The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-25
PROHIBITS BLACKLlsTNG
Benners Of Jefferson Led Fight and Was Applauded.
Lays Bare Some of Unreasonable Acts Of Labor Leaders in Bir- mingham District-Vote on
 Bill Was e2 to 80.

The House of Representatives yester- day, so far as its power went, put boy cotting, picketing and black-listing be- yond the pale of law.
 The sweeping anti-boycott bill, prepared and endorsed by the Citizens Alliance of Birmingham, was passed by an over whelming vote, amid applause from mem bers and the gallery
 The members from Jefferson County, where unionism is strongest in Alabama. and where the evils of the boycott have already become source of alarm. plead ed with the House for protection from the threatened dangers.
 Boycoting was declared to be damn able practice fraught with danger of anarchy and strife. Many of the rural members of the House were ntolerant of any practice described as forcible inter- ference with men in the peaceful pursuit of legitimate occupation.
 Benners Led the Fight.
 The fight against the boycott was head ed by Representative A. H. Benners of Jefferson, an eloquent speaker, an adroit parliamentarian and one of the ablest floor leaders of the House. His arraign ment of what he termed the "damnabls practice" of the boycott was most scath- ing.
 He said he doubted that the sympathy of the laboring man was enlisted in this despicable methods employed by the walking delegates and labor leaders. His earnest appeal for relief from the grow ing evils in Jefferson County was met with burst of applause from his fellow members of the House.
 Lobbyists Worked Against It.
 The labor unions made strong fight \ against the measure. An energetic lobby of labor union men fought the bill from start to finish. There were too, a num- Der of the House members who believed sincerely that the bill was too sweeping and who feared that it interfered with the personal liberty of citizens of Ala bama.
 The chief opponent of the bill was Rep-- resentative E. s. Starr of Dallas. MT. Starr contended that the law as it now existed was sufficient protection to the man engaged in a lawful and peaceful business He declared that one man had a right to refuse to trade with another man and that an employe had the right to refuse to have dealings with an em- ployer. He contended for the legal right 10 strike and the right to persuade oth- CTS to strike.
 Compared to Peonage.
 He compared the bill to a system of toeonage Employers, he said. could sue unions and leaders for damage done their business by strikers. It was proposed he said to place the men in jail for strikes which would be sort of system of inn prisonment for debt. Labor unions, he declared, fought in the open but corpo- rations circulated their blacklists secret hot hnU bo secured as evidence. The bill was a thrust at labor unions, he said, and not at corporations.
 Would you take up arms against the laboring man? Would you drive him out of the State at the mouth of shotguns and close down our great industries?" asked MT. Starr. NO, gentlemen, you would not dc that"
 Matter in a Nutshell. In opening his speech on the measure. Mir. Benners said: '.There is not in this bill one word which affects the man who attends to his own business. In this one maxim is summed up all that is in the boycott bill" In reply to what a boycott was, he quoted the definition of Judge George Gray of Delaware, whom he called the best friend that labor had, a definition which concluded with the statement that 1 est condemnation of the law. He describ- | ed the evils and iniquities of the boycott which had already been practiced in Bir- | mingham. He produced the blacklist of boycotted | persons circulated in Birmingham by la | bor unions. He said that it had been | stated thar only corporations and the | wealthy classes had been the subject of the boycott, and he desired to disprove | that statement. He read from the list | number of small shops and business con l cerns and the name of A. A. Powers, a | clerk in a large store. 'I find here on this blacklist" said | Mir Benners impressively. the name of | Rev. James Hogan. a minister of the | Gospel. And what was his crime? He | exercised his right to have his house | built by whom he chose" He read from the list the names of Chancellor J. c. Carmichael of the | Northwestern Chancery Division, and the | Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. | He read from a magazine article to show l the intolerable conditions that existed in | Chicago, brought on by picketing. black | listing and boycotting. He compal ed the labor leaders to the | Puritans who were said to have come to | America to worship God according to the | dictates of their conscience and to make | everybody else worship with them. La bor leaders wanted the right to work for whom they pleased and to make every body else do the same thing.
 The Vote in Detail.
 The vote in detail was as follows:
 Ayes-Messrs. Almon. Arlington Bal lard. Bankhead. Barnes. Benners. Black burn. Bogart Brown (Cleburne). Brown (St Clair). Byars, Cook. Crum. Curry. Davis. DuBose. Elliott, Espy, Fletcher. Foster QPikel. Franklin Frazier, Fulton Glover, Gray. Haley. Handley Hardie Hickman, James. Johnson Perry). John son (RusselD. Joiner, Killen. Lanier. Leigh, Lowe, Lyman, Lusk. Maner, Me-