The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-01
CONFERENCE IS OVER
AND so-CALLED GOVERNMENT BY
INJUNCTION" STILL EXISTS.
No Decisive Action Taken by Labor
Leaders TO Abolish the Alleged
Cause of Their Troubles.
SEVERAL RED-HOT SPEECHES
IN WHICH DEBs, SOVEREIGN AND
OTHERS VENTED THEIR VIEWS.
Radical Utterances of the Leader of
Social Democracy Greeted with
Great Enthusiasm by Delegates.
%
ANOTHER MEETING SEPT. 81
PRESIDENT NTKINLEY TO BE ASKED
TO CONVENE CONGRESS
~-
In Order that the Power of Judges in
Issuing Restraining Orders May
Be Defned-The Resolutions.
ANOTHER MEETING SEPT. 27
PRESIDENT M'IxINLEY TO BE ASKED
TO CONVENE CONGRESS
In Order that the Power of Judges in
Issuing Restraining Orders May
Be Dcined-The Resolutions.


of labor leaders of the country which has
been in session here two days finished its
work this evening. The meeting was pro-
ductive of several sensational speeches and
many resolutions, yet no decisive action
was taken in the principal matter for which
the gathering was summoned-the abolish
ment of government by injunction. The
convention, which had been announced as
the last one Of its kind to be held while
adjourning sine die has merely postponed
action on the matters before it for three
weeks, as call for similar conference,
to be held in Chicago, Monday, Sept q,
was issued. True it is the convention or
dered it's chairman, Mr. Prescott, of the In
ternational Typographical Union, to re-
quest President Mckinley in the name of
the convention, ito call a special session
of Congress for the purpose of defining the
authority of judges in the matter of in
functions" but as the President will hard
ly receive the communication in time to
convene Congress in three weeks, even
should he consider the matter favorable,
the Chicago gathering may take action
which would render to-day's move void or
decide to act in another manner. Mr. Debs
and Social Democracy dominated the con-
vention and the famous labor leader car
noon in one of his characteristic speet les.
A resolution, introduced by Mr. Mahon,
of Detroit, calling upon all miners now
at work to desert their posts and terming
them enemies of human liberty so long as
they remaineth4 nnednts. was adopted Mr..
Mahon had another resolution prepared
asking the convention to call for one hun
dred volunteers to go into the town Of
Pocahontas, Va, on the 18th OF September
and there hold a public meeting I'm de-
fiance Of the mayor of that CITY, who had
set himself up in opposition to the God
given and constitutional right of free
speech" but, at the last moment, concluded
no to present it. The resolution will prob
ably come to the front at the Chicago con-
vention. Mr.. Ratchford who was especially
pleased with the conventions instructions
regarding the request for the converting of
Congress- hurried away tonight to Column
bus, where he will attend a conference of
mine workers and operators. Mr. Debs, and.
in fact, all the leaders are gratified at the
result of the conference
THE PLATFORM.
1t was 10 o'clock when the committee on
resolutions filed into the hall and the dele
gates were called to oroer to hear it's re-
port. Mr.. Berger in presenting the reso-
lutions, spoke of the great task the commit
tee had before it. He said the report about
to be submitted was the best the commit
tee could do under the circumstances. The
platform as presented reads as follows:
''The fear of the watchful fathers Of the
Republic has been justified. The judiciary
has become supreme. We witness politi-
cal phenomenon absolutely new in the his
tory Of the world-a republic PROSTATE at
the feet of judges appointed to administer
its laws. They acknowledge no superior on
earth and their despotic deeds recall Mil
toms warning to his countrymen: who
bids a man rule over him above law, may
bid as well a savage beast. Under the
cunning form of iniunctions, courts have
assumed to enact criminal laws, and after
thus drawing to themselves the power of
legislation, have repealed the bill of rights
and for violations of those court-made
laws, have denied the accused the right of
trial by jury
The exercise of the commonest rights
Of free men-the right of assembly, the
right of free speech, the right of travelling
the public highways-have by legislation,
under the form of injunctions, been made
crime and armed forces dispense, as
else these rights. At its last term the Su-
preme Court of the United States decided
that the thirteenth amendment forbldding
involuntary servitude is not violated by ar
resting a seaman, imprisoning him until
his vessel is ready to f9ave 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 vet
be revived and striking labOrers be seized
and returned to the service of their mas
tiers.
Having drawn to themselves all the pow
ers of the federal government under Con-
gress (and the President may act only by
judicial permission, the federal judges have
begun the subjugation of sovereign states
so that unless check is soon put upon the
progress
government but absolute despotism of fed
eral judges will exist anywhere over any
portion Of the United States.
The pending strike of coal miners
starved to feebleness by their scant wages
by arduouS and dangerous toil-the pending
strike for the right to be fed enough to
make labor possible-has been prolific of iu-
dicial usurpation, showing the Willingness
of judicial despots 70 resort to the most
shameless defiance Of decency as well as of
law and humanity, in order to enable heart
less avarice to drive it's hungry serfs back
to the mines to faint and die at their druid
gerry; and there remains not one guaranteed
right of American citizens the exercise of
which an injunction has not somewhere
made a crime. started by these subversions
of constitutional liberty.
A GOOD FRIDAY NAMED.
1--WE have met to counsel together and
have come to the following conclusions
that:
Whereas, The present strike of the coal
miners has again demonstrated the fs.t
that our so-called liberty is not freedom
but is q StupendouS sham, under which
millions are degenerating. while hundreds
of thousands-men, women and children
are starving in novels and on public high
ways.
"Whereas. This condition has become per-
manent for a large and ever-increasng
number of our population, as long as we
permit a comparatively small class of le-
galized exploiters TO mopopolize the means
Of production and distribution for their pri-
vate beneft-a fact again obvious in the
case of the miners.
Whereas, Appeals to Congress and to the
courts FOR relief are fruitless, since the
legislative as well as the executive judicial
powers ere under control of the capitalistic