The herald., 1894-07-14

out the miners. am not in favor OF i
and think it very poor policy. / am op
posed to bringing any other organization
into this strike. AS Debs has started
1t. let him finish it,"
The council adjourned at o'clock, tt
meet again. and appointed committed
OF i've to draft an address to the public
AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC.
The council reassembled about
o'clock, and the committee presented
for adoption an address to the public
President Gompers read it quite impress
ively. After arguments Tor and against
it. the address was finally adopted. af
foilows:
''Ths great industrial upbeaval now
agitating the country has been carefully,
calmly and fully considered in a confer.
once of the executive council of the
A. X. u. and the executive officers and
representatives OF the national and in
ternational unions and brotherhoods OF
railway unions, called to meet in the
city of Chicago on the 11th day OF July,
1894. In the light of all the evidence
obtainabie. and in view of the peculiar
complications now developing in the
sion that the best interests OF the unions
affiliated with the American Federation
OF Labor demand that they refrain from
participating in any general or local
strike which may be proposed in con-
nection with the present railroad trou-
bles.
SIN making this declaration we do
not wish it understood that We are in
a IA OF IN, lo
ganizations now struggling for right and
justice, but rather that the present con-
lest has become surrounded and beset
with complications 90 grave In their
nature that we cannot conscientiously
advise a course that would but add to
the general confusion.
"The public press, ever alive to the
interest of corporate wealth, have, with
few exceptions, 90 maliciously misrep-
resented the strikers that in the public
mind the working classes are now ar
rayed in open hostility to federal au-
thority. That is q position we do not
wish to be placed in, nor will we occupy
it without protest. By misrspresenta-
tion and duplicity certain corporations
assume that they stand for law and or
der, and that those opposing them rep
protest against this assumption, as We
protest against the inference that be-
cause q certain individual or certain
class enjoys a monopoly in particular
lines OF trade Or commerce, that it neces-
sarily follows that they are entitled to a
monopoly in loyalty and good citizen
ship.
"While we may not have the power
IN orAo q OF "a nf nj
OF our country, we are fully aware that
recommendation from this conference to
them to lay down their tools OF labor
will largely influence the members of
our affiliated organizations, and appre-
ciating the responsibility resting upon
us and the duty we owe to all, we de-
clare it to be the sense OF this conference
that q general strike at this time ia un-
wise and contrary to the best interests
Of the working people. We further rec
ommend that all connections with the
American Federation of Labor now out
on q sympathetic strike should return
to work, and those who contemplate
going out on sympathetic strike are
advised to remain at their usual avoca-
tlons.
''In the strike of the A. R. U. we
recognize an impulsive, vigorous pro.
test against the gathering, growing
forces of plutocratic power and corpora
tion rule. In the sympathetic rule OF
that order to help the Pullman en-
ployees, they have demonstrated the
hollow shams of Pullman's paradise.
Mr.. Pullman, in his persistent repulsee
of arbitration and in his heRrtless auto
cratic treatment of his employees, has
proven himself a public enemy. The
heart OF labor everywhere throbs re-
spensive to the manly purposes and
sturdy struggle of the A. R. U. in their
heroic endeavor to redress the wrongs
Of the Pullman employees"
The address then states that the iail-
road corporations have an utter disre-
gard for law, and that they have given a
great impetus to anarchy and lawless-
ness. 1t also refers to the display of
armed force at the request OF the mon
led autocracy" and continues:
would it not be worse than folly to
call men out on general or local strike
in these days OF stagnant trade and com.
mercial depression? No; better let us
organize more generally, combine more
closely our forces, educate and prepare
ourselves to protect our interests, that
we may go to the ballot box and cast
our votes rs American freemen united
and determined to redeem this country
from its prsHent political and industrial
misrule; to take it from the hands OF
plutoeratic wreckers and place it in the
hands of the common people,"