Published Monthly by Brotherhood of Railway Clerks. Wilbur Braggins, Editor-in-Chief. R. E. Fisher, Business Manager.

VOL. VII.

AN IMPORTANT MEETING OF LABOR

EDITORS.

In response to a call for a meeting of the editors of journals published by national organizations of wage-earners, a very earnest and largely representative gathering occurred at Chicago on Tuesday, September 1. The call was the result of a concensus of opinion of the editors of all organs representing national labor organizations, arrived at through correspondence, to the effect that such a meeting should be had for the purpose of considering the duty of such editors respecting the national election that will occur on Tuesday, November 3.

Among the organizations there represented were the following named organizations of railway employes: Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen; International Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes; Order of Railroad Telegraphers; Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America; Brotherhood of Railway Clerks; Interior Freight Handlers and Warehousemen's International Union; International Association of Machinists and the International Association of Car Workers.

The following named political parties were represented at that meeting: Republican, Democratic, Prohibition, Socialist and Independence League; one each for the last two. Several of the editors were strictly independent, having no party bias whatever.

The report of that meeting as officially

No. 9

promulgated by its chairman and secretary, immediately follows this article under the caption, "Important Conference." The discussion demonstrated the fact that almost complete unanimity of opinion as to the duty of the labor editors and the members of the organizations, existed; only one dissenting vote being recorded in the final action.

A deep appreciation of the importance of the duty confronting them and the stern necessity that organized labor shall act promptly and unitedly to protect its interests from further injury because of unfair, unwarranted and biased court decisions and because of the futile efforts to secure the enactment of legislation to protect wage-earners against injustice, was manifested by all. In illustration of the sentiment that prevailed it will be appropriate here to quote from the statement or preamble to the resolutions, a few of the many passages that not only merit but demand the attention and careful consideration of every patriotic and self-respecting wageearner in the land.

"We aim not to exaggerate nor to unduly alarm, but we are at least convinced that unless labor protests *** that practical and useful trade unions will become outlawed and rendered well nigh useless.

Το

We do not hold that the courts of our country are venal nor that their decisions are as a rule erroneous. But we do hold that as in times past, courts as well as law-makers are ascribing importance and rights to capital far greater than it merits, and to a like degree are undervaluing the importance of labor, restricting its rights and degrading the common people. That courts are prone to fall into such error it is only necessary to cite the Dred Scott decision of the supreme court in 1856, to verify. That decision doomed a negro to continued slavery, though he was in a free, non-slave-holding state and was not a fugitive from a slave-holding state. further show that judges are human beings, and therefore fallible like other mortals, let us hastily and briefly recall to mind a few of the many instances in which the supreme court of the United States has reversed itself. The Legal Tender Act was first held to be invalid; then it was decided to be valid. For one hundred years an Income Tax was held to be valid, and then it was decided to be unconstitutional. In reaching a final decision upon this last measure the supreme court first held, by a vote of 5 for to 4 against, that a part of the act under consideration was constitutional; and about one month later, upon a rehearing and by a change of one vote out of nine, the whole act was decided to be invalid. Until 1844 the United States supreme court held that corporations were not citizens; then that decision was re

versed and it now holds that corporations are citizens; thus, in effect, placing a dol lar on a parity with an individual in the courts of the United States; and when backed by the millions of corporate greed, making the dollar paramount to the rights of the common people.

And if the judges of the supreme court sometimes err, how much more likely are judges of lower courts to commit error; either through false reasoning independent of the sophistical arguments and beguiling influences of corporate attorneys or because of them. And they have frequently erred; vide the records for reversals. For very recent and startling evidence of their ability and tendency to decide in the interests of corporations and against the interests of the people just recall the recent decision of the court of appeals, at Chicago, reversing Judge Landis' decision against the Standard Oil Co., and remitting the $29,240,000 fine; then look up President Roosevelt's comment, Attorney General Bonapart's and District Attorney Simms' petition for a new trial, in which they contend that the court of appeals "mis-stated" facts, and in which they also ridicule the argument upon which the decision of the court of appeals is based; also see the declaration of Attorney General Hadley of Missouri, to the effect that the court of appeals is either "blinded by prejudice or has an unfortunate disposition to obscure the merits of a controversy by strained or irrelevant technicalities." This decision of the court of appeals practically vindicated John D. Rockefeller and doubtlessly confirmed him in his attitude of defiance to the laws of the land, voiced about eighteen months ago.

Since the recent decisions of the supreme court which make it unlawful for employes to use the boycott, on the one hand, and make it lawful for the employer to discharge employes for belonging to an organization or for any other cause or none at all, and to refuse employment to wageearners because they have been or are members of organizations, on the other hand, the employing classes are becoming more and more antagonistic to organizations of employes. This attitude is especially pronounced and menacing on the part of the officials of some Eastern railways; indeed, some of them have already determined upon a war of extermination