Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 33, Number 349, 22 October 1908 — Page 3

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TE LEG RAM, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1908.

PAGE THREE.

APPROVES MANNER IN WHICH TAFT SPEAKS OF LABOR (Continued from Page One)

those to whom Mr. Gompers makes his appeal. These statements warrant all you hare said In your speech and they would warrant you in - asking Mr. Bryan to say publicly whether Mr. Gompers. states correctly the attitude of his party and himself on a subject that is of vital concern to every citizen, including every business man as well as every farmer and every laboring man who looks to the courts for the protection of his rights. Quotes Gompers on Injunction. Mr. Gompers in his letter asserts that the Judiciary of this country is destroying Democratic government and substituting therefor an irresponsible and corrupt depotism in the interest of corporate power, and he further makes clear that the means by which he believes this allied despotism has been set up In the place of democracy Is by the process of injunction In the courts of equity. Mr. Gompers in his leter states that his appeal to the Republican convention at Chicago for remedy against the injunction was denied, and he then goes on to state not only that the Democratic party promised a remedy, but promised him the particular remedy that he had already asked of congress. ; His words are: "Labor's representatives then went to the Democratic party. That party ; made labor's contentions Its own. It nlpHo-pd ita rnndldatpR fnr evMTf office I to tho6e remedies which labor had already submitted to congress." The last sentence In this quotation indicates very definitely the specific remedies to which Mr. Gompers understands Mr. Bryan's party has pledged itself. His statement now makes perfectly clear an important plank in the Bryanite platform which has heretofore seemed puzzling to. a vast number of earnest-minded, thinking people whb are sincerely interested in the steady advance and the legitimate aspirations of labor, and who carefully read both platforms to know precisely what hopes each hold out for the improvement 01 conditions for the wage earners. That plank reads as follows: "Questions of judicial practice have arisen, especially in connection with industial disputes. We deem that the parties to all judicial proceedings should be treated with rigid impartiality and that injunctions should not be issued in any cases In which injuncions would not issue if no industrial dispute were Involved." Plank Which Promise "Remedy."

This1 is the plank which promises the "remedy', against injunctions which Mr. . Gompers asked of Mr. Bryan's party. In actual fact it means absolutely nothing; no change or the law could be based on it; no man without inside knowledge could foretell what V. its meaning would turn out to be, for no man could foretell how any judge would decide in any given case, as the plank apparently leaves each judge free to say when he issues an injunction in a labor case whether or not it is a case in which an injunction would issue if labor were not involved. Yet this plank is apparently perfectly clear to Mr. Gompers, and in his letter to his followers he indicates beyond question Just wnat he understands it to mean. He asserts that he has the requisite inside knowledge. His statement that Mr. Bryan's party (for ltwas Mr. Bryan who dictated the platform) pledged itself "to those rem

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edies which labor bad already submitted to congress" is a perfectly clear and definite statement. . The "remedies", which Mr. Gompers has already submitted to congress are matters of record and the identification of his remedy, against injunctions in labor disputes is easy and certain. This "remedy" is embodied in house bill No. 74, of the first session of the sixtieth congress, the complete text of which is hereto appended. The gist of the bill, as can be seen by referring to the complete text, is this: ? First After forbidding any federal judge to issue a restraining order for an injunction in any labor dispute except to prevent irreparable Injury to property or a property right, it specifically provides that "no right to carry on business of any particular kind or at any particular place, or at all, shall be construed, held, considered or treated as property or as constituting a property right." , Second It provides that nothing agreed upon or done by two or more parties in connection with a labor dispute shall constitute a conspiracy or other criminal offense or be prosecuted as such unless the thing agreed upon would be unlawful If done by a single Individual. Bill Is Gompers' Remedy. The bill here dlscribed is not only the "remedy" that Mr. Gompers "has already submitted to congress," but it is the one and only "remedy" which he and those associated with him in his present movement have announced that

