The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-03-25

attack on the ground that it'constitut-
ed an unreasonable restraint of trade.
Whenever the period of filing had pass
ed without any such prohibition, the
contracts or combinations could be dis
approved or forbidden only after no
tice and hearing with a reasonable pro-
vision for summary review on appeal
by the courts. Labor organizations,
farmers organizations and other or
CARNATIONS not organized for purposes
of profit, should be allowed to register
under the law by giving the location
Of the head office. the charter and by
laws, and the Dames and addresses of
their principal officers. In the interest
of all these Observation-Disclosures
labor and farmers organizations alike
the present provision permitting the
recovery Of three-fold damages should
be abolished, and as a substitute there
for the right Of recovery allowed for
should be only the damages sustained
by the plaintiff and the cost of suit.
including a reasonable attorneys fee.
The law should not affect pending
suits: a short statute Of limitation
should be provided, so far as the past
is concerned, not to exceed a year;
moreover, and even more in the inter-
est Of labor than of business combina-
tons, all such suits brought for causes
of action heretofore occurred should
be brought only if the contract or com
bination complained of was unfair or
unreasonable.
1t Is important that we should en-
courage trade agreements between en-
ployer and employe where they are
just and fair. A strike is a clumsy
weapon for rightng wrongs done to
labor. and we should extend so far as
possible, the process Of Cancellation
and arbitration as a substitute for
strikes. Moreover, violence, disorder
and coercion, when committed in con
nection with strikes, should be as
promptly and as sterniy repressed as
when committed in any other connec-
ton. But strikes themselves are and
should be, recognized to be entirely Ie-
gal Combinations of workingmen
have a peculiar reason for their ex-
istence. 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 1t may not
be necessary for laborers to form a
union in many other cases 1t is tndis-
pensable for otherwise the thousands
OF small units, the thousands Of indi-
vidual workingmen, will be left help
less in their dealings with the one big
unit, the big individual or corporate
employer.
twenty-five years ago, by the act of
June 30, 1885, trades unions were rec
ogniZed by law, and the right of labor !
ing neople to combine for all lawful
purposes was formally recognized, |
this right including combination for
mutual protection and benefits, the
regulation of wages, hours and condi- |
tons OF labor, and the protection OF
the individual rights of the working
men In the prosecution OF their trade |
or trades; and in the act Of June /,
1898, strikes were recognized as legal |
in the same provision that fovbade par |
ticipation in or instgation of force or |
violence against persons or property, |
or the attempt to prevent others from |
working by violence, threat or intim-
idatlon. The business man must be |
protected in person and property, and |
so must the farmer and the wage |
worker; and as regards all alike. the
right of peaceful combination for all |
lawful purposes should be explicitly |
recognized
The right Of employers to combine |
and contract with one another and |
with their employees should be explicit |
1y recognized; and SO should the right |
Of the employees to combine and to con- |
tract 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 peace
ably obtaining from employers salts |
factory terms for their labor Nothing |
should be done to legaize either a |
blacklist or a boycott that would be il |
legal at common law; this being the |
type Of boycott defined and condemned |
by the anthracite strike commission
The question of financial legislation |
is now receiving such attention in both |
houses that we have right to expect |
action before the close of the session
1t is urgently necessary that there |
should be such action. Moreover, &C |
ton. sS-G2i13 h,a t"IJe:7 to ESTABLISH DOS |