These principles are as follows: labor shall
not be regarded merely as a commodity or an article of commerce;
employers and employees shall have the right of forming
associations; a wage adequate to maintain a reasonable standard
of living shall be paid; an eight-hour day shall be adopted; a
weekly day of rest shall be allowed; child labor shall be
abolished and provision shall be made for the education of youth;
men and women shall receive equal pay for equal work; equitable
treatment shall be accorded to all workers, including aliens
resident in foreign lands; and an adequate system of inspection
shall be provided in which women should take part.
While these international adjustments were taking place, the
American Federation began to anticipate the problems of the
inevitable national labor readjustment after the war. Through a
committee appointed for that purpose, it prepared an ample
programme of reconstruction in which the basic features are the
greater participation of labor in shaping its environment, both
in the factory and in the community, the development of
cooperative enterprise, public ownership or regulation of public
utilities, strict supervision of corporations, restriction of
immigration, and the development of public education. The
programme ends by declaring that "the trade union movement is
unalterably and emphatically opposed...to a large standing
army."
During the entire period of the war, both at home and abroad,
Gompers fought the pacifist and the socialist elements in the
labor movement.
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