they will accept in the matter of his grievance against the courts on the injunction Issue. The counsel for the American Federation of Labor and Mr. Gompers its president, are on record to this effect. . a ntaring before the house committee on Judiciary the counsel for the American Federation of Labor, on Feb. 5, 1008, (as appears from the printed hearings), stated: "The bill was considered by at least two sessions of the executive council of that organization and unanimously approved. It was considered by two of Its national conventions the two latestand by these unanimously Indorsed. And in the face of many propositions to amend it, in the face of many proposed substitutes, in the face of pressure from every direction, from high sources and sources not so exalted, the organization has stood by, ana is today standing by, this bill without amendment." Mr. Gompers himself, in discussing this bill before the same committee on Feb. 28, 1908 (as appears from the printed hearings), went on record asfollows: "Events have demonstrated clearly to my mind that there is only one bill before the committee that can at all be effective to deal with this abuse, with this invasion of human rights and that is the Pearro bill." Further on in the same page of the hearings Mr. Gompers states: "I will say this, that I think I will try to make my position clear that the American Federation of Labor has so declared itself that it must insist upon the principles involved in the Pearro bill, and that I explained as best I could the position of labor that we would rather be compelled to bear the wrongs which we have for a longer period than to give our assent to the establishment of a wrong principle, believing and knowing that time would give the justice and relief to which labor the working people are entitled." Both Should be Satisfied. This bill, then, and none other, re presents exactly the relief that Mr. Gompers demands in the way of antiinjunction legislation and, if the statement in his letter is correct, this bill represents what Mr. Bryan and his party are pledged to in the matter of anti-injunction legislation. The injunction plank in the Bryan-

Mere

ite platform may 'V sound vague and hazy, but there is nothing vague and hazy about this bill. It is more than a bill; it is a program of the most fixed and definite kind, and if Mr. Gompers is correct, this bill becomes, as it were, an appendix to Mr. Bryan's platform, or a foot note explaining In detail the briefer and vaguer Injunction plank In that platform. Does Mr. Bryan accept it as such? Mr. Bryan should state publicly whether he in fact accepts the principle of this bill, which is the official program of Mr. Gompers and those who stand with him. Mr. Gompers announces publicly that Mr. Bryan's party has made this program its own. Is Mr. Gompers correct in this statement? Either Mr. Gompers is mistaken as to what Mr. Bryan's party has promised him in this matter of anti-injunction legislation or those who drafted his party's platform, in their haste, failed to make the promise so clear that the general public would understand it precisely as Mr. Gompers understood it. Mr. Bryan failed in his letter of acceptance to discuss this labor plank of his party's platform. So far as I am aware he has failed to discuss it since. There should be such discussion as a matter of common fairness not only to labor, but to all citizens alike. On a question of such grave consequencethe people are entitled to know where Mr. Bryan stands. Mr. Taft has repeatedly explained exactly where he stands In this mat

ter of regulating injunctions. Are we not entitled to know, with equal clearness, exactly where Mr. Bryan stands? Mr. Gompers' public statements as to what his party has promised make it imperative that Mr. Bryan declare himself. What the BUI Declares. This bill to the principle to which he says Mr. Bryan is pledged declares that the right to carry on a lawful business in a lawful way shall not be regarded as a property right or entit led to the protection of a court of equity through the process of an injunction and that the right to such protection, which admittedly now exists under the law. shall be taken away. The counsel for the American Federation of Labor, in his examination before the house on Feb. 5, at which Mr. Gompers himself was present, gave a frank Illustration of what he and Mr. Gompers believed to be the consequence of that provision of the bill which says the right to carry on business shall not be entitled to protection as a property-right. His words are: "Suppose that workingmen, by some operation or proceedings in the community let us say by violence or persuasion or picketing away from the premises reduce those works to a state of utter helplessness and there was not a wheel turning, nor a process in operation, and this capital had no help at all that would be an Interference with his right to do business, and for that I say he has no right to be protected by injunction." 13 Mr. Bryan in reality pledged to this point of view? Will he definitely say, either in writing or in a public address whether he believes with Mr. Gompers that the protection heretofore afforded by the courts of equity to the right to carry on a lawful business in a lawful way is despotic power, and that the judges who exercises that power are irresponsive eiespots? So far as the second section of this bill is concerned, it Is perfectly clear that it would legalize the blacklist and the sympathetic boycott carried to any extent. It would legalize acts which have time and again been declared oppressive, unjust and immoral by the best and most eminent labor leaders themselves. Will Bryan Make Answer. Does Mr. Bryan believe with. Mr.

