The Winchester news. [volume] (Winchester, Ky.) 1908-19??, 1908-10-22
WRITES LETTER
ON INJUNCTION
President Asks Bryan to Explain
His Position in Labor
Question.

Washington, Oct. %. "A letter
written by President Roosevelt to
United States lenator Knox Of Penn
sylvania, in whidA he comments on the
attempt OF "Mr. Bryan and certain
gentlemen claiming to be the special
representatives of organized labor,
foremost among them Mr.. Gompers,
to secure the support OF laboring men
for Mr.. Bryan on consideration Of his
agreement to perform certain acts
nominally in the interest Of organized
labor, which would be really either
wholly inefrectual or else OF wide
spread injury not only to organized
labor but to all decent citizens
throughout the country.
He quotes from an open lotter from
Mr.. Gompers appealing to workingmen
to vote for Mr.. Bryan. and In which
the assertion Is made that the 'judici-
airy of this country is destroying Dem
ocratic government and substituting
therefor an irresponsible and corrupt
despotism in the interest Of corporate
power" and that the means by which
the alleged despotism has been set up
In the place of Democracy LIS by the
process Of injunction In the courts Of
equity
The president quotes rurther from
the letter as follows: "Labor's rep
resentatixes then went to the Demo
cratic party. That party made labor's
contentious IT'S own. II pledged its can
didates for every Office to those rene
dies which labor had already submit
ted to congress"
Commenting on this paragraph, Mr.
Roosevelt says: THE last sentence
in this quotation indicates very def
nitely the specific remedies to which
Mr.. Gompers understands Mr. Bryan's
party has pledged itself.
His statement now makes perfect
ly clear an important plank in the
Bryanite platform which has hereto
fore seemed puzzlingtto vast number
Of minded thinking people who
are-sinoerely interested In the steady
advance and the legitimate aspirations
of labor. and who carefully read both
platforms to know precisely what
hopes each hold out for the improve
ment of the conditions of wage earn
ers.
THAT plank reads as follows:
Questions of judicial practice have
arisen especially in connection with
Industrial disputes. We deem that
the parties to all judicial proceedings
should be treated with rigid impartial
ity, and that injunctions should not
be issued in any cases in which in
functions would not issue IL no indus
trial dispute were involved
This is the plank which promises
the remedy against injunctions which
Mr.. Gompers asked of Mr. Bryans
party. In actual fact 1t means abso-
lutely nothing; no change of the law
could be based on 1t; no man without
inside knowledge could foretell what
its meaning would turn out to be, for
no man could fOretell how any Judge
WOuAO OC~AoC III any SL'Ch OooO, do
the plank apparently leaves each
judge free to say when he issues an
Injunction in a labor case whether or
not it is 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 let
ter to his followers he indicates be-
yond question just what he under
stands it to mean. He asserts that he
has the requisite inside knowledge.
His statement that Mr.. Bryan's party
(for it was Mr. Bryan who dictated
the PLATFORM pledged itself to those
remedies which labor had already
submitted to congress is perfectly
clear and definite statement.
1.-The remedies which Mr. Gompers
has already submitted to congress are
matters of record, and the Identified
ton of his remedy against injunc-
tons in labor disputes Is easy and GER
tain. This remedy is embodied in
house bill No. "a, of the first session
of the Sixtieth congress. The gist Of
the bill, as can be seen, by referring
to the complete text, is this:
'First-After forbidding any feder-
al Judge to issue restraining order
for an injunction in any labor dispute
except to prevent irreparable injury to
property or property right, it speci-
fically provides that no right to carry
on business Of any particular kind, or
at any particular place, or at all, shall
be construed, held, considered or
treated as property or as constituting
a property right
'Second-It provides that nothing
agreed upon or done by two or more
parties in connection with labor dis
pute shall constitute a conspiracy or
other criminal offense or be prosecu-
ted as such unless the thing agreed
upon would be unlawful If done by a
single individual
THE bill here described is not only
the remedy that Jr. Gompers has al
ready submitted to congress, but it is
the one and only remedy which he