The Washington herald., 1913-08-03
Hon. Our Old Laws Provoke
Bad Feeling and Bitterness

|concede to them the right Of united ac-
tion, really to prevent their united ef-
forts from being effective.
Another distinction the law draws.
which seems to them unfair, Is that be-
tween strikes and boycotts. One way In
which the obdurate employer may be
made to respect the right Of his men to
Organize is by Inducing his customers to
withdraw their patronage unless he treats
his employees in q manner that seems to
these customers fair. Trade unionists see
no reason why. feeling as they do in re-
gard to the right of wage-earners to or
eanize, they should not refuse to pat
ronize an employer who denies them this
right. To make such refusal effective
they think that they should be allowed
to publish the names of unfair" or "we-
don t-patronize" employers in their union
journals. The view that this constitutes
Ia conspiracy seems to them to involve a
denial Of their liberty to patronize whom
they choose. When this view OF the boy
lcott crystalizes in an Injunction. for the
|alleged violation of which such widely
revered labor leader as John Mitchell Is
threatened with fine and Imprisonment,
st becomes. to their minds. ah intolerable
instrument of tyranny
Finally, the application Of the Federal
antitrust act to labor combinations
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 Company, the trust most
frequently referred to when the act was
under consideration in Congress. has es-
capes with an order to dissolve, obedience
to which has served only. 10 the wage
Garner argues. to enhance greatly the
value of its constituent properties.
Industrial Commission's Job.
It is these anomalies In our law as II
applies to wage-earners which are, in
my opinion. chiefly responsible for the
bitterness which American workingmen
feel toward their employers, and the
readiness with which they turn from law
full and even criminal means to secure
their ends. Nothing is SO fatal to law
abiding disposition as q conviction that
the law itself is unjust or that its ad-
ministration Is unfair.
Let the Industrial Relations Commission
study sympathetically our law with ref
erence to what wage-earners may and
what they may not do to better their
conditions: Let them compare 1t with the
law of the United Kingdom, from which
We got the common law principles which
our courts are trying to apply. Let them
investigate the reason for the British
Parliament itself deliberately superseding
these principles, so far as they Affect the
relations between employers and EN-
ployes. by the trade union acts Of the
seventies and the trade disputes act OF
1896 and find out what have been the re-
suits of this liberal Legislation. Finally.
let them either show that our present
laws are unfair in their operation and
recommend notifications. even Consti-
tutional notifications il necessary. or let
them defend these laws by reasoning SO
cogent that it will convict thoughtful
wage-earners OF the error of their views.
This seems to me the most important
task of the commission.