>gompers railed against variety of turn-of-20th century/so-called
>progressive era state-based 'reform' programs, including national
>health insurance, on grounds that they would hurt labor organizing
Fitch has some excellent stuff in his book about this - Gompers and his AFL colleagues thought that national health insurance and even legislation restricting the length of the workday were forms of paternalism that would weaken the "virility" of American workers. The gendered language is pretty telling.
Doug