The Despotism of Industry Is Unacceptable (July
14,1919)
The head of the American Labor Party,29 Gompers, said in a speech, “The Labor
Party is determined that in the enterprise of reconstruction it will have the right to
speak out. The despotism of industry is unacceptable.” The United States is the first
nation of the globe to be an industrial despotism, and it is from this that the evil
system of the trusts has arisen. For the pleasure of a few, ten million must weep. The
more industry develops, the greater will be the number of those who must weep. What
means will Gompers employ to make this “unacceptable”? We do not know yet. But
it is a good thing that there is someone to take the lead in calling it “unacceptable.”
From the mouth of one man saying “unacceptable” it will spread to ten million all
saying “unacceptable.” “Unacceptable” will spread and rise from a low murmur to a
loud and a very loud and finally to a wild cry of “Unacceptable!” Only then will the
day of mankind’s true liberation dawn.
29 The reference is to the so-called Far Eastern Republic, which existed at this time as a buffer state
between Soviet Russia and China, with the tacit agreement of Lenin as well as of the Allies.