Amador ledger., 1908-10-16
DEMOCRATIC RALLY.
Waiter McArthur Addresses Citl-
zens From Labor Standpoint.

was fred by the democrats on Wed
nesday evening. It was announced as
democratic rally, and Walter Nc
Arthur, was billed as the centre
attraction. In fact, he was solitary
speaker, except the preliminary small
talk by locals. The weather proved
anything but propitious from
political outlook. The rain was
descending In torrents when the time
for opening the meeting drew near.
The Military band played in front
of Loves hall to gather the crowd.
Somehow there was a noticeable
failure to respond by general out
pour of citizens, as was wont to be
the case in years gone by. The
attractive force of campaign oratory
has been on the wane for years. The
enthusiasm of hand -elapping and
cheering, and brass bands and pro-
cessions have in great measure
ceased as the necessary accompani-
ments of the spell binders.
When the hour for opening the
meeting came, the hall was long
way from being filed Indeed the
empty spaces we're as conspicuous as
the filed seats. DIR. Endicott, as
chairman of the county central oom-
mittee, opened the meeting by brief
speech, in which he jokingly said
the democrats were certain to elect
three candidates, namely, Strohm, as
supervisor, Judge Rust tor superior
Judge, and William Jennings Bryan,
as president.
| K. g. Bole was elected chairman of
the evening, and spoke briefly, and
announced eight or nine vice-presi
dents. among them being James Nee
han, g. l.. Culbert L. Hedgepeth, e.
Giovannoni and l.. q. Glavinovich,
who we're called to the platform to
grace the background of the meeting,
and do the lions share of the hand
clapping and cheering In perfume
tory way at any pointed remarks of
the speaker.
Walter Macarthur was introduced.
He is president of the Seaman's
Union and editor of the Pacific Coast
Seaman's journal, the organ of that
union. He said he had been identiti
ed with the labor movement all his
life, and was there to talk from a
labor union standpoint. That IL the
~ he
to tariff or financial matters, he
would not be taking part AN the
canvass. He admitted plainly that
the vital question to him and others
associated with him in unionism, was
the stand assumed in the platforms of
the two great parties on the question
of Injunction and the judiciary. He
then went on to explain the labor
movement, claiming that workingmen
could not get square deal from their
employers unless they were organized,
and worked as unit. Unions had
different ways of enforcing their de-
mands for improvement of their con-
ditions of employment. There was
the strike and the boycott. They
appealed to the public through free
press, the Eight of assembly and free
speech. They depended upon the
sympathy of the public for their
rights. If that sympathy was on
their side they would win, if other
wise, they would lose The evident
drift of the argument was that public
opinion should be the court of appeal
without any Interpolation of the
processes of the courts. by injuDc-
tions. In other words mob law
should prevail. The democratic plat
form advocated radical changes in
the judicial branch of the govern
ment by cartailing the power of the
courts to issue injunction in labor
disputes. He contended that the
stand of the judiciary in such
matters, if continued, would destroy
the labor union movement. Hence,
he was in favor of Bryan and demo-
cracy, because of the curbing of the
judicial branch in the interest of
labor disputes.
He was also in favor of the Bryanlte
proposition of government guarantee
of deposits in banks. The present
banking system was about the worst
that could be. Any change must be
in the direction of Improvement. A
change could not possibly be for the
worse, and with this lucid exposition
of this financial question, he retired,
and the meeting was at an end.
AS soon as he quit talking there