Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-08

CTS formulated their demands, specify ing the bill that contained them, re- fusing all compromise, stating they, wished the principle of that bill or ' nothing. They insisted on a provision that in a labor dispute no injunction should issue except to protect a prop erty right and specifically provided that the right to carry on 'business should not be construed as property right. and in a second provision their bill made legal in a labor dispute any act or agreement by or between two or more persons that would not have been unlawful if done by single per. son. In other words, this bill legal. ized blacklisting and boycott1ng in ev- cry form, legallxing for instance, those forms of the secondary boycott which the anthracite conl strike commission so unreservedly condemned, while the right to carry on business was ex. plicitiy taken out from under that pro- lection which the law throws over property. The demand was made that there should be trial by jury in con tempt cases. thereby most seriously i'm. pairing the authority of the courts. All this represented course of policy which, if carried out. would mean tho enthronement of class privilege in its crudest and most brutal form and the destruction of one of the most es- sential functions of the judiciary fin all civilized lands.
 The violence of the crusade for this legislation and It's complete failure il. lustrate two truths which it is essen- tial our people should learn. In the first place they ought to teach the workingman, the laborer, the wage worker, that by demanding what is improper and impossible he plays into. the hands of his foes. Such a crude and vicious attack upon the courts. even if 1t were temporarily successful. would inevitably in the end cause a violent reaction and would band the great mass of citizens together. forcing them to stand by all the judges. com petent and incompetent alike, rather than to see the wheels of justice stopped. A movement of this kind can ultimately result In nothing but dam age to those in whose behalf it Is nominally undertaken. This is most healthy truth, which 1t is wise for all our people to learn. Any move ment based on that class hatred which at times assumes the name of "class consciousness is certain ultimately 10 fail and, if it temporarily succeeds, to do farreaching damage. Glass con- sciousness" where 1t is merely another name for the odious vice of class selfshness is equally noxious whether in an employers association or in . workingmans association. The move- ment in question was one in which the appeal was made to all workingmen to vote primarily not as American citf zens, but as individuals of certain class in society. Such an appeal, in the first place, revolts the moro high minded and farsighted among the per sons to whom 1t Is addressed and, in the second place, tends to arouse a strong antagonism among all other classes of citizens, whom 1t therefore tends to unite against tho very organ ization on whose behalf 1t is issued. The result is therefore unfortunate from every standpoint This healthy truth, by the way, win b. lsaEusd by the Socialists if they ever succeed in establishing in this country an fmpor- tant national party based on such class consciousness and sslnsh claSs tn- terest.
 Tne wageworRers, the worktnsmcn, the labortng men of tho country. by the way in which they r0pud1atsd the effort to get them to cast thar votes in response to an appeal to elass hatred have emphasized their sound patriotism and Americanism. The whole country has cause to feel pride in this attitude of sturdy independ- ence, in this uncompromisin9 insist ence upon acting simply as good citi- zens, as good Americana. without re- gard to fancied and improper class in- terests Such an attitude is an object lesson in good citizenship to the en- tire nation.
 But the extreme reactionnr1es, the persons who blind themselves to the wrongs now and then committed by the courts on laboring men, should also think seriously as to what such movement as this portends. The judges who have shown themselves able and willing effectively to check the dishonest activity of the very rich man who works iniouity by the mis- management of corporations, who have shown themselves alert to do justice to the wageworker and sym pathetic with the needs of the mass of our people 50 that the dwelier in the tenement houses. the man who practices a dangerous trade, the man who is crushed by excessive hours of labor, feel that their needs are under stood by the cours-these judges arc the real bufwark of the courts; these judges, the judges of the stamp of the president elect, who have been fearless in opposing labor when it has gone wrong, but fearless also in hold ing to strict account corporations that work iniquity, and farsighted in see. ing that the workingmsn gets his rights, are the men of all others to whom we owe 1t that the appeal for such violent and mistaken legislation has fallen on deaf ears, that the agi-