The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-08-31
LABOR'S PLATFORM.
Bitter Denunciation of the
Recent Action of
the Courts,
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS ABROGATED
St. Louis Conference Aggressive in
Tone-Progress of the
Coal Strike.
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS ABROGATED
ST. Louis Conference Aggressive in

ers were slow in assembling this morning,
and it was nearly an hour after the time
set for the meeting before the body was
called to order. The delay was due to
the Committee on Resolutions, Whlcn
sent word that it was not ready to re-
mort. The committee has been in session
almost continuously since three o'clock
YESTERDAY afternoon, and at eight O'Clock
this morning they had not completed the
s'plan of action" The committee at MD
night had practically agreed upon recon-
mending government ownership of the
mineral land rights.
But" as one of them remarked, there
is no telling what they will do with that
idea before morning" One of the MEM
ber of the committee favors committee
with plenary power TO appoint general
labor committee of one from each State
and to call a national convention in
western State jim case the miners and
operators fail to come together and settle
their differences.
The delegates are growing impatient
and are anxious to get away.
1t was ten O'Clock when the Committee
on Resolutions filed into the hall and the
delegates were called to order to hear its
report Mr.. Berger, in presenting the
resolutions. spoke of the great task the
Committee had before it. He said the
report about TO be submitted was the best
the committee could do under the circum-
stances The platform as presented reads:
1.-The fear of the more watchful fathers
OF the republic has been justified. The
Judiciary has become supreme We wit
ness political phenomenon absolutely
new in the history of the world, republic
PROSTATE at the feet of the judges APP
pointed to administer its laws They
their despotic deeds recall Mllton's warn
ing to his countrymen: Who bids man
rule over him above law, may DID as Wen
a savage beast
Under the cunning form of Injunction
courts have assumed to enact criminal
selves the power of legislation, have re-
pealed the bill of rights and for violations
of those laws have denied the accused
the right of trial by jury
1.-THE exercise of the -commonest rights
Of free men-the right of assembly, the
right of free speech, the right of travel
ling the public highways, have, by legis-
lation, under the form of injuncSons,
been made a crime and armed forces dis
perse as mobs people daring in COM
pany. to exercise dnese rights; & AT ITS
United States decided that the Thir-
foenth Amendment, forbidding inyolun-
tary servitude, is not violated by arrest
Vessel is ready. to leave port, and then
foreibly putting him on board to serve
out the term of his contract; a decision
under which the old fugitive slave laws
may yet be revived and striking laborers
be seized and returned to 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
have begun the subjugation of sovereign
States, so that unless a check is soon
put upon the progress of the usurpation,
in a short time no government but the
absolute despotism of Federal judges will
exist anywhere over any portion of Amer
lean soil The pending strike of coal min
ers 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, show
Ing the willingness of judicial despots to
resort to the most shameless defiance of
decency as well as of law and humanity,
In order to enable heartless ayarice to
drive its hungry serfs back to the mines
TO faint and die at their drudgery and
there romans today not one guaranteed
right of American citizens, the exercise of
which an injunction has not somewhere
made a crime by these subversions of
constitutional liberty. We have met to
counsel together and have come to the
following conclusions
That whereas the present strike of the
coal miners has again demonstrated the
fact that cur so-called liberty Is not
l
der which millions are degenerating,
while hundreds of thousands-men, wom-
en- and children-are starving in hoveis
aRS on sne RRqll' RRhs conaiton has
permanent for large and sver-increas-
ing number OF our population, as long as
of legalized explolters to monopolize the
means of production and distribution for
their private beneft-a fact again OBJ
yfouS in the case OF miners;
Vhereas Appeais to Congress and to
the courts for relief are fruitless, since
the legislative, as well as the executive
troll of the capitalist class. SO that i
has come to pass in this free country
that while cattle and swine have right
to the public highway. Americans, So
called free men, have not:
whereas. Our capitalistic class, as is
again shown in the present strike. is
silals sheriffs and deputies, but also a
regular army ana militia, in order to en-
force government by injunction. suppress
tho right to the public highway, while on
the other hand the laboring men of the
country are unarmed and defenseless
Constitution of tho United States; there
fore bo it
Resolved. No. l. That we hereby set
apart Friday the third day of September,
1897, as a Good Friday for the cause OF
suffering labor In America, and contribute
the earnings of that day to the support
+
and appeal to every union man and every
friend of labor throughout the country to
do likewise;
Resolved. No. q If the strike of the
miners is not settled by the 10Th day OF
September, 1897 and announcement made
to that effect by the President of the
United Mine Workers, q general conven-
ton be held at Chicago on Monday, Sep
tember II, 1897 by the representatives OF
all unions, sections, branches, lodges and
Eindred organizations Of laboring mer
and friends of their cause, for the pur-
pose of considering further means in the
interests of the striking miners and Ia
Dor in general.
Resolved, No. 8, That we consider the
use of the ballot as the best and safest
means for the amelioration of the hard
ships under which the laboring class suf-
ferE
Resolved. No. 4, That the public owner
ship of railroads and telegraphs is one OF
the most necessary reforms for our body
polite.
Resolved. No. 5. That we most emphat.
scaliy protest against government by in
junction which plays havoc with ever
such political liberty as workingmen have
saved from the steady encroachment OF
CAPITALISM, and be it finally
Resolved No. G. That no nation in
which the people are totally disarmed car
long remain free nation. and therefore
we urge upon all liberty-loying citizens t.
remember and obey article two OF tht
constitution of the United States which
fo11o --turha right of the Tleo