Page:Samuel Gompers - Out of Their Own Mouths (1921).djvu/254

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APPENDIX I

AMERICAN LABOR AND RUSSIA

The friendship of American Labor for the Russian people has been invariable, steadfast, and unqualified. In a series of cablegrams the American Federation of Labor and its President have expressed at length their ardent interest in the permanent welfare of Russian labor and of the Russian people generally. This meant uncompromising hostility to Czarism and it means uncompromising repudiation of Sovietism. These cablegrams prove that American labor understands the elements of the Russian situation and takes its stand heart and soul with Russian labor and the Russian people.

Cablegram

Washington April 2, 1917.

Tstcheidze [President of the "Soviet"]

Petrograd

Representative of working people of Russia. Accept this message to the men of labor of Russia. We send greeting. The newly established liberty of Russia finds a warm response in the hearts of America's workers. We rejoice at the intelligence, courage and the conviction of a people who even while concentrating every effort upon defense against foreign aggression have reorganized their own institutions upon principles of freedom and democracy. But it is impossible to achieve the ideal state immediately. When the right foundation has been

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