The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-03
THE LABOR LEADERS
ADOPT A LENGTHY PLATFORM
AND Then ADJOURN
The Platform Deals Chiefly with Denun.
ciation'of Federal Court Judges for Grant
ing IDtunctions-The President to be
Asked to Call Extra Session Of Congress
to Lesislste on This Mstter-A Labo Con
Eress Called

Asked to Call Extra Session of Congress
to Lesislste on This Mstter-A Labor Con
Eress Called
st. Louis, August 3L-The committee on
resolutions of the convention of labor
leaders completed its task this morning
and at 10 O'Clock the following platform
was presented 10 the convention:
THE fear of the more watchful fathers
Of the republic has been justified The
judiciary has become supreme. We wit
ness q political phenomenon absolutely
new I'm the history Of the world. a republic
PROSTATE at the feet of judges appointed
to administer the laws. They acknowl-
edge no superior on earth and their des-
potic deeds recall Millions warning to his
countrymen: Who bids a man rule over
him above law, may bid as we'll as saw
age beast
Under the cunning form of injunctions,
courts nave assumed to enact criminal
laws, and after thus drawing to them
selves the power of legislation. have re-
pealed the bill of rights, and for viola
lions of those court-made laws have de-
MED the accused the right of trial By
jury.
THE exercise of the common law the
rights of ~freemen-the right of assembly,
the right of free speech, the right of
travelling the public highways, have, by
legislation under the form of injunctiOns,
been made a crime and armed forces dis
perse as mobs people daring in ompan
to exercise these rights. AT its last term,
the supreme court of the United States
decided that the thirteenth amendment
forbidding involuntary Servitude, Is not
violated by arresting a seaman, lmpriSon-
two ~ 1,rfS1 hir x-nccnl &c rn06Ny fn Loo va
port and then forcibly putting him on
board to serve out the term of his con-
tract-a decision under which the old fu-
gitive slave laws may yet be revived and
striking laborerS be seized and returned
to the service of their masters.
Having drawn to themselves all the
powers of the federal government, until
congress and presidents may act only by
judicial PERMISSION, the federal judges
lave begun the ~subjugation of sovereign
states, SO that, unless a check is soon put
upon the progress of usurpation, in a
short time, no government but the abso-
lutte despotism of federal judges will exist
anywhere over any portion of American
soil.
starved to feebleness by their scant wages
and by arduous and dangerous toll, the
pending strike for the right to be fed
enough to make labor possible, has been
prolific of judicial usurpatiOn, showing
the willingness of judicial deSpOtS to re-
sort to the most shameless defiance Of
decency, as we'll as of law and humanity,
in order to enable heartless avarice to
drive it's hungry serfS back to the mines
to faint and die at their ~drudgery, and
there remains today not one guaranteed
right of American citizens. the exercise
of which an INJUNCTION has not somewhere
made a crime started by these subversions
of constitutional liberty. We have not
the counsel together and have come to
the following conclusions, that;
Whereas, The present strike of the coal
miners has again demonstrated the fact
that our so-called liberty is not freedom,
but is a stupendOuS sham, under which
millions are degenerating, while hundreds
of tho~usands-men, women and children
are starving in novels and on the public
highway.
permanent for a large and ever increasing
number of our population, as long as we
| permit a comparatively small class Of
legalizel exploiters to monopolize the
| means Of production and distribution for
their private benefit-a fact again obvious
in the case of miners;
Whereas, Appeals to congress and to
the courts for relief are fruitless, since
the legislative. as we'll as the executive
and judicial powers, are under the con-
troll of the capitalist class, so that it has
come to pass in this free country that
| while cattle and swine have a right to the
| public highway, Americans, so-called free
men, AVE not.
Whereas, Our capitalistic class. as is
again shown in the present strike, is
| dI IHCu, dIlO IdS 1Ol Olly pOllCCIuCu, IHdI
shals, sheriffs and deputies, but also a
regular army and militia, in order to en-
force government by injunction, suppress
ing lawful assemblage, free speech, and
the other hand, the laboring men of the
country are unarmed and defenceless.
contrary to the words and spirit Of the
constitution of the United States; there
fore be it,
Resolved, That we hereby set apart
Friday. the Srd day of September. 1897. as
a good Friday for the cause OF suffer
ing labor in America and contribute the
earnings of that day to the support of our
struggling brothers, the miners, and APP
peal to every union man and every friend
of labor throughout the country to do
likewise.
Resolved. If the strike of the miners is
not settled by September 20, 1897, and an
nouncement be made to that effect by the
general convention be held at Chicago on
Monday, Septmber q, 1897, by the repre-
sentatives of all unions, sections,
tions of labOring men and friends of
their cause, for the purpose of considering
further measures in the interests of the
striking minrs and labor in general;
Resolved, That we consider the use of
ballot as the best and safest means for
the amelioration of the hardships under
which the laboring class suffers;
Resolved, That the public ownership Of
railroads and telegraphs is one of the
most necessary reforms for our body
politic:
Resolved, That we most emphatically
protest against government by injunc-
TONS, which plays havoc with even such
political liberty as working men have
saved from the steady e~ncroachment of
capitalism:
Resolved, That no nation in which the
people are totally disarmed can long re-
main a free nation and, therefore,, we
urge her to obey article 2, of the constitu-
ton of the United States, which reads as
follows: The right of the people to keep
and bear arms shall not be ~infringed.'"
AS soon as the platform was before the
convention a dozen delegates were on
their feet clamoring for recognition. The
convention adjourned until 2 o'clock.
At the afternoon session the third plank
in the platform was amende by the use
of the word proper" before use Of the
ballot" A number of amendments were
debated. when Eugene ". Debs was call
ed upon and spoke. His appearance was
the signal for loud applause.
There were amendments and substitutes