In the
tentative years of its early struggles, the Federation could hope
for survival only upon the suffrance of the trade union, and
today, when the Federation has become powerful, its potencies
rest upon the same foundation.
* In one of the early years this was $13.
Secondly, Gompers has always advocated frugality in money
matters. His Federation is powerful but not rich. Its demands
upon the resources of the trade unions have always been moderate,
and the salaries paid have been modest.* When the Federation
erected a new building for its headquarters in Washington a few
years ago, it symbolized in its architecture and equipment this
modest yet adequate and substantial financial policy. American
labor unions have not yet achieved the opulence, ambitions, and
splendors of the guilds of the Middle Ages and do not yet direct
their activities from splendid guild halls.
* Before 1899 the annual income of the Federation was less than
$25,000; in 1901 it reached the $100,000 mark; and since 1905 it
has exceeded $200,000.
In the third place, Gompers has always insisted upon the
democratic methods of debate and referendum in reaching important
decisions. However arbitrary and intolerant his impulses may have
been, and however dogmatic and narrow his conclusions in regard
to the relation of labor to society and towards the employer (and
his Dutch inheritance gives him great obstinacy), he has astutely
refrained from too obviously bossing his own organization.
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