The Bourbon news., 1897-08-24
MINE WORKERS
lssce a Cali for a Conference of Organized
Labor to Be Held in st. Louis August 80,
to Consider the Miners Strike.

ing issued the call for the conference
OF organized labor to be held at St.
Louis, August 80.
Following is the call for the confer
ence:
To organized labor its various divisions and
subdivisions. and to all REFORM social. educa-
tlonal and scientific bodies who condemn
government by injunction and the use of
force to cocrce the people and deprive them
OF their rights as American citizens:
COLUMBUS o., Aug 20, 1897
TO the Organized Labor of the Country
Greeting: The great miners strike has gone
beyond struggle for living wages crisis i'm
the affairs OF the nation has arrived in which
all patriotic people must determine whether
they Will accept and consent to live under the
rule OF an ol1garchy of wealth. or whether the
institution of free government the rights of
1ree speech and peaceable public assemblage
are to be preserved
Ine present struggle has assumed a contest
for the preservation of civil liberty and consti-
tutional rights.
The tyrannical and un- American injunctions
or the federal and state courts are revolution
ary against the first principles of free govern
ment and derogatory to the inherent rights of
the masses endangering the public peace and
destroying the personal security and individ-
ual liberties of the common people.
The courts have deserted the temple of
justice. and now stand forth the defiant bull
wark of confederated capital Their arbitrary
rulings have set up one standard of rights for
the rich and another for the poor. They de-
cree that capital is always right and labor al
ways wrong. They have made it unlawful for
starving working people to appeal against
tyrannlcal treatment present grievances or
propose Just and peaceable terms for the re-
dress OF insuferable wrongs.
The present great miners strike is an ex-
preston of discomfort that originated in pov-
erty and starvation, it was born in the sorrow
and destituton of hungry women and children.
it was the last protest of impoverished and en-
slaved labor, and it presents to the world a
cause as righteous and humane as ever inspired
the souls of u Christian people. The philan-
thrOpic heart of this great nation has respond
ed in sympathy with the miners appeal for the
right to receive a respectable living for the
most arduOus and hazardous labor in the
world. Their appeal for q small share of the
wealth they create and for the right to enjoy
some of the fruits of advanced civilization
finds responsive chord everywhere in the COM
monality of mankind, and if it were a struggle
between miners and mine operators only
liberty would triumhh over oppression indus
try over greed, and right over wrong without
the necessity of this call.
But it is no longer mere struggle between
employe and employer. The judiciary has as
Sumed the indefenSible claims of the operators
and the struggle is between tyrannical courts
and the whole people. The courts, although
under oath to serve the rich and poor
alike, have volunteered to defend the
Sordid interests of the rich as
against the GOd-given rights of the poor, and
now threaten to turn the Gatling guns and the
Winchesters of criminals and thugs against
all who dare to protest against their deSpic-
able restraining orders. The judiciary is
prostituted to the bidding Of oppres-
slVe capital, has placed the rights of
property above the rights of persons, and
has Disseminated against the many in the in
terest of the few.
That 35O,OOO miners should be condemned to
lives of drudgery and starvation by the arbi-
trary rulings of the courts, is an insult to
benefcient Creator, an outrage upon free gov
ernment and disgrace to the Christian civili-
zation under which we live
The recent injunctions and their extreme ap-
pllcation against the lawful rights of the poor
the arrest and incarceration of hundreds of in
nocent lnoHenS1ve people, the general employ
ment of armed thugs to overawe haraSS and
coerce the miners, have so exaSperated the
people Ia localities where applied, that we feel
that we can no longer be responsible for the
public peace, and to the end that just and
equitah.e settlement of differences between en-
ployers and employees may be effected, the public
peace, the liberty of the masses, the sacred in
stituticus of free government preserved. and
the coi,rtS eStOpped from these outrageous
perverSiOnS of constitutional rights, we appeal
to that higher more humane and patriotic
court-5he great plain peOple-whO in times
of troutie have always proven the just arbi-
terS Of every difference between diversified in
tereStS and cOntending elements in the govern
ment of human society We appeal to the
hberty-loving people of this great nation to
send accredited delegates to st. Louis, Mo-,
where mass convention will be held Monday,
August 30, 1897. The object of the convention
will not be to merely protest against the usur-
patton and tyranny of the courts, but to for
mulate plans to compel q return to the princi
pies of free government. and put said plans into
practical operation.
Our people have suffered all the evils that are
Sufferable and we are given the alternative of
submitting to injunctionS of court and cowardly
entreating our miners to return to the novels
of misery and shame. or appealing to the pa
tr1otlc hearts OF America to consider our cause
and render a verdict in accordance with the
just claims of suffering humanity. We have
chosen the latter and will accept the verdict
with that fortitude and resignation becoming
every hberty-loving patriot of this great ma
ton.
This cali has been indorscd by Samuel Com
perS. president American Federation of Labor,
and j. r. Sovereign, general master workman
K. of L.
PITTSBURGH, Pa, Aug. 21.-The coal
operators in their meeting Friday
night after waiting in vain for an an.
swer from President Ratchford to their
telegram asking for conference here
Saturday to arbitrate the strike ques-
ton, issued the following statement to
the public shortly after midnight.
1.-The operators now have exhausted every ef-
fort to make amicable settlement but the
miners refuse either to meet in conference or
to arbitrate The position taken by Ratchford
occasions great surprise to the operators. He
insists in bringing in all competitive states
when he knows the operators of other states
under no circumstances will attend u Joint con-
ference.
In making this demand Mr.. Ratchford is
seeking to delay settlement in hope that he
may bring to his aid all the labor organizations
of the country and assume such political infiu
ence will frighten the politicians into insist
ing upon a settlement of the strike without re-
CARDS to the merits of the case.
He has always insisted that the Pittsburgh
district is the key to the situation, and the op-
orators hold out to him an olive branch from
which is suspended the key he sought Mr..
RatchfOrd is using the Pittsburgh miners as
cats paw to scratch political chestnutS off the
idle coal tippleS in this district
Mr.. Ratchford must arrange conference at