1. "President Gompers' Report to the International Federation of Trade Unions," American Federationist 22 (Mar. 1915): 198; Samuel Gompers sent this report to Carl Legien in July 1914. For the AFL's vision of industrial democracy, see Milton Derber, The American Idea of Industrial Democracy, 1865-1965 (Urbana, Ill., 1970), pp. 123-28, and Joseph A. McCartin, Labor's Great War: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of Modern American Labor Relations, 1912-1921 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1997), pp. 9, 54-56.
2. AFL, Proceedings, 1913, pp. 6-7; "An Address at the Dedication of the AFL Office Building, Washington, D.C.," July 4, 1916, in the Samuel Gompers Papers, Vol. .; "Excerpts from Testimony before the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations," May 21-22, 1914, in the Samuel Gompers Papers, Vol. 9; AFL, Proceedings, 1915, p. 88.
3. Sinclair Snow, The Pan-American Federation of Labor (Durham, N.C., 1964).
4. U.S. Statutes at Large, 38: 731; AFL, Proceedings, 1916, p. 5.
5. Melvyn Dubofsky, The State and Labor in Modern America (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1994), pp. 47-48.
6. "From Daniel Tobin," Jan. 22, 1914, in the Samuel Gompers Papers, Vol. 9.
7. For the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, see Steve Fraser, Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and the Rise of American Labor (New York, 1991). For the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, see U.S. Congress, Senate, Industrial Relations. Final Report and Testimony Submitted to Congress by the Commission on Industrial Relations . . . , 64th Cong., 1st sess., 1916, S.Doc. 415; and Graham Adams, Jr., The Age of Industrial Violence, 1910-15: The Activities and Findings of the United States Commission on Industrial Relations (New York, 1966).
8. Gompers, "Self-Help Is the Best Help," American Federationist 22 (Feb. 1915): 115. Gompers was quoting from the Executive Council's report to the 1908 AFL convention.
9. "To Harry Fulton," Aug. 31, 1915, in the Samuel Gompers Papers, Vol. 9.
10. Gompers, "The Shorter Workday--Its Philosophy," American Federationist 22 (Mar. 1915): 169.
11. Gompers to J. Clarence Lukens, Jr., Apr. 3, 1916, reel 205, Vol.. 217, p. 811, SG Letterbooks, DLC.
12. "To Ralph Easley," Aug. 2, 1916, in the Samuel Gompers Papers, Vol. 9.
13. For Gompers' and the AFL's relation to Mexican labor leaders see Gregg Andrews, Shoulder to Shoulder?: The American Federation of Labor, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1924 (Berkeley, Calif., 1991).
14. "To Robert Woolley," Aug. 25, 1916, in the Samuel Gompers Papers, Vol. 9.
15. There has always been a question about the influence of German spies in American ports and munitions factories (see, for example, "To Ernest Bohm," July 28, 1915, in the Samuel Gompers Papers, Vol. 9). In fact, there is some evidence that in 1915 Ralph Easley set up a secret service agency through the National Civic Federation that documented subversive activities in the munitions industry. Because the records of the National Civic Federation, in the New York Public Library's Manuscript Division, were being microfilmed while this volume was in preparation, we were unable to fully investigate Gompers' role in this episode.
16. "To James Duncan," Dec. 31, 1915, in the Samuel Gompers Papers, Vol. 9.
17. "To Newton Baker," Oct. 31, 1916, in the Samuel Gompers Papers, Vol. 9.
18. AFL, Proceedings, 1916, p. 379.