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Whether they followed him or not always, I don't know, but if we wanted the support of the American Federation of Labor, even in the State of New York with regard to workmen's compensation, we had to go down and see Gompers to get him to give the nod to say it was all right before our own local New York State Federation of Labor would act at all, and Gompers wouldn't give the nod. He was opposed to it. The whole New York State Federation of Labor went on record as opposed to workmen's compensation legislation. This was in 1910, ‘11 - in that period - and it was a terrible battle.

We passed one workmen's compensation act and the courts did throw it out as unconstitutional and then we had to go back and do it over again. Over two or three years we made a few converts among the labor people to the workmen's compensation idea so that the opposition cooled off. But it was a true opposition on the theory that they got more when they sued. Of course they did get more when they sued if they had grounds for suit. They rarely had the grounds for suit. There was always contributory negligence. There was always lack of jurisdiction.

My recollection of Gompers is of a pompous little man. When I knew him he was very verbose and very given to telling long, long stories about his youth. He was very dictatorial.