The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-20
(Frona Committee on Industrial
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cause, Is Tl{yhf1ng N1Ih 1IS DAck to the wall a really desperate combination of employers grouped around the Inter national Harvester Go, and against the power of the courfs- The most sweeping injunction in the whole his tory of the use of inj1nctions against 1 labor have been issued, in the form as yet, of temporary restraining orders, on behalf of the Harvester Company and the Illinois Mal1eabae Iron Com oany and on behalf of the big and lit tie tannery companies of Chicago, whose worknlen arc also on strike to pr oc1re respectable living and some small share of the prosperity which their labor is creating and would have it won except for the resort of the employers to the courts to help them save their big profits and starve the strikers into sllb1nis- sion to bosses who are too arrogant even to confer with committees of the workers or with national and state and local med1ators
 The employers Of labor in Chicago, as elsewhere, see that labor now has dts opportunity, through Organization, ho get the directing control df its own life and to gain fair wages So they kare desperately determined to do all lin tReir power. and to use every legal process their lawyers have devised, Ito prevent the workers from organiz- ling and helping one another by labor lInion action
 The employees of the DeH4ng plant and the Mccormick plant of the Inter national Harvester company and the employees of the Illinois Malleable t1ron company presented demands on i1Gay 1 for a shorter work day and for increases in wages amounting to an average of about Il per cent for both ip1ece and day work They walked out when the demands were refused. FThey have stayed out ever since and fhe plants have been tied up ever T n7~rx-- land foundrymen on strike were essen stial to the operation or the works iThe companies could not get strike ibreakers to take the places of the. -wprkers, and no. trickery or intfTnat1on could bring thres men back Into the tp7ants. Strong local unions, the Nal Lleab1e Casting Workers Union and the Illinois Malleabie Iron Workers Union. were formed among the work Eers and affiliated with the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Ameri- Lean Federation of Labor
 Trusting then to the process of in z function, the employers (wdth the In tternationaI Harvester CDInpany GOV efing up in the ceutEr0S rfung TneIn- 1 zefves full against the American Fed eration of Labor and the Chicago Federation and the local unions of the strikers and against the individual strikers themselves
 The tr1iunrtaon they asked, and which a judge issued, actually denies and