-"v. '"'-''
3
TUI
fe TRADES iHSSSa COUNCILS)
VOL. 5
L,IKCOIiN, NEBRASKA, OCTOBEB 24, 1908
NO. 30
If - -
mMi&
Under Which Flag,' Mr. Union Man?
V
J. W. Van Cleave Says:
. i .......
"The injunction's purpose is to head off injury for which, if
allowed to be committed, the victim can secure no adequate rem
edy by the courts. It is the promptness, the certaintly, and the justice
of" the punishment in contempt cases which renders the injunction so
effective in preventing attacks on property and life. Jury trial would
bring delay and uncertainty. Thus it would give a license to vio
lence, xsxmld make industry and property insecure, xmuld increase
the number and the destructiveness of labor contests, and zvould assail
legitimate trade of all sorts.
"It is the duty of American business men, regardless of their
party, to bury Bryan and Bryanism under such an avalanche of
votes in 1908 that the work will not have to be done over again in
1912, or ever." Statement by J. W. Van Cleave, President National
Association of Manufacturers, and President of the Buck Stove Co.,
St. Louis.
What Samuel Gompers Says:
"I am very well satisfied with the democratic platform as promul
gated at the Denver convention, and I will do everything to support
these declarations, and of course that means we will work for the elec
tion of the men who stand for our principles. '
"I have never expected defeat in any undertaking, never hoped for
defeat, and never have given up fighting for an idea or principle that I
firmly believed to be right and just. I will always be found fighting
for what I believe is right, no matter what the temporary results may
be. I believe that in this fight we now have on hand, that we will win;
and I shall work for Mr. Bryan's election and for the ratification of the
principles that we have advocated as officers and as an organization."
Statement by Samuel Gompers, President American Federation of
Labor, and now charged with contempt of court at the instigation of
J. W. Van Cleave.
' 1
SI
THINGS THE WORKINGMAN SHOULD PONDER OVER
i -v.
Mr. Workingman, the politician who tells you that his party
has granted you any rights is a demagogue if not worse. Especially
is he dangerous if he tells you that his party has given you the right
to work, or that his party has put food upon your table, or clothing
upon your backs, or a roof over your head.
No man can deny your right to work but men and parties can
deprive you of the opportunity of performing your work unhindered
by unwarranted judicial interference. Men or parties ean bring
about an industrial condition that prevents you from exercising your
right to work but the right is still there, just as it has always been
there and always will be there.
Corporations may deny you proper recompense for your toil,
and then throw you into jail by the act of judges of their own
creation if you make an organized protest against injustice and an
organized demand for a reasonable wage and fair conditions. And
corporations have done, and are doing, that very thing.
Men who have sought to persuade their fellows to retrain irom
committing acts that caused injury to the whole body of labor have
been thrown into jail for contempt of court. The beef trust violated
an injunction, but its officials were not jailed not at all. They
were, instead, merely "warned." Men who have banded together
to bring about better social, industrial and physical conditions have
been declared members of trusts in restraint of trade. Men who
have sought to aid their fellows by exercising their God-given right
to work or rest as they saw fit have been sent to jail, thus making
them in fact industrial slaves. Men who have dared to perform
missionary work among their fellow workers have been declared
criminals and sent to jail without trial by jury. Great trusts have
been organized to squeeze the consumers on the one hand and the
producers upon the other. These trusts have corrupted courts, pur
chased legislators and poisoned the fountain of civic liberty. And the
supreme court of the United States has declared the labor unions to
belong in the same category with these iniquitous, conscienceless,
brutal trusts.
Judge William II. Taft brought the injunction into industrial
disputes, and upon the precedent he set the courts have held trades
unions to be trusts in restraiut of trade, men have been sent to jail
for daring to exercise constitutional rights, their organizations have
been used through judicial decree to work injury to the organiza,
tions and benefit to their oppressors.
When the workers went to Chicago and asked the republican
national convention for a redress of these wrongs, the republican
convention turned a deaf ear to them, but listened with willing ears
to the voices of labor's deadliest enemies. Then that convention
nominated for president of the United States the judge who used
the injunction as a bludgeon to beat workingmen into submission to
the will of the great trusts and combines. William Howard Taft
and his supporters may twist and wriggle as they will ; the author of
the "undesirable citizens" letter and the promoter of the "open
shop" idea in the government printery may write and wriggle and
palaver as he will, Judge Taft himself may grow red in the face
while denouncing and villifying the president of the American Fed
eration of Labor the fact still remains that William Howard Taft,
the republican candidate for the presidency, laid the foundation for
the judicial decisions that have deprived workingmen of their rights.
Union men have no objection to the injunction writ when used
as a purely equity writ as it was originally intended to be used.
