The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-04-09

oCOAty mooO " INC 0IsoO0OA AHOsOoS2ub
missionary, Rev. Mr.. Hume: the heather
IN India and China rscoilsd from the clear
injustice Of the dogma Of the eternal
damnation Of their dead sncsstors, both
those Of remote date. - veil - their more
recently buried uncles. their cousins and
their aunts.
TINE PUBLIC VEAL THE SUPREME
Law.
There r deal Of misapprshsnsion cur.
rent concerning the recent legal rulings -
the Federal judges in the Ann Arbor
casea Let rs clear the case Of al tt II.
relevant rubbish aud was h Of fog with
which Il 10 surrounded In the popular
mind.
A railroad IL quasi public corporation.
Il 10 subject 10 public regulation and con-
troll through congress. legislatures. courts
and railroad commissions. It cannot
suspend operations at will. but II forced
to continue it, public functions - . CONF
mon carrier Of passengsrs and freight.
The question raised before the Federal
judges involved the consideration Of this
proposition. ''6hall not railroad employees
- we'll - the corporations BY which they
are employed render responsibility to the
public3" This ID not . new question
ct all.
Nearly six years ago the New York state
board of mediation and arbitration recon-
mended that the interruption Of travel
and transportation, whether caused BY the
corporations or the employees, should bs
prevented By legal enactment - measure
Of protection for the general public. The
Federal judges In their decisions do not
assume the power to compel any man to
continue in service to his employers
against his will, but they do say that en-
gineers and 6rsmen owe duties to the
companies employing them and to the
public; that they cannot quit work when
and where they please ct tho command Of
. trades union with the evident intent Of
crippling the roads on which they are en-
ployed or other connecting roads.
Such action these Federal judges evil
IDENTIFY deem . conspiracy In restraint Of
trade and travel and In violation Of the
law Of the United States, In 90 far 40 1t APP
plies to interstate passenger and freight
traffic.
United States Circuit Judge Billings in
New Orleans, on the same grounds ruled
that while labor had . right to strike,
striking labor violated the interstate COM
merce act when It prevented non-union
men from taking Its place, since it re-
strained interstate commerce.
Seven years ago. Judge Pardee, Of the
United States circuit court, decided that
the employees of the railroad company
might quit it, employment ~ could the
employees Of private parties and corpora
tions, provided they did not thereby In
tentionally disable the property, but that
they must quit peaceably and decently.
and that when they combined and con-
spired to quit, with or without notice,
with the object and intent Of crippling the
property or its operation, he had no doubt
that they thereby committed . contempt,
and that all those who combined and con-
spirsd with the employees Thus to quit, or
% officials Of labor organisations issued
pretended orders to quit, rendered them.
selves liable for contempt to the court.
Now, boiled down. what does all this
meant It simply means that while q
strike, pure aud simple, 10 lawful, . strike
which undertakes to prevent the employ.
ment Of non-union men or is associated
with railway boycott 10 . conspiracy in
restraint Of trade and travel and in viola.
ton of the Federal interstate commerce
act. That is to say, the law does not allow
the railway to arbitrarily stop its wheels
to the injury Of the public veal, and tn
Law will not permit any acts like railway
boycott In the nature of . conspiracy of
labor to force oil the wheels Of a railway
and its connections to stop. That is to
say, the law cannot permit the striking
men on one railway to enter into . con-
spiracy to stop tho wheels OF its own and
Of connecting roads.
Judge Taft did not question the right of
the employees of the Ann Arbor railroad to
stop work, but he forbade Chief Arthur, of
the engineers, or Chief Sargent, of the
iremen, from enforcing any rule of their
brotherhoods by which the men under
them should be ordered TO refuse to handle
Ann Arbor freight, or to induce any en-
ployes Of roads connecting with the Ann
Arbor road from extending to the Ann
Arhor company all privileges extended by
it TO other companies. Judge Taft's order
also required that the chiefs, If they had
Issued any such order. should rescind it.
OF course if every railroad may be
legally boycotted. and engineers ana fire.
men on connecting roads compelled to
stop work rather than handle business
coming from . boycotted road. it would be
impossible for the boycotted road to obey
the Federal law which compels it to for.
ward its freight continuously. The boy.
eotted road would thus Be placed under
duress; it must move its wheels, and the
law which forces IL to move its wheels can
not fairly suffer . conspiracy in restraint
of trade and travel to make il impossible
for boycotted road to obey the law.
The law says the railways must contin-
uously move their wheels, and the Law
must in equity protect the railways against
. boycott which 10 . conspiracy to make il
impossible for the railway to move its
wheels. Whether the interruption of travel
and transportation is caused by the corpor-
atoms or the employees these Federal
Judges hold that il 10 in violation of the