The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-01
lABOR'S INDIGNANT PROTEST.
COTRTs CONDEMNED As THE CREA-
TUREs OF CAPITAL.

Tho Labor Union ina Convention at
81 Louis Issues Its Address to the
American PeOple-They Urge an
Auneai to the Ballot Box to Settle
+be righteousness of Their Cause.
Yabcr Laws Compared to the tug
t4;-c slave LavVs-"CiviI Liberty
They say. SIS Dead in America"
G. Louis. Mo-, Aug. 31.-The committee
~ resolutions of the convention of labor
leaders completed its tasks this morning
ond at 10 o'clock the following platform
was presented:
"The fear of the more watchful fathers
nj the republic has been justified. The
judiciary has become supreme. We wit
ness a politicai phenomenon absolutely
new in the history of the world, republic
nrostrate at the feet of those appointed to
administer the laws They acknowledge no
spnerior on earth and their despotic deeds
recall Mlton's warning to his countrymen
who bids a man rule oyer him above law,
may bid as well a savage BEAST
"Under the cunning form of injunctions
laws. and after thus drawing to them
selves the power of legislation have re-
pealed the bill of rights and for violations
nj those courts 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 been denied us
by legislation under the form of injunc-
ton; has been made a crime, and armed
forces disperse as a mob, people daring in
company to exercise these rights. AT its
last term, the supreme court of the
United States decided that the thirteenth
amendment, forbidding involuntary ser
Viude is not violated by arresting a sea-
man and imprisoning him until his vessel
is ready to leave 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 yet be
revived and striking laborers may be
seized and returned to the service of their
masters. Handing down 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 subjugation of
sovereign states, so that unless a check
Is soon put upon the passage of usurpa-
lion in a short time no government but
the absolute despotism of federal judges
will exist anywhere over any portion of
American soil.
The pending strike of the coal miners
starved 10 feebleness by their scant wages
and by arduous and dangerous toll, the
pending strike for the right 10 be fed
enough to make labor possible, has been
prolific of judicial usurpaton, showing the
Willingness of judicial despots to resort to
the most shameless defiance of decency,
as well as of law and humanity, in order
IN 6riW re
hungry serfs back to the mines to faint
and died at their drudgery. and there re-
mans to-day not one guaranteed right of
American citizens the exercise of which
an injunction has not somewhere made a
crime by those subversions of constitu-
tlonll liberty.
We have met in council together, and
nave come to the following conclusions,
that
Whereas, the present strike of the coal
miners has again demonstrated the fact
mat the so-called liberty is not freedom
Dul is a stupendous sham, under which
millions are degenerating, while hundreds
OF thousands of men, women and children
are starving in novels and on the public
II highways
Whereas this convention has become
necessarily permanent for large and ever
Increasing number of our population, as
# ionS as we permit a comparatively small
cldss OF legalized exploiters to monopolize
lAe means of production and distribution
Ior their private benefit fact again OBJ
'4ous IN the case of miners;
Whereas, appeals to congress and to
lne courts for relief are fruitless, since
# lne legislative as well as the executive
anu judicial powers are under the control
ol the capitalist class, so that it has come
u pass In this free country that while
cattle and swine have a right to the pub
A
men have not;
whereas, our capitalistic class, as is
asain shown in the present strike, Is arm
~ ana mas not only policemen, marshals,
seriffs and deputies, but also a regular
army and militia, in order to enforce gov
eiIine Mt by injunction, suppressing lawful
sseihDlage, free speech and the right to
N puphc highway, while on the other
~ the laDorlng men of the country are
Voa,n nraIiLed and defenseless. contrary to the
tS ana spirit of the constitution of the
naed States. Therefore, be it
~ iSsesolVed, Thatr we hereby set apart
lildy' sept. 3, as Good Friday for the
81 cor+Sn Oh suffering labor in America and
s1nndr. nlpuIe the earnings of that day to the
1Eport Oh our struggling brother miners
= Eri 9pPeal 70 every union man and every
+ 70 likewise. ~
r1.sd "esolved That if the strike of the
'S Is not settled by Sept. 90 1897. and
ro.aI o.aaIIHouncement to that effect by the
enoroi rr,'eht OF the United Mine Workers a
IondooI oI convention be held at Chicago.
sn y sept. q, 1897, by representatives
nj b. Unions, sections, branches, lodges.
nd Hlnured Organizations of laboring men
# lends lIIe9ds of their cause for the purpose
,oo! o!nsloering further measures in the in
E Seror. Vi the striking miners and labor in
he -Ibes99lyed, That we consider the use of
he Hot % the best and safest means for
trbob, b,"eulatlon of the hardships under
Hirsesoived That the public ownership of
neoessa1ls and telegraph is one of the most
''ro.ast,S reforms for our body politic
oisSoIVed, That we most enpbatjcaIlv
bicb against government by iniunctIon
M pays havoc with even such noIitj,
fon ~ " as workingmen have saved
N. on steady encroachment of capital-
,Gb ,Gp ana be it finally mar
Ieonle 'a1eu, That no nation in which the
ham e c totally disarmed can long re-
bon an 'ge In nation, and therefore we urge
Il a65 liberty loving citizens to remem-
u " the rr,3y ooey article II of the constitution
~. ,rnIed States which reads as fol-
II h. ne right of the people 10 keen
soo, arms shall not be infringed -,