Omaha daily bee., 1902-09-23
ANTI, INJUNCTION MEETING
Large Audiencs at Washington Hall
Listens to Union Labor Leaders
NO SENSATIONAL UTTERANcEs ARE MADE
Speakers Urge strikers 20 Avoid Nio-
lent Action and Language In Their
Contest with Union Pacific
Railroad Company.

Many hundred people attended the anti
Injunction" mass meeting in Washington
hall under the auspices Of the Union Pa
cihe strikers last night. In the audience,
which was composed largely Of strikers ana
their sympathiZers, we're numerous busl-
ness men, not few women, and at least
one representative of the Union Pacinc
railroad company. The chairman was Harry
McVea, president of the Central Labor
union, and the speakers were P. J. Conlon
and George Mulberry, first and third vice
presidents respectively OF the International
Association OF Machnists, who are leaders
Of the present struggle against the intro
duction OF piecework by the Union Pacific;
r. B. Kerr OF Moline. H., general secre-
tary-treasurer Of the International Brother
hood Of Blacksmiths A. A. Wursley OF
Racine. Wis, a labor leader Of considerable
distinction and ability, and Rev. George
Bigelow Of Lincoln, socialist candidate for
governor Of Nebraska, who responded to
call
! The meeting was entirely devoid Of any
| thing sensational or exciting and Messrs.
| Conlon, Mulberry and Kerr, the speakers
who represented crafts involved in the
strike persistently counselled their fellows
against radical action or extreme speech at
all times. Keep within the law" said Mr..
Kerr, land by so doing you will merit the
respect and sympathy Of the public and win
this fight"
COnIon Discusses Injunction.
p. ]. Conlon, the first speaker, devoted
more time than any of the others to the
injunction question. He declared that he
was at the time precluded from saying what
he would like, because of the restraining
order issued by the federal court at the be-
A1.N NI,a I'll Ak,,N . t.
as well as other such injunctions, deprived
men of the right of free speech and free
press, such as the constitution guaranteed
them.
| In the judgment Of Vice President Mulberry
unscrupulous judges, who were the plant
tools Of domineering corporations issued
these injunctions in defiance of the law and
the constitution, and the only way to pre-
vent these outrages and encroachments
upon the rights OF the laboring class was
for the latter to break away from blind
partisanship and vote for the man. The
only solution Of the problems confronting
the laboring classes. in the estimation OF
Mr.. Mulberry, rested in the hands OF a united
and educated mass of workingmen.
A, A. Wursley, the Wisconsin man, who
CHANGED to be in the city and was at the
meeting by special invitation, spoke in gem
eral upon the labor question. Mf. wursey is
a typical orator. His delivery is free and
graceful, his manner of speech pleasing, his
utterances clear and forceful and we'll sea-
soned with logic, while to cap the climax
he has a deep, rich voice which becomes
magnetic in some Of his loftier heights Of
oratory.
The speaker devoted but few remarks to
the local difficulty, dealing with the labor
question on a broad basis. He urged the
point that organized labor had brought to
the United States the maximum Of political
and economic strength and facilities and
that 1t was therefore the fundamental and
most essential principle Of all governments.
Socialism as n Remedy.
Rev. George Bigelow, the last speaker, got
In some good licks for his theories and his
party. insisting that the present strike and
} all other kindred labor and Industrial din
culties were due to divisions among the
men involved and that the only remedy for
these industrial ills was union and harmony
upon the one platform Of socialism.
All the speakers who represented the
strikers denounced piecework as a principle
and piecework in the Union Pacific shops
In particular 1t was held to be an unjust
and unequal method and one that would
never prove satisfactory. In theory alone
! was II acceptable 1t tended to place thu
men in the shops adopting 1t on an unfaii
competition with the men in other shops
: 1t inculcated principles OF dishonesty
worked insuperable hardships upon the mel
subjected to II and in the end was not a:
Q good as the old daily wage system. 1t ben
ehted the employer at the expense of tn,
employe and widened the breach between