The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-03-27


for should be only the damages sus-
tanned by the plaintiff and the cost OF
suit. including reasonable attorneys
fee.
Brief Statute Of Limitations.
The law should not affect pending
suits; a short statute of limitations
should be provided, so far as the past
is concerned, not to exceed year.
Moreover, and even more in the in.
terest of labor than of business COM
binations, all such suits brought for
causes of action heretofore occurred
should be brought only if the contract
or combination complained Of was un-
fair or unreasonable. 1t may be well
to remember that all of the suits hith-
er;o brought by the government un-
der the antitrust law have been in
cases where the combination or con-
tract was in fact unfair, unreasonable
and against the public interests.
1t is important that we should en-
courage trade agreements between en-
ployer and employee where they are
Just and fair. A strike is a clumsy
weapon for righting wrongs done to
labor and we should extend, so far as
possible, the process of Cancellation
and arbitration as substitute for
strikes. Moreover, violence, disorder
and coercion when committed in con-
nection with strikes, should be as
promptly and as sternly repressed as
when committed in any other connec-
ton.
Necessity for Labor Unions.
But strikes themselves are, and
should be, recognized to be entirely
legal Combinations of workingmen
have peculiar reason for their ex-
,stence. The very wealthy individual
employer, and still more the very
wealthy corporation, stand at an enor-
nous advantage when compared to
the individual workingman; and while
there are many cases where it may
not be necessary for laborers to form
union in many other cases 1t Is in
dispensable. for otherwise the thou
sands of small units, the thousands of
individual workingmen would be left
helpless in their dealing with the one
big unit-the big individual or cor
porate employer.
Twenty-Five years ago, by the act
Of June 20, 1886, trades unions were
recognized by law and the right OF
laboring people to combine for all law
full purposes was formally recognized,
this right including combination for
mutual protection and benefits, the
regulation of wages, hours and condi-
tions of labor and the protection of
the individual rights of the workmen
in the prosecution of their trade or
trades; and in the act of June L, 1898.
strikes were recognized as legal in
the same provision that forbade par
ticipation in or instigation of force or
violence against persons or property,
or the attempt to prevent others from
| working by violence. by threat or in
timidation.
Law Should Be Explicit.
The business man must be protect
ed in person and property and SO must
the farmer and the wage worker; and
as regards all alike the right OF peace
full combination for all lawful pur-
poses should be explicitly recognized.
The right of employers to combine
and contract with one another and
with their employees should be ex-
plicitly recognized; and so should the
right of the employees to combine and
to contract with one another and with
the employers and to seek peaceably
to persuade others to accept their
views and to strike for the purpose of
peaceably obtaining from employers
satisfactory terms for their labor
Nothing should be done to legalize
either a blacklist or boycott that
would be illegal at common law; this
being the type of boycott defined and
condemned by the anthracite strike
commission