The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-10-22
USES BIC STICK.
PRESIDENT Writes a Long Letter
to Senator Knox.
Discusses Attitude of Bryan and
Gempers.
ASKS SOME QUESTIONS
Know if Democratic Leader En-.
dorses Gompers' Position.
Defends Own Right to Take
Part in Campaign.


literature has been enriched by a let
ter from President Roosevelt ad-
dressed to Philander C. Knox. of
Pennsylvania. in which Mr. Roosevelt
| pays his respects to Samuel Gompers,
| president of the Federation of Labor.
Speaking at Philadelphia on Tuesday,
Senator Knox took issue with Mr..
Gompers on the question of the atti-
tude of organized labor in the present
campaign and the presidents letter
OF today is in support of Mr.. Knox's
views. Mr.. Roosevelt says:
My Dear Senator Knox: In your
admirable speech of yesterday you
speak of the action of Mr.. Bryan
and certain gentlemen. claiming to be
the special representatives of organ
lied labor, foremost among them Mr.
Gompers, to secure the support of la
boring men for Mr.. Bryan on consid-
GRAFTON of his agreement to perform
certain acts nominally in the interest
of organized labor, which would be
| really wholly ineffective or else of
| widespread injury. not only to organ
lied labor, but to all decent citizens
| throughout the country. You have a
| peculiar right to speak on labor ques-
| tions; for it was you who, as attor-
ney 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, speaking for the
| department of justice, intervened in
| a private lawsuit, which had gone
| against a locomotive fireman who had
lost an arm in coupling cars, and by
your Intervention secured from the
| supreme court a construction of the
safety appliance act which made the
vital remedial statute, and therefore
| has secured to hundreds of crippled
| employees compensation which they
would not otherwise have obtained.
The daily papers of October 13 con-
| tain an open letter from Samuel Com
pers. president of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor, appealing to work
ingmen to vote for Mr.. Bryan.
statements which interest the Ameri
can public as much as those to whom
Mr.. Gompers makes his appeal
These statements warrant all you
have said in your speech, and they
would 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 citi-
zen, including every business man, as
borer who looks to the courts for the
protection Of his rights.
Mr. Gompers in his letter, asserts
that the judiciary of this country is
QeSITOy1nR QemOCrdI1C government ana
substituting therefore an irresponsible
and corrupt power. and he further
makes clear that the means by which
he believes this alleged 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 con-
vention at Chicago for remedy against
the injunction was denied, and he then
|
Democratic party promised a remedy,
but promised him the particular rem
edy that he had already asked of con-
gress.
His words are:
} "Labor's representatives then went
to the Democratic party. That party
made labor contentious its own. 1t
pledged its candidates for every office
| to those remedies which labor had al
ready submitted to congress"
The last sentence in this quotation
indicates very definitely the specific
| remedies to which Mr. Gompers un-
derstands Mr.. Bryan's party has
pledged itself.
His statement now makes perfectly
clear an important plank in the
Bryanite platform. which has here
tofore seemed puzzling to vast num-
ber of earnest minded thinking peo-
5 pie, who are sincerely interested in
: the steady advance and legitimate as
pirations of labor, and who carefully
read both platforms to know precisely
what hopes each hold out for the I'M
provement of the conditions of wage
earners.
That plank reads as follows:
Questions of judicial practice have
arisen, especially in connection with
4 parties to all judicial proceedings
t should be treated with rigid Impair
4 tiality, and that injunctions should
: not be issued in any cases in which In
t functions would not issue IL no indus
a trial disputes were involved"
4 Remedy Fails.
This is the plank that promises tn
, remedy against injunction. which Mr.
: Gompers asked of Mr.. Bryan's party
In actual fact. it means absolutel.
nothing; no change of the law coult
be based on it; no man without insid
knowledge could foretell what it's mean
ing would turn out to be, for no maj
could foretell how any judge would de
| eide in any given case. as the plan ap
k parently leaves each judge free to sa
when he issues an injunction in labo
case whether or not it is case i
which an injunction would issue If la
b Dor were not involved. Yet this plan
It is apparently perfectly clear to Nj
n Gompers, and in his letter to his fol
= lowers he indicates beyond questio
= lust what he understands it to NEAR
a He asserts that he has had requisit
l. inside knowledge. His statement tha
v Ne Rrvan's party (for 1t was Nj
: BRYAN who dictated the platform
: pledged itself "to those remedies whic
labor had already submitted to con
s gress", is a perfectly clear and dehnit
e Gompers has already submitted to con
e gress are matters of record, and tn
d Identification of his remedies agains
IS injunction in labor disputes is easy an
e house bill No. IA of the session of til