The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-02-01
JUDGE GAYNOR'S DECISION.

d
There has been a feeling on the
part of many that possibly the courts,
through a series of decisions might
work out some of the problems in
yolved in the differences which seem
TO exist between capital and labor.
There have been number OF decls-
ion which have thrown some light up
on the subject and have helped a lit
tie in some cases, at least, to straight
en- out the tangle. OF course there
has been great deal of difference in
opinion as to the wisdom of some OF
these decisions, but with the eXcep-
tion of one or two they have been con-
sidered very helpful to both of the
parties in the controversies.
The latest decision along this line is
that of Judge GayDOr, of New York,
in relation to the street car strike in
Brooklyn, in which he is reported as
declaring that corporations holding
franchises from the state have no
right to involve themselves in such
difficulties with their employees as will
render it impossible their fulfilling
even for an hour, the duties they have
assumed for the public. If the judge
has been correctly reported, if indeed
this is the sum total point of his de-
,cision, it is certainly remarkable
of in
ing the industrial atmosphere will
help if strictly enforced to involve it
in greater darkness. If there is moth
ing in it which places like response
bility, or some responsibility upon the
employees, then his decision simply
places the corporation at the mercy of
the employees, who may be controlled
or Influenced by the most radical and
violent of agitatOrs and led to make
the most wild demands upon their
employers.
If a company is not to involve itself
in difficulties. with it's employees where
by it cannot carry out it's agreement
with the state for the benefit of the
public, then it could not resist any de-
mand which might be made upon it
by employees for increased wages and
other favOrs, even though such de,
mands would drive it to the verge of
or even total, bankruptcy, for if it re-
fused the employees might leave their
posts and render it impossible to full
fill the provisions of it's franchise
through no real fault of it's own.
So far as this decision may operate
to prevent corporation from taking
unreasonable and untenable grounds
and assuming an arbitrary position in
matters pertaining to their employees,
it is just and fair.
But there is also responsibility
resting upon employees operating semi
public institutions and they have no
more right to involve themselves in
difficulties with their employers,
which will prevent the carrying out
of the demands of the franchise, than
has the corporation.
That the employees have the right
to make demands can be reasonably
denied by no one, and they have the
same rundisputed right to leave the
employ of those they are working for
if they see fit so to do, but they have
no more right to assume an arbitrary
position of who shall or shall not oper-
ate the company's property than the
company has to assume some arbitrary
position toward them which is wholly
unwarranted by law or reason.
1t would seem that Judge Gaynor's
decision is not as One-sided as some re-
ports and comments of it would make
it appear, for in issuing his writ to
compel the street Car company to run
cars, he gives it the option to run cars
5 or show cause for not doing So
No doubt there are many strikes
brought on by an unreasoning attitude
assumed by the corporations. There
is fault on both sides. What is wanted
is a position fair and just to all, in
which the honest claims of both sides
can be met and fairly adjusted and
the rights of no one trangressed.