Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1908-09-03

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the passions of one class of our citizens
the laboring men. To accomplish
this purpose he introduces and assails
what the radical and anarchistic ele-
ments have called Government by In
junction"
The radical term Government by In
junction" was incorporated in the Dem
ocrstic national platform of 1896 and
1900; but even Mr.. Bryan considered it
too extreme and inflamatory to be used
in the Denver platform, when he began
to coddle the conservative element of
his party. Mr.. Byars, however, though
he essays to be conservative in tone.
adopts the expression, government by
injunction" and for the self-evident
purpose of exciting the hostility of the
laboring men in the Ninth District
against his competitor for Congress and
against the Republican party. If this
was not the intention of Mr.. Byars, why
does he use Samuel Gompers, the labor
leader and agltator, to reinforce his ap-
peal to the labor element of the
Ninth. Mr.. Byars quotes from Comp
ers as follows:
The national convention of the Re-
publican party at Chicago refused to in
corporate the demands of labor in its
platform, and instead, inserted plank
on injunctions which endorsed the ex-
lsting abuse Of injunctions as applied to
labor disputes.
The Democratic convention at Den
ver' on the other hand, made labor de-
mands part of its platform.
Mr.. Byars should remember that the
Democratic press of the country by fail
ing to criticise, silently commended the
Republicans for refusing to accede to
the demands of Samuel Gompers. He
should also recall the fact that all the
leading Democratic daily papers in Vir-
GINA warned Mr.. Bryan and the conven-
ton at Denver not to yield to Gompers.
But they did allow Gompers to take the
convention by the throat, even though
he announced that he had tried to make
terms with the Republicans at the
Chicago convention. Mr.. Byars adopts
the views of Gompers as an entirety.
and, after quoting the criticisms Comp
ers made upon the Republican plank on
injunctions, he declares:
"Will the laboring men of this coun-
try vote for a candidate whose plat
form, to use the language of Mr.. Comp
ers, is "a gratuitous, indefensible and
covert insult, not only to the men Of
labor, but to the courts themselves.
Mr.. Byars, we believe, is a LAWYER.
Has he read what VIM. L. Royal, a dis
tinguished Virginia lawyer and bitter
Democrat, said about the Gompers
plank in the Denver platform? In a
communication published recently in the
Richmond Times-Dispatch, referring to
that plank, he said:
Il will not vote for Mr.. BRYAN be-
cause it would be to give my endorse
ment to that proposition, and would
as soon think of taking poison as voting
for it.
This plank in the Democratic plat
form strikes at the foundation of So
ciety. 1t is vain to have laws if YOU
have no agency for enforcing them and
compelling obedience to them; and a
court without power to compel obedi-
ence to its orders is no court at ali. 1t
is nothing but an amiable Cancellation
agency.
IF that plank in the Democratic
platform was made the law of the land
we should at once commence retrograd-
ing to barbarism."
No sound lawyer in Virginia, or else
where, can successfully dispute Mr..
royal estimate OF the Gompers' plank
in the Denver platform. We cannot see
how Mr.. Byars can reconcile his appeal
to the citizens of this district to Law
aside prejudice and to follow the die
tates of an enlightened conscience in
the casting of their ballots with the use
he is making of the Gompers plank. He
can have but one purpose in thus ex-
plotting the views of Samuel Gompers,
and that is to win the votes of laboring
men. In his eager desire to win votes he
has placed himsel in a very inconsistent
and unenviable position before the peo-
pie, both as a candidate for Office and as
a law-abiding citizen.