The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1909-01-09
chMdren or our children's children
may live under conditions insuring to
them a just share Of the product of
their lahnr" =.

may live under conditions insuring to-
them a just share Of the product of
their labor" a.
George NorthfieId, Butchers Union.
1T should be the attitude \of organ
lied labor that if there are unjust
laws on the books they ought to be
violated until they are repealed; il
there are unscrupulous judges in the
courts they ought to be; defied until
they are rendered powerless. It strikes
me that organized Labor is doing these
very things For doing them labor is
sure of the abuse of those whose corns
It treads upon-and it is just as sure
of the plaudits Of posterity :.
Z. p. Peters, Leather Workers Union.
"Organized labor claims that the
Judge in the original case had no legal
right to- issue the injunction he did,
and Gompers and others were the
agents of organized labor in testing
that contention. The injunction they
were, and are yet, fighting involves
some Of the most precious rights Of
American citizenship, chief among
which is that of free speech and an
upntrammeled press. If the injunc-
ticn, for alleged violation of which the
A. f.. of l.. officials were convicted,
shall finally be determined legal, and,
therefore, become a precedent, the
press will be robbed of, it's power, since
1t will not dare utter anything except
that which capital, through an injunc-
t1on, directs 1t to say. It would SIM
pllfy the present process by which
capital dominates the people. Instead
of having to buy the press, capital
would only have to employ the courts
to coerce the press-if the power Of
unlimited injunction were given, leg
ally, to Judges
M. J. Harney, Sheet Metal. Workers.
Why should not tine: enforcement Of
our laws be equal, impartial and uni
form? Why are not the really guilty
ones punished under the Sherman
act? Taft says that unlawful trusts
should be restrained with all the sew
Gritty of injunctive process. Why is it
not done? Why, weak vengeance
against labor leaders and let the
Rockefellers and Mortons revel in
crime unwhipped of justice? Do not
such aspects as this give color to the
socialist charge that the laws are made
for the benefit and protection Of the
rich only? Will not such outrages
breed contempt for both law and the
courts, and, in the end, prove fecund
source of anarchy?
D. M. Robinson, Painters Union.
THE Wright pronunciamento will
have the effect of arousing the work
ing people of this country from their
lethargy as nothing mas done or could
do in the present generation. The
words have been uttered that will rally
the hosts of labor to the cause from
Atlantic to the Pacific, from the lakes
to the Gulf. ::| =
"The defendants pinned their faith
and hope on the constitutional proYi-
sion-the fundamental law 81 Sthe land
guar ranteeing the. riesat Of ~ free
speech and a free press. The court
contemptuously ignored that basic
principal of this government-tlle cor
nerstone of the Republic. Instead. a
| TRADE, such as has seldom been heard
from the BENCH was delivered at the
heads Of the defendants (and the la
bor movement as a wholeC because
the men at the bar had dared to stand
upon their rights and question judge
made law and the usurpation of a
Judiciary that is becoming irresponsi-
BILE and intoxicated with its:e( stolen
power.
''The whole Wright decision sounds
like a page from Roman history, or
the tyrannfcal edicts in Britain before
Runnyn1de, or the DEGREES in :: France
before the Revolution, or5the: .coercive
declarations in America before Bunker
Hill, or the Dred Scott infan11y before
Fort Sunlpter, or the present brutal
ukases promulgated daily in unhappy
Russia. ~:
James Mcleod, a Canadian Laborer.
"The sentencing of Gompers and his
associates to prison for carrying on a
boycott by publication could not have
happened under the laws OF: Canada -
said MIR. Mcleod, mot because our
laws are less stringent than those Of
the United States, but bseause our
judiciary have wider conception Of
equity due to our sense Of British fair