The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-03
A GOOD LAW.

GOOD LAW.
 Of all forms of robbery that which Is carried on under the forms of law, | or in such manner as to evade the pen- | cities of the law. is most dangerous. | The robber and the thief may be guard ed against. or. if caught may be pun | ished There are laws to prevent bribery. grating and other forms of corruption, and occasionally they are | enforced.
 But there Is a form of robbery tor which laws have not yet been provided. l It Is the kind practised by walking delegates of the Sam Parks order, who obtained thousands of dollars by what | was nothing but an insidious form ot bribery. His mode of operations was as simple as 1t was effective and profit able. Suppose. as an example. the firm of John Doe employs many hands and executes large contracts. For some real or fancied grievance the men. act ing under orders. go out on a strike. Sam Parks goes to John Doe and tells him that for a certain sum of money paid to the said Sam. the men will at once go back to work. If the strike has only been ordered and the men have not actually gone out. the same methods are adopted. If John Doe will come down liberally. Sam will call the strike off.
 In either of these cases, John Doe must choose between two evils. He probably has large contracts on hand which he must forfeit if the strike is carried. The loss of those contracts not only means loss of money. but loss of business reputation. He brings his arithmetical knowledge to bear and de- cides that he will save money by sub- hitting to the extortion. Sam's pockets are filled and the work goes on. John Doe has been held up and robbed. but has no redress
 We have used the name of Sam Parks | as a representative of a certain type of walking delegate. Sam became so notorious and open that he was con victed and sent to jail, but there are | others of his class. They are more in- sidious and, therefore, more dangerous | They work under cover and escape de- tection and punishment. but they are moral robbers. They take advantage1 of an employers necessities and de- | mand bribe for their influence in pre- venting or settling a strike. If is rob bery. but not of kind that the laws | can punish. In the words of The New | York Commercial, speaking of one of these incidents:
 There was just one side to the case | There seemed td be nothing for the employer to do- but accede to the de- mand made upon him, and 1t was not looked upon as a matter of bribery. Extortion was the word used from his side of the case Neither did the labor leader call 1t bribery. He called 1t compensation for services rendered"
 That expression. ."compensaIion fer services rendered" sounds better than blood money. or bribery. or even plain robbery. but the effect Is the same. The compensation consists in taking a bribe for preventing an outrage, which out rage is generally concocted and en-
  self.
 In this connection it is encouraging to note that New York has a law which. we believe. went into effect on the 1st inst. intended to cover just such cases. It is known as the Prince law, and Is designed and intended to impress upon the employers of labor as we'll as upon the labor leaders. that both giving and taking money under such circumstances are criminal acts and both will be pun. ished. Whether 1t will be possible to convict when both parties are equally guilty. can only be decided when the law Is fairly tested. It may be, too, that the constitutionality of tho law will be tested in the courts, which will cause delay and possibly result In the law being set aside. but we hope not. Especially do we hope that 1t will, at least in one State. put stop to tho business of obtaining Compensation for services rendered" in the Sam Parks way. That will be a gain for decency.