Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 19, 1918
Laredo, Texas – A. F. of L. Defeats Plan to Assist I. W. W.
From El Paso Morning Times of November 16, 1918:
DEFEAT PLAN TO ASSIST
MEMBERS OF I.W.W.
—–
Labor Leaders at Pan-American Labor Conference
Attack Resolution Offered by Mexican
Delegates That Was Intended
to Aid Imprisoned Men.
—–
GOMPERS AND MOYER DENOUNCERS OF MOVE
—–
President of Mine Workers Bitter
in His Arraignment of Haywood,
Secretary of Organization,
Who Is Serving a Sentence
for Espionage.
—–
By Associated Press.
From the Appeal to Reason of February 16, 1907
Laredo, Texas, Nov. 15.-An attempt by Mexican delegates to the pan-American labor conference to have adopted a resolution aiming at the release from prison of Industrial Workers of the World today brought forth an attack on that organization by American labor leaders, who defeated the plan.
The opposition to the Mexican resolution, offered as a result of I. W. W. influence in Mexico, was led by Charles H. Moyer, who as president of the Western Federation of Miners several years ago had associated with him as secretary of that organization, William D. Haywood, now secretary and treasurer of the I. W. W., who is serving sentence under the espionage act.
Samuel Gompers, after the resolution had been introduced, drew out the fact that it was intended to aid imprisoned I. W. W. and at once all the executive council of the American Federation of Labor attacked the movement, which was warmly defended by some of the Mexican delegates.
Denounces Haywood.
Moyer, who now is president of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, previously had taken no part in the conference proceedings. He arose to answer a statement by a Mexican delegate that the I. W. W. had convinced many Mexican workmen that the American Federation of Labor fought the Haywood organization merely because the two organizations were seeking the same end by different means. Moyer, who with Haywood, had been charged with the murder of Governor Steunenberg of Idaho, presented a dramatic figure when he arose.
[He said:]
My name is Moyer. Remember that name and go back to Mexico and till them what I say. Twelve years ago Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone were on trial for their lives and although we were not affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, that organization contributed the funds which enabled us to prove our innocence and saved our lives.
Pettibone died and on his death bed he gave thanks to the American Federation of Labor for the help it had given him. Moyer lived and served and has tried to be true to the organization to which he owes his life. He is now paying part of the debt he owes them. Haywood was false, he started at once an organization to undermine his benefactors and injure his country.
Resolution Amended.
The resolution which brought out the debate was amended to provide that the executive council of the American Federation of Labor should investigate any report of the men improperly imprisoned and take what action the members saw fit. The resolution as adopted read:
That an agreement be reached as to the best way for finding honorable means to exert influence so that justice and protection will be imparted to those workingmen who, for various reasons, are deprived o their liberty in the jails of the United States.
Mr. Gompers started the debate by demanding the exact meaning of the resolution. He was answered by Perez Ruiz, delegate from Torreon, who conceded that the influence of the Industrial Workers of the World had made itself widely felt in Mexico and that the resolution had been introduced as the opening wedge to obtain the release of the I. W. W. prisoners now confined in the Leavenworth prison.
The arguments presented by various Mexican speakers included the contention that the I. W. W. and the American Federation were rival organizations, animated by jealousy, that the American union had planned to put into jail all working men who did not belong to it and finally ended with the plea that the federation should forgive the convicted men their past offenses and obtain their release.
Labor Aided Mexico.
Mr. Gompers related to the delegates the part organized labor had played in aiding the people of Mexico in years past, including its protests, which helped induce the American government to refuse to return Mexican political refugees who had fled to the United States at the time of the revolution against President Diaz.
[Mr. Gompers said:]
The American labor movement supported Madero. The American labor movement opposed the assassin Huerta, the American labor movement did everything in its power to prevent conflict between the United States and Mexico. Whether in Russia or in Ireland or in Mexico or in any country where the people are endeavoring to find freedom and justice, the American Federation of Labor put forth its best efforts to help secure them.
Why not release the I. W. W. prisoners and let them work out their own salvation according to the lights, you ask?
I. W. W. Like Bolsheviki.
The I. W. W. in the United States is just exactly what the Bolsheviki is in Russia, and we have seen what they have done to the working people in Russia, where the people have no security, no peace, no land and no bread.
