The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-14
ARGUMENT
 COMPLETED Open Hearings Closed by Strike Arbiters. |DARRow DEPENDS BoYcoT Says It Is Lawful Weapon in Union Hands. - commissioners swill Meet in secre, in Washington Next Thursday to Begin Consideration of Its Verdict.
DARRoW DEPENDS B0YCoT

Philadsiphia. Feb. s.-'The anthracite coal strike commsssion after being in
 continuous ssasion for more than three
 months closed its open hearings today with an all day argumefrt by Clarence 6. Dasrow in behalf of the miners. The commission wiaI meet in secret in Wash- inKton next Thnrhday and begin the con- alteration of its award. It is expected that ybthe end of this month the arbitrators will be ready to make their announce msnt, If an increase in wages is deter mined upon. the increase is to dato from the first of last November. the Commis- sion having decided upon that date. octo- Der si.
 After the session today the commission held short conference with the lawyers for the several interests and asked them to hold themselves in readiness in case they are called upon by the commission. In his speech today MT. Darrow touch ed upon almost every phase of the strike and when he closed he was greeted with long applause which Chairman Gray did not suppress. President Mitchell was in court all day. but did not have anything to say to the commission in parting. At the afternoon session MT. Darrow took up the question of violence. Violence in All Strikes. You can never have a great strike excepting here and there violence is done," he said. .'and so 1t was in the coal l fields, where 750,0 ,0Oo persons are living very close to nfe." He said it was 8 wonder after the operators had insolently and cruelty rejected the reeuests of the men | that there was no more violence among | this population which was reduced to 8 condition bordering on starvation. l He paid tribute to the foreigners in
 the coal regions whom he said were a
 warm hearted, emotional. sympathetic. l religious people.
 Conflicts between capital and labor would continue he said, until these oap-
 tains of industry respected thsir fellow men. It was idle, futile and useless to l talk of curing 1t in any other way. Mir. Darrow then took up the thirteen evictions on the Markle property. and pic tured the eviction of a sick wife and of blind woman 100 years old.
 "You may roll together ali the cruelty and violence committed in the anthracite region." he exclaimed, "and you cannot
 equal the tiendish cruelty of John Mar kle when he turned these helpless people into the street simply to satisfy his he'll
 ish hate"
 Brigadier General Goblin. who command cd one brigade of the State troops in the 1 field during the strike, came in for ad- | NL-~ | Turning to the boycott. Darrow said there was one iilustrious example at l least, in the United States of the boycott
 and that was in the American rsvolu- ton.
 The Boycott.
 'Let me says" he continued. "thers Is the legal side and the moral side. The
 boycott Is an ancient weapon, 1t is re- | spectable when the operators use 1t, but
 not respectable when we use it," | He told of the distinction of the boy colt that was criminal and the boycott | that was within the law, and then spoke | of the non-unipn men whom he termed "scabs." although he remarked he did
 not like the word, but used it because 1t | was commonly used. These men, he said, had always been hated. Some times they | were good men; often they acted from | necessity, but they were traitors to their class. As a rule the "scab' Is a man
 who has no abiding place on the face of | the earth. He Is the pIiant tool of the
 men who in this great struggle. wisely or unwisely are against the laboring men. Regarding the demand for eight hours | day, MT. Darrow said:
 An Eight-Hour Day. This is not a demand to shirk work, | as is often said to be the case. It is a demand for the right of the individual to have a better life. a fuller life, a com pleter life: and this. like everything else, depends on your point of view. There is only one standpoint from which you have
 a right to approach this question, and l that is. what will make the best man, the best American, to build up a nation where
 there will be no more strikes and no more violence. Other men may measure 1t in l dollars and cents. I shall not
 !, After making a plea for the weighing of coal wherever it was possible, MT. Darrow discussed the merits of the union | Of the question of the incorporation of labor unions, he said: T am not willing to admit for a sin- | gle moment that anything can be gained for manhood. for righteousness, for the | good of all by going into some petty leg
 islature and asking to merge the indi- vidual flesh and blood man into a corpo- | ration created by the State'
 Darrow paid a tribute to the organi- zation which had welded 1f7,O0O, who speak twenty different languages. of all
 degrees of intelligence, of all degrees of moral character into one homeogenous
 mass and he also paid high tribute to | President Mitchell and his officers for the
 manner in which they had led this great army of workingmen throuahtout the struggle.
 | Pearl River Rising.
 Jackson Miss Feb. 13-Pearl River