The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-03-11
Law MUST BE
AMENDED OR ENDED

his wages in the form of bestowing or
Withholding his patronage, he may law
fully agree with others to do.
No corporation or company has
vested interest in the patronage of
free man. If this be true, and it's truth
can not be controverted upon any basis
in law, free men may bestow their
patronage upon any particular one or
withhold it, or bestow it upon another.
And this, too, whether in the first in
stance the business concern in question
Is hostile or friendly. Bestowal or
Withholding may be exerted for any
good reason, or in the last analysis for
no reason at all.
1t is not a question as to whether we
like or dislike lockouts or strikes, boy.
colts or blacklists. The courts have de-
cided that employers may singly or in
combination discharge workers for any
reason or for no reason and that this
is the exercise of their lawful right. 1t
is difficult to understand, then, unless
there is some conception in the courts
of an employers property rights in
some form in the laborer or the labor
er's patronage, how they stretch their
authority, pervert the purpose of law
and undertake to outlaw either the
strike or the boycott.
To claim that what one man may
lawfully do becomes unlawful or crimi-
nal whom done by two or more men is
equal to asserting that nought and
nought makes two.
From its very nature the labor union
can not be regarded as a trust, yet in
arriving at its decision the supreme
court seems not to have considered this
vital distinction.
Public opinion is practically unani-
nous in recognizing the labor organ
ization as one of the essential means
of securing for the workman his rights,
protecting him against injustices, and
putting him in touch with all the best
thought and most advanced movements
Of the ethical forces OF civilization. The
aims and purposes OF our labor move
ment have often been stated before.
but will bear brief restatement at this
time, when the attempt is being made
in many directions to so cripple the
activities of our unions that they may
be deprived Of their usefulness.
Our unions aim to improve the stand
ard of life, to uproot ignorance, and
foster education; to linstil character.
manhood, and Independent spirit among
our people; to bring about a recogni-
tion of the interdependence OF man up
on his fellow-man. We aim to estab-
lish a normal workday, to take the
children from the factory and workshop
and give them the opportunity of the
school, the home, and the playground.
In a word, our unions strive to tighten
toll, educate their members, make their
homes more cheerful, and in every way
contribute an earnest effort toward
AiAt lut WIN
To achieve these praiseworthy ends we
believe that all honor able means are
both justifiable and commendable and
should receive the sympathetic support
OF every right thinking American.
II the workers are to be deprived of
their opportunities for selfimprove-
ment and independence; if they are to
be held at the will of the employer,
and if this decision is enforced such
might be the consequences-th in
dustrial condition of our country would
sink lower than that of slavery.
The slave owner was usually re-
stained from going to extremes in the
treatment of his slaves by the fact
that they represented property value to
him, but if the industrial situation en-
sues indicated by this court decision
the wage workers would be more under
the control of the INSCRIPTIONS EN-
ployers than was the slave under his
owner
We believe that all good citizens will
Join with us in the earnest attempt to
secure remedy from congress; but
there Is always the selfish, avaricious.
constituencies type of employer. and it
gives us pause to think of the hard
ships and prosecutions which such en-
(ployers might inflict when their rapa-
city has the protection of decree such
as the one delivered by the supreme
court in the Hatters' case.
The Labor Temple reading room will
gladly welcome any donations of maya