Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1897 — ARE READY TO RISE. [ARTICLE]

ARE READY TO RISE.

Strong Resolutions Adopted at St. Loots by Laboring Men. Below is given the text of the declaration of principles promulgated by the St, Louis labor convention: The fear of the more watchful fathers of the republic has been justified. The judiciary has become supreme. We wltnes? a political phenomenon absolutely new in ths history of the world; a republic prostrate at the feet of judges appointed to administer its laws. They acknowledge no superior on earth, and their despotic deeds recall Milton’s warning to his countrymen:. “Who blds a man rule over him above law may. bld as well a savage beast.” Under the cunning form of injunctions courts bavo assumed to enact criminal laws, and after thus drawing- to themselves the p »wer of legislation have repealed the bill of rights, and for violations of these court-made laws have denied the accused the right of trial by jury. The exercise of the commonest rights of freemen—the right, of assembly, the right of free speech, the right of traveling the public highways—has by legislation, under the form of injunctions, been made a crime, and armed forces disperse as mobs people daring in company to exercise these rights. At Its last term the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the thirteenth amendment forbidding “involuntary servitude”. is not violated by arresting a sefman. Imprisoning him until his vessel is ready to leave port and then forcibly putting him on board to serve out the term of his contract—a decision under which the old fugitive slave laws may yet be revived and striking laborers be seized and returned to the service of their masters. Having drawn to themselves all the powers of the Federal Government until Congress and Presidents may act only by judicial permission, the Federal judges have begun the subjugation of sovereign states, so that, unless a check is soon put upon the progress of usurpation, In a short time no government but the absolute despotism of Federal judges will exist anywhere over any, portion of American soil. The pending strike of coal miners, starved to feebleness by their scant wages earned by arduous and dangerous toil, the strike for the right to be fed enough to make labor possible, has been prolific of judicial usurpation, showing the willingness of judicial despots to resort to the most shameless defiance of decency as well as of law and humanity la order to enable heartless avarice to-drive its hungry serfs back to the mines to faint and die at their drudgery, and there remains today not one guaranteed right of American citizens the exercise of which an Injunction has not somewhere made a crime by these subversions of constitutional liberty. We have met to counsel together and have come to the following conclusions: whereas, The present strike of the coal miners has again demonstrated the fact that our so-called liberty Is not freedom, but Is a stupendous sham, under Which millions are degenerating, while hundreds of thousands—men, women and children—are starving in hovels, and on the public highways. Whereas, This condition has become permanent for a large and ever-increasing number of our population, as long as we permit a comparatively small class of legalized exploiters to monopolize the means of production and distribution for their private benefit—a fact again obvious in the case of miners. Whereas, Appeals to Congress and to the courts for relief are fruitless, since the legislative as well as the executive and judicial powers are under the control of the capitalistic class, so that It has come to pass In this “free country” that while cattle and swine have a right to the public highways, Americans, so-called freemen, have not. Whereas, Our capitalistic class, as Is again shown in the present strike, is armed, and has not only policemen, marshals, sheriff and deputies, but also a regular army and military, In order to enforce government by injunction, suppressing lawful assemblage, free speech and the right to the public highway, while on the other hand the laboring men of the country are unarmed and defenseless, contrary to the words and spirit of the Constitution of the United States; therefore, be It Resolved, That we hereby set apart Friday, the 3d day of September, 1897, as a “Good Friday” for the cause of suffering labor in America and contribute the earnings of that day to the support of our struggling brothers, the miners, and appeal to every union man and every friend of labor throughout the country to do likewise. Resolved, That a general convention be held at Chicago on Monday, Sept. 27, by the representatives of all unions, sections, branches, lodges and kindred organizations of laboring men and friends of their cause, for the purpose of considering further measures in the interests of the miners and labor In general. Resolved, That we consider the proper use of the ballot as the best and safest means for the amelioration of the hardships under which the laboring class suffers. Resolved, That the public ownership of railroads and telegraphs Is one of the most necessary reforms for our body politic. Resolved, That no nation In which the people are totally disarmed can long remain a free nation, and therefore we urge upon all liberty-loving citizens to remember and obey article 2 of the Constitution of the United States, which reads as follows: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”