A struggle has existed for years in the ranks of the American Federation of Labor between the "political" and the "non-political" labor leaders. Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, heads the non-political faction. He adheres to the principle that the aim of labor unions should be only to seek improvement of their conditions through higher wages, shorter hours and sanitary working conditions--and no more. Their concern in the politics of the nation should be limited only to the extent that labor may be affected, but general legislation or the administration of the country are not objects with which labor unions should concern themselves. Mr. Gompers maintains that such matters can divert the attention of labor unions from their own immediate interests, causing disruption because of the diverse opinions on political questions.

On the contrary, the younger element in the ranks of the labor leaders contends 2that strikes and walking delegates, and casual support to a friendly candidate who promises favorable legislation in behalf of labor are poor tactics. So long as the selection of legislators and of executive officers [of the country] are not taken up by the workers in their great unions, very little benefit will accrue to the labor interests.

The younger labor leaders also point out that in England the labor unions take a deep interest in the political questions of the country and are electing their special labor representatives to the Parliament, and the result is that in England the Government pays more attention to the demands of organized labor than is true here in America.

During the last ten years Gompers has fought against a move to introduce politics in the unions and has always been successful. Time and again he has been re-elected president. During the war he received the thanks of the Administration for the political stand he took as a sober, conservative labor leader.

But the position taken by the Government in regard to the coal miners, railroad men and steel and iron workers, and the systematic drive against radicals, gives the younger element in the American Federation of Labor an opportunity to tell Mr. Gompers and his supporters: "Ah, you did not want to take a political position and have your own representatives in the legislatures and in the Administration--here is the answer for you!

"Of what benefit are strikes, higher wages and shorter hours, when the would-be servants of the nation are all servants of the employers and are not in sympathy with the aspirations of labor?"

Gompers' former great maxim of "no politics in the union" is being gradually wiped out and consequently the aged Gompers, who seems to have lost his grip on the great labor organization, is disappointed.

At the end of November of last year a labor convention was held in Chicago at which about twelve hundred delegates were present and the so-called Labor Party was then organized. This was the first step of labor as a challenge to the existing political parties.

The general press reported very little about the convention, but that does not lessen the political significance of the latter. The delegates to the convention were mostly miners, railroad men and iron workers of the middle-western states, and the chief thought that permeated the convention and which was most often uttered was: "The ruling class of the country seeks to injure the industrial machine--the labor organization of the country--which we have used to improve the living conditions of the workers. Let us then show them that we will not abandon this machine, but will strengthen it by organizing a political machine in order to combat the enemy on his own ground."

Another of their arguments is that a political organization of workers is necessary for the security of the country. They point to Russia as an example. After the revolution, when the workers seized power, they lacked practical labor leaders, experienced in political and administrative work to take over the government of that country. Instead, they were forced to turn over the reins of the government to theoreticians and philosophers who are experimenting with Russia. The result is that Russia has fallen into a disastrous chaos from which she will emerge only after many years of terrible suffering.

The arguments and movements within the American Federation of Labor make it very difficult for Samuel Gompers to adhere any longer to his maxim of "no politics in the unions," and are responsible for his apparent disappointment. Were it not for the respect that most leaders have for the old gray head, he would have fallen off long ago from the president's chair in the American Federation of Labor. However, a radical change in the policies of the Federation can no longer be denied.