18) SG to FT, Feb. 18, 1896.
Mr. Fusataro Takano,
180 Sendagi-Hayashi St.
Hongo, Tokio, Japan.
Dear Sir:
I am in receipt of your favor of December 15 dated Chemelpo, Corea, and was exceedingly interested in reading both your letter and the article which you so kindly wrote for the AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST.
It is unnecessary for me to say that I read your letter with not only pleasure but with a great deal of interest and have even wondered how you had fared after your arrival in Japan. I presume that your experience as a war correspondent must have been varied, interesting, and exciting. You know that I am exceedingly interested in you and your observations and your correspondence has been of such a character as to make our acquaintance somewhat more than an ordinary friendship.
I hope now that the war is at an end, that you will obtain some remunerative employment and that you will be enable to utilize your talents for the purpose of helping to organize the wage workers that have accrued to the country and to the moneyed classes in the progress of the past 25 years.
By a strange coincidence you wrote your letter the day after I was re-elected to the presidency of the American Federation of Labor, and I am now located at Indianapolis, Indiana.
Having had the pleasure of issuing you your first commission as general organizer, it gives me more than ordinary gratification to renew your commission. You will find it herein. I also mail to your address copies of the Federationist from and including October, the February issue of which I edited. I also mail to you a copy of the proceedings of the New York convention for I know you will be interested in the work done there.
With kindest regards and hoping to hear from you soon and as frequently as you can make it convenient, I am.
Fraternally yours,
Samuel Gompers President
American Federation of Labor
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