The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-11-16
CAPITAL AND LABOR,
Attorney Genera OIney Takes sides with
the Men.

Attorney General OIney Takes sides with
the Men.
Mention has been made in The TRIB-
UNE of a suit being tried before the
United States circuit court in Pennsyl-
vania, the plaintiff being the Brother
hood of Railway Trainmen and the de-
PENDANTS tho receivers of the Reading
railroad. 1t appears that a short time
ago the superintendent of the road by
direction Of the receivers notified the
men that they must abandon the broth
erhood as a condition to remaining in
the employ of the company. The case
finally got before the department of
justice and Attorney General Olney has
addressed to the Judge a lengthy opinion
in which he takes sides with the men.
In the first place he states that the court,
not tho receivers. is the employer, and
that the receivers exceeded their author
ity in making the order. In his letter or
opinion the attorney general discusses
the questions that have arisen on the
subject of organized labor and in sub
stance holds that labor unorganized is
practically powerless, that in a combina.
ton such as the brotherhood lies the
only safeguard Of the w~orkingman in
his dealing with organized capital and
that his right to belong to such
union, beneficial in intent and purpose is
a legal right which he cannot be deprived
Of. He holds that the objects of the
organization are laudable in the highest
degree, and there is nothing in their
rules which sanctions or permits illegal
acts or violence during a strike, and
therefore as an organization they cannot
be held responsible for such incidents to
a strike. The opinion concludes:
IF the rule that a member of the
Brotherhood Of Trainmen shall not work
on the Reading railroad cannot be JUS
titled because Of anything inherently
unlawful in the constitution and rules
of the brotherhood, the only remaining
ground on which it can be defended is
that of business expediency. In con-
sidering the question Of the business
expediency of the employment Of brother
hood men, such objection as there is to
1t must arise from the fact that under
its constitution and rules, employees may
engage in a strike with all the natural
and possible incidents and consequences.
1t can hardly be denied that otherwise
the brotherhood's organization is not
only upobjectionable but is Statutory in
its operation, both as regards employees
and employers.
while, therefore, under the circum-
stances of the present case, possible evi.
dence OF the strike would seem to be
miminized, it should not be forgotten in
the second.place that the receivers pro
posed remedy, towit: A rule excluding
or discharging from their service any
and all members of the brotherhood ie
in itself open to serious objections and
disadvantages.
"When treatment so apparently un.
fair and discriminating is administered
through the fundamentally of a court
the resulting discomfort and resentment
of the employees are inevitably intensi.
fed, because the law itself seems to have
got wrong and in some manner to have
taken sides against them. No better
mode TO- the settlement of contests be-
tween capital and labor has yet been de
vised or tried than arbitration, and arbi
tration as a mode of settling difficulties
between capital and labor must neces
sarily be applied in the course Of the
receivership and arbitration in it's best
and most effective form"