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AGE 12 THE TOILER SATURDAY, NOV. 27th, 1920. the greatest business prosperity. And so we see that the workers in that former country lose in the end anyway. Obviously, then, the masses are chasing a phantom when they search for increased wages. But such is the class struggle the workers fight ing to increase and the owners fighting to decrease wages. What is to be done? The cause of the terrible plight in which the world's producers find themselves is the iniquitous system that compels us to toil for others. To at tempt to uproot this iniquity by mere industrial reforms is "squaring the Circle". Look to the cause remove it! The capitalist enjoys such circles for reasons which to him are precious. Apart from the part icular one which affects us primarily, there are several other "circles" which await removal. "The inner circle", for example, of the bourgeoisie, whose duty it is to spy upon and intimidate the working class. Many such organizations function for just these purposes. Tools of the masters, thugs, agents, bullies and professional strike breakers. Many of this ilk parade under the pro tection of the department of Justice. All work for one end the continued enslavement of the work ers. And then when one attempts to right such wrongs, one runs the risk of seeing yet another circle: that one around which "criminals" and radicals are permitted an hours exercise the cage in jail. These circles all vicious, all apparently eternal, may be abolished for ever if the toiler arises from his dreams and faces reality. No Gods or Caesar's Ghosts are here to aid us, to ourselves alone must we look for salvation. If we fear to take that which is ours by right, then we deserve not what we have. When we come in to our own by taking that which belongs to us, we shall have shown the world that we are worthy of all it has to give. Then out of the ashes of this capitalist in ferno will arise a world characterized, not by vicious and ever moving "Circles" but by the straight paths of Human Progress. MR. GOMPERS' DILEMMA. By Paul Hanna The present conservative leadership of the American Federatiori of Labor is caught between the closing pincers of reactionary employers on the one hand and so-called radical labor agitators n the other. As a prophet President Gomper's reputation should at this moment touch the zenith. He told the First Industrial Conference in passionate tones fourteen months ago that the employing cap italists must either concede and help establish the rights granted labor during the war, or else witness the triumph of Vhat he termed "Bolshe yism" within the American labor movement. In the language of Mr. Gompers a "Bolshevik" is anyone who demands or tends toward the nation alization of basic industries and their democratic control by the wage-earning and salaried person nel. To thwart that tendency Mr. Gompers pleaded with the employers to pay a "fair day's wage" and agree to collective bargaining . with represent atives chosen by the workers. That plea was rejected by the employers, headed by Judge Gary, of the Steel Trust. And the j Gary principle of so-called open shop and low wages now animates the U. S. Chamber of Com merce and big employers generally in the prevail ing drive back to bread-lines and normalcy. President Gompers must have believed that his appeal would be heeded. It is certain that the present development finds him and his cabinet without any plan to repel either of the mighty forces which are converging upon them. The es sential nature of Gompers' guidance of labor re quires the co-operation of the big employers. Those employers have refused to co-operate. The workers turn instinctively toward a program which does not require the co-operation of employ ers which must be away from Gompers. Appropriate irony is provided by big news papers in Washington and elsewhere which now raise the alarm that the 'Reds' are fastening their hold upon the A. F. of L. These newspapers are precisely the ones which fought Gompers in the Industrial Conference and praised the stand of Judge Gary. That is, they paved the way for a reorganization of the labor movement on class conscious lines. But the fruit of their labors they