The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1909-02-20
Nation. Must Not Allow judges to
1mprison Men Without Jury
'*s Trial
sqATHING ARRANGEMENT
OF WRIGHT'S DECISION
BY Pastor of First Methodist
~ Church Of City of San
Diego, Gal. =,

SAM DIEGO, Feb. 1s.-The pulpit
|aal over the country unites with the
free. press and every other unsubdi-
nation OF the sentence against Com
pers. Mitchell and Morrison by judge
Wright Of the District OF Columbia,
Rev. Dr.. Lewis T. Gulf. pastor Of the
First Methodist church of this city.
delivered from his pulpit scathing
arTa1gnment Of the decision. The fol-
lowing is synopsis Of
The Sermon.
THE laborer Is free to work or not
to work; the employer is free to dis
charge or retain his employer for any
cause whatsoever. The public is free
to buy OF any merchant or to pass him
by. Organized labor asks only that
workman may have the right to do
collectively what al linen are free to
do individually, and that in. order to
meet combined capitol on equal terms.
Property Right Considered.
mo employer has any property
right in the labor Of any employe, else
we would have slavery. No merchant
has property right in the trade of
other men, for they may withhold it
| il they choose. II one man has right
to decline to trade with another. an
organization of men mas the same
right, It's members may persuade
each other not to trade with q COM
mon enemy. If they can be en-.
Joined against this it is only a step
to an Injunction forcing men to trade
! with others or to- work for others and
personal liberty is gone.
Samuel Gompers, editing the chief
organ of the Federation Of Labor.
printed list OF firms refusing to
contract with labor unions and called
unfair These corporations are arti-
fetal creatures. without souls, stom-
achs Or little children, but the other
parties to the controversy are pain
fully a1tve. Irhe. zeesrsorHtt6n secures
an lniunc ton against THE edftprs and
his stan under plea Of sviolence to
property Note it's injustice The cor
Eporation may discharge and blacklist
the employees, but the workmen must
mot blacklist the corporations under
penalty Of being: hailed into prison.
for violence to property b yinterfer-
encec with trade. g.,
-Non-Trading Agreements.
ITO make a. non-trading agree
nent is a violation Of property rights,
according to the jurisprudence of this
day, Judge Wright and mis- soadjutors
would have put red-hot. sizzling in
functions against the Boston tea party.
Those colonists who made non-fmport
agreements (signed by George WASH
tfngton ct aE) are now adored as the
saints Of the republic but Gompers,
Mitchell and Morrison must be sacri-
/ feed.
"This practice and decision rests
upon the thesis that business is of
more value than men. One man is
lawmoker and executive. He, sub
stitutes his personal views for the
unconstitutional guarantees Of. Anglo
Saxon liberty. Our fathers revolted
by the sword against the substitution
of the personal power of George III,
for the ancient liberties of English
men.
! Labor's Weapons.
*'The pitiful weapons Of labor are
the strike and the boycott. The lat
ter is refusal to trade, to buy and
-sell-no more. no less. To keep or
lgantzed labor together the American
Federation has system of news
paper organs which publish the labor
news and proceedings and advocate
union principles, giving the news of
every industrial war. Against the
combinations Of capital the mems WHO
l nY71H ho -
labor as a protection; without It the
despair of Industrial slavery.
If this practice is to stand ana
this Interpretation Of laws is not to
be overthrown. QganizGG labor is
ruined and the one bulwark Of the
workmen, his only protection capital,
is swept away, and: WITH It has gone
the ancient and glorious right Of free
speech and free press, won by gener-
ations of struggle against despotism.
what will be the effect? II the
superior courts or the president are
such wretched statesmen as to let this
l,decision stand, It will be the most re-
votuntionary event Of this decade. In
that case I dare prophesy that when
the Industrial history Of this country
is finally written, the names Of Comp
Eers, Mitchell and Morrison will be sa-
luted as we now salute the names OF
lHampden and Pym. The cause Of
these men is that Of every man. who
loves freedom. 81, wy
I ~ : ii J. Duty Of Protest. y.
'*:'T do not believe the country will
stand for It. Every citizen should feel
his{ responsibility to protest vigorous
Il IL, 49, x,,l%t, nS,+ ornv,no.oa 4 "a >.<~, a,