Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1908-10-31
MIR. TAFT GAVE
LABOR ITS RIGHTS
Defined Them In the PheIan Case
Beyond Successful Attack
and Blew Breath of Life
Into Sherman Law.
TRADE UNIONS BEST WEAPON

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Principles on Which the Trades
Unions Are Based and Which
Made Them Lawful and Pros
porous.
Judge Taft's career upon the
bench will ever receive its most i'm
portant reflection, in the popular
mind, from the decisions Affecting
labor which 1t became his duty to
utter. That his services on the Sixth
Circuit, In collaboration with Judge
William r. Day tnow an Associate
Justice OF the Supreme Court and
Judge H. H. Lurton, who remains
on the Sixth Circuit, in Illuminating
the ~Obscurities. defining the meaning
and directing the enforcement of the
statutes, were no less important, does
not detract from the weight Of his
decisions concerning labor.
Ranking with these labor decisions,
OF which there were three, was the
decision In the "Addystone pipe
case, which blew the breath of life
into the moribund Sherman law. 1t
showed Mr.. Roosevelt the line to
which to hew In instigating success
ful proceedings against the trusts.
and establish the right of the Federal
Government to control Interstate
commerce. The rights of labor have
been marked out by Mr.. Taft so that
they stand as sharply and clearly de-
fined as they were confused and un-
derestimated before. This has been
altogether to the profit of unionized
labor, not to its disadvantage. Judge
TAFT placed firmly in the hand OF
labor, to use properly as a weapon OF
onense and defense, the right OF
strike. to proceed lawfully against
unfair employees and In a manner to
secure it from prosecution. These
FACTS cannot successfully be contro-
verified.
Mr.. Taft has been held accountable
Tor the sins implied by q phrase,
government by Injunction" in real
1ty as void OF meaning as most catch
phrases are, which sprang Into exist
ence during the American Railway
Union strike of 1894. His decision,
which was in the Phelan case, was
inspired by incidents growing out of
the cndeavor OF Eugene ". Debs to
tie up all the railroads in order to
reinforce the efforts of the Pullman
Company to obtain higher wages and
Just n needed concessions. Debs'
idea was that If the railroads would
refuse to handle Pullman cars 1t
would insure the success of the strike,
as undoubtedly it would have done.
In some of his efforts to tie up roads
that would not bar the Pullmans. his
men collided with the law of injunc-
lions and were worsted.
One OF these men was F.. w. Phe-
Ian, who was commissioned by Debs
to go to Cincinnati and tie up the
roads entering there. Among them
was the Cincinnati, New Orleans and
Texas Pacific, or Cincinnati Southern,
which was being managed by a re-
ceiver appointed by Judge Taft. The
ordering out of these men as a meas
ure OF sympathy with the Pullman
strikers was in effect a boycott. The
receiver of the railroad sought and
obtained from Judge Taft a~n-injunc-
ton prohibiting the strikers from
interfering with traffic. Phelan was
determined. He told his followers
to go ahead and disregard the injunc-
ton.
Phelan was hailed into court. The
strikers were not in a conciliatory
mood, to say the least, and the de-
gree OF animosity that was manifest
ed against Judge Taft was such as to
alarm his friends for his personal
safety. The courtroom was packed
with strikers. and they were grim
Ind ugly, for Phelan they considered
In the light Of one who was on the
way to martyrdom; largely because
Df the anger OF a Judge whose injunc-
ton he had spurned.
1t was a ~foregone conclusion, on
the evidence, that Phelan would be
condemned. Judge Taft reviewed
the evidence fully. He cited authori-
ties to establish beyond dispute that
while h employees of the railroad
had a right to cease work, they had
no right to combine to injure the
road or to cause 1t to withdraw from
q profitable business with a third
party with the effect of injuring that
party. when the relation thus inter-
rupted had no connection with the
kind of service given by the en-
ployes or the compensation they re-
ceived for 1t.
Attorneys for labor unions have
since successfully utilized in pleading
for the rights of their clients in court
this definition of the rights OF labor
set forth by Judge Taft In the Phelan
case:
"The employees OF the receiver had
the right to organize into or join
a labor union which would take ac-
ton as to the terms OF their en-
ployment.
1T is a benefit to them and to the
public that laborers should unite for
heir common interest and for law
ul purposes.
They have labor to sell. II they
fand together they are often able,
III OF them, to obtain better prices
Or their labor than dealing singly
Sith rich employers. because the
necessities OF the single employee may
compel him to accept any price that
is offered.
those who feel that the wages offered
are below the legitimate market value
of such labor Is desirable.
They have the right to appoint
officers who shall advise them "a IN