The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1903-10-08
WASHINGTON.
From our Regular Correspondent.
Washington. October. {

President Roosevelt has made his
dec sion in the Miller case and it is
7galnst the labor unions. Foreman
Miller is TO remain in the Government
Printing Office and there is to be no
discrimination between union and
non-unlon labor in government EN-.
ployes. This fact was made plain in
a statement issued by the President
on Tuesday evening after a confer
ence with committee Of prominent
labor leaders, composed of Samuel
Gompers, president of the American
Federation of Labor, John Mitchell,
the leader Of the Anthracite Coal
Strike, and others of the Federation.
The conference has been described as
a farce as the statement issued by
the President had been prepared be-
forehand. The President states that
he is president of all the people of the
United States, without reference to
creed, color, birthplace, or social con.
dltlon and that he can no more recog.
nize the tact that man is a union
man than that he is a Protestant,
Catholic, Jew or Gentle. He says
that it is out of the question to dis.
miss Miller because he is non union
man and that his personal fitness must
be decided in the regular routine OF
administrative detail. This is a hard
blow to Labor as the controversy
really involved the question whether
Government Printing Office and pre-
sumably every plant controlled by the
Government should be an "open" "
or "union shop 1t was evident
that the labor leaders were much dis.
appointed but they refused to make
any statement regarding the decision.
The case is now regarded as settled as
far as Mr.. Roosevelt is concerned,
but many people believe that Labor
will retallate and that the republican
party will loose many labor votes.
The union men argue that as the
President daily discrlminates between
democrats and republicans in select
ing government servants, he could
quite as well discriminate between
union and non-union men. They de.
clare that hereafter this shall be the
price OF the labor vote.
XIV
The American Federation of Labor
holds its annual convention in Boston,
next November and it is expected
that the Miller case will be considered
and decision reached which will re-
present the official opinion of organ.
lied labor. The controversy might
thus be drawn into the presidential
campaign.
XXX
The political season has opened in
Washington. The President has re.
turned TO the White House, Senators
and Representatives are registering
at the different hotels every day, and
Washington has again become the
political and social center of the
country. The Fifty-eighth. Congress
will not be dull one. 1t begins with
an extra session and on the eve of a
presidential election, there is new
speaker in the House and many new
members in the House and Senate.
The questions which interest the
politicians, are innumerable. Cuban
reciprocity, financial legislation, the
translsthmlan canal, ship subsidy, the
race question, the postal scandals,
Indian scandals, the Alaskan bound
AIRY, the antl-canteen law, the state.
hood question and the case of Sena.
tor Reed Smoot of Utah, are some of
the many subjects which will come
up for debate. The eyes of the Nation
will be turned on Washington which
is becoming more and more the politl-
cal, social and diplomatic arena of the
Western hemisphere.
Xxx
Democrats in Washington are much
elated over the prospects of the party
in Ohio and New York. 1t lis evident
that the republicans of Ohio are
frightened and are appealing to the
party at large for assistance. There
have been fifteen hundred invitations
sent out to republican speakers through
the country, and Secretary Shaw,
Secretary Wilson. Secretary Moody,
Speaker-to-be Cannon, Senator Fair.
banks, Senator Depew and half
dozen other prominent republican
senators have promised to come out
to Ohio to help Senator Hanna de.
feat Tom Johnson. 1t is believed that
Mr.. Hanna's refusal to debate with
Mr.. Clark will injure the republican
cause in his state.
XXX
Consul General Robert L. Skinner,
our representative at Marseilles,
France, has just arrived in Washing