The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-31
Lurfd Language of the PrOnun-
ciamentO Issued
By the Labor Conference in
Session at st. Louis.
G. C.sCLEMENS JOKES,
"Give Ne Liberty, Or I'll Take
Up a Collection"
Says Topeka's AgitatOr, Who
Thinks the Conference Tame.

St. Louis, Aug. 31.-The delegates to
the convention of labor leaders were
slow in assemblins this morning, and
it was nearly an hour after the time
set for the meeting before the body
was called to order.
The de.av was due to the committee
en- resolutions which sent word that it
was not ready to report. The commit
tee has been in session almost contin-
uously since o'clock yesterday after
noon, and at o'clock this morning
they had not completed the plan of
action
The committee at midnight had prac-
tically agreed upon recommending gov
ernment ownership of mineral land
rights. But" as one of them remark
ed. then there is no telling what they
will do with that idea before morning"
One of the members of the committee
faVOrs a committee with plenary power
to appoint a general labor committee
of one from each state and to call a ma
tional convention in a western state in
case the miners and operators fail to
come together and settle their differ
ence.
The delegates are growing impatient
and are anxious to get away.
1t was 10 o'clock when the committee
on resolutions filed into the hall, and
the delegates were called to order to
hear its report.
Mr.. Berger in presenting the resolu-
tions, spoke of the great task the COM
mittee had before it. He said the re-
port about to be submitted, was the
best the committee could do under the
circumstances Whether it would suit
was the question.
The platform as presented reads:
THE fear of the more watchful faith
ers OF the republic has been justified.
the Judiciary has become supreme.
We witness a political phenomenon alb
SOlutely new in the history 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 re-
call Millions warning to his country
men: Who bids a man rule over him
above law, may bid as we'll savage
beast. Under the cunning form or IN
functions, courts have assumed to en-
act criminal laws, and after thus draw
ing to themselves the power of legisla-
tion, have repealed the bill of rights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
travelling the public highwayS-haVe by
legislation under the form of injune-
tions, 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 thirtieth
amendment forbidding involuntary
Servitude' is not violated by arresting a
seaman, imprfsoning him until his YES
sci is ready to leave port, and then for
chilly putting him on board to serve out
the term of his contract; a decision un-
der which the old fugitive slave laws
may yet be revived and striking labor
ers be seized and returned to the serv-
ice 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 subjugati'al of
sovereign states, so that unless a check
is soon put upon the progress of uSur-
patton, in a short time no government.
but the absolute despotism of federal
judges will exist anywhere over any
portion of America.
THE pending strike of coal miners
starved to feebleneSs by their scant
wages, for arduOus and dangerous toll;
the pending strike for the right to be
fed enough 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 in order to enable heart
less avaTice 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 in
junction has not somewhere made a
crime started by these SubVerSiOnS of
constitutional liberty. We have met to
counsel together and have come TO the
following conclusions: That
coal miners has again demonstrated the
fact that our So-called liberty is not
freedom but is a stupendous sham, un-
der which millions are degenerating
while hundreds of thouSands-men wo-
men and children-are starving in how
els and on the public highway:
Whereas This condition has become
permanent for a large and ever in
creasing number of our population as
long as we permit a comparatively
small class oflegalized exploiters TO mon
Opolize the means OF production and
distribution for their private benefit-a
fact again obvious in the case of the
miners;
Whereas. Appeals to congress and
the courts for relief are fruitless, since
the legislative, as we'll as the executive
and judicial powers, are under the con-
troll of the capitaliStic class, so that it
has come to pass in this free county,
that while cattle and swine have right
TO the public NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. So
called freemen have not:
Whereas, Our capitalist class. as is
again shown in the present strike is
armed, and has not only policemen,
marshals, sheriffs and deputies, but al
TO enforce government by injunction
euppressing lawful assemblage, free
speech and the right to the public high
way-whi1e the other hand the la
boring men of the country are unarmed
and defenseless contrary to the words
and the spirit of the constitution of the
United States. Therefore be it
Resolved ID, That we hereby set
aDart Friday the third day of Sep
ternber. 1897, as 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