Legislation. Gompers was selected as one of the American
representatives and was chosen chairman. While the Commission was
busy with its tasks, an international labor conference was held
at Berne. Gompers and his colleagues, however, refused to attend
this conference. They gave as their reasons for this aloofness
the facts that delegates from the Central powers, with whom the
United States was still at war, were in attendance; that the
meeting was held "for the purpose of arranging socialist
procedure of an international character"; and that the convention
was irregularly called, for it had been announced as an
interallied conference but had been surreptitiously converted
into an international pacifist gathering, conniving with German
and Austrian socialists.

Probably the most far-reaching achievement of Gompers is the by
no means inconsiderable contribution he has made to that portion
of the treaty of peace with Germany relating to the international
organization of labor. This is an entirely new departure in the
history of labor, for it attempts to provide international
machinery for stabilizing conditions of labor in the various
signatory countries. On the ground that "the well-being, physical
and moral, of the industrial wage-earners is of supreme
international importance," the treaty lays down guiding
principles to be followed by the various countries, subject to
such changes as variations in climate, customs, and economic
conditions dictate. These principles are as follows: labor shall
not be regarded merely as a commodity or an article of commerce;
employers and employees shall have the right of forming
associations; a wage adequate to maintain a reasonable standard
of living shall be paid; an eight-hour day shall be adopted; a