The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-09-14

cal acts OF the moDOpoIleG9 thus kE3
not excepting the enforced resignation
of the president of Brown University,
is the Injunction granted by Judge
jackson, Of West Virginia, restraining
the striking coal miners from holding
meetings or organizing and converting
even in q friendly manner with others
to attempt to induce them to join in a
fight for better wages. This act OF
tyranny-this bold stab at the liberties
of a free people" seems not to have
attracted the attention which it should
have done. Speaking of it at the time
the Baltimore American said:
strenuous efforts are being made n
some quarters TO make 1t appear that
the iniunctions iseued by the courts in
no way interfere with the rights OF the
strikers to see, confer, plead with the
working miners to quit work; that the
right of the strikers to prevail upon
working miners TO throw down their
tools by moral suasion has not been
denied; that only acts of violence and
trespass On the properties of the coal
companies have been EN- 1ined. As
the strikers have not been guilty of
acts of violence, and as they have been
scrupulously careful not to leave the
public highways and trespass on the
private property Of the coal compa
MES, there would seem to be little Ca
son to issue iDjuctiOns restraining the
strikers from doing that which they
have shown no intention Of doing. But
as a matter of fact the iDjunctiOns is
sued, especially those issued by Judge
Jackson, of West Virginia, a United
States district judge, have gone much
further than this; they have gone SO
far as to eDjoin the strikers from max
ing any effort to induce the working
miners to join them; gone so far in
denying to the strikers what are obvi.
ously their rights, as to invite resist
ance and violence. Thus we have an
Injunction of Judge Jackson issued on
Sunday last at the behest Of one of the
Monongeh coal companies, to the effect
that the defendants (the strike lead
ere) and their associates are eDjOined
from c~ongregating in, on, or about the
premises Of the plaintiff for the pur.
pose of inducing the employees in said
mines to quit and abandon their work
in them And the said defendants,
their ~confederates and associates, are
further restrained from conducting or
leading any body of men up to or upon
the premises of the plaintiff for the
purpose Of inducing or causing plain
tif's employees to quit or abandon
work."
When we see pretended servants Of
the people thus becoming servile tools
Of plutoCracy-see men who pretend
to give equal and exact justice to all
men thus becoming the cringing and
u~nscrupulous slaves of wealth, we are
ready to ask in earnest tones, 'Whith.
er are we drifting3"
We cannot say positively, but to US
it seems more than probable that for
this piece Of treachery Judge Jackson
realizes the force Of the old proverb:
THE jingle Of the guinea helps the
hurt that honor feels."
The latest act in this great drama oc
CURED last Friday when twenty strik-
ing miners were shot down in cold
blood under the terms Of this wretched
and tyrannical Injunction of judge
JacksOn's. About twenty were killed
outright and forty more were wounded.
And Why's Had they killed any one9
No, indeed. Had they molested any
one or trespassed on the grounds Of the
coal companies7 Not at all. They
were shot observation-disclosures thew
insisted upon their rights to march
upon the public roads. This occurred
at Hazleton, Pa, last Friday, Septem.
Der 10th. Press dispatches of thgE-dat
say that "the men fell like so manv
sheep and the excitement since has
been so intense that no accurate figure
of the dead and wounded can be OBJ
tanned. Reports run from fifteen to
twenty odd killed and forty or more
wounded. Many of these will die.
One man who reached the scene Friday
night counted 13 corpses. Four 9th
ers died in the mountains between Lati.
and Harleigh."
The sheriff claimed that he was
struck and trampled upon before he
ordered his deputies to fire, but tele.
grams say that he was not at all hurt.
Even after the miners had commenced
fleeing the firing continued, and thus
there are now twenty martyrs-9O hu.