They do object to its being used to deprive them of inalienable rights
upon the mere dictum of a fallible and often corrupt judge.
Judge Taft was the first judge to declare that a railroad man,
under certain circumstances within the interpretation and judgment
of the court had no right to cease. wronk.-' But the employer' reserved
the right to discharge at any time and without notice.
Judge Taft sent a man to jail, upon the testimony of a hired spy,
for the awful crime of trying to organize men into an association that
would protect them against organized wealth and organized greed.
Judge Taft fined union bricklayers for exercising their right
to withhold their patronage from their enemies.
Basing their acts upon the injunction precedents set by Judge
Taft, other judges have gradually enlarged upon them until today
STAND BY FRIENDS
THE WAGEWORKER IS FOR ORGANIZED LABOR
AND FOR ANY MOVEMENT THAT WILL BENEFIT
LABOR AND INCREASE OPPORTUNITIES AND IM
PROVE CONDITIONS OF THE TOILERS.
AND STANDING THUS, WE ARE IN HEARTY AC
CORD WITH THE INDEPENDENT POLITICAL PRO
GRAM SUGGESTED FOR LABOR BY THE NORFOLK
A. F. OF L. CONVENTION AND NOW BEING CAR
RIED OUT BY THE OFFICERS OF THAT ORGAN
IZATION. .
EVENTS OF RECENT OCCURRENCE AND FRESH
IN THE MINDS OF ALL TRADES UNIONISTS WAR
RANT A DECLARATION BY THE ORGANIZED TOIL
ERS AT THE BALLOT BOX IN NOVEMBER IN FA.
VOR OF WILLIAM J. BRYAN FOR PRESIDENT AND
FOR A CONGRESS WHICH WILL GIVE THE WORK
ING PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES A "SQUARE
DEAL." '
"STAND BY YOUR FRIENDS; DEFEAT YOUR
ENEMIES." , - .
the writ has been prostituted from its original purpose and is now lit
tle more than an industrial club held over the heads of the toilers.
; A Pennsylvania judge enjoined a preacher from praying with
and for striking miners. A Nebraska judge enjoined union men from
using the United States mails to communicate with strikebreakers.
A West Virginia judge enjoined the organizers of the United Mine
Workers from riding on the street cars carrying 'strikebreakers or
communicating with them upon the public streets and highways.
Rights which have never been denied to one man have been denied
to two and more men who saw the necessity of acting in concert
for mutual protection. . r '
, Smarting under this injustice organized labor asked the repub
lican party for relief and the party not only refused relief, but
showed its insolent disregard of the toilers by offering for their
suffrages the judge who set the injunction pace.
The treason of venal labor leaders, the sophistries of the sub
sidized! press, the strenuous efforts of the president to befog the
issues, the mouthings of professional place-seekers and office-holders
and the death-bed repentence of a frightened presidential candidate
will not and cannot avail to blind the eyes of thinking workingmen
to the real facts.
The election of William H. Taft will be an endorsement of the
use of the injunction to deprive toilers of the right to trial by jury;
an endorsement of the hideous doctrine that organizations dealing
with human souls andhuman hopes are in the same class as trusts
dealing with sordid matter and merchandise; an endorsement of the
doctrine that a judge may make, interpret and execute a law,! then
fix the term of punishment and deny any appeal. ! 2
Mr. Union Man, is it not time that you do some independent
thinking? Is it not time that you turned a deaf ear to the palaver
of the trust barons, rolling in riches obtained by "special legislation
that goes under the guise of "protection to American labor," and
take a stand for your rights as citizens and as free men
Make your protest against this injustice so strong that in fu
ture no party will dare deny your demands for justice. .
"THE OKGANIZEZD LABOR VOTE.'?
Organized labor has asked for relief from oppressive conditions.
It has asked relief from the abuse of the injunction writ not for the
abolition of the writ'." It has asked for a representative in the cabinet,
the same as the financial and agricultural interests are now repre
sented. Its petition has been heard and heeded by the democratic
party. Its petitions have been heard and rejected by the republican
party. If organized labor does not stand by its friends now, how
can it ever hope to secure recognition in the future f If union men
now divide on partisan lines, how can it ever hope to make practical
men believe that the "labor vote" is not a political myth? If the
beneficiaries of special legislation stand together in support of the
party that sells them legislation in payment forcampaign contribu
tions, why should not the honest workers of the country stand solidly
by the party that offers them legitimate relief from oppressive con
ditions? Is the "labor vote" a myth, or is it a practical entity! This
question will be definitely answered by the election returns on No
vember 3. j .
STAND
AND BE COUNTED
ONC
"9
OR
Y Mr. Union Man, Vote This Time for Your Own Interests and Your Union
