"In this case the Judge has acted as the initiator of criminal contempt, appointed the attorneys of private litigants to prepare a complaint and prosecute it to a conclusion. The Judge has heard the evidence. He himself determined the credibility of witnesses. He then formulated his decision and executed it by imposing prison sentences. Facts and the evidence in the case have been suppressed and perverted, and the purposes and motives of my colleagues and myself entirely misrepresented. "There is not in the evidence, nor can there be found therein or elsewhere, one single fact upon which to base the statement of Justice Wright that we have violated any law of the State, nation, or the District of Columbia. "We have contended that a court has no right in advance to enjoin or prevent publication; that anyone who speaks or publishes anything which is either seditious or libelous should be made to answer before a law court and before a jury, but that the attempt in advance to prevent expression of opinion, either orally or by publication, is an unwarranted invasion of constitutionally guaranteed rights. "That for which my associates and I have been contending was for the maintenance of the right of free speech and a free press, and for these we are contending not alone for the rights of the working people, but the right of every citizen of our country. "Today it is the effort to take from us the right of free speech and free press. If that practice is once established and conceded, it means a 'sacred precedent' to be invoked against any citizen. It is the establishment of a censorship by a Judge acting as a chancellor in a court of equity, the establishment of personal government as against government by law, and as personal government establishes itself and advances, so in the same degree is government by law, government by the people, forced back. "Justice Wright physically lives in our time, but his decision and sentences disclose a mental concept of more than two centuries ago, when the workman was either a slave or a serf. He does not realize that the workmen of today, at least in the United States, are citizens with every guaranteed right of the Constitution, of the laws, and the normal activities of equality before the law. "My associates and I have all our lives been engaged in the effort for the protection and promotion of the physical, moral, political, material, and social welfare of the working people, and that means for the uplift and the betterment of all our people; for the maintenance and perpetuation of the highest, the best concepts and ideals of justice and freedom; to make, in modern industry, life the better worth living; to instill the understanding of civic and social duty, as well as to attain a better life and a better day. "If Justice Wright imagines that by imposing prison sentences upon my associates and myself he can estop human progress, he has missed his point. Long after he has gone, long after he may have attempted to silence us, others will speak, others will be heard, and the principles for which we are now contending, and perhaps may suffer, will be established beyond peradventure." In the statement we made we also added that "information has just come to us that the decision which Justice Wright rendered this morning was completed more than a month ago, but withheld until after the close of the Chicago Republican National Convention. If that be true, the inference is obvious." That statement was published in the newspapers. Judge Wright immediately took cognizance of it and declared it to be untrue, and said he had sat up several nights to write his decision. In the face of that statement, we repeat that the information did come to us that the decision was completed more than a month before it was delivered, and add, that more than a month before it was delivered the effect of the decision was conveyed to us, and that days before its rendition it was the subject of current conversation in Washington. But what of the circumstantial evidence? Did it require the Judge to work several nights to prepare such a decision, when four and one-half months elapsed from the close of the argument to the rendition of the decision? We stated that the information came to us, and it did, and as between Justice Wright and us, we will stake our reputation for veracity with his. But the scene in court was most interesting. It was crowded to overflowing. The Judge did not accord to either Morrison or Gompers the ordinary right granted to the worst criminal found guilty of the most heinous crime. He did not even go through the form of asking whether they had anything to say why sentence should not be pronounced. He must have felt that they would have had something to say. He therefore dispensed with this ordinary form. He undertook to silence them, if he could. But will he? Time will tell. Just over where the Judge was sitting perched a gilded image of the American Eagle of Liberty, its pinions outstretched, as though in doubt. whether to tarry or wing its way beyond the courtroom. In the corridors, outside the courtroom doors, was the sound of many footsteps and many voices as the people waited the delivery of the decision. The deep, determined voice of the Judge rang out in no hesitating manner as he rendered his opinion and decision. Ever and anon he drew more closely about him the black robe-the symbol of his authority. Did the spirit of that proud, free bird that has watched so many struggles for liberty, have cause to waver and hesitate? Must it leave its ancient domicile and wing its way to other tribunals? Or will the purposes and ideals of progress and liberty be restored to their intended habitations? The people without are waiting. "Encroachments upon rights of free speech and free assemblage, which we have looked upon with indifference because they were for opinions which to us seemed false or hateful, we have suddenly found applied to ourselves. Here is repeated again for us the warning of which all the histories of liberty are but the record. The outposts of our rights are to be found in the maintenance of the rights of the least of our brethren. The more odious they, the more do we need to keep our lamp of vigilance trimmed and burning for their defense. It is through the weak gate of their uncared-for liberty that the despot will steal upon us."