The Samuel Gompers Papers

Dissatisfied that political leaders of both parties failed to enact laws supported by the AFL, and convinced that Congress "has been entirely preoccupied looking after the interests of vast corporations and predatory wealth," the AFL encouraged affiliates to get involved in congressional elections in 1906. "The first concern should be the positive defeat" of incumbents who ignored or opposed labor's "just demands," the leadership noted. And in cases where both parties were guilty of neglect "a straight labor candidate should be nominated."