The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1897-07-24
RATCHFORD'S
STRONG Appeal
He Urges a Convention Of All National
Labor Leaders.
ALL WAGEWORKERS INTERESTED
on the Success Of the Mine Strike, He
Declares, Depends the Liberty Of All
Wealth Producers-A Confer
ence Of Operators
Called.

Fairmont w. Va, July PAN. D.
Ratchford, president of the United
Mine Workers Of America, telegraphed
the following letter to Samuel Com
pers, president of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor, last night at Wash
ington d. c.:
"On the fair soil Of West Virginia
peaceable assemblage has been for
bidden and free speech suppressed. A
crisis is upon us which must be met
if we would escape total slavery. The
great mining strike now extends over
five states, and 10000 miners and their
families, almost a million souls, are in
volved. Public sentiment is overwhelm-
ingly with us. Only the hollow, heart
less sentiment of CORPORATE capital,
echoed by it's vulgar parrot, the sub
sidized press, is opposed to US The
acute stage has been reached. This
is no longer a strike for justice, but a
struggle against starvation. Every
atom of nobility in human nature inn
pels us to rise to the emergency, and
by performing our duty as becomes
men, rescue the miners of the country
from the cruel grasp OF bondage, and
their wives and children from the
tortues of famine.
West Virginia is the field Of action,
and here our forces must be converged.
The miners here are eager, anxious to
join in our movement for their eman-
cipation, but are restrained by the fear
of discharge and eviction. They are
as much the property Of their masters
as were the black slaves before the
guns of Sumter thundered the doom
of chattel slavery. Here, upon the soil
made sacred by Thomas jefferson and
Patrick Henry, the slavery of labor has
become universal,
The united hosts of organized labor
must come to the rescue. The millions
of sturdy craftsmen of our country
must be aroused. / therefore call upon
you, in behalf of the struggling miners,
to convene all the chief executive Off
GERS of all national labor organizations
at Wheeling, w. Va, on Tuesday, July
q, for the purpose of meeting this
crisis and achieving victory for the
cause of labor. No duty which any
labor official may have at this time is
to be compared in Importance to this
great demand, and it is therefore hoped
and expected that each and all of
them will attend in person.
This is not the time to consider diff
ferences between organizations, If Diff
ferences there be, and no man who has
our cause at heart will raise that ques-
ton. The call to duty is to all organ
lied labor and the chief executive of
each organization Is expected to give
the conference the benefit of his per-
sonal presence, If this battle\ Is won
organized labor in every department
will be immeasureably strengthened,
but If lost the cause win be set back
at least ten years. Never have the
American people so unanimously sup
ported a labor strike. Fully so per cent
are with us, and will support our cause
to the end. This is the supreme op-
portunity to strike the blow for in
dustrial liberty, and If ignored the
doom of labor is sealed and we trusted
leaders must bear the odium Of our
cowardly inaction. The unity OF labor
is all that Is required to decide this
contest in favor of the miners in favor
of Justice and in favor Of humanity"