The record-union., 1896-10-03
GOVERNMENT BY INJUNCTION >

Debs. seizing upon the declaration in
the Bryan platform concerning Gov
ernment by Injunction" has just is
sued a manifesto addressed to workers,
in which he takes occasion along with
certain of his Geutenants signing with
him, to denounce the resort to the equi-
table remedy that restraints from un-
lawful doing and forbids the continua-
ton Of that which infringes upon the
right Of others to do.
He declares that strikes have been
paralyzed by Federal Court injunc-
tons: that under injunction railways
and employers may reduce their en-
ployes to slavfsh conditions and find
protection IN the act by Government
by Injunction" that they may here
after treat their employees as they
choose. and they will be sustained by
injunctions issued by Federal Judges;
that injunction may be used to crush
employees, and that so long as injunc-
tion prevails there will be no remedy
and no protest
He winds UP by declaring that the
election Of Mckinley means the per-
petuation of Government by injunc-
tion;" the converse of which, as he in
so many words declares, is that under
Bryan injunction will be denied and the
tribunals Of the land stripped of
power that is the safeguard of human
freedom and the bulwark that hedges
about the right to life, liberty and hap
piness.
AS Debs puts 1t In so many words,
the election of Bryan he construes to
mean the abolition of Injunction. and
the restoration Of the lawful right of
employees to resist reduction and inius-
ttce by the lawful means provided bv
their organizations" Mark it. not the
restoration of any right of which work.
ers have been deprived, since iniunc-
tion being a lawful remedy will de-
pr1ve them of no lawful right. hur
every time it is invoked aff1rms anew
the right Of the worker, and everybody
else To the protection Of the law. in
the exercise Of every right and euaran-
tee Mark, also, that Dehs speaks onlv
or rights" that are to be made domi-
mann according to the laws Of the or
ganizations. not laws of the land
I4e trouble with Debs and all who
hold with him and the plank of the
Bryan platform referred to. is that
ti1ay c,rlanlv cont fae-S +,,,as, i.~..z
the fact that the equitable remedy of
injunction Is not new, but ancient. it
rs not novel. but is recognized in all
cfAhzation and always has been; that
it lies with the basic stone of all iIdicia1
systerns that have sprung out of civil
izatfon- That 1t is to-day what it has
been, and with be, unless Debsism SIM
plants Government and unrestraint
runs riot, haTnessed with lawlessness.
Debs has thus by his proclamation
stripped the mask from Organism He
has demonstrated TO be fact, what to
this hour has been campaign suspicion
and argument, namely, that the plank
which he exalts was not intended to
be chaff or taffy, but a real thing to
be carried into our system to the break
ing down of the last safeguard of free
dom. for he distinctly asserts that the
election of Bryan means the removal
of the equitable remedy of Injunction.
What VIE wish now to impress upon
the reader is the importance, purpose
and breadth of the equitable remedy
by Injunction to show how utterly mis-
taken are the notions entertained of
1t by Debs and his lieutenants.
There is no such thing as Govern
ment by injunction, but there is, always
was, always will be and must be. so
long as society is an organized entity.
Injunction by Government. 1t is as
much a necessity as the order of Gov
ernment itself; without it there could be
no mandate by Government, no decree
and no enforcement.
Injunction is an order or Judgment of
8 court Of che people. commanding to