The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1908-03-27
LABOR unions
MAKE PROTEST
To Congress on Interpreta.
ton of Laws.
Urge Relief From Grievances
Occasioned by Supreme
Courts Recent Decision.

On Thursday of last week memori-
al was presented to congress of the
United States by representatives OF
eighty-seven national and information
al trade and labor organizations and
farmers organizations assembled in
national conference at Washington.
This is the conference TO which pre-
asident C. M. Barnett of the American
Society of Equity was called on Mon
day of last week of which we We're
unable to procure satisfactory report
as to its purpose The scope of the
memorial was set forth in the follow
ing opening paragraph, -... ..
We, the officials representatives of
the national and international trade
and labor unions and organizations of
farmers in National Conference as
sembled in the District of Columbia,
for the purpose of considering and
taking action deemed necessary to meet
the situation in which the working peo-
pie are placed by recent decisions of
the courts,no appear before congress
to voice the earnest and emphatic pro-
test of the workers of the country
against the indifference if not actual
hostility which Congress has shown to
ward the reasonable and righteous
measures proposed by the workers for
he Cof I'D I'M IF tho riphtC and in
terests.
In the name of labor We now urge
upon Congress the necessity for i'm
mediate action for relief from the
most grave and momentous situation
which has ever confronted the working
people of this country. This crisis has
been brought about by the application
by the Supreme Court of the United
States of the Sherman antitrust law
to the workers, both organized and in
their individual capacity.
The workers feel that Congress itself
must share our chagrin and sense of
injustice when the courts exhibit an
utter disregard for the real intent and
purpose of laws enacted to safeguard
and protect the workers in the exer-
else of their normal activities.
There is something ominous in the
ironic manner in which the courts
guarantee workers:
The right to be manned and killed
without Inability to the employer.
The right to be discharged for be-
longing to union.
The right to work as many hours
as employers please and under any
conditions which they may impose.
Labor is justly indignant at the be-
stowal or guaranteeing of these worth
less and academic rights" by the
courts, which in the same breath de-
ny and forbid the workers the practical
and necessary protection of laws which
define and safeguard their rights and
liberties and the exercise of them indi
yidually or in association.
The protest" submitted by Mr..
-Gompers and his associates-Joseph
F. Valentine, Sth vice president of the
American Federation of Labor; w. r.
Farley of the United Mine Workers
Union of North America; G. M. Bar
nett of the American Society of Epu- |
ity; w. d. Mahon, president Of the
Amalgamated Street and Electric Rail-
way Employees and P. ]. McArdle, of
the Amalgamated Association of iron
and Steel Workers-refers to the Su-
preme Court decision in the hatters'
case as "the most recent perversion
of the intent of law by the judiciary |
by which the Sherman antitrust law
has been made to apply to labor al
though 1t was an accepted fact that
Congress did not intend the law to so
apply and might even have specifi-
cally exempted labor but for the fear
that the Supreme Court might con-
strue such an affirmative provision to
be unconstitutional" The protest
We favor enactment of laws which
shall restrict the jurisdiction of courts
of equity to property and property
rights and shall SO define property and
property rights that neither nor in
dustry shall there be held to be any
property or property rights in the la
Dor or labor power of any person or
persons.
The memorial submits to Congress
for consideration two amendatory
provisions in substance as follows:
That nothing in said act (Sherman
antitrust law) or In this act Is in