Evening journal., 1909-01-04
GOMPERS DENIES
ATTACK ON COURTS
LabOr'S Representatives Have
Only ASSaiIed Principle,
lie Asserts
DEFENDS LABOR'S CAUSE

WASHINGTON, d. c.. Jan. 4-In ali
editorial i'm the January issue Of the
American Federationist Samuel Comp
ers refers to the alleged abuse Of tho
injunction power by the courts. points
to the Endorsement of his attitude by
the Denver Convention of the Ameri-
can Federation. denies ever havine
abused judges or the courts. and re
fers In vigorous fashion 10 Mr.. Roose.
Welt. Mr.. Gompers says:
For this issue we will content our.
selves with calling attention TO the re.
port which the President submitted to
the Denver Convention, the consider.
alton given it by the appropriate com.
mittee, and the action taken by the
convention.
Recognizing the general interest felt
in the subjects discussed in the Presi
dents report. we publish herewith the
most important features of the delibor.
ations of the convention on this re.
port. The convention devoted the
greater part of two days to this dis
cussion, and each subject was consid.
cred and disposed of separately.
"The men and women OF organized
labor. thinkers, and friends i'm all wall,a
of life. will read with interest the
verdict of the highest tribunal I'm tho
American labor movement on the
Presidents action in the last year.
Vicious, Unwarranted Attacks.
1.-THE vicious and unwarranted at
tacks from the cxalted-and others not
so exalted--the attempt TO direct con.
troll and subordinate the labor move-
ment of the United States other than
by the men of labor themselves. has
been rebuSed 10y the Denver Conven-
tion. This convention. where nearly
400 delegates assembled, elected by
their fellow workers to represent the
great rank and file Of the labor move
ment Of our country. by practically
unanimous sentiment, voice and vote
emphaticallv reiterated its determine.
ton to onergetically continue I'm tho
work Of abollshing the wrongs and in.
justices which labor has had 20 bear.
and to attain the rights and freedom.
to which the workers are justly en-
titled.
"In view Of the utterances of Presi
dent Roosevelt during the recent cam,
paign all looked forward with keen IN
terest 10 what he would say i'm his re-
cent annual message TO Congress. lic
disported himself as was anticipated.
1--WE wish TO concern ourselves here
particularly with what the press char
acterizes as AN Attack on Labor
Leaders, IN the Presidents message
II does not eau for much discernment
to infer TO whom the President directs
his abuse. Tt is doubtful that any
President OF the United States in an.
official message 90 Congress ever he.
fore descended 20 such misrepresenta-
tion and villihcation of individual citi-
zens as Mr.. Roosevelt has I'm the last
annual message.
Denies Attacks on judiciary.
president Roosevelt absolutely mis-
represents the attitude Of certain
leaders of organized labor I'm his sweep
ing denunciations. He does this know
ingly and wilfully because he has from
time to time during the last seven
years conferred with the certain an0
nearly all the well known officers and
other representati5 YES OF labor unions,
and has had ample opportunity %
know how fair and just is their con
| tention against the abuse Of the in
| junction power by the courts and how
different their attitude from what he
not quote. for he cannot find any
, violent and sweeping attack upon the
entire judiciary of the country which
he charges the men Of labor with MAX
/ ing.
"The fact is that no representative
of labor made any attack upon any in
dividual judge or tine judiciary as such
We leave such fulminations to MI.
I Franf fnaaa
than his present message TO discover
attacks upon the judiciary far moro
sweeping and abusive than anything
we have ever thought, much less ut
tered We have had occasion before
to point out that IN previous messages
he did not hesitate to attack judges
whose decisions displeased him-he, as
usual, constituting himself the judge
of whether or not his attack was
justified.
"Iabor's representatives have at all
times attacked the principle under
/ which unjust decisions have been is
sued and never the judges who made
/ these decisions. We refer to all that
we have ever said about Justice Gould
/ i'm connection with the Van CleavC
/ Bucks stove and Range Company
/ injunction-all that we have said about
/ the Supreme Court i'm connection with
the Danbury Hatters' decision, which
classed labor unions with trusts under
/ the sherman Antitrust law. We re-
fer to anything we said Of President
elect Taft in connection with his his
tory as a Judge. when issuing injunc'
tions. We have never used persona
abuse as our weapon"
The government Of Australia makes spe
cial inducements to farmers who will re