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“...Gompers was right about
John Burns, he was a good man without doubt; the best rea-
son for believing him a good man I thought was his statement
that the delegates who voted against independent political ac-
tion were jackasses, and Mr. Gompers was one of the delegates.
Gompers did not like to have any one poke fun at him, and
made much fuss about it. He asked the privilege of the floor,
and consumed a good deal of time throwing fine bouquets at
no one else but himself.
The convention adjourned sine die. As some delegates
lingered in the hall, Gompers came over to me, and laying his
hand on my shoulder he patronizingly spoke to me thus:
Katz, I was in the labor movement before you were born.
You are on the wrong track. I was at one time a bit of a So-
cialist, not a member of the Socialist Labor Party, but worked
with the Socialists in the shop. I associated with them. I
drank with them, in short, I was one of them. I studied the
German language for six months so as to be able to read Marxs...”
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