The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-02-08

leave the employ Of their employer
employment are unsatisfactory. IL
Phelan had issued an order based
on unsatisfactory terms of employ
ment, it would have been entirely
lawful. But his coming here and
his advice to quit had nothing to
do with their terms of employ.
ment. They were not dissatisfied
with their service or their pay.
Phelan came to Cincinnati to car.
ry out the purpose of combina-
ton of men, and his act in melting
the employees of all Cincinnati
roads to quit service was part Of
that combination"
Judge Taft went on to say that
the combination to compel the rail.
roads to break their contracts with
the Pullman company and refuse
to handle Pullman cars was unlawA
full, and therefore Phelan, as al
member Of the combination, waa
guilty Of contempt of court. Il
"The combination" he saidA
was unlawful without respect toll
the contract feature. 1t was q
boycott"
Further along he said: "All the
employees had the right to quit their
employment, but they had no righo
to combine to quit in order thereby
to compel their employer to withs
draw from a mutually profitable res
lation with a third person for the
IF int riy
son, when the relation thus sought
to be broken had no effect what.
ever on the character or reward Of
their service. 1t Is the motive for
quitting, and the end sought there,
by, that makes the injury inflicted
thereby unlawful, and the combina.
ton by which 1t is effected an un.
lawful conspiracy. The distinctions
] between an ordinary lawful and
peaceable strike entered upon to
obtain concessions in the terms Of
the strikers employment and a
boycott Is not fanciful one, or
one which needs the power of fine
distinction to determine which is
which. Every laboring man recog.
niZe the one or the other as Quicks
ly as the lawyer or the Judge. The
combination under discussion was
a boycott Boycotts have been
pronounced unlawful in every state
of the United States where the
question has arisen, unless it be in
Minnesota; and they are held to be
unlawful in England"
Judge Taft also held that the
strike was combination in re.
straint OF trade, and therefore a
violation of the Sherman antitrust
| law,
The combination was further.
more an unlawful conspiracy, he
said, because its members intend.
ed to stop all mail trains as we'll as
other trains.
Phelan was sentenced to serve 60
days in the Warren county Jail.
Labor leaders have complained
that Judge Taft's decisions had
much weight in bringing about
unfair and oppressive orders by
judges in later boycott and injunc-
ton cases. Also that his express
sions favorable to union labor were
not of practical value.
Friends of Judge Taft say that
his decisions were fair and impair
ual. They declare that the rail-
road engineers abrogated rule IL
the year after the Ann Arbor de-
cision was rendered.
The right of unions to combine
in strikes as laid down by him in
the Phelan case, 1t is declared.
prevented the Wabash railroad
from blocking threatened strike
by injunction in 1908. His impair
TALLY is further said to have been
shown by the fact that while he
invoked the Sherman act against
Phelan he also used 1t later to
wine ont the iron nine trust