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Gompers that he and that part of the labor movement that agrees with him has the right, morally and should be given the right legally to paralyze or to destroy with impunity the business of an innocent third person against whom he or they have no direct prievance, simply because this third person refuses to join -with them aggressively in a labor controversy with the real merits of which he may be utterly unacquainted, because he refuses to class as his enemy any and every other employer whom they point out as their enemy, because he refuses merely upon their peremptory order to excommunicate some other employer by ceasing all business relations with him? The blacklist and the secondary boycott are two of the most cruel forms of oppression ever devised by the wits of man for the infliction of suffering on his weaker fellows. No court could possibly exercise any more brutal, unfeeling or despotic power than Mr. Gompers claims for himself and his followers in this legislation, which would permit them, without let or hindrance of any kind, to carry on every form and degree of secondary boycott. The anthracite strike commission, as fairminded and distinguished a body of men as ever passed judgment on an industrial question, thus refers to the secondary form of boycott, that is, the boycott of innocent third persons for refusing to take an aggressive part in a controversy where they have no concern: "To say this is not to deny the legal

right of any man or set of men voluntarily to refrain from social intercourse or business relations with any person whom fie or they, with or without good reason, dislikes. This may sometimes be unchristian, but it is not illegal. But when it is a concerted purpose of a number of persons not only to abstain themselves from such intercourse, but to render the lives of their victims miserable by persuading and intimidating others to refrain, such purposes is a malicious one and the concerted attempt to accomplish it is a conspiracy at common law and merits and should receive the punish ment due to such a crime." Boycott Condemned by Mitchell. The commission further states tha this boycott can be carried to an extent "which was condemned by Mr. Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers of America, in his testimony before the commission and which certainly deserves the reprobation of all thoughtful and law-abiding citizens." Does Mr. Bryan agree with Mr. Gompers that all existing legal restraint on the enforcement of degree of the boycott should be withdrawn; that the industrial excommunication of the innocent merchant who refuses to render unquestionable obedience to the orders of Mr. Gompers should be legalized and encouraged, or does he believe with us and with Mr. Mitchell and other labor leaders who differ from Mr. Gompers in this matter, that this form of the boycott is morally wrong, that labor at war should fight with its enemies and respect , the rights of neutrals, that innocent third Rosenbloom,

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parties should not be coerced Into taking sides in Industrial disputes to which they are in no sense parties, under penalty of having their business attacked and destroyed? Mr. Taft is perfectly definite on this proposition. Where does Mr. Bryan stand? The citizen who votes for or against Mr. Taft on this proposition does so with his eyes open and with a clear understanding from Mr. Taft himself of his position. He has frankly discussed this subject time and again with workingmen themselves, both in this campaign and prior to bis nomination. He has been willing to express his position clearly and to assure workingmen that to protect them in their rights he is willing to go to the limits of what he considers justice, but that he will not go farther. His definition of justice to labor does not, as we understand it, include either of the principles contained in Mr. Gompers' program as set forth officially in this bill. Does Mr. Bryan disagree with Mr. Taft on these propositions? Will he state publicly, definitely, categorically, whether he accepts the program outlined in this bill, as Mr. Gompers in his leters has assured the public that he does? Gompers Attacks Courts. Mr. Bryan's party platform paid a high tribute to our courts of justice. It stated: "We resent the attempt of the re

