The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-08-22
THE NEW MOVE AGAINST INJUNC
TIONS.


A call has been issued by the National
Executive Board Of the United Mine
Workers, endorsed by the heads Of the
other leading labor organizations in the
country, for a convention OF labor or
eanizations in ST. Louis on September Sd.
This call IS very strong in denunciatlon OF
the Federal and State courts for the in
functions they have issued against the
striking coal miners in West Virginia and
Pennsylvania, and It arraigns those
courts for taking sides with capital In
its controversies with labor. 1t has also
gone out 20 the country that the man.
ayers of the present coal strike, after
observing the influence Of injunctions
upon the strikes, have determined that
labor strikes must always be failures. so
long as the courts are empowered 20
issue injunctions and that they have re-
solved TO direct they attention from this
time forward.tW g4s securing an amend
ment TO the b6ef4F2tion Of the United
states that VIII .i@$i5 the courts to in
terfere with iG9rHy;To'.a{is5fes by prohibitory
orders.
The laborlng 95SF ~ no better friend
than The TlmoeFsSS4sD is therefore with
sincere regret flG'we see tho represen-
tatives Of LAHORE taking this position.
They win never induce the American peo-
pie to consent TO the legislation they
ask for nor should it be conceded, and
the demand for IT can have no effect but
TO prejudice a great body Of impartial and
fair-minded men, whose natural instincts
are towards the laboring man, against
the authorities Of the labor unions.
The position Of the independent and
fair-minded citizen towards the labor
strike IS this: He comedies the laborer
the right TO strike whenever he pleases
and TO remain upon strike so long as he
pleasos. But he denies TO him any right
to modest his old employer after he has
struck, in any way whatever, and he
denies TO him the right to interfere in
any way whatever. except by persuasion
and argument, with any other laboring
man who wishes to I'll the place that
he has abandoned and, when denying
him this right he includes in his denial
actions aimed nominally at persuasion.
which are, in fact, intended as intimida.
lions. lie denies the right Of body OF
strikers to march by a place where new
men have taken their places in a nominal
endeavor to persuade the new men to
leave, but with the real purpose of in
timidating them and making them afraid
TO remain.
Now so long as strikers act in con-
formity to these propositions, there can
be no occasion for a court to interfere
with them by injunction or by any other
process. and we have never heard of
case in which a court did actually in
terfere with any strikers, when they
regulated their conduct upon these lines.
But II strikers violate these Fundamental
principles they ought 20 be arrested In
their course, and II IS Of no consequence
by what name the process Of arrest Is
called. The important thing is that when
they violate these principles, they are
no longer exercising their own rights
but they are preventing other men from
exercising theirs.
We can have no order. no progress, no
continuation Of civilization If one set
of men is TO be permitted, az their pleas
ure. to prevent another set Of men from
exercising the rights that the laws conf-
upon them. Our institutions must pro-
vide agencies for protecting those whose
rights are about TO be invaded, or gov
eminent becomes a farce and anarchy
has really supervened.
our labor friends will make nothing
out OF this move. The sense OF the
American people demands that all men
shall be protected by the laws in what
is theirs.