Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-08-21
THE POWER OF INJUNCTION.
Possible Because Republican Con-
gress Refused TO Pass n Law
That Would Prevent Ii.

At the last session of congress a bill
was introduced under the title ito de-
fine eonspiracies." 1t was drawn by
an attorney for the American Fedora
ton of Labor, and was intended to pre-
vent government by injunction. The
democratic members of the judiciary
committee were unanimous for the
bill, but Mr.. Littleield, a republican,
who is said to be selected by President
Roosevelt to lead the fight against the
trusts, was opposed to the bill, and
made a long report against it. This
indirectly shows that the president
is not heartily in sympathy with the
striking coal miners, OF he would not
select a lieutenant who opposed re-
medal legislation that vas fraught
with so great consequences to laboring
men, and especially the striking
miners. In spite of the opposition of
Mr.. Littlefield and others, the bill
passed the house, but corporation in
fiuence was too powerful in the sen
ate, and it was laid aside. The demo-
VI bolu houSCS WHY duAlOuS W
pass this bill, and it was a sorry day
for the striking coal miners when
their efforts were defeated by the re-
publicans.
In telling of the injunction campaign
now going on in West Virginia against
the strikers rights, the New York
Journal says:
"One more crime has been added
to the catalogue.
Judge Jackson, by his injunctions,
made it a punishable offenSe to ask
a coal miner to join a labor union, and
now Judge Keller, another West Vir-
ginia %jurist, has issued njunctions for
bidding the establishment of strike
camps, which are established in con-
nection with the purchase and dis
tribution of food for the striking
miners.
"The law-breaking railroads, which
mine coal illegally and in defiance of
their charters, are to be c%ongratu-
lated on the presence on the bench
of two such convenient justices as
these.
"If they do not win the strike it
will not be the fault of Judge Jack
son and Judge Keller.
"The splendid response of the
union conference in the matter of
strike benefits made it impossible
for theoretical operators to carry out
their beneficent scheme of starving
the miners into abandoning their
union, so this injunction, directed at
committee and others charged with
the duty of providing supplies for
the men who are out on strike.
comes along in the very nick of
time.
"The encroachment on the liberty
of the miners is greater with every
example of this misuse of the power
of the federal Injunction" And
then after describing the old
penal laws of England that punished
a man who refused to work at the
prevailing rate, the Journal goes on
to say:
at was from this condition OF
slavery that labor unions rescued the
men who do the worlds work.
"The injunction principle would
again bind the hands of labor and
make it absolutely dependent on the
generosity Of employers.
'It is not for the law to say that
men shall not join unions for their
mutual benefit, or that they shall
not form camps or do anything else
that is not in itself unlawful, and
when the law is turned and bent te
make these things criminal, to the
end that some man or set of mer
may hire workers cheaply, there is
engendered a contempt for laws that
may not always be confined to the
iudge-made rulings.
'The progress of labor has been
over the wrecks of just such OBJ
stacles as these, and it is absurd tc
suppose that this progress can be
halted now. The injunctions OF
Judge Jackson and Judge Keller will
never become presidents. Whether
they are sustained for the present OF
not, they will soon be overruled by
the court of public opinion, against
the decisions of which no injustice
can stand in a free country"