-HENRY D. LLOYD. "How many times social problems center about the necessity of rousing man from a state of 'obedience' which has led him to be exploited and brutalized!"-MARIA MONTESSORI. Τ FALSE DOCTRINES. By ROBERT C. KROLL. HROUGH countless ages humanity has hewn its progress through jungles of false doctrines. With man's pristine conception of homogeneity, he imbued that egotism which caused him to regard his cian superior to others, and history fails to record the time when tribal chiefs first taught their subjects that those holding leadership were a law unto themselves. Thus the doctrine, "divine right of rulers," had fastened itself upon the race when the world was young. As the social fabric became more thoroughly organized, it was not in the direction of solidarity, but, paradoxical though it seems, humanity became a heterogeneous mass. Moses reached the culmination of that idea when he discovered that his people were God's elect. Another doctrine retarding human progress is the generally accepted division of society on economic lines, which, in its last analysis, resolves the whole social structure into two parts the producers who support themselves and enrich others, and the parasites who enjoy themselves and live off others. Rather a blunt way of putting it, of course, but what shall we gain by ignoring the fact that society today regards itself as constituted of an upper and a lower stratum? Standing between is the wall of golda barbarian relic of a time when man first learned to rob his brother of the fruits of his toil. Its adornment of titled puppets and useless millionaires holds its lofty pedestal by the grace of popular ignorance, moral cowardice, and dollar worship. But the "mills of the gods grind slowly but surely" and the people are beginning to regard this awe-inspiring doctrine of superiority as an ancient superstition. It is time to call a halt. The aristocracy of wealth is ever growing and the common people find its heavy hand a greater burden than was ever the king's imposition of "taxation without representation." With all due reverence for the wisdom of our The forbears, our generation vigorously protests against the established code of property rights which has enabled a few dɔzen men to amass inordinate wealth while millions are starving for a wholesome meal. present doctrine of property rights was written into our Federal Constitution with good enough intent, but it no longer fits our needs. Then, to make it plastic, as it were, our judges are giving it interpretations that would make Jefferson turn in his grave. That this right invading all other rights makes a mockery of justice, again proves that rights arbitrarily established are often founded on error. Let some brute beat his helpless wife into insensibility and he will probably be sentenced to sixty days in the work house; but, if a devoted father should steal a loaf of bread to feed his hungry children, he might get two years in a penitentiary. How long will we cling to the doctrine of putting the dollar above the man? The rights of the few are wrongs to the many. Let them perish! Only such rights can survive as are founded on truth. Another fallacy is the supposed right of public service corporations to do business as they please and make profits for investors. The contention is even carried into courts where it receives serious consideration. In the newer conception of things we regard the regulation of such utilities as a concomitant of government. We demand that efficient service must be the first consideration, and profits must come afterwards, if at all. But where both ends are impossible of accomplishment, public sentiment is rapidly focusing on government ownership. Here we come into conflict with established institutions and vested interests struggle for retention of the old régime while the populace seeks to exercise its sovereignty. Is it revolutionary to say that fossilized courts should not be permitted to determine whether or not the whole people shall have laws which meet present demands? Since no man can take his property to the great beyond, is it treason to hold the rights of one generation may conflict with those of another? As we are living in the eternal present, are we irreverent when we insist that past generations should not define our rights? Another pernicious doctrine is that every employer has a right to run his business as he pleases. The principle is self-evidently a sham, because the customer must be pleased. Hence, it is meant only in its application to the worker. The worker denies that right whenever it encroaches on decency, fairness, humanity, or justice. As employers often transgress these limitations, their pleasure becomes the grievance of the worker. But the doctrine of sacred property rights has precluded the Government from exercising its paternal supervision in the interests of workers, so they resolved to protect themselves. Hence the modern trade union. Thus, trade unions have had to emancipate industry of their own initiative, and their banners head the procession of progress. Every important movement that agitates the public conscience today has had its first impetus from some labor union. The philosophy of trade unionism is iconoclastic, in that it destroys the phantom gods that hold humanity in bondage, and its march is steadily onward with the irresistible sweep of enlightened