The American Federation of Labor is going to continue to work for the best interests in the United States, in Russia and in the far east and it is going to help you if you will let it. We can’t do anything to help you in your country if you don’t want us.
The amended resolution was adopted with only four opposing votes. The entire day was occupied with discussions of Mexican questions and the peace program contained in the resolution by President Gompers was not acted upon,. It will be taken up tomorrow. It is thought the Pan-American Federation of Labor will be effected and the conference probably adjourn by tomorrow night.
Members of the I.W.W were tortured in the Leavenworth penitentiary. Some of them were in isolation in the prison within a prison. Some were in the black hole. Others were being strung up to the bars every day during working hours. Many of them had been cruelly beaten.
It was in this hour of stress that the Mexican delegates at the Pan-American Labor Conference at Laredo, Texas, raised their voices for the release of all political prisoners. Samuel Gompers, backed by other A. F. of L. officials, including Charles H. Moyer, one time president of the Western Federation of Miners, rejected the appeal of the Mexican workers.
At the height of this open season on Wobblies [wherein 5 IWWs had recently died in the Sacramento County Jail and, in the Newton County Jail of Kansas, James Gossard died while the Laredo Conference was in session]-in November 1918-a group of trade unionists from the United States and Mexico met at the Pan American Labor Conference in Laredo, Texas. Some Mexican delegates proposed a resolution in support of the imprisoned Wobblies. One after another, the top leaders of the American Federation of Labor rose to denounce the resolution and castigate the IWW. First the AFL’s treasurer and then its third Vice-president attacked the proposal. Finally, President Samuel Gompers himself took the floor to vilify the IWW.
[He told the delegates:]
We could not tolerate any agency which sought to interfere with our work for this Holy War. We could not aid men who would destroy the only real organized labor movement in America and who would wreck our nation itself.
But even Gompers was eclipsed by another speaker, a man described by one reporter as “gray, bent and lined,” an aging figure speaking in a broken voice.”
[The man said:]
My name is Moyer-Charles H. Moyer. Many of you know me. More know of me. I am that Moyer who sat in the shadow of Death out in Boise, Idaho, with Bill Haywood and George Pettibone. My organization was not then a member of the American Federation of Labor but it poured out its money for our defense. Pettibone is dead. On his death bed, he blessed the federation for what it had done for him. I am alive and still working within the Federation to show amy gratitude and my appreciation for what this-the only labor movement in the United states-is doing for humanity.
Bill Haywood is alive-in prison, a fate he richly merits. From the day he was set free, he has been working against the Federation to which he owes his life and liberty, and against organized society and the best interests of the workingman. I warn you agains him and his propaganda…
The resolution was defeated.
For more on the Laredo Pan American Labor Conference:
We have just brought to a successful termination in conjunction with our associates the greatest war in history. To bring it to a termination, we have made sacrifices of our best blood and our richest materials.
We have not made these sacrifices for the purpose of personal aggrandizement of any man; we have not made these sacrifices for the purpose of securing additional territory; we have not made these sacrifices for the purpose of imposing our will upon any people, but we have made these sacrifices in order that democracy might be safe for all the world and for all peoples of the world, whether they are large peoples, small peoples, great nations, or little nations.
We wanted the right to work out our own destiny in our own way, unimpeded by the mailed fist of any autocrat and we welcomed—aye not only welcomed but insisted—that every free people of the earth should have the same right.
We insisted upon these things because we believe in democracy, in the right of the people to rule themselves, and that we were not deceived and are not deceived the achievement of democracy is not in itself the end to be attained, but only the proper means to accomplish the end.
The end to be obtained is the working out of our own problems in accordance with our own facts, our own consciences and our own ideals, not working them out in accordance with the methods imposed upon us by some one in authority from above, but working them out in accordance with our own ideals coming up and springing up out of our own thought and our own activities.
-Secretary of Labor Wilson, welcoming Mexican delegates to the United States in behalf of the President, at the Pan-American Labor Conference, Laredo, Texas, November 13.
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There is Power In The Union
“Joe Hill’s best song.”-Utah Phillips
