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Show I I WHY DIDN'T THEY FORBID UNIONS USING RADIO? GOMPERS ASKS Federation President Declares Organized Labor Will Continue Supporting Strike Despite Injunction; In-junction; Says Harding Tries to Do With Courts What Lawmakers Refuse to Do. i WASHINGTON-. Sept 2 Con- Idcmnlng the Injunction. Snrnuel Gompcrs declared it represented usurpation of power by courts. :ind asserted the federation would continue aupportlng the strike with money and aid. The injunction, he said, "might be stirring up a hornet's nest " Instead "f pacifying tho existing uitsettletnent, because- there are otlier railroad workers, the trainmen. th telegraphers, telegraph-ers, the maintenance of waV men, who may now become Interested." "I don t know what Vh-y will do. however. ' he remarked. "I'm just mentioning them This injunction le n most out-rogeous out-rogeous thing a process of the manufacturer manu-facturer of radicalism and Bolshevism Bolshe-vism in this country," Mr. Gompcrs . .mtinued. "It is quite strange. In our republic, founded on the principles prin-ciples of liberty, that the political party par-ty which was ied by Lincoln and Garrison Gar-rison to the abolition of human slav-J ery, should now be engaged in a movement for the restoration of com-, pulsory human labor. "I am quite sure the result of this,! injunction 111 only be to solidify the men. and to strengthen the support of j public opinion b- hind them. We Si 8 that the railroads need authority in this matter. While the action amounts to a confession that the strike Is to be successful, It is strange that all powers of the government should be brought to force the surrender of rights by the men. when not one move has been mado by the government govern-ment to enforce decisions of the r.ill-rood r.ill-rood labor board when !"2 railroads in 104 separate cases have violated Its co ders " Turning to tho injunction Itself, Mr Gompcrs said he was informed It for-1 bade 'the men cr their representatives representa-tives to write letters, circulate statements, state-ments, by word of mouth or otherwise." other-wise." "Whv didn't they stop the radio, and fnrbid them using the ether ?" be in- : quired. "The American Federation of Labor has advised members in prev- 1 lous Injunction cases to treat as scraps i of paper those court orders which in- i vnde their constitutional rights" ! He was asked lo re he conoid- i ered this injunction to invade eonstl- t tutlonal rights. "T don't consider it does I know it does," he i xclalmed flmphatlcall . "Hut I am n"t ;ids 3- i Ing these men what to do I assume ji thev know They use their ownj Judgment ' I President Harding, he suggested Ini labor matters, 'was going hack to normalcy several centuries back." "The president has twice sought from congress 'eglslation forbidding strikes," he said, 'and congress has refused to grant it Now It is proposed pro-posed to go further by court order tlrnn can he ircine h 1 o cr! 1 f I ,-,n It there is anything unlawful In the ac-I ac-I tlon of men on strike, they can be j indicted, prosecuted and punished If I convicted. But .hey are not charged with crime Th ? stopped work; that is all. They ore not interfering with railroad operation, thc have simply ceased to serve The only thing the Injunction doesn't do Is to order them to return to woi k. 1 "None of them, the Injunction says may 'taunt' men who are at work I've never heard of taunting as a violation vio-lation of law. They mustn't call these fellows 'scabs.' I suggest they call them instead 'Industrial angels.' "The federation of labor will con-time con-time to aid these men in evi i possible way to secure an honorable adjustment of their strike and will appeal to all working people anil sympathizers sym-pathizers for osatrtbutlons of monej and supplies to maintain them and their families while they strike" The executive council of the federa- tion, Mr. Gompers added, would consider con-sider at an early meeting whether its own legal representatives would enter en-ter the case In an endeavor to have, the injunction voided. The next regular quarterly meeting of the executive council Is scheduled to be held September 9. Mr. (rompers (romp-ers said he Ollld place before the council then, purely as a matter of routine business, the more than 200 communications he hud received from union locals and other labor organizations organiza-tions requesting tho federation to Bponsor a general strike In sympnthj with the shopm n. Officials of the federation explained that it was not within the authority of the council to order, or even authorize au-thorize a general strike This, they said, would require "a nAtlonal convention." |