The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-08-24
DebS Asks Assistance for
the Strikers.
Call Issued for Convention at
st. Louis.
Says 1t Will Be Most Significant In
It's Results.

Terre Haute, Ind, Aug. 2i.-Eugen,
Debs today issued call for tho ST. Louis
conference, which, he says, will be on,
of the most significant events in the his
| tory of the country, and which may Lead
to very important if not sensational re
| suits. The call Is as follows:
| Terre Haute, Ind, Aug. %. 1897.
To the Social Democracy and All Lovers
Of Liberty and Fair Play. Greeting:
A mass convention will be held at st.
| Louis, Monday. August 80. in the inter
! est of the striking, starving coal miners.
The official call mas been issued 10y the
Executive Board Of the United Mine
Workers and Endorsed by the executive
heads OF the American Federation OF
Labor and the knights Of Labor
l understand that this convention Is
called, not to pass idle resolutions. but 20
take prompt. vigorous ana united action,
and this being the case, / appeal TO the
social democracy and TO all lovers OF
liberty and humanity TO meet at Sc. Louis
on the day named TO lend a hand 10 the
stricken suffering miners of the country:
LIBERTY BLUDGEONED.
The Injunction has again done its
deadly work. Constitutional liberty has
been bludgeoned to death and labor
bound and gagged for the perpetual ex-
ploitation of corporate capital. There is
no relief in the courts We have tried
them all from the bottom TO the top. and
they are all against labor. SO far as L
am concerned, We will appeal 70 them no
more. We will now appeal 10 the Ameri
can people. Judges. the creatures of the
plutocracy, rule the country by injunction.
From the Justice of the Peace to the
Justice Of the Supreme Court the iEjunc-
tion has full sway. American citizens
are forbidden To open their lips or walk
on public highways. SheriHs, marshals
and other petty officers issue proclama-
tions and then proceed TO shoot and club
workingmen il they are net as servile and
obedient as if they Were so many sayages
oil their reservation. That there has been
10 violence and bloodshed in the miners
strike is simply because the judges and
sheriffs and deputies have been unable to
provoke an outbreak.
MINERS PATIENT.
The miners have patiently, meekly sub
mitted 10 the most fl0gTant insults and
abuse. The hour has struck 60 call a halt.
The cowardly. brutal and wholly un-
American reign OF iniunctionai govern
ment has got to end. A vast army of
miners are furnishing. their wives and
children are dying The calamity cries
TO heaven We do net ask the courts or
the authorities TO help these perisbing
toilers but we do demand that they take
their cruel clutches from the throat Of
workingmen and allow them TO holp
Yourselves in lawful ways.
The Pittsburg operators have declared
that they will open their mines IL they
have got to do it with Gatling guns. No
injunction has been issued. and no soldier
has been called out TO restrain them from
executing their murderous designs In
functions, soldiers, marshals, deputies,
thugs and jails are for the exclusive bene-
fit of the workingman. Under the rule OF
the money power, labor is plundered un.
til the starvation point is reached and
then its emaciated body is shot full OF
noles. 1t IL notoriously true that the
American miners have been robbed in
countless ways, ana now that they are
hungry it is proposed to murder them.
MANHOOD REVOLTS.
The horrors of Siberia are not of greater
enormity. Every atom of American man.
hood revolts against the spectacle.
Judges by the usurpation OF power and
playing tho rolo of tyrant have annihi-
lated the Constitution, abrogated the right
of trial by jury, forbidden free speech.
suppressed peaceable assemb blages ard
transformed our Republic into an
absolute despotism. They arc guilty of
judicial treason and should he made TO
answer ut the bar of an outraged people.
The issue has been forced upon Us, and
we have retreated before it TO the verge
of slavery. Let us now meet il as il
would have been met by the patriots
of l716
EUGENE V. DEBS.