The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-11-09
The Attorney Generals Opinion
in the Reading Case.
He Upholds the Side Of the
Labor Unions.
THE MEN HAVE RIGHTS
Receivers Can't Compel Them to
Leave Their Organizations.

PHTLADELPHIA, Nov. e.-The contro-
varsy between the receivers of the
Reading railroad company and such
employees as arc members of the
Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen
has prompted an expression Of Opin-
ion from Attorney General Olney in
the form of a letter to Judge Dallas
Of the United States circuit court, be-
fore whom the case is pending. The
+ difficulty between the two organiza-
tions reached a crisis on August Il
last. when General Superintendent
SWsigard summoned before him
eleven employees and notified then
they should abandon the brotherhood
as condition of retaining their
places with the railroad company.
against this alternative and the
brotherhood urged the receivers to
withdraw it, but IN answer. the re-
ceivers, on September IL, wrote:
THE policy of this company is well
known to be that it will not consent
that persons in its service shall owe
allegiance to other Organiza tions
which may make claims upon them
which are incompa tible with the II
duties to their employers This posi-
ton was taken advisedly and we have
no intention Of departing from it.
Attorney General Olney's letter Is
an exhaustive discussion of the ques-
tiOns presented, and he reviews the
various problems and the consistent
solutions to be applied in every
aspect. In substance he holds that
labor unOrganlzed is practically
power1ess; that in com binatiOns such
as this lies the only safe guard of the
workingman in his dealings with
organized capital; and that his right
to belong to such a uniOn-beneheial
in intent and purposes a legal
right which he cannot be deprived
of. The letter concludes as follows:
THE receivers make no cOmpl amt
of the manner in which the brother
hood employees discharge their re-
spective duties. The notice has been
given simply because of such en-
ployes' mem bership of the brother
hood.
The court, it is admitted, ought
not and cannot lay down any such
rule on the ground that until either
the purposes and objects of the
brotherhood, or the means by which
they are to be attained. are shown to
be Illegal
Among the means of accomplish
ing the ends of the brotherhood is
the bringing about of a strike. as
what a strike is, is not defined by
the brotherhood constitution and
rules, its precise nature must be de-
termined by the court And as the
airy presumption Of lawfulness for it's
methods as well as its objects until
the contrary is shown, the court will
hold the thing termed strike in the
brotherhood constitution and rules to
be some thing lawful, unless there
cannot be such thing as a lawful
strike
But whatever may be customary
or probable incidents of accomplish
ments of strike. 1t cannot be ruled
IL p
strike, that every strike must be IN
lawful
I'm short the question being wheth-
er business policy requires the court
to approve the rule that me N Der of
the Brotherhood of Railroad Train
men IS ipso facto ineligible as an en-
plove Of the receivers of the Reading
railroad and an officer Of the court,
the conclusive consideration may be
summed up as follows:
ssEirst-The rule is of dou btful val
ne as a preventive Of strikes, because
it leaves employees to act upon inn
pulse and from passion, and freed
from the restraints of the Brother
hood regulations.
..Second-The rule is of doubtful
value when the court is the real en-
ployer, both from the reluctance of
the employed to defy the court 5
authority and from the power of the
latter to speedily and summarily vim
dictate 1t.
.sThird-The rule is of positively
injurious tendency in the disaffection
and discomfort engendered among en-
plOyes by the denial to them of rights
enjoyed by citizens generally and
deemed necessary for their security
and comfort
.Fourth-The reputation Of the
rule, on the other hand, has the
positive merit of tending to secure
for the service the good viii of en-
ployes and thus promoting its efiicien-
CIV; Of recognizing the real conditions
Of the capital and labor problem and
the fact that labor both has the right
to organize and IS organized; Of illus
trating the working. under the
most favora BILE auspices, of the
principle Of arbitration as the
means of adjusting the differ
ences between capital and Dor;
of demons trating that there
is not one law for one class Of the
community and another for another,
but the same for all, and of thus
tending to preserve for the law, and
for the judiciary by which 1t IS ad-
rninistered. the general respect and
confidence which has always been
marked characteristic. as well as ex-
cellence, Of our institutions
RICHARD OLNEY."
Pension Surgeons Fined