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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.