504 THE CLASS STRUGGLE EDITORIALS 505 The of Labor Mission sia, but only for the uprooting of Bolshevism. Confidence was expressed in Mr. Gompers and in the power of labor to stand with the allied cause. The hearing of the conference on the British labor situation lies in the fact as stated by William English Walling that of the 300 Parliamentary candidates of the Labor Party in England 225 so far chosen belong to the Socialist Independent Labor Party (let by MacDonald and Snowden) and are pacifists. In France two thirds of the Socialist Party, led by Jean Longuet, the grandson of Karl Marx, and most of the trade unions, are pacifist.
In the Socialist movement of Europe, and there is no other labor movement in Europe worthy of the name, Samuel Gompers, whose efforts will be directed against pacifism and socialism, will be sure of a hearty and understanding reception. And with him Spargo, Russel, Simons and Private Kopelin, who are under the same instructions as he and his colleagues.
For the same conductor directs the whole orchestra.
The utter incompetency and reactionary character of the of mission to Britain, France and Italy has left a bad taste in the mouth of Anglo French Italian labor, which, in spite of its. conservative attitude, is immeasurably in advance of the petrified bureaucracy of American Organized Labor.
In its issue of August 10, Collier says editorially. friend of ours, at Paris, saw a letter from a member of the French High Commission at Washington in regard to the American Labor Mission. it said, in effect: Send them to the Folies Bergères and dine them at the Café des Ambassadeurs, and show them something of the front, and introduce them to a few hand picked French labor men BUT don let em meet the French Socialists! This might lead one to infer that the French Government doesn want American labor to get in touch and sympathy with French labor, or it might mean that the French representatives at Washington suspected that the aforesaid Labor Mission was better adapted to hors oeuvres and pony ballets and patriotic speeches on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville than to discussion of war labor problems with the Frenchmen who specialize in such matters.
The of Mission might be disposed of with this blistering characterization, were it not for the purposes animating the Mission and those who invited the Mission to Europe.
The invitation was extended by the British Government, and the Mission in England was practically a personally conducted government tour. The members saw what they were wanted to see. They adopted an attitude that was not only self pillorying, but that outraged French and British labor, which has suffered so much and so intensely in the war. The fact is that the of Labor Mission was used by Premier Lloyd George and Premier Clemenceau as an instrument in the offensive against labor and the Socialists, who are surely, if slowly, awak