Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1907-09-28
Judge Dayton Gives His Views on
Organized Labor.
TEXT or REMARKS ON BENCH
He ScathingIy Rebukes the Men Who
Will Not Work and Would Pre-
vent Others From Working.

junction giving Judge Dayton's views
on the union labor problem:
While ! don't know but what men
ought TO so school and chasten them
selves that they can stand silent,
while other men with malice in their
hearts and with viciousness ia their
tongues attack them with approbrious
epithets and insults, and yet, Mr.,
Fickeisen, 1t is against human nature
for a man to do that.
The great trouble with these labor
unions is that they undertake to die
tate in the matter of the God given
liberty that every MAJ has to work.
They are good as long as they seek
TO make better workmen, better citi-
zens. better men out of their member
ships But whenever they touch the
right and seek to destroy the right
and opportunity of any man to make
his living. they violate the law, and
when they attempt in these strikes to
coeree or intimidate men from work
ing they violate the God-given right
of their fellowmen to work and their
liberty
Now this is a very distressing thing
for me, after having granted the in
junction and after having warned
these men that a violation of it meant
a certain punishment, and after they
have thrown up their hands AID vir-
tually admitted that a decree perpet-
uating that injunction should go with
out further defense on thei" part.
within two days afterward to have
this violation of il come with this
court still in session. 1t is hardly
possible TO presume that such a vlo-
lation could occur under such circum-
stances. Yet it has. There can be
little or no excu1e for it,
Again offenses are infrequently
more in the spirit than in the act
committed. There must be obedience
to the law or else we must have an
archy, | say t.ere is no court but
dslikes to punish people, but still il
we do not have these punishments we
cannot have peace and law and or
der
These men had a perfect right to
quit working for this company. They
had a perfect right to go out and
work where and for whom they pleas
ed. God gave them the right to earn
their bread either by working for this
company or for anybody else that
wanted their labor, if that work was
honorable and good and He gave that
same right to everyone And when
ever these unions or combinations of
men undertake to say tina one man
shall work and another shall not,
they commit crime agaisnt the very
fundamental principles Of mans free
dom, his liberty before God and in
Gods sunlight to do what is best for
his interests, provided he does not
commit crime or do injury to anoth-
er.
Now are these threats IN the nature
of intimidation? Yes! 1t is a com
mon experience that when strike is
called by one of these labor organi-
cations it is almost invariably follow
ed by violence and by assaults and
frequently by murder and bloodshed
/ It's a sad thing TO say it, but never
/ theless the experience of this country
when YOU look back over the whole
/ line of its whole history in these
strikes. it is that you can hardly
point to peaceable strike They all
go the same way. They run to law
( lessness just as NATURALLY as water
runs down hill, and the inevitable re-
suit almost always is to persuade men
to leave their work and join the strik-
ers. which is permissible. and when
that does not succeed the next thing
is to express toward them their malice
and their i'll will by approbrious
words, such as scabs and rats, and
this is worng They have no right
to do it.
Now, it's true that there is no evi
dence in this case of cutting the
lines or destruction of property of the
company, There is no evidence OF
actual assault, but l think that the
spirit for it was there is clear. l am
sorry to say it, but think this WON
an was just aching for an assault &c
be made by her own confession
The man had not insuited her He
had said: Lady, the blacksheep will
not hurt your dog" ana Immediately
she called on the man, as some oil
the witnesses, her husband, and some
of the other witnesses say, TO come
down and smash their heads with this
hottie There was no occasion fol