The record-union., 1897-08-31
STRIKERS RIGHTS.
Comments On the Call For Labor
Conference.

Conference.
tFrom the New York Tribune.)
The leaders of the striking coal min
ers nave so far to an admirable degree
restrained their followers from all vio-
lence, but the effort has left them no
reserve power to restrain their own
tongues in the hour of disappointment,
if We may judge from the call they
have just put forth. 1t is ear-splitting
with the shrill cry of unreasoning
rage Coming from men who have
hitherto measurably kept their temper
under trying circumstances, and so
managed to enlist the sympathies of
the public in their strike for better
wages, it can hardly fail to have an
unfortunate influence on all people who
wish the miners we'll, but who have
no intention of encouraging or counte-
nanclng any appeal from constitution
al government to the higher law of
disorderly agitation.
The call for a conference to support
the strike is issued to all who con
denim government by injunction and
the use of force to coerce the people
and deprive them of their rights as
American citizens" and it states that
the strike has gone beyond a strug-
gle for living wages and that "a
crisis in the affairs of the nation has
arrived, in which all patriotic people
must determine whether they will ac-
cept and consent to live under the rule
of an Oligarchy of wealth or whether
the institutions of free government, the
rights of free speech and peaceable
public assemblage are to be preserved. -
It is announced that ''the judiciary
has assumed the indefensible claims of
the operators, and the struggle is be-
tween the tyrannical courts and the
whole people" Doubtless this appeal
Will stir the enthusiasm of certain en-
enlies Of oppression who do not in the
lea~. know what they talk about, and
the outcry against injunctions may find
favor with some conservative persons
who have been misled by the untrue
accounts of the substance of Judge
Jacksons injunction which were sent
from West Virginia. AS it afterward
appeared, the actual order was entirely
different from the reported order which
was criticised. 1t is easy to talk about
the rights of free speech and peaceable
assemblage. But it is one thing to
exercise those rights where one has a
right to and another to indulge them
where one has no right to. Free speech
is not a right where it takes the form
of threats, abuse and disturbance of
others in their lawful occupation, but
q wrong punishable by law. Public
assemblage is not a right when it takes
the form of trespass on another mans
private property but a wrong punish
1ia ~ 1exr
right to stand by the cabin window
| of his poorest digger and repeat the
Declaration of Independence in a loud
voice at midnight to the disturbance
of the miners rest, and any court
would enjoin him from such free speech
if he attempted to exercise it, A mil
lionaire cannot hold public meetings in
a poor mans garden against the own
er's viii any more than a coal striker
can hold public meeting at the mouth
of an enemy's mine. If free speech
and assemblage We're not thus restrict
ed by all civilized government, there
would be no such thing as personal or
property rights. Such laws are the
protection of weakness against force
How far the use of the power of in
| junction is wise in labor disputes is
open 20 discussion. 1t seeks to prevent
disorder instead of leaving executive
authorities to put it down. Tt aims at
prevention rather than cure. But, wise
or unWlse, the injunctions so far is
sued concerning the coal strike appear
to do nothing but forbid and warn
| against unlawful deeds. If the strik-
ers object to respecting injunctions, it
| is not because they are oppressed by
| tyrannical courts, but because they OBJ
| ject to obeying the ordinary laws. And
| if they object to those laws, it is be-
cause they are not willing to grant to
| their employers and to other
workers at their trade the same free
dom as American citizens which they
| claim for themselves. A miner who
will not strike may be spirited,
and a lot of other bad things but that
gives nobody a right to stop him from
going to work when and where he
chooses. An employer who will not
grant the miners demands may be a
stingy curmudgeon. but that does not
give anybody a right to assemble on
his lands to interfere with his lawful
| activities, and the court which tells
people those facts ahead of time does
not by any means put itself in tyran-
nical opposition to the whole people,
So long as this strike is a struggle for
living wages it will have the sympathy
of the American people The minute
| it becomes a war on the lawfully oper-
| ating forces of government it will en-
counter their firm condemnation.