The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937, 1915-08-28
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Nm. l42n-l4aH
mulnut Str.
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another maxim is, "he who comes into
court of equity for relief, must do SO
with clean hands The Court evidently
saw that the Employers Association did
not have clean hands, for they violated
their contract, broke their agreement
and locked out their men and tried to
separate and dissolve the unions, so as
to make them ineffective and to make
their power nil
"The Court also decided the Clayton
Act was good law That labor unions
did not come under the Sherman anti
trust law.
"That strikers have the right, in the
conduct of lawful strike. to use peace
able means to induce customers or pros
pective customers of their employer to
Withdraw their patronage from him and
give it to others.
"That workmen have the right either
severally or in body to quit work. and
by reason or argument induce others to
stand with them in their demands, even
as against a specified employer of labor,
and they may use means to keep others
from seeking employment with such en-
plover
"The right of union man to refuse
to work on a job for the reason that
engaged thereon.
THAT a union man can quit or refuse
to work on a job for the reason that
a non-union man of some other craft is
emDloved. is without question.
That contract between an individual
employer and labor union, in which
II. 4 L.
only workmen who are members of the
union, and only such members that are
in good standing. is not against public
policy and is valid
During the trial, Attorney Nicholas
Klein. in behalf of the unions of Ports
mouth. addressed the Court in part as
follows:
"The medical man does not hesitate
to apply new discovery regardless of
what some great ancient doctor may
have prescribed otherwise at another
time What would you say of a man
trying to travel by oxen team in this
age of electricity and steam and rapid
transportation? What would you think
of man trying to disseminate CON-
nunication by ancient courier methods
in this age of telephones and wireless
lte1egraphy? These questions answer
themselves. and yet courts have sought
to apply legal doctrines-culled out of
ancient times when master and servant
worked side by side, when master and
servant were practically on par as in
dividuals, capable of contracting with
each other as free agents without one
having advantage over the other by rea-
son of any concerted accumulation of
either capital, or opportunities. or men-
to times when we have great big work
shops, employing under one roof thou
sands of men toiing in the making of
fabulous sums of wealth, where things
are so systematized and where work is
so subdivided that the employe becomes
but a machine attache, man without
trade, and is removed from the real
owner of the business by the intervening
of innumerable superintendent. fore
men. and assistant foremen and where
seldom are his demands brought to the
man who is financially most interested
in the business.
"Of what worth is it to the State to
permit one to enjoy property, life. lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness under
the conditions. where thousands of
workmen are ill-fed. ill-housed and over
worked to the detriment of their health
and morals? Is a person under such
circumstances free agent? Can we in
all fairness, without merely theorizing,
after looking into the conditions of the
workers, say that workman. in dealing
with such a concern, is free agent,
and can freely contract for the sale or
hire of his labor?
'When we see that unions have grown
in numbers and have increased in mem
bership and have done a world of good
to humanity and are still striving for
those things in spite of past oppression,
in spite of unfavorable court decisions
and injunctions and punishments for
contempt, it must make us pause to think
that the march of progress can never
be thwarted by prosecutions and prose
cutions in any form.
"When unions have been obliged to
go to other sources than the courts for
relief for the great mass of mankind
that labor and toll for their livelihood,
is it any wonder that the sentiment eN-
lists that the court is not lahors ally?
unions seek no greater rights during
a strike than they have at other times,
but they do believe the courts should not
be so hasty in aiding their industrial
enemy by becoming party to their con-
troversies, giving aid to thus assist in