Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-14
Prominent Professional Men to
 Address the Meeting.
LABOR UNIONS GOOD WORK

Have Secured Reasonable Hours and
 Proper Conditions, All of Which Has
 Contributed to the Welfare of the
 Community Incorporation, This
 Speaker Says, Would Serve in Some
 Measure to Increase Their Useful
 ness. ..
 Boston, May 1.-The general meet ings of 1903, of the American Social Science association, began here to-day with session i'll Huntington hall, ]. Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 1O:3O o'clock. The program covers a session Saturday morning and the U discussions scheduled are ill the de- partments of Social Economy to-day of sHealth'' and of "Jurisprudence" tomorrow and of "Education and Art" Saturday. The speakers assigned are persons of prominence in various branches of professional and scientific activity in the east, mainly from Bos- ton and vicinity.
 The principal speakers to-day were George H. Anderson and Louis ID. Brandeis, leading members of the Sui folk county (Mass) bar, and Professor Eugene Wambaugh of the Harvard law school.
 Mir Anderson spoke on Some Re sponsibilities of CapitaIistic Organiza- ion.'
 The subject of MT Brandeis's address -.-r<, sSYTSI,r ,,nrc3htIifinc rf T,ah hoI, ganization; Trade Union Incorpora- tion.''. Professor Wambaugh also dis cussed Trade Union Incorporation"
 Most Americans sympathize fully with the efforts of workingmen to bet ter their conditions. Labor unions have contributed greatly to this end. They hav@ been largely instrumental In securing reasonable hours of labor and proper conditions of work; in rais- ing materially the scale of wages and in protecting women and children from industrial oppression. In doing this they have contributed also to the gen. eral welfare of the community.
 sThe struggle of workingmen to at tain these ends has been attended at times by intolerable acts of violence, by intimidation by oppression, or by other forms of lawlessness. Such con- duct the American people with their inborn respect for law, their desire for fair play and their common sense, strongly resent. By such conduct the sympathy of the public is quickly for feited and it hassbeen the generally ex- perience i'll this country, in respect at least to the great strikes, that sue cess or failure depended mainly upon whether public opinion was with or. against the strikers.
 The growth and success of labor unions, therefore, as well as their use fulness to the. community at large, H would be much advanced by any 8 measures which tend to make them more desirable. less arbitrary and more A patient with the trammels of civi1- q ized community. The employer and q the community also require this pro tection. Incorporation would serve i'll some measure to the attainment of this end
 It has been common belief in this country that while the individual may be proceeded against by law, the labor # union as such, being unincorporated, that is being a mere voluntary asso- ciation. cannot be made legally re- sponsible for it's acts: The rules of law established by the courts of this IfcOuntry have at no time afforded a Justification for this opinion. A union, although voluntary unincorporated association, is legally responsible for its acts in much the same way that an individual, a partnership or a cor poration is responsible.
 But while the rules of legal liability apply fully to the unions, though un- incorporated, it is practical matter, more difficult for the plaintiff to con- duct the litigation, and it Is particular ly difficult to reach the funds of the union with which to satisfy any judg- ment that may be recovered There had consequently arisen, not legal, but practical immunity of the unions, as such, for any wrongs com ] itted.
 @ This practical immunity of the labor jassSS from suit or egal liability is, .n my opinion, largely responsible for the existence of the greatest griev- hnces which labor unions consider they have suffered at the hands of the eourts that is, the so-called govern Anent by injunction"
 What an immense gain would come fo the unions from full and fair trial Of such charges if the innocence of the unions were established and perhaps even the guilt of an employer.
 It has been urged that the unions might be willing to submit themselves readily to suit if the rules of law as now administered by the courts were mot unNsst to labor. I am inclined to think that therehavebeen rendered in this country many decisions which do |l1nduly restrict the activity of the unions. But the way to correct the evil of an unjust decision is not to evade the law. but to amend it. The Alnions should take the pe sition square Y that they are amenable to law. pre- barred to take the conseauences if they ransgress and thus show that they are in full sympathy with the spirit pf our people. whose political system
 psts upon the proposition that this is
 government of law and not of men.