The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-09
OF INTEREST TO LABOR.

Just as the application by the SUI
preme court of the Sherman antitrust
law to break up the railroad traffic
associations and prohibit the formation
of successors was entirely unfore-
seen and unattended by the promoters
of that law, so 1t appears not impossi-
BILE that there lie within it other con-
sequences to other portions of the COM
munity that will create even greater
interest and CONSERVATION when they
shall have been developed. 1t is point
ed out in the last issue Of Bradstreets
that the holding of the court appears
to apply with equal force to labor or
CARNATIONS, and that they who have
rejoiced in the main that the railroad
companies are being brought so Sc
verely to book may find themselves
later in the grasp Of the same universal
legislation. 1t has been held uniform
1y by legislatures and by the courts
that the combinations Of employees to
further their interests, to secure rise
or prevent a decrease in wages and
generally to look out for their own in
terests as against those Of others were
not In restraint of trade and did not
come within the scope of any proper
legal prohibition This is the view, not
only Of the laboring men, but Of fair
minded men among employers as well.
| They have desired to leave in the
! hands of the workingman every proper
weapon by which he could resist any
assault Of power and raise his own
condition. No law which proposed to
interfere with his freedom to act
| through labor organizations could pos
sibly pass either congress or any state
! legislature. 1t does appear possible,
however that, inadvertently, this priv
ilege may have been assailed under
the general terms of the Sherman act;
and that he may have, when the issue
shall be tried, an even greater cause
for complaint than the members Of the
traffic association.
1t is noticed by the editor of Brad
streets that "the court, in its decision,
lays down the rule that the term, con-
tracts in restraint of trade, includes
all kinds of contracts which, in fact,
restrain, or may restrain, trade, AMI
is not confined to such as are in un-
reasonable restraint of trade" That
is to say, the court did not feel itself
called upon to inquire whether a given
combination was beneficent or injuri-
Gus; whether the railroads ought or
ought not TO have the right to associ-
ate for securing stability of rates:
whether such stability was a good
thing or a bad thing, and the rates so
made reasonable or unreasonable;
whether, in one word, the restraint of
trade brought about by these organ
izations was helpful or hurtful to the
community. 1t looked in the law and
found that the combinations in them
selves were prohibited. 1t went no fur
Their. The question arises whether, I'M
der such a ruling of the court, all COM
binations, either of managers or en-
ployes, do not come within the equal
reach of the act We quote the CLOSING
argument of BradStreetS:
Combinations of railroad employees are a.
general thing, aimed to secure either in.
crease Of wages or regulation of the hour:
OF labor, other betterments of their cond
: ton. In operation they must of necessity
l. in some way degree affect the bushes!
/ of transportation and in this way restrain
trade If the objects proposed by them wert
in themselves reasonable the combination
= would not be held obnoxious TO the anti-trus
: | law If that measure were held to prohibit onl,
: | contracts unreasonably restraining trade TIL
majority of the supreme court has, however
| held that the act prohibits reasonable a
well as unreasonable restraints of trade, an.
it is difficult to see how almost any agree
ment between employees of transportation
2 | companies engaged in interstate commerce
can be supported under its ruling If carrie
out to its logical conclusions.
The old rule which we have quote
t so many times is that the unforeseen
t and unexpected consequences of leg
: islation are always more numerou
and important than those which hav
: been counted upon in advance. TIL
l. stir that was created throughout tn
: country by the announcement tina
= traffic associations must disband woul
L be a summer breeze as compared wit
y the cyclone of indignant wrath tina
: would break out should it be deter
n mined hereafter that the organizatio
e Of railroad employees in unions
viewed by the law in the same ligh
e This question is one so vital to labo
E applying, as it does, to other organ
5, izations indirectly connected with in
e terstate business, that the representa-
e tives of the workingmen should loo
it into it at once. If it shall be declare
: that they are under the ban of tn
is Sherman law, there will be an immed
IS ate and probably irresistible agitatio
r for its repeal.