Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-10-24
IN LETTER TO SENATOR KNOX,
THE PRESIDENT SAYS NEsRAs.
kAN's PROPOSED REMEDIES
ARE BUT MERE sHAMs.
RESPECTS ALSO
PAID TO GOMPERS
OPINION EXPRESSED BY THE
PRESIDENT THAT PROPOSED
STATUTE WOULD BE HELD IN.
VALID BY SUPREME COURT.

Washington, D. c.. Oct. 22.-Presi
dent Roosevelt, in letter to Senator
Knox of Pennsylvania. arraigns in a
scathing manner the efforts Of Messrs
Bryan and Gompers to lead labor
I from the path Of virtue.
The president styles their proposals
ito do away with or modify the power
of issuing injunctions a sham and a
'de1usion and expresses his belief that
such law as that proposed by Mr..
bryan would be declared unconstitu.
tional by unanimous supreme court,
unless the court were packed.
He denounces az wicked the pro-
posed law advocated by Gompers
which would prevent the courts from
effectively interfering with violence
when the object would legalize the
blacklist and the secondary boycott.
The president asserts that Mr.. Taft
has stated definitely that ne will go to
the limits of what he considers JUS
tice to protect workingmen in their
rights, but will not go farther. He
commends the position of Mr.. Taft
TO the intelligent voters of the country.
The president says he will continue
to fight hard to do asesS with all
abuses in the use of the power of in
junction and to insure to laboring men
the full measure of justice to which
they are entitled.
Text Of Presidents Letter.
The presidents letter is as follows:
Il white House, Oct. 81, 1908-My
Dear Senator Knox: In your admir-
able speech of Tuesday you speak Of
the action Of Mr.. Bryan and certain
gentlemen claiming to be the special
representatives Of organized labor,
foremost among them Mr.. Gompers,
to secure the support Of laboring men
for Mr.. Bryan on consideration Of his
/ agreement to perform certain acts
nominally in the interests of organized
labor, which would be really either
wholly ineffective or else of wide
spread injury not only to organized
labor, but to all decent citizens
Throughout this country.
"You have a peculiar right to speak
on labor questions; for 1t was you who
las attorney general, first actively in
voked the great power of the federal
government on behalf of the rights of
labor when, for the first time in the
History Of the government, you speak
ing for the department of Justice, in
tervened in private lawsuit which
had gone against a locomotive fire
man who had lost his arm in coupling
cars, and by your Intervention secured
from the supreme court a construc-
ton of the safety appliance act which
made 1t a vital remedial statute, and,
therefore, has secured to hundreds of
crippled employees and widows of
crippled employees, compensation
which they would not otherwise have
obtained.
Approves utterances on Gompers.
s'The daily papers Of Oct 1S contain
an open letter from Samuel Gompers,
president of the American Federation
of Labor, appealing to workingmen to
vote for Mr.. Bryan. In that letter
are certain statements which interest
the wider American public. These
statements warrant all you have said
in your speech, and they warrant you
in asking Mr.. Bryan to say publicly
whether Mr.. Gompers states correctly
the attitude Of his party and himself
on subject that is of vital concern
to every citizen including every bus
mess man as we'll as every farmer
and every man who looks to the courts
for the protection of his rights.
MIR. Gompers in his letter asserts
that the judiciary Of this country is
destroying Democratic government
and substituting therefor an irrespon-
sible and corrupt despotism in the
interest of corporate power, and he
further makes clear that the means by
which he believes this alleged des-
potism has been set up in the place Of
Democracy is by the process Of in
junction in the courts of equity.
As to Democratic Remedy.
"Mr. Gompers in his letter states
that his appeal to the Republican con
vention at Chicago for remedy against
the injunction was denied; and he
then goes on to state not only that
the Democratic party promised a rem
edy but promised him the particular
remedy that he had already asked of
congress. His words are:
Labor's representatives then went