Union Support For The World War Effort

By Samuel Gompers, Labor Leader
Recorded 1918

Fellow Americans, our Republic is at war against the Imperial German and Austrian governments. That fact, all must now realize. War means victory for our cause, or danger to the very existence of our nation. The World War in which we are engaged is on such tremendous scale, and if the war should [inaudible] influences that we have readjusted practically, the nation's whole social and economic organization from a peace to a war basis. For labor, this readjustment was critical. It devolves upon liberty-loving citizens, and particularly the workers--distinctly--to see to it that the spirit and the methods of Democracy are maintained within our own country while we are engaged in this war to establish them for all the nations of the world.