Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-09-01

~s~~~>~~tS
the Striking Miners.
ST. Louis, August 31.-The delegates
to the convention of labor leaders 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,
which sent word that it was not ready
to report The committee had been III
session almost continuously since
O'Clock yesterday afternoon and at
o'clock this morning they had not COM
pIeted the 'splan of action" The COM
mittee at midnight had practically
agreed upon recommending government
ownership of 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 members of the commit
tee fayors a committee with plenary
power to appoint general labor, COM
mittee of one from each State, and to
call a national convention in Western
! State in case the miners and operators
/ fail to come together and settle their
| difference The delegates are growing
| impatient, and are anxious to get away.
1t was 10 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 pre-
senting the resolutions, spoke of the
great task the committee had before It.
He said the report about to be sub
mitted was the best the committee
could do under the circumstances. The
platform as presented reads:
''The fear of the more watchful faith
ers of the republic has been justified.
The judiciary has become supreme.
We witness political phenomenon
absolutely new in the history of the
world; a republic PROSTATE at the feet
Of Judges appointed TO administer Its
laws They acknowledge no superior
on earLn, anu lHeii ucspolte uoouo ~
call Millions warning to his country
men: who bids man rule over him
ABOVE law, may bid as well savage
beast
Under the cunning form of injunc-
lions, courts have assumed to enact
criminal laws, and, after thus draw
Ing to themselves the power of legisla-
lcil. have repealed the bill of rights,
and for violations Of those court-made
laws have denied the accused the right
of trial by jury.
The exercise or the commonest
rights of freemen-the right of assem-
bly,, the right of free speech, the right
OF travelling the public highway-have
by legislation, under the form of in
functions, been made crime and arm
er forces dispense as mobs people dar-
ing IN company to exercise these rights
At its last term the Supreme Court of
the United States decided that the thir-
teenth amendment, forbidding involun-
tary servitude. it not violated by ar
resting seaman, imprisoning him I'M
I'll his vessel is ready to leave port,
and then forcibly 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 may be seized and re-
turned to the service of their mas
ters.
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 subiugation of
sovereign States so that, unless
check is soon put upon the progress
or usurpation, in short time no gov
] eminent but the absolute despotism os
federal judges will exist anywhere over
any portion of American soil.
The pending strike of coal miners
starved to feebleness by their scant
wages by arduous and dangerous ioiI
the pending strike for the right to be
| fed enough to make labor possible has
| been prolific of judicial despots to re-
sort TO the most shameless defiance Of
decency as well as of law and humanity
IN order to enable heartless avarica To
drive its hungry serfs back to the miaas
to faint and die at their drudgerv.
and there remains to-day not one guar.
anteed right of American citizens the
exercise Of which an injunction has
not somewhere made crime by thesa
subversions of constitutional liberty
We nave met TO counsel together AMI
nave come to the following conclu-
siohs.
whereas, The present strike Of the
, coal miners has again demonstrated .ba
! fact that our so-called liberty is not
freedom. but is a stupendous sham
under which millions are degenerating
while hundreds Of thousands - men
women and children-are staring in
novels and on the public highway:
Whereas, This condition has become
permanent for q large and ever increas-
ing number of our population. as lone
as we permit comparatively smsli
class of legalized exploiters to monopo-
llze the means of production and dis
tribution for their private benefit
<1n ~1~-x-- T.