St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-29
COOPER UNION MASS MEETING PRO-
TESTS AGAINST COAST DEFENSE
APPROPRIATIONS.
LABOR LEADERS PROTEST.
HENRY GEORGE DENOUNCEs PRES
IDENT CLEVEl1AND,S VENE-
ZUELAN MESSAGE,
LONG RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED
CTIr
Pledge Themselves to Vote Against
Every Congressman Who Sup
ports the Appropriations.

NEW YORK, req. ZS.-MemDerS or
the Central Labor union, sympathizers
of organized labor and others filed the
large hall of Cooper Union to protest
against the proposed expenditure of
S11O, OOO, 900 for coast defense, as well
as more millions for an increased
navy
Jerome O'Neill, secretary Of the Cen
trail Labor union, acted as chairman.
He made a brief speech explaining
the object of the meeting. The first
speaker was then introduced in the
person of Charles w. Hoadley, secre-
tary of the Building Trade associa-
ton. Mr.. Hoadley declared that no.
body wanted war except perhaps the
inventor of a new rife, the smokeless
powder, or the maker of the bunting
used on land and sea.
The common people did not want
war, and, as the United States had
never provoked war, he maintained
that we w ere not open to attack from
other nations. .a
John McLuckie, of Homestead, who
was connected prominently with the
strike at the Carnegie works, followed
Mr. Hoadley, and spoke of the armor
plates manufactured for the navy. He
said that belt line armor plate KS,
now located on the Monterey, had one
hole in it as large as the face of an
ordinary eight-day clock, and which
was filled with forty plugs. What re-
lance, he asked, could be placed on
such armor. He mentioned as other
ships on which fraudulent armor had
been placed, the New York, Oregon,
Amphitrite, Terror, Massachusetts, and
others.
Herman Hetzel, of Philadelphia, said
that he came from the City of Broth
erly Love and poor wages. He begged
all men in his hearing never to join
military organization, and to stand
together, of each other and for each
other.
Henry B. Salisbury was the next
speaker. He said Benjamin Harrison,
lecturing upon law, had given the
best definition extant of capitalist leg
islation when he said that
THE OBJECT OF LAW s
was to make the rich secure and the
poor content. An appropriation Of
$SS,000,000 for coast defenses. he said
was to make the rich secure. and
when the poor looked down the muz-
zles of the guns they would have to
be content
letter OF regret from General Mas
ter Workman Sovereign, of the
Knights of Labor was roundly Kissed
The secretary then read set of res
olutions denouncing the proposed ap-
preparation, which were adopted with
but few dissenting voices
tackled President Cleveland's message
on the Venezuelan difficulty, which he
characterized as insane" and said
that when it was made public, one
would have thought from the news
papers that New York had gone mad.
The proposed appropriation, he said,
he considered to be a carefully laid
plan to build up a standing army,
which will crush labor whenever it
dares to raise it's head ~
THE RESOLUTIONS.
Whereas, The misguided purpose of the
monopolists and rings who have grasped DO
l1tical power and are robbing the workers
under laws passed at their instance and by
their purchase, is to SO increase and mass
standing army that they may rule by in
junction, backed by federal bayonets; and
Whereas. AS means to this end, bills are
pending in the senate and house for the ap-
preparation Of $100. 000, 900 for coast defenses
and other millions for more ironclads the
money to be drawn from a treasury kept
from bankruptcy by the Issue of bonds un-
favored capitalists, ultimately to be repaid
with interest by fresh taxes on labor; there
fore,
Resolved That we pledge ourselves and
ask our brethren in other places to pledge
themselves to vote against every member
of congress, no matter what his party or pro-
fession, who shall support any Of these bills :;
and that we especially call on Thomas B.
Reed, speaker of the house, to act as a tri-
bune of the people in preventing their pass
age.
Resolved That the American republic is
great enough and strong enough to set to the
world example of a nation that fears no
foreign foe and that refuses to join in the
monstrous ornaments that are bolstering
up the thrones and crushing down the masses
Of Europe; that her true glory and real safety
lie in securing the right to gain an honest
and ample living to every willing worker,
and that threats of war and preparations for
war-means that the classes have always used
to distract the masses from the demand for
social reform. and to induce them to aid in
their own enslavement-are prompted by the
fear of justice on the part of holders of ill
gotten wealth, and should be resisted by
every friend of the rights Of labor and of
American institutions.
Resolved That the times call for the
organization of political party that will de-
mand the abolition Of an aristocratically or
gained standing army and navy, and of the
means that have been fnsidiously taken to
put under control Of a centralized govern
uleHI Tie Iulillid VI Tic SIdleSs anu CnaC
shall devote itself to the crushing of monop-
olies that are rapidly bringing on us all the
social evils of the old world that our fathers
thought they had escaped
Resolved. That we call the attention of
preachers of all denominations to the fact
that the workingm&n who was crucifed
eighteen hundred years ago for his denuncia,
ton of the unjustly irich,a was for peace at
any price. and that a truly Christian ma
ton would no more have standing armies and
standing navies than it would have soup
houses and tramps.