Page:Samuel Gompers - Out of Their Own Mouths (1921).djvu/13

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FOREWORD
ix

not only to labor and its sympathizers but to the entire community.

I must take this opportunity to point out that the hostility of the Bolshevists to the American Federation of Labor is of the same degree of intensity and of the same general character as the hostility of a large group of reactionary employers—a group to be found in all countries, but at the present moment far more aggressive and powerful in the United States than in any other nation of the globe. So closely identical are the anti-labor-union policies of the Bolshevists and Reactionaries that a number of instances have already arisen of deliberate co-operation to destroy organized labor. But even when there is no definite alliance the similarity of the purposes and methods of the two groups bring it about that they spread an identical propaganda. The Reactionary, therefore, does not disguise the delight with which he reads of the Bolshevist attacks on organized labor, nor do the Bolshevists disguise their joy at the victories of Reaction. Nor is this the only way by which Reaction aids Bolshevism; in its refusal to grant reasonable economic concessions and to cede to reasonable demands for political and legislative reforms, the Reactionaries inevitably drive the thoughtless and impatient into the arms of Bolshevism.

I have been obliged to deal continually with Bolshevism for the past four years. I have utilized in the present volume parts of several recent articles from the official organ of the American Federation of Labor, The American Federationist, of which I am editor, as well as certain material in the current report of the Executive