wisp, a new society constructed from rainbow materials. . . ."

Capitalism is not a Gompers fetish, as his opposition to Socialism indicates. He declared: "There is no necessity to worry about how labor and capital can be reconciled, for they are one and the same."

Life is no pathway of roses in Mr. Gompers' view. " Happiness cannot be granted to man below," he philosophized. " Life is but a strife. . . . I have almost had my very soul burned in the trials of life. . . ."

His Rope:

The A. F. of L. has been called "a rope of sand" because it is a federation of autonomous unions, not a union of dependent bodies. It was originally formed in opposition to the contrary ideal of the Knights of Labor. The fact that the rope of sand has become a powerful organization may be attributed largely to the personal energy of the man at its head.

But the fact that the A. F. of L. is a loosely knit body means that Mr. Gompers still has to fight the battles he has waged from the very beginning. He will be faced at Portland by demands for one big union, for recognition of Soviet Russia and other radical measures. There will be two days for the presentation of resolutions, and the remainder of a two weeks' session will be devoted to committee hearings and the passage of resolutions. Among the questions to be dealt with will be restriction of immigration, labor schools, labor injunctions, compulsory arbitration, child and female labor legislation, labor banks.

About 500 delegates will be in attendance who will cast about 3,500 votes, one vote for each 1,000 members in the entire organization of about 3,500,000. Theoretically the functions of the Federation extend little beyond this annual passage of resolutions. Actually the Federation settles jurisdictional disputes between unions, issues charters and assists in the formation of local unions and trade unions which become its members. Over its member unions, especially the smaller ones, it exercises an effective, if unrecognized, general discipline.

Mr. Gompers may proudly survey his work--an organization with 3,500,000 members, which he helped to found with less than 50,000; an organization with a budget of over half a million dollars as compared to less than $200.43 years ago; a power in labor; a power in politics.