The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-08-26
PLAN 70 SPREAD THE STRIKE
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE BOARD OF
THE MINERS ISSUE AN APPEAL
TO THE PUBLIC.
LABOR MEETING CALLED AUGUST 80
object Is 10 Extend Strike to Nearly
All Organized Labor--Courts Con-
demned-Refused to Confer
With Pittsburg Operators.

'."'i'e po"ru Oh the united Mine
Workers adjourned today, after having
issued the call for the conference of or.
ganized labor to be held in st. Louis ON
August 80.
The board rejected the proposition of
the Pttsburg operators for conference
to arbitrate the wage dispute claiming
that such action would prejudice their
interests.
Ihe board is ready to consider over
lures for the arbitration of the issues
OF the great strike only when these over
lures come from all the operators in the
competitive districts, which include Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia and Penn
sylyania. The board has decided not to
deviate from the established policy until
the result of the st. Louis convention
is known. The aggressive work in the
field will be continued and the efforts to
spread the strike in West Virginia will
be renewed. The success or failure of
the strike hangs upon the st. Louis con-
ference, the call for which has been en-
dorsed by Samuel Gompers president of
the American Federation of Labor, and
j. H. Sovereign, grand master workman
of the Knights of Labor. They maintain
that the fight now being waged by the
miners is one OF common interest to or
ganlzed labor throughout the country.
AT the st. Louis conference all labor or
CARNATIONS will be asked to join issues
with the miners. The failure to secure
a general suspension in West Virginia
has greatly interfered with the prospects
OF success, as the coal supplied from that
state. and the few isolated districts is
meeting the limited demand. The only
hope of cutting off this supply appears
to lie in the refusal of organized labor i'm
the ordinary channels of traffic and bust
ness to refuse to handle or use this coal
II the object of the st. Louis conference
is accomplished, the strike will be ex-
tended to nearly every branch of labor
in the country. .-.-,
Following is the call for the confer
ence:
$40 organized labor, its various divis-
ions and subdivisions. and to all reform,
social. educational and scientific bodies,
who condemn government by injunction
and the use of force to cOercc the people
and deprive them of their rights as Amer
lean citZens
Columbus. o., Aug. 20. 1S97.-To the
Organized Labor of the Country, Greet
ing-The great coal miners strike has
A. crisis in 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 oil
garchy of wealth or whether the nstitu-
tons of free government, the rights of
free speech and peaceable public assem-
blage are to be preserved. The present
strike has assumed u contest for the pres
ervation of civil liberty and constitutional
! rights.
1.-THE tyrannical and unamerican in
functions of the federal and state courts
are revolutionary, against the first prin-
ciplcs of free government and derogatory
| to the inherent rights of the masses, en-
dangcring the public peace and destroy
ing the personal security and individual
liberties of the common people. The
courts have deserted the temple of justice
and now stand for the defiant bulwark
of confedcrated capital.
"Their arbitrary rulings have set up
one standard of rights for the rich and
capital is always right, as labor is al
ways wrong. They have made ii unlaw
full for starving working people to appeal
against tyrannical treatment TO present
grievances or to propose just and peace
able terms for the redress of insufferable
wrongs.
",rhe present great miners strike is
| ma tied In poverty and starvation. II was
born in the sorrow, and restitution of
hungry women and children: It was the
! last protest of Impoverished and en-
shaved labor and it presents to the
world cause as righteous as ever in
spired the souls of a Christian people.
The philanthropic heart of this great
nation has responded In sympathy to
the miners appeal for the right to re-
| ceive a respectable living for the most
alhuOus and hazardous labor In the
world. Their appeal for small share
of tho wealth they create and for the
right TO enjoy some of the fruits of adj
vanced civilization finds responsive
chord everywhere i'm the commonality of
mankind and If 1T were struggle be-
| tweent miners and mine operators only,
| liberty wonld triumph over oppression.
industry over greed and right over
wrong without thet necessity of this call.
But Ii is no longer al mere struggle
| between employe and employer. The
| judiciary has assumed the indefensible
claims of the operators and the strug-
gle 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
soFdid interests Of the rich as against
the God-given rights of the poor. The
operators threaten I'd turn the gatling
guns and the winchester rifles of crimi-
nails and thugs against all who dare to.
protest against their desplcable restrain
| ing orders. The judiciary Is prostituted
to the bidding of oppressive capital. has
placed the rights of property above the
rights of persons and has Disseminated
against the many in the interests of the
few. That 100000 miners should be
condemned to lives of drudgery and star
walton by the arbitrary rulings Of the