I tell you, gentlemen, and you realize it, for 25 or 30 years we have had government by injunction.
We have not had government by legislature; we have had government by injunction by the courts.
Naturally there was an undercurrent of revolt against the courts.
-Mother Jones
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Tuesday June 8, 1915
Chicago, Illinois - Press Fails to Gag Walsh; Fight On for Anti-Injunction Bill
From the Chicago Day Book of June 5, 1915:
PRESS ATTEMPT TO GAG FRANK WALSH FALLS FLAT
Frank P Walsh, Chairman
Commission on Industrial Relations
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An audience that filled seats and standing room of the Stock Exchange restaurant last night joined with Frank P. Walsh in a laugh at an editorial in Victor Lawson's Daily News. Walsh told how as chairman of the U. S. industrial relations commission he spoke in St. James church. The Daily News said Walsh is too aggressive, "mistook his duties," is "not judicious."
[Said Walsh:]
At the end of this editorial was the amazing assertion that instead of acting as an investigator I am carrying on a crusade against poverty.
I had thought every decent-minded man and woman is in a crusade against poverty. I don't see how any clean-hearted men and women can live in this world of today and not feel like crusading against poverty.
When I saw the Daily News rebuking me for carrying on a crusade against poverty, I was reminded of the old colored woman who shouted hallelujahs in a quiet, fashionable church.
Ushers asked her what was wrong. She answered: "I'se got religion." Then they told her to hush, saying: "This is no place to get religion."
The Daily News should understand that when I got my commission from the government I did not feel that I was gagged thereby. Furthermore, I refuse to be gagged by any editorials which protest about my making a crusade against poverty.
I believe in publicity. The very terms of the act under which our commission was created provide there shall be public hearings. We have examined 1,000 witnesses at public hearings.
We found the responsibility for the Colorado coal strike went back to one source. Since 1903, the time of the last strike, information in detail of every movement of importance in Colorado has been transmitted to the Rockefellers at 26 Broadway. Letters subpoenaed show that the day after Christmas in 1913, when thousands of miners had taken to the canyons, when men had been shot off their horses, when Sheriff Jeff Farr had under him 350 armed men, some of them ex-convicts and murderers, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., felt "unusual satisfaction" in the situation. His son wrote of this "unusual satisfaction" to Supt. L. M. Bowkers [Bowers].
Congressman Fowler said the commission has done good work in uncovering "transactions in high places." He said:
I feel well paid for the vote I cast that this work should go on.
The Chicago Single Tax club organized the meeting.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From The Day Book of June 7, 1915:
LEGISLATORS HOLD UP ALL LABOR MEASURES.
A list of the senators and representatives who are "double-crossing" labor will probably be made public within a few weeks by the Chicago Federation of Labor.
For weeks a legislative committee has lobbied for the passage of labor bills. Yesterday they reported to the federation what had been done. The whole afternoon was taken up with the discussion of the report. Members of the committee told how, when an important bill was called for a reading, senators and representatives would leave their seats.
"It wasn't the active opposition we have had to fight so much as the refusal of the legislators to vote," says the report. "At times the number of vacant seats was high as 72."
For weeks the legislative committees of labor organizations have been following the bills through committees, subcommittees, first, second and third readings and all of the other sidetracks used to defeat progressive measures. So far not one of these bills has been signed by the governor. The majority of them have been so cut and amended that the men who have introduced them cannot recognize them. The committee is considering holding a meeting after the present session of the legislature to discuss the attitude of certain legislators toward the bills which they had promised to support.
The committee also urged the delegates to support the anti-injunction bill which is now before the senate.
Following Victor Olander, secretary of the Ill. Federation of Labor, Andrew Furuseth, president of the Seamen's union, spoke for the bill.
"It is the most important so far introduced," he said. "Upon it hangs the life of organized labor. It takes away from the judges the power to issue injunctions against personal rights. Labor is not a commodity or an article of commerce and when a judge issues an injunction such as that which was issued against the Waitresses' union he is going beyond his jurisdiction. The bill must be passed."
Among the resolutions was one introduced by Sec'y Nockels upholding and endorsing Frank Walsh, head of U. S. industrial relations commission, against the attacks made by the press and the National Manufacturers' ass'n. The resolution also thanks Walsh for the publicity which he has given the Rockefellers in their connection with the Colorado labor war.
Following a communication from the Colorado State Federation of Labor telling how John R. Lawson was convicted by a jury picked from people loitering around the courtroom, a resolution was passed giving the executive board of the federation the power to call a mass meeting to protest against the conviction of Lawson. Chairman Walsh will be invited to be the principal speaker....
SOURCE
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Jun 5, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Jun 7, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Frank P. Walsh from Harpers Weekly
of Sept 27, 1913
http://books.google.com/...
Chicago Federation of Labor Emblem
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
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Our Own Road by Daniel Clingman - A Song For Solidarity with CTU
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