The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-11-10
LABOR RESENTS
LEGAL FOIBLES
ORGANIZED LABOR REsENTs
TIE 'NloulTY OF THE LAW-
CLAIMS LAWS HAVE BEEN
MADE TO FAVOR BIC BUSINESS
INTERESTS.

Henry r. seager, professor of po-
litical economy. Columbia university,
says in a. recent article:
The federal industrial relations
commission just appointed by Presi-
dent Wilson was created to investi-
gate the causes. of the prevailing bit
ter feeling between employers and en-
ployes, and to recommend measures
for it's abatement.
A~ntasonism Long Standing.
" A certain : amount of antagonisua
between employers NJ employees is
OF course, no new thing. Their inter-
ests' When it comes to the division of
the fruits Of their common thought
n toll are necessarily opposed. SO
long as their share Of the employees
depends on their ability to make IA
vorable bargains with their employers
that Is, so long SIS the wage system
itself endures-some antagonism
must continue.
Sense, OF Injustice a New Factor.
Their is, however, a new element
in the situation, and this, in my judg-
ment, is a widespread sense of the
conditions under which the wage con-
tract must now be made. BY this I
do. not mean that any very. large pro-
portion, Of wage rne has come to
accept the doctrine which socialists
teach-thate the whole product of in
'dustry is due to, labor and ought of
right to; go to the workers. The re-
volt, as. I interpret it. is not against
n wage system itself, but rather
against the legal restrictions which
in practice hamper, :wage-earners' at
every turn. in their efforts to improve
their condition without putting any
corresponding restraint on their IN
ployers. ~2~."-r. . . ..11.
Injunetions for Only One Side.
"A few ILLUSTRATIONS will make my
meaning. clearer. The injunction pro
cess has been found a highly efficient
means OF breaking a, strike. 1t can be
used by employers against. their en-
ployes because they can nearly always
persuade a court that damage, suits
against these employees after they have
committed unlawful acts which are
destructive OF property will prove in
effective. 1t q rarely, if ever, be
turned against employers, because it
can usually be urged that they will be
able, to respond in damages, and that,
therefore, there is no need for this
e~Straordinary mean of compelling
them to respect the property rights
OF others. "A legal remedy which may
berused by one side in an industrial |
dispute and not by the other natural
~ seems to the other unfair.
Limiting Strike Rights Arbitrary,
Again. ~Wage-sarners know that to
succeed in strikes for higher wages or
shorter hours they must control a suf-
nclenE proportion of the available
workers in the trade to bring it home
to the employer that they are neces-
sary partners in his business. From
their point OF view, therefore. efforts
to strengthen their unions through
strikes to prevent the employment of
S~fon-unionists are as necessary and
proper as efforts to = secure higher
wages or shorter hours directly.
When the courts tell them that they
may strike for better conditions. but
If they strike to strengthen their UNI
ion they are guilty Of conspiracy, they
feel that he law Is illogical, arbitrary
and designed, while seeming to con
cede to them their right to united &C
ton, really to prevent their united eff :,
forts from being effective.
Antitrust Law Applied Unfairly,
Finally, the application of the ted
eral THRUST act to labor combina-l
tons strengthens wage-earners in
their belief that for whatever purpose
a law may be framed the courts will
be certain to turn it against them
rather than against their employers.
Under that statute the United Hatters
are liable to pay damages to the
amount of $4,000 for acts which
.their consciences fully approve. while
the Standard Oil CO., the trust most
frequently referred to when the act
under consideration in congress,
has escaped with an order to dissolve,
obedience to, which has served only,
so the wage-earners argue, 10 en-
nance greatly the value Of it's con-
Stituent properties.
1t Is these anomalies in our law as
1T applies to Wage-earners which are,
IN my opinion. chiefly responsible for
the bitterness which American work
ilign1en feel toward their employers,
Nothing is SO fatal to a law-abiding
disposition as a conviction that the
law itself is unjust or that it's ad-
is unfair.
Anti Boycott RuIinaa Daspetic.
Another distinction the law draws.
seems TO them unfair, is that
between strikes and boycotts. One
way In which the obdurata employer
may be made to respect the right of
his men to organize liz by inducing
his customers to withdraw their pat
unless he treats his employees
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