The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-27
THE WALKING DELEGATE.

The action of Judge Richard Tyner of the city court in f1ning Walking Delegate Frank McGee of Worcester representing the Moulders' union marks another of those unhappy steps in the education of participants in a labor trouble and the further inter- pretation of the law. The case has of course been appealed and will now receive the consideration of the high CT courts but whether Judge Tyner's view is upheld or not the unpleasant incident in the industrial life of New Haven must be regretted, on the one hand, and looked to, on the other hand, as a possible assurance that in seeking it's ends organized labor will learn to conduct itself within the laws.
 One of the unfortunate impressions made by mistaken lawAessness as in this case is that it tends to bring or ganized labor into disrepute, when as a matter of fact these occasional dis turbances have no more to do with study of the principles of the mod ern union than misconduct on the part of single lawyer has to do with study of the legal ethics. It is now generally admitted by all unprejudiced observers that labor has been inesti- mably benefited by forming itself into an offensive and defensive organiza- ton. There have been too many in- stances where the power which comes of labor organization has been frightfully abused, but recent history is full, too, of similar instances where the organization of capital has made an equally abusive use of its power. The organization of labor and of capi- tai is one thing to be viewed by itself; the use to which either puts it's great accumulated power is another thing to be viewed by itself. And it is this delib- crate use which occasionally comes under the scrutiny of the courts, as 1t has in the case of the strikers who were formerly in the employ of the McLagon foundry The men who are in the thick of the fight, together with those who sympathiZe with them, will perhaps regard the sentence imposed by the court as unfair and excess sive, but their personal feelings have nothing to do with the case. The court has acted in an unprejudiced manner and if it has erred in judgment a higher court of appeals will correct it..
 In the meantime 1t is well to im- press upon members of organized la- bor that the principles which have guided Judge Tyner in his finding are not original with him. Court after court all over the land has been forced to the same conclusions while organized labor itself has approved them when they were directed at sim ming capital. If it approves the use of tested medicines for diseased capital 1t cannot consistently reject them when 1t falls i'll itself, The right to leave one's employment even in anger, which constitutes strike, has been admitted by the courts, as Judge Ty- lner himself admits There is no law lin the land which will compel a man to give service where the conditions are not to his liking, and if this is so then there is no law in the land which can compel man to take into his service one whom he has reason to dislike or distrust. The one right can- not be claimed unless the other right is admitted, for it is an axiom of the law that one mans rights end where the other mans rights end Men who have left their employment may re- sort to peaceful means to ascertain the condition of the struggle and to innocently get into touch with the men who have taken their places That sort of campaigning is as old as the human race, but it must at all times be undertaken under the law. A citizen may approach @ member of a legislative body for the purpose Of persuading him to support measure in which the special pleader is inter- ested, but the moment he offers him an unlawful inducement to do what he wants done he assaults the welfare !of society and must pay the penalty The trouble with the average picket in a labor controversy is that he un- dertakes to decide for himself where his rights end and does not hesitate tc use weapons of suasion which are lawless. He has no right to threaten with bodily injury or social ignominy the man or men he would bring over to his way of thinking. If the indus trial concern which the Moulders