publican party to raise a false Issue! respecting the judiciary. It is an un-j just reflection upon a great body ofj our citizens to assume that they have no respect for the courts." The "great body of our citizens" to( whom this platform refers is admitted-j ly Mr. Gompers and his followers. Mr. Gompers, now Mr. Bryan's open and avowed ally, has in the letter j herein quoted attacked the federal '. courts in unmeasured terms of rej nroach because, by a long line of de- . cisions, the equity courts have refused ; to make an outlaw of the business : man, becatise his right to carry on a i lawful business under the .peace of j the law has been protected by the pro cess of injunction, because, in a word, one of the most vital and most fundamental rights of the business world, the right of a business man to carry on his business, has been sustained and not denied by the processes of the courts of equity. This sweeping attack of Mr. Gompers upon the judiciary has been made in a frank and open effort to secure votes for Mr. Bryan. Are these atI tacks made with Mr. Bryan's consent? : Do they meet with his approval? Does : he indorse them or does he repudiate them? Mr. Bryan has frankly questioned Mr. Taft during the progress of this ! campaign, and very properly so, asking him to make clear his stand on ! public matters on which the public j were entitled to be enlightened. In j turn, with equal frankness and with : equal propriety, Mr. Bryan should bo asked to break a long-continued silence and make definite and certain (Continued on Page Six.) Buntin & Co.

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RACE RIOT IS FEARED Wrong Negro Lynched for Assault Upon a White Girl. COLORED PEOPLE ARMING. Decattr, Ala., Oct. 22. As a result of the lynching of a negro named George Stover for attempted assault on Miss White, daughter of a prominent citizen, th negroes are arming, and there is fear of a race riot. The lynching occurred at Hartselle, a Decatur suburb, and the sherlfT, with strong posse, has gone there to prevent an outbreak. Storver entered Miss White's room Mosdny night and attempted to assault her. The girl was awakened and her scntams caused him to flee. Stover was caught and taken before Miss White, but ehe was in such nervous condition she could not identify him. As officers were taking the negro to the Dec-ur Jail they were attacked by fifty men with blackened faces, who took the negro and shot him to death in the street. The negroes say that Stover was not the man who attacked Miss White and are bitter over the lynching. ARBOR DAY TO BE OBSERVED FRIDAY All Schools to Plant Trees and Shrubbery. Arbor Day will be celebrated by the city schools Friday by appropriate exercises. On many of the school grounds maple trees, hedge rows and shrubbery will be set out. Besides the exercises in which the whole school will take part, each room will hold special exercises. This is an annual tree planting day appointed by nearly every state and territory in the union, and it is some-

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Tclcpbooe 168 . times a legal holiday and sometimes merely advisory, to assist in foresting or reforesting scantily wooded tracts or shading or beautifying grounds. In diana was among thefirst states to celebrate Arbor Day. THE THEATER Guy Stock Co. Gennett. A large and enthusiastic audience witnessed the third performance of the Guy Stock company last night, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" being the offering. Mr. Guy in the title role surpassed all his former effiorts. Guy. as the villianous Hyde, he was wonderful. Tonight "Jim Bludso." Is advetrlsed to hold the boards, and It is a real southern comedy drama with the colonels, majors and generals. Jim Bludso. according to the old poem, was a Mississippi rival pilot in the days of the famous "Nigger Levee," and was dtscoverad to be a half breed, thereby bangs the story. Friday night, Marie CorelH's "Vendetta," is featured for the week's rpertoire. SAVED HIS BOY'S LIFE. "My three year old boy was badly constipated, had a high fever and was in an awful condition. I gave him two doses of Foley's Orlno Laxative and the next morning the fever was gone and he was entirely well. Foley's Orino Laxative saved his life." A. Wolkush, Ca8imer, Wis. A. G. Luken & Co. 11 THEATRE Vaudeville Week of October 19tlu Dave Newlin WessonWalters Wesson Carley Carlos Renaldees Illustrated Songs Motion Pictures Admission 10c. First 7 row ffe extra.

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