The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-17
RECEPTION TO MITCHELL
SIX THOUSAND CHICAGOANS GREET
THE MINE WORKERS LEADER,
Who Makes a Speech on UniOnism and
Warns Against Law Violations
III. ID. LlOyd's Remarks.

CHICAGO, Feb. 16.-Six thousand peo-
pie crowded the Auditorium tonight at
the demonstration of the local labor unions
in honor of John Mitchell president of the
United Mine Workers. The greatest enthusi-
asm was shown when Mr.. Mitchell appeared
on the platform. and his speech later in the
evening was received with cheers. Henry
d. Lloyd, one of the speakers, said, in part:
There was a louder cry for federal bay
onets in Pennsylvania in 1902 than in Illinois
in 1894, but the cry was not answered. The
troops did not move. There was a soldier
in the White House, not a corporation law
yer, and the soldier knew what the proper
uses of soldiers are. But the soldiers might
have gone In If the coal monopolists had
held out forty-eight hours longer in their
piratical policy of famine and defiance, but
not to help them drive the miners into the
mines. The soldiers might have gone In TO
keep the peace, while federal judges took
possession of the mines, as receivers, by
process of law and invited the miners in the
name of the people to mine coal for the
people. Where Cleveland gave us military
usurpation and government by injunctions,
Roosevelt has given us arbitration-the
boldest and greatest act of recent states
manship-a short cut across lots in the real
"The men who claim TO be the masters
of labor in the coal industry, claim to be
the masters of the consumers. of the people,
of US in the market. They mean to be the
masters of laborers and of consumers in all
markets. They are all the same men, 1t is
all one great conspiracy and the conspiracy
has gone so far that the more prosperity
the country has the less the people get of
IL. Well. Mitchell and his miners gave that
conspiracy Its first black eye. They whip
ped 1t to a finish and with their starving
bodies built a wall around all of US Had
these men broken the miners of the East
they would have attacked the miners of the
West They would have attacked, one after
the other, all labor organizations, and then
they could have devoured at their leisure
the unorganized masses. 1t is literally, sci
entifically, accurately, alarmingly true, that
between the people and the money and
monopoly power-that most terrible of all
tyrannies--there stands to-day but one or
ganization that can hold the fort while
the people ne Ta best d the the psap
to-day are the unions of the workingmen.
We must keep them from being destroyed
We must learn the lesson they teach. The
people themselves must organize if they
would survive"
Mr. Mitchell did not speak at great
length. but his speech was interrupted at
every few words by the applause of his
audience. He declared that he was not
one of those who believed in the trade
union as the ultimate, or that its forma-
ton was the final result To be obtained
The working men of the world are he de-
clared, passing through a period of evolu-
ton, and that while everybody knew that
conditions were changing, nobody could
foretell what the final result would be. He
was not one of those, he said. who made
war upon capital or denounced IL. He be-
lieved that there was never time In the
past nor would there be I'm the future,
when the differences between the laborer
and the capitalist could not be settled IL
they would but come squarely together
and tell the truth TO each other. He spoke
strongly in behalf Of the principles of
trade unionism, saying that he believed Il
one of the greatest powers for good I'm the
world to-day and predicting better things
for il I'm the future. He warned his hear
ers that no strike was ever won by break
ing the laws. for the reason that such con-
duct at cnce alienated the good wiz: OF
the people, and without this no strike
could be successful.