The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1897-08-28
MANIFESTO is ISSUED
BY THE MINE WORKERS
They Refuse to Arbitrate With the
Operators of the Pittsburg
District,
District.
ASK LEADERS 1omEeT IN ST. LOUIS
Reasons stated In Manifesto For
Calling the Conference and III
Soliciting the Aid Of All
Organized Labor.

Organized Labor.
Columbus, Aug. 23.-Folowing is
the call for the conference issued by
the national executive board of mine
workers last night:
10 organized labor. its various d.
visions and subdivisions. and to all
reform social, educational and scien-
tiiic bodies, who condemn government
by injunction and the use of force to
%coeree the people and deprive them of
their rights as American citizens:
Columbus, o. Aug. 2o.-The Organized
Labor of the County. Greeting: The
great miners strike has gone beyond
Il struggle for living wages. A crisis
in 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
oli9urchy of wealth or whether the
Institutions OF free government, the
rights of free speech and peacable pub
lie assemblage are to be preserved.
THE present struggle has assumed
n contest for the preservation of civil
liberty and constitutional rights.
18th t%yrannical aud un-American 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, ~endangeriug the public
peace and destroying the personal Sc
curity and individual liberties of the
common people"
The circular continues in part:
".rhe courts have deserted the tenn
pie of Justice and now stand forth the
,l,t;,rr l,l,.,n, nj. of nnnfnIprDtp1 pDnl-
tai.
They nave made it unlawful for
starving w~orkingmen to appeal
against tyrannical treatment, present
grievances or propose just and peace
able terms for the redress of insutfer-
able wrongs.
.sThe present great miners strike
is an expression of discomfort that or
iginated in poverty and starvation. 1t
was BORN in 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
as ever inspired the soul of Christian
people.
THAT $500 0 miners should be con-
demned to lives of d~rudgery and star
walton by the arbitrary rulings OF the
courts is am insult to a beneticent ere
ator, an outrage upon free government
and u disgrace to the Christian civiliz-
alton updcr which we live.
"rhe recent injnnctions and their
extreme application against the law
full rights of the poor, the arrest and
incarceration of hundreds of innocent,
inotfensive people, the general employ
ment of hired thugs to overawe and
a.n.,a tba ,,,innrc hnva CO aNn GnprDtpd
the people in localities where applied
that we feel that we cannot longer be
responsible for the public peace, and
to the end that n just and equitable
settlement of the differences between
employers and employees may be eff
fected, the public peace, the liberty OF
the masses, the sacred institutions of
free government preserved, and 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 arbiters
of every difference between DIVERSE
fed interests and contending elements
in the government of human society.
1--WE appeal to the liberty loving
people of this great nation to send
accredited delegates TO st. LOUIS, MO.
where a mass convention Will be held
Monday. August 30, 1897. The object
of The convention will not be to mere
ly 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 put
such plans into practical operation
The coal operators in their meeting
last night, after awaiting i'll vain for
an answer from President Ratchford
TO their telegram asking for a confer
cnce here today to arbitrate the strike
question, issued the following state
!, ment to the public shortly after mid
night:
"Resolved, That . committee be au-
thorized. in case the miners leaders
agree to confer and no satisfactory
basis can be agreed upon in said con
) ference, to propose that the matter III
f., dispute between the miners and op'
5 erators of the Pittsburg district be
submitted to arbitration, provided tn.
miners are put to work at once pend
ing the decision of said board of arbi.
tration."
The operators statement says:
v 'The operators now have exhausted
: every effort to make an alnicable set
- | i ~ IN ~ Nabt 80
to meet in conference or arbitrate
v The position taken by Mr.. RatchforG
occasions great surprise to the oper
n ators. He insists in bringing i'll al
competitive states when he knows thu
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 Il settlement
in hope that he may bring to his ali
all the labor organizations of Thu
n country and assume such political in
IS fluence as will brighten the politician
T. into insisting upon a settlement of tn
70 strike without regard to the merit
% of the case.
y "Mr. Ratchford is using the Pitts
u burg miners as n catspaw to scratc
81 political chestnuts off the idle Goa
l. tipples in his district. He knows yer
well that delay in a settlement will dc
q prive Pittsburg miners of work whic
% will be done during the winter b
9 miners of the Ohio, Indiana, Illinoi
/, and Iowa regions.
is "Mr. Ratchford must arrange a cor
IN ference az once for settlement or arb
st ~tration of the troubles in the Pittsbur
IS coal district or he must stand accuse
id of inconsistency and insincerity"
"a | .-.,