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!fCANFIELD’S SIDE OF THE'IBARLOW INCIDENT AT FT. DODGETo the Editor: subjects. One was a complaint h« jDuring my absence last week, j had made against the Cedar Rapids *while attending the State Federa-; trades and iaior assembly, for thelftion of Labor meeting in Ft. Dodge, \ cancellation of an engagement he jarticles appeared in some Cedar hau maue to speak in the iauor hall)Rapids papers which did an injustice here, and tne otner was indorsementcf tne World War vvt»rans. W hento organized labor in Iowa, and which I feel sure must have been based on ignorance of the facts.They were apparently based on the theory that the State Federation of Lairor and myself as its president had been guilty of permitting, if not j actually indorsing, radical sentiments expressed by men invited to; , , . .address them. The criticisms dealt j remarks he said not| ^veterans.he finished, I placed tne Cedar Rapids aitair m the liands of the grievance committee, witn a request that he appear before the committee, along with tne Cedar Rapios ae4e-gates; this he failed to do. The matter of tne indorsement was referredto tne resolution committee. Duringwhichii■particularly with what was claimed to have been said by a Mr. Barlow and a Mr. Martin of the World WarVeterans. iNow the facts of the matter are that, if the utterances were made at all, it was not at a meeting of the Htate Federation of Labor nor onewith which we had the slightest connection. Th* meeting in question was cal!e*j and sponsored by the World War Veterans, in conjunction with delegates from tlie Fort Dodge Trades and Labor assembly without the State Federation j of Labor being in any way connected with it nor responsible for what was done. The mayor of Fort Dodge presided and there was no relation between it and the Federation convention. It was held in anotherplace than the one jn which theconvention meetings occurred, and was held at night, when we were holding no sessions ; As to whether the sentiments | which have been criticised were really uttered I have no means of | knowing, for I merely looked in at the meeting a few moments and did : not hear either Mr. Martin’s or Mr.Barlow’s speeches. I have under-*stood that the Fort Dodge paper has published a denial by Barlow thati the things which it has been charged 1. by some Iowa papers as havingI Ieen spoken were not in fact said. However, that is something I am not concerned with here and some-couid be construed as ultra-radical ; aPtlt;araVt;othing I can not speak with personal knowledge about.The only time that Mr. Barlcw addressed the State Federation of Labor was when, on motion fronx^fle floor, he was given the privilege of speaking to the convention on twoor which his caked iortn any criti-LdmIt is not my purpose here either to defend or criticise Mr. Barlow or Mr. Martin, or their organization,, but merely to indicate that they ana j ^ they a one are responsible lor any views they may nave expressed. They are adv ocating the formation j y of a third party, to which 1 am opposed, and the efforts to have such a movement approved by the state Federation of Labor was defeated. Neither is it up to me to speak for j b Col. Brookhart, whose name was j used along with mine in the Cedar Rapids pu]*ers, 111 an apparent effort to connect us with something lotwhich we could in no way end by nostreten of the imagination be held res*onsible. I happen to know that Col. Brookhart did not hear either Barlow or Martin speak at any time while he was in Fort Dodge, where he came to address the State Federation of Labor at my invitation. He talked to the soldiers’ meeting a few minutes in Fort Dodge 011 the question of the soldiers’ bonus, before Mr. Barlow and Mr. Martin had spoken,and left the meeting with me imme-diately after he had finished, so he did not have an opportunity to know what they said or to criticise it at any public gathering while he was in Fort Dodge.It seems to me that you have done Col. Brookhart, myself and the Stale Federation of Labor, so grave an in-justice, which I think must havebe* n uxntentional, that I am sure vnot hesitate to make this brrection.Cordially vours,FRED A. CANFIELD, President, Iowa Federation of Labor.
Newspaper Details
The Evening Gazette
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US
Tue, May 25, 1920
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Shoji N.
NA, 18 May 2018
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