Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-04-10
DANGER FOR THE REPUBLI-
CANS.

CANS.
Samuel GOmpers, president of the
American Federation OF Labor, who
appeared before the House Committee
on the Judiciary last week 10 urge a
favorable report on the Civic Fedora
ton bill introduced by Mr.. Hepburn of
Iowa, proposing amendments to the
Sherman antitrust act, made threat
in behalf of organized labor which he
did not attempt to veil or conceal. He
told the committee frankly that in
view of the intolerable conditions that
now surround laboring men ii would
be necessary for them TO further in Sc
cret the cause for which they stand, if
the inherent rights which he alleged
they possessed were taken from them
by the application of the antitrust act.
He made it plain further that if the
pending bills were defeated labor would
hold the party in power responsible.
"Suppose injunctiOns are obtained
against US, said Mr.. Gompers. "Sup-
pose our funds are taken from us by
damage suits Our spirit cannot be
killed. The organization of labor has
lasted for centuries, and it is here to
stay. Nothing can abolish it. We
may be driven into organizing i'll secret,
but we will never be exterminated.
"And," continued Mr. Gompers, with
great deliberatiou, gentlemen of the
wisdom possessed by members of this
committee know that men who are al
lowed to combine in the open, free and
unmOleSted, are more careful and Cir
cunspect than those who are driven
into secrecy-Oath bound secrecy. In
my judgment no question before Con-
greSS equals in importance this PROPOSE
ton to so amend the Sherman law as to
give organized labor its rights-rights
that it has enjoyed for a century. 1t
ought not to be postponed until a here
after. The workmen feel that they
have been outraged by the Sherman
law, which has been construed so as to
interfere with their inherent right of
going on strikes for the protection of
their rights and their very lives. If /
judge the temper of the wOrl<men of
this country correctly, and L think |
do, we cannot wait much longer for re-
lief. And it is certain that We will hold
to strict accountability the men or
parties responsible for delay in our Sc
curing that action, to which we are SO
plainly entitled"
When we recall that the Labor I'm
ions are the first and only trust the
Supreme Court has dissolved, that they
seem to have been sought out and pur-
sued in preference to the Standard Oil,
the Coal trust, the Armour meat trust,
the Railroad trust, and all the other
trusts or, 1oct r,,ot;xo Of human r;rbfc
it became plain to the working men
that they have no chance with the Re
publican party in power to secure relief,
and Mr.. Gompers tells that party that
Labor "will hold to strict accountable
ty the men or the parties responsible
for delay in our securing that action to
which we are so plainly entitled. y
These are plain words-they are meant
every, one of them. Labor is aroused
as it has never before been, because it
beholds the net laid for it and sees its
enforced entrance into it, and the
springing of the trap by the Supreme
Court as soon as it was in. 1t sees that
questions tending to dissolve other
trusts have been pushed aside, and La
Dor Unions hurried to the shameless.
The employers liability bill was an
other direct stab at Labor, and the in
junction which has been used by the
Federal courts against Labor only has
convinced the workingmen of the coun-
try that they have no hope for relief
from the Republican party. Mr.. Taft
who will be the Republican nominee
for president, is beset by many of his
own decisions when he was on the Fed
eral bench in Ohio. Mr. Mouser OF
| 18th Ohio district, will not stand fol
Congress again because Labor is against
him. Mr.. Littlefield of Maine, has re
signed his seat because he knows he
will be defeated by the Labor Unions
if he runs. Mr.. John Sharp Williams,
Democratic minority leader, has insti-
tuted system of roll calls and dilatory
motions in Congress to force the Re
publicans to give Labor some relief
but without avail The doom of Re
publicanism is in sight, and if injured
and oppressed Labor will vote the
Democratic ticket this year, there will
be such a land slide as has not been
seen in the history of the nation.