conscience. False doctrines hold sway for a time, but all must succumb. The hordes of privilege will try to retard the multitude by superstitious cant over their gods of gold. They will hurl epithets at us and feign horror at our desecration of established institutions, but they are the scarecrow of retreating privilege. They will be pushed aside as humanity moves onward and upward. True to history's traditions, our leaders today are stigmatized as demagogues and agitators, but that does not change the fact that the people, who demand truth and justice here and now, are not carrying the red flag of anarchy, but the torch of progress. Organized labor is wielding an influence pon every public question never attained efore. The world's thinkers are now beginning to appreciate the fact that the emands of labor mean more than appears un the surface. They see that the demand for work is not alone one for the preservaon of life in the individual, but is a human, innate right; that the movement to reduce the hours of labor is not sought to shirk the duty to toil, but the humane means by which the workless workers may ad the road to employment; and that the millions of hours of increased leisure to the ver-tasked workers signify millions of golden opportunities for lightening the urdens of the masses, to make the homes more cheerful, the hearts of the people lighter, their hopes and aspirations nobler and broader. Let us concentrate our efforts to organize all the forces of wage labor and, within the ranks, contest fairly and openly for the different views which may be entertained upon the different steps to be taken to move the grand army of labor onward and forward. In no organization on earth is there such toleration, so great a scope, and so free a forum as inside the ranks of the American Federation of Labor, and nowhere is there such a fair opportunity afforded for the advocacy of a new or brighter thought. RAILROAD STRIKES SINCE 1877.* A TRIUMPHANT RECORD OF Trade Unions. By ARTHUR E. HOLDER. PART III. [Continued from last issue.] Strike of Railroad Employes on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, 1887. The strike of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad employes began December 23, 1887. The railroad company officials said it ended December 27, 1887, lasting but four days. It terminated unfavorably for the men and was caused by the demand for the reinstatement of 155 discharged employes. This brief statement does not, however, relate the true cause or the whole of the purpose which really forced the strike. In order to be familiar with the whole cause it is advisable and necessary to go somewhat into the struggles of the mine workers in the anthracite coal field of Pennsylvania. First, it must be understood that in the year 1887, and for some years previous, the anthracite mine workers and the Reading Railroad employes, together with workmen in many other industries, were organized into local and district assemblies of the Knights of Labor, which organization was numerically powerful at that period. The mine workers in and around Hazleton, Pennsylvania, on September 15, 1887, commenced a strike "against a reduction of eight per cent in their wages." This strike is recorded as ordered by a labor organization. It lasted 186 days, terminating unsuccessfully for the mine workers on March 19, 1888. During that period there was great unrest in the anthracite coal fields. At Wilkesbarie, Pennsylvania, the mine workers came out on strike, November 4, 1887, against a reduction of wages. They returned to work November 7, 1887, after being out three days, and they were partially successful in their effort. On November 18, 1887, the mine workers at Pittston, Pennsylvania, struck for an increase of wages, and returned to work three days later, November 21, 1887, when the increase was granted. On December 1, 1887, the mine workers in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, in response to a vote by their local organization, came out on strike for a semi-monthly pay-day. This strike is recorded as lasting eleven days. It terminated unsuccessfully for the men, December 12, 1887. On December 24, 1887, the mine workers at Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, Mahanoy Plane and vicinity voted to strike for an increase of wages. The strike commenced January 8, 1888. It lasted twenty-six days, and terminated successfully for the men on February 3, 1888. On December 26, 1887, the mine workers in the Pottsville, Pennsylvania, region voted to strike against an 8 per cent reduction of wages. This strike lasted for fiftyfour days, terminating unsuccessfully for the mine workers, February 18, 1888. On December 31, 1887, the mine workers at Minersville, Pennsylvania, part of the Pottsville district, voted to strike for an increase of wages, and on January 4, 1888, after being on strike four days, returned to work and were granted the increase for which they struck. These strikes in the Wyoming and Schuylkill Valley anthracite coal fields affected about 150 separate mines, in which The first part of this article appeared in the June, 1912, issue of the AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST. The introductory ed under several heads the great accomplishments of the workers through organization-one of the most impor g that under the seventh head: namely, "The Maintenance of Industrial Peace Through Collective Bargaining. The verified in Later articles which will show that the organization of labor upon railroads has successfully made and secured innumerable advantages for the workers without the necessity of resorting to strikes. Industrio. heu muntained and successful progress has been made by means of direct negotiation between accredittu atives of railroad interests and authorized representatives of the workers in their several organizations.-Ed. |