Washington, D.C., Oct. 31, 1903.

Dear Sir and Brother:

No doubt you are familiar with some of the facts concerning the enactment of a very damaging anti-boycott law in Alabama, all efforts of the A.F. of L. and the State Federation to the contrary notwithstanding.

We have it from an ex-member of the "Citizens Alliance" that Birmingham is to be made one of the main points of attack in the South, and that it is the purpose of that Alliance with unlimited financial backing to exterminate by wholesale discharging, one craft at a time; and, under the law defy labor to persuade or induce non-union men to not take their places, until labor unions have been destroyed in the entire South.

Many discharges have already been made in manufacturing plants, and the Retail Clerks' Association is in imminent danger of being disrupted by a flat refusal of the Merchants Exchange further to recognize the union or grant any part of clerks' demands.

At a mass meeting of organized labor in Alabama held in Birmingham on October 11th, 1903, the very best legal talent was retained, and a committee of twenty selected to devise ways and means for raising funds to test the constitutionality and make a continuous unrelenting fight on this iniquitous un-American law.

It is useless for me to say that our practically young organizations in the South are easily frightened, and even at this early stage of their growth it is becoming very evident that a weakening influence is getting in effective work, and it is a difficult matter for them to raise any great amount of money there, even when the life of organized labor is at stake.

You are therefore earnestly requested to do what you can to be helpful in this matter and to contribute and continue to hold your organization in readiness to respond morally and financially to the best of your ability to a dangerously threatened cause. The Executive Council of the A.F. of L. has given the above matter earnest and serious consideration and directs the undersigned to make this appeal to you. I trust that it may receive your favorable consideration.

Fraternally yours, Saml Gompers.

President American Federation of Labor.

N.B.--Send all remittances to Mr. Edward Flynn, President, District No. #20, United Mine Workers, Room 324, Chalifoux Building, Birmingham, Alabama, and notify Organizer H. N. Randall, Box 154, Birmingham.