The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-12-08
JUSTICE STAFFORD ON
UNIONS AND FREEDOM
District of Columbia Jurist Holds
That Individual Liberty
Stands First.
Comments by Leading Metropoli'
tan Journals on Position Of
Labor Unions.
(From the Chicago American.)


in granting a temporary injunction
the other day to restrain some strik-
ing printers from interfering in any
way" with the non-un1on men who
had taken their places, made a few
PREDATORY remarks of very familiar
sort, Said his honor: There is
something more important than fair
wages, and that is the right to work
for any wages the workman is will
ing to accept. There is something
more important than an eight-hour
day, and that is a free day. Any en-
hancement Of wages, any lessening of
in the conditions Of employment w ould
be too dearly bought by the sur
render of the smallest fraction Of in
dividul liberty"
All Of which is nobly eloquent, and
there can be no doubt that it thrills
President Baer,~ of the coal trust,
which has frozen out the Independent
operators in the anthracite field by
compelling them to sell their mines
at trust figures or go without cars
to carry their product to market
Suppose the Washington Judge had
had that situation before him and had
said:
There is something more import
ant than high prices for coal, and that
is the right to the mine owner to
sell his coal for any price he is will
ing to accept. There is something
more important than maintaining the
profits Of the trust, and that is tc
maintain the right of an American
citizen freely to work his own mine
Any enhancement Of trust prices, any
Improvement in perfecting the trusts
monopoly would be too dearly bought
by the surrender Of the smallest frac-
ton of the individual liberty of the
mine owner
How would Mr.. Baer like that:
How would it be liked by any of the
friends of freedom who engineer the
plundering trusts, kill off competition
by every means available, within and
without the law, and are ever. emo
tionally ardent in preserving the
blessing Of the "open shop" to the
workingman?
In laying down his general PROPOSE
ton as to the sacredness of freedom
Of contract, Judge Stafford thought
and spoke as a true doctrinaire-that
is he deduced practical conclusi ons
from an abstract principle, with eyes
closed to the actual world about him
Such freedom Of contract as the
ordinary workingman possesses-the
workingman who can do only things
which many others can do-he owes
wholly to the labor unions. But fol-
them he would have the free day
that Judge Stafford extols-the free
dom to accept the wages offered him
by the employer in a free market
where his fellow workmen, instead OF
being 1eagued with him as, comrades
to hold up wages for the common
good, would be competing against him
dom would be the privilege of taking
what was handed to him by the job
bestowing master, or starving.
Under existing industrial conditions
the workingman has no liberty that
he does not conquer for himself. The
law assumes that he and the employ
er stand on an equal footing, the
worker being under no more compul:
sion to accept than the employer is
to offer employment. The law ignores
the dread figure of Need, which
stands with uplifted whip at the
workers back. So there is no equal.
ity Of condition and no freedom o,
contract
with President Eliot, of Harvard, il
viewing the "scab' as the prosecuted
representative of individual liberty II
that dark and strange world where
men toll with their hands for a pool
living. He is the hero Of the we'll
fed. well-dressed, well-housed gen
tlemen on and off the bench who thinl
with brains that hold no memory O.
palm-callousing work, and who's,
sympath1es are altogether with tn,
employer, forever harassed by the de
mands of his ignorant and impuden
servants for higher pay and shorte
hours-for fairer share of what tho,
earn. that is.
The "scab" has re legal right t.
| abstain from joining a union, just a
every man has the legal right to d.
many things that as a decent huma1
being he would be ashamed to do. an
for the doing Of which public opinion
! would justly condemn him. The con
/ trollers Of the ice trust, for example
are probably eminently respeotabl
! persons, some of them, like MIR. Rookie
Teller, exemplary church-goers an
! generous in the contributions to tn
found for carrying the gospel t
darkest Asia and Africa. Advised b
their attorneys, they will doubles
! evade the hand of the law when. a
hot weather comes on, they shall pro
coed to spread suffering and Kill
children in the New York tenemen
by raising the price of ice beyond tn
., means Of the very poor. But men VIII
have minds capable Of grasping reali
ties and reasoning from cause to ef
feet. and who have hearts in thei
breasts, will feel no more respect O
| liking for these ice trust gentleme
than the union workman feels for tn
"scab."
The "scab" is a traitor: to his ordel
and mercenary traitor at that. It 1
the existence of the unions that give
him his opportunity to market hi
| l..