The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1916-08-25
Labor Is Not Property
Unless The Worker
Is A Slave.

council, officers of the American
Federation of Labor are comforting
with attorneys on the best methods
of contesting a recent decision by
the Massachusetts state supreme
court which holds that labor Is
property" and invalidates law
passea by the Massachusetts, legis
lature in June, 1914, that right to
labor is personal right and not
property right" The statute Il.
mited the issuance of injunctions
along lines similar to the Clayton
amendments to the federal anti
trust law.
TIE Massachusetts decision was
made in the case of an appeal by
union of the Industrial Workers of
the World, which alleged that Hod
Carriers, Building and Common
Laborers' union No 209, affiliated
to the A. F. of L conspired to
deprive them of the right to work
The court sustained the l w
w claim aud set aside the law on
the ground that:
1T (labor) is as much property
as the more obvious form of goods
and merchandise stocks id bonds
The court defends its position by
referring to the fourteenth amend
ment to the federal constitution,
which declares no state sh III de
prive any person of lif liberty OF
property, without due process OF
law"
Writing in the American FEEDER
a'ioni5t, current issue, President
Furuseth of the International Sea
mems union, cites numerous au
thorities in opposition to the su-
preme courts position.
These authorities include the
Century dictionary which defines
property as the exclusive right of
possession, enjoying ard disposing
of thing
Blackstone's definition is; The
sole and despotic dominion which
one claims and exercises over the
external things of the world in to-
tai exclusion of the right f any
other Individual in the world
at will be seen from these def
nitions, says president Furussth,
"that nothing can be property un
less it can be Transmitted to others
or disposed Of and when the four
teenth amendment vas adopted no
body held that labor was property. /
The term business, as defined
by several authorities, is also given
The American and English Ency
clopedia of Law defines il as: That
which occupies the time, attention
and labor of man for the purpose
of livelihood or profit; that wnicn
occupies he time, attention and la
Dor of men for the purpose Of profit
and improvement. "
According to Webster 8 diction-
ary. business" means: That which
business or that occupies the time,
attention or laOor Of one, as his
principal concern, whether for
longer or shorter time.
ct will be seen from the above
definitions, continues president
Fur1seth, that while there is
fundamental difference between
property and business there IS none
at all between business and labor;
to do bus ness is to labor
The word labor is a careless,
indefinite term, but as used, it
signifies labor power in activity,
producing some commodity. La
Dor power cannot be transmitted;
it cannot be divorced from the ply
sical body Of which it is an Inherent
and irdissoluble part. It grows
with the person s growth depends
upon the PERSONS health; decays
in sickness and vanishes with death
1t is personal and can only be
active in obedience to the personal
will of the individual. II is an at
tribute Of life itself
Labor, therefore,, cannot be pro-
perty unless the person be property
that IS to say, unless the person be
slave. The only value Of the
slave tn his owner was the labor
power inherent in him or her; all
else was expense. The labor power
had to be nourished to be preserved
This was expensive and no one
would have Kept the slaves except
for the labor power Inherent in the
slaves, and the fact that the pro-