Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1897-08-28
MANIFESTO IS ISSUED
BY The MINE WORKERS
They Refuse to Arbitrate With the
Operators of the Pittsburg
District,
ASK LEADERS TO MEET IN ST.LOUIS
Reasons Stated In Manifesto For
Calling the Conference and In
Soliciting the Aid of All
Organized Labor.

Columbus, Aug. 23.-Folowing is
the call for the conference issued by
the national executive board of mine
workers last night:
"To organized labor, its various di-
visions and subdivisions. and to all
reform social, educational and scien-
titic bodies, who condemn government
by injunction and the use of force TO
coerce the people and deprive them OF
their rights as American citizens:
Columbus, o. Aug. 20.-The Organized
Labor of the County. Greeting: The
great miners strike has gone beyond
"A struggle for living wages. "A crisis
i'm the affairs of the nation has arrived
in which all patriotic people must de-
termine whether they will accept and
consent to live under the rule of an
oligarchy of wealth or whether the
institutions of free government, the
rights of free speech and pcacabIe pub
lie assemblage are to he preserved.
''The present struggle has assumed
n contest for the preservation of civil
liberty and constitutional rights.
1.-The %tyrannical and un-Amerlcan in
functions of the federal and state
courts are revolutionary. against the
first principles of free government and
derogatory to the Inherent rights OF
the masses. endangering the public
peace and destroying the personal Sc
curity and individual liberties OF the
common people"
The circular continues in part:
'"The courts nave deserted the tenn
pie of Justice and now stand forth the
defiant bulwark of confederated capt.
tai.
They have made it unlawful for
starving workingmen to appeal
against tyrannical treatment, present
grievances or propose just and peace
able terms for the redress of INSURER
able wrongs.
The present great miners strike
is an expression of discomfort that or
iginated in poverty and starvation. 1t
was born i'm he sorrow and desitution
of hungry women and children. 1t
was the last protest of impoverished
and enslaved labor. 1t presents to the
world a cause as righteous and humane
ms ever inspired the soul of Christian
people.
THAT $500 miners should be con-
utIIlIltN W v vi III INV 'N'e
walton by the arbitrary rulings of the
courts is an insult to a beneficent Gre
ator. an outrage upon free government
and a disgrace to the Christian clvlllz-
alton upder which we live.
''The recent injunctions and their
extreme application against the law
full rights of the poor, the arrest ana
incarceration of hundreds of innocent,
i~noffensive people, the general employ
ment of hired thugs to overawe ana
coerce the miners, have so eXasperated
the people in localities where applied
that we feel that we cannot longer be
responsible for the public peace, and
to the end that a just and equitable
settlement of the differences etwee
employers and employees may be ef-
fected, the public peace, the liberty or
the masses, the sacred institutions or
free government preserved, II the
courts stopped from these outrageous
perversions of constitutional rights,
we appeal TO hat higher, more hui
name and patriotic court-the great
plain people-who in times of trouble
have always proved the just arblters
OF every difference between diyersi-
fed interests and contending elements
in the government of human society.
"We appeal to the liberty loving
people Of this great nation to send
accredited delegates to st. Louis, MO-,
where n mass convention will be held
Monday. August 30, 1897. The object
of the convention will not be to mere
" protest against the usurpation and
tyranny of the courts, but to formu-
late plans to compel "A return to the
principles of free government and pun
such plans into practical operation.
The coal operators in their meeting
last night, after awaiting in vain for
an answer from President Ratchford
to their telegram asking for a confer
ence here today to arbitrate the strike
question, issued the following state
ment to the public shortly after mid
night:
"Resolved, That q committee be au-
thorized, in Ease the miners leaders
agree to confer and no satisfactory
basis can be agreed upon in said con-
ference, to propose h a the matter III
dispute between the miners and OPP.
orators of the Pittsburg district be
submitted to arbitration, provided the
miners are put to work at once pend
ing the decision of said board of arbi.
tration."
The operators statement says:
1.-THE operators now have exhausted
every effort to make an amicable set
Element, but the miners refuse either
to meet in conference or arbitrate.
The position taken by Mr.. Ratchford
occasions great surprise TO the oper.
ators. He insists in bringing in all
competitive states when he knows the
operators of other states under no cir.
cumstances will attend a joint confer.
ence.
"In making this demand Mr.. Ratch.
ford is seeking to delay a settlement
i'm hope that he may bring to his aid
all the labor organizations of the
country and assume such political in
fiuence as will brighten the politicians
into insisting upon a settlement of the
strike without regard to the merits
of the case.
"Mr. Ratchford is using the Pitts
burg miners as a catspaw to scratch
political chestnuts off the idle coal
tipples in his district. He knows very
well that delay in a settlement will de.
prive Pittsburg miners of work which
will be done during the winter by
miners of the Ohio, Indiana, Illinois
and Iowa regions.
"Mr. Ratchford must arrange a con
ference AT once for settlement or arbi-
tration of the troubles in the Pittsbure
coal district or he must stand accused
of inconsistency and insincerity"