The Mena weekly star., 1897-09-01
MINERS STRIKE.
The Convention of Labor Leaders
 Takes It Under Consideration.
THE PLATFORM PRESENTED.
Federal Courts Denounced-A Resolution to Set Apart September 8 and Con-
 tribute the Earnings of That Day
to the Striking Miners.

the first resolution setting aside a good Friday" September 3, for meet ings and for the setting aside of one days wages for the support of the striking miners. Speeches were linn ited to ten minutes and followed each other in rapid succession. The audi enee listened patiently and applauded occasionally It was ten o'clock when the committee on resolutions filed into the hall and the delegates were called to order to hear the report. Berger, social democrat of Milwaukee, in pre- senting the resolutions spoke of the great task the committee had had be- fore it, and said that the report pre- could do under the circumstances. The platform, after denouncing the injunc- tions, goes on:
 Having drawn to themselves all the powers of the federal government until congress and the presidents may act only by judicial permis- sion. the federal judges nave begun the sub jugation of sovereign states, that unless check Is soon put upon the progress of usurpa- tion, in short time no government but the ab solute despotism of federal judges will exist anywhere over any portion of American soil lHt ptDulnX Stflke or tOul miners, SLdrVcQ to feebleness by their scant wages for arduous and dangerous toil the pending strike for the right to be fed enough to make labor possible, has been prolific of judicial usurpation showing the willingness of judicial despots to resort to the most shameless defiance of de- eency as well as of law and humanity, in order to enable heartless avarice to drive it's hungry serfs back to the mines to faint and die at their drudgery, and there remains to-day not one guaranteed right of American citizens the ex- ercise of which injunction has not some where made Q crime started by these subver- sons of constitutional liberty We have met to counsel together and have come to the fol- lowing conclusions. that,
 Whereas. The present strike of the coal miners has again demonstrated the fact that our so-called liberty is not freedom. but is a stupentious sham, under which millions are degenerating while hundreds of thousands men. women and children-are starving in novels and on the public highways;
 Whereas, This condition has become perma- nent for . large and ever increasing number of our population, as long we permit com paratiyely small class of legalized exploiters to monopolize the means of production and distribution for their private benefit-a fact again obvious in the case of miners.
 Whereas, Appeals to congress and the courts for relief are fruitless since the legislative. as well as the executive and judicial powers, are
  that it has come to pass in this free country that while cattle and swine have right to the public highways, Americans, so-called free- men. have not;
 Whereas. Our capitalistic class again shown in the present strike, is armed, and has not only policemen. marshals. sheriffs and dep uties, but also regular army and militia, in order to enforce government by injunction, suppressing lawful assemblage, free speech and the right to the public highways. while on the other hand the laboring men of the coun- try are unarmed and defenseless, contrary to the words and the spirit of the constitution of the United States Therefore, be it
 Resolved. That that we hereby set apart Fri lay, the third day of September, 1897, as a 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 man and avery friend of labor throughout the country 10 do likewise.
 Resolved, That if the strike of the miners is not settled by the 29th day of September, 1897, and announcement made to that effect by the president of the United Mine Workers, gen. eral convention be held at Chicago on Monday September 27, 1897, by the representatives of Ill unions. sections, branches lodges and kin fred organizations of laboring men and friends of their cause, for the purpose of considering further measures in the interest of the striking miners and labor in general
 Resolved, That we consider the use of the ballot as the best and safest means for the amelioration of the hardships under which the aboring class suffers.
 Resolved, That the public ownership of all mines and railroads is one of the most neces- sary reforms of our body polite.
 Resolved, That we most emphatically pro- test against government by injunction, which plays havoc with even such political liberty as workmen have saved from the steady encroach- ment of capitalism; and be it finally
 Resolved, That no nation in which the peo- pie are totally disarmed can long remain free nation. and therefore we urge upon all liberty loving citizens to remember and obey article of the constitution of the United States, which reads as follows: The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
 As soon as the platform was before the convention dozen delegates were on their feet clamoring for recogni- tion. Osborn, of Atlanta, Ga., offered resolution that it was the sense of the meeting that all unemployed men in the United States should apply for admission to the poorhouse of their re- spective counties. No action was taken on this and the convention went off into desultory debate and after wards adjourned until the afternoon.
 At the afternoon session the resoIu- tion to hold the meeting at Chicago September 27 was finally adopted unan- imously, but amended so as to provide for the meeting whether the strike was settled or not
 ------------