could get the most of out of life, even if the economic system they labored under was a poor one. 1923 AFL attack on Brookwood The first AFL attack on Brookwood came in April 1923. AFL President Samuel Gompers delivered a widely reported speech in which he accused the college of belonging to an "interlocking network" of more than 50 "pacifist and revolutionary organizations of a more or less extreme character". Gompers also pointed to the large financial donation made to Brookwood by the American Fund for Public Service (the Garland Fund), which Gompers charged was a Communist Party-dominated organization that was trying to violently overthrow the government of the United States. Garland Fund trustees then gently pointed out that a third of its donations had gone to AFL member unions or their sponsored organizations. The controversy immediately died down. For many years after Gompers' attack, AFL officials largely ignored Brookwood. In part this was because the college was independent, but in part it was because the AFL believed it could dominate (and thus control) workers' education efforts and turn them to its own purposes through the Workers' Education Bureau. The 1926 AFL investigation of Brookwood Samuel Gompers died on December 13, 1924, and William Green was elected president of the AFL as his successor. Green and the AFL Executive Council were convinced that if the labor movement were to succeed, it had to market itself as a supporter of the capitalist system and partner with business. Every element of progressivism had to be eliminated from the labor movement in order to make this strategy work. It also meant that all progressive criticism of the AFL had to be silenced. Brookwood's success proved threatening to the AFL, however. On May 1, 1926, Muste announced that Brookwood would embark on a major fund-raising campaign to allow the school to expand its enrollment to 100 students per class. As 1926 came to a close, Muste said the school was also looking to raise $2 million, half of which would be used to expand facilities and enrollment and half of which would be used to create an endowment to enhance the school's financial stability. Brookwood's attempt to raise $2 million alarmed the AFL. If successful, Brookwood (which was turning away as many students as it accepted) would begin graduating enough students to flood the labor movement with staff who would then begin challenging