Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-22

President Roosevelt has made it known
to many of his visitors during the last
week that he regarded it as highly i'm
portant that means be taken to offset
whatever effect Samuel Gompers and the
Bryan platform may have produced to-
ward gaining the vote of organized labor
for the democratic candidate. Yesterday
the President broke the comparative ST.
lence which he had maintained for nearly
two weeks by making public letter ad-
dressed by him to Senator Philander c.
Knox of Pennsylvania. The letter deals
at great length with the labor plank in
the democratic platform and with the
campaign utterances of Samuel Gompers.
president of the American Federation of
Labor. 1t is as follows:
Washington. October 81 1908.
My Dear Senator Knox: In your adj
mirable speech of yesterday you speak of
the action of Mr.. Bryan and certain gem
tlemen claiming to be the special repre-
sentatives of organized labor. foremost
among them Mr.. Gompers to secure the
support of laboring men for Mr.. Bryan
on consideration of his agreement to per-
est of organized labor. which would really
be either wholly ineffective or else of
widespread injury not only to organized
labor. but to all decent citizens through
out THIS country. Ou hdNe d DccuHdi
right to speak on labor questions. for it
was you who. as Attorney General. first
actively invoked 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 a private lawsuit which had
gone against the widow of brakeman
and by your Intervention secured from
the Supreme Court a construction of the
a
vital remedial statute. and therefore has
secured to hundreds of crippled en-
ployes compensation which they would
not otherwise have obtained.
an open letter from Samuel GOmpers.
president of the American Federation
of Labor. appealing to workingmen to
vote for Mr. Bryan.
ments which interest the wider Ameri-
can public quite as much as those to
whom Mr. GOmpers makes his appeal.
These statements warrant all you have
said in your speech and they would war
rant you in asking Mr.. Bryan to say pub
licly whether Mr. Gompers states cor
rectly the attitude of his party and HIM
self subject that is of vital concern
to every citizen. including every business
man. as we'll as every farmer and every
laboring man. who looks to the courts
for the protection of his rights.
Mr.. Gompers in his letter asserts that
the judiciary of this country Is destroying
democratic government and substituting
despotism in the interest of corporate
power. and he further makes clear that
the means by which he believes this al
legged despotism has been set up in the
place of democracy Is by the process OF
injunction in the courts of equity.
Mr.. Gompers in his letter states that
his appeal to the republican convention
at Chicago for remedy against the injunc
It. IL tod 6n ffnr. to
state not only that the democratic party
promised n remedy but promised him
the particular remedy that he had already
asked of Congress.
His words are:
'Labors representatives then went to
the democratic party. That party made
labor's contentious its own. 1t pledged
it's candidates for every office to those
remedies which labor had already sub
mitted to Congress-.
Made Clear by Gompers.
The last sentence in this quotation in
dicates very definitely the specific rene
dies to which Mr.. Gompers understands
Mr.. Bryans party has pledged itself
His statement now makes perfectly
clear an important plank in the Bryanite
platform which has heretofore seemed
puzzlng to q vast number Of earnest
minded. thinking people who are sincerely
| interested in the steady advance and the
legitimate aspirations of labor, and who
carefully read both platforms to know
precisely what hopes each held out for
! the improvement of the conditions OF
wage earners.
That plank reads as follows:
Questions OF judicial practice have
| arisen. especially In connection with in
dustrial disputes. We deem that the
parties to all judicial proceedings should
be treated with rigid impartiality and
| that injunctions should not be issued in
any cases in which injunctions would
| not issue il no industrial dispute were
| involved"
This is the plank that promises the
| remedy" against injunctions which Mr..
Gompers asked Of Mr.. Bryan's party.
| In actual fact 1t means absolutely moth
ing; no change of the law could be
based on it: no man without inside
| knowledge could foretell what it's
| meaning would turn out to be, for no
man could foretell how any judge
would decide in any given case. as the
plank apparently leaves each judge
| free to say when he issues an injunc.
| ton in a labor case whether or not
| it is a case in which an Injunction
would issue If labor were not involved
Yet this plank is apparently perfectly
| clear TO Mr.. GOmperS, and in his letter