AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
Massachusetts, cultivated and sincere, and next to him Elihu Root of New York, stronger, but less reliable.
Dr. I. Minis Hays, the energetic secretary of the American Philosophical Society, was most responsible for the success of the demonstration.
The affairs of the coal strike grew more heated, and May 2d I issued this proclamation:
Whereas industrial disturbances have recently arisen in various parts of the commonwealth, accompanied by manifestations of violence and disorder, now, therefore, I, Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, Governor of Pennsylvania, do issue this my proclamation and call upon all citizens by their conduct, example and utterances, whether printed or verbal, to assist in the maintenance of the law. Times of commotion furnish the test of the capacity of the people for self-government. Every man is entitled to labor and get for his labor the highest compensation he can lawfully secure. There is no law to compel him to labor unless he so chooses, and he may cease to labor whenever he considers it to be to his interest so to cease. The laboring man, out of whose efforts wealth arises, has the sympathy of all disinterested people in his lawful struggles to secure a larger proportion of the profit which results from his labor. What he earns belongs to him, and if he invests his earnings the law protects his property just as the rights of property of all men must be protected. He has no right to interfere with another man who may want to labor. Violence has no place among us and will not be tolerated.
Let all men in quiet and soberness keep the peace and attend to their affairs with the knowledge that it is the purpose of the commonwealth to see that the principles herein outlined are enforced.
This proclamation drew the lines exactly where they ought to be placed and expressed with precision the purpose which it was intended should be carried into effect. There had been an impression entertained even by many good lawyers, and widely entertained, that the governor could not interfere until called upon by the sheriff of the county. This theory would overthrow completely the constitutional power of the governor to see that the laws are enforced
