The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-27
ROOSEVELT
 ARRAIGNED Gompers Gives Out a
 Statement. A CHANGE OF POSITION  Laborers Aroused and Determine
 to Vote Own Way.
Gompers Insists That the President Makes n Direct and Specific At- tack Upon Labor In His
 Letter to Knox.

Washington, Oct- Ios--fSeplylhS tO President Rooseveit's letter to sena- tor Knox in reference to the applica- tion of the writ of injunction In labor disputes, Samuel Gompers. President of the American Federation of Labor in a statement issued today. severely arraIgns the President for what he terms "A change of position of al least apparent friendship to oltter' in- defensibIe antagonismT
 Tt has been my pleasure" MT. Gom- pers says, "to have often he'd the prlvl- IeRe of discussing with President Roosevelt a number of the fundamen- tai questions of right, justice ana moral and social uplifts Included Tn these discussions were the invasions of personal rights and human llberty by the courts in the injunction abuse It is true that the President has not always fully agreed with my conten- ton, but he has never until the pupil cation of his latest utterance, hlnted. much less charged, that anything that we advocated was iawless, unfeeling. despotic, brutal or wicked and yet the rights for which the workers of our country contend and which, as best | can defend and advocate, have been as we'll known to him during the past several years. as they are when he now so unjustifediy undertakes to misrepresent my work, my motives ana my law-abiding citizenship. Surely. that opinion was not. always eh'eF- tained by the President
 MT. Gompers says that last February, he sent MT. Roosevelt an issue of The l American Federationist, in which he nublished the chapter, Some Equivocal Rights of Labor" from George A. AL gers book. Moral overstrain." 'rhe chapter of the book" Mir. Com I Nrff f0f nF courts of the country in their decis- Ions affecting the rights, interests and | liberty of the workers as anything have ever said or written.
 ,'The President. in ac<zswlsdglng re- celpt. sent the follo7lsfxs
 Washington. Jan 27, 1908. | "Nv Dear Mir, Gompers:--
 You may be amused to know that | have sent copies of the Moral 1 Overstrain' to justice Day and Mo- | Kenna. I am glad that you were able to use 1t In the American Federation ist and thank you for sending me the I copy of the magazine
 Sincerely Yours.
 Theodore Roosevelt To Mir Samuel Compers. President
 American Federation of Labor. l "washington, D. O."
 "The fact of the matter Is" Mir. | Compers declares. that President 1 Roosevelt having made Injunction" | Judge Taft the candidate of tho re- | publican party and seeing that the Labor vote which so often has been | corralIed, diverted and perverted by the politicians, is now aroused and determined to deliver Its own vote: 1 that the toilers will not be cajoled, deceived or browbeaten, has become dispaired and angry and in his anger by l the worst exhibition of demagogism. tried to instili into the employers and business men the fear that their pro- perty Is Tn danger If square deal'' implied by equality before the law and human freedom, are accorded to the workers with all the other citizens. It Is an exhibition of impotent rage and disappointment, and an awful descent from the dignity of the high office of the president. But no one but himself will be deceived as to the purpose of l Mr. Roosevelt.
 citizens are aroused as never before since ,61 The battle cry for freedom Is again taken up. Then 1t was for the union and the abolition of black slavery; today 1t is for the union squal rights and freedom for all"
 Mir Gompers Insists that the Pres ident Makes direct and specific at- y ator Knox.
 '"The pretense that the attack Is up- on me Is too thinly yelled to deceive I any one," he adds. He strikes over my shoulder at the hearts of the great rank and file of the workers and other liberty loving citizens of our country. So far as am concerned, I have neither the inclination nor the desire to bask in the sunlight of President Roosevelt's benevolent assimilation by which he placates some, by the big stick browbeats others and by his sophistry hopes to fool the mass es into supporting injunction Judge Taft.
 President Roosevelt says that Sem ator Knox has a peculiar right to discuss the principles involved in in- functions because he as Attorney Gen eral prosecuted a civil suit for dam ages to an injured workman. That Senator Knox was the special counsel of the Pennsylvania Road and of the United States Steel Corporation would indeed qualify him to discuss the n- junction abuse. bat cs. tail1iy oniy ffS n the viewpoint of the friends of c6S ,- porations who profit by the abuse ( the injunction writ as it brings ad. vantage and profit to corporate greed and power.
 If the courts have not invaded hu- man liberty, If they have not under. taken to protect corporate interests to the detriment of the people, why did President Roosevelt characterize Judge Grosscup's reversal of Judge Landis' S29. 900, 900 fine upon the Standard oil Company as a gross miscarriage of justiceT"
 Declaring that the veriest tyro of A layman in his widest dreams never suggested the abolition of the in- function process. Mfr, Gompers insists that labor desires to have the injunc- tion restored to the use from which It has been ruthlessly diverted, from the protection of property rights to the Invasion of personal freedom "
 He quotes from the Presidents mes sages to Congress and declares that they show an utter confusion of the entire matter of inujnctions in MT. Roosevelt's mind" He claims that the decisions of the lower courts In Great Britain which were reversed by the higher courts there have been accept ed as the basis for the issuance of the injunction in the United States. Mir Gompers also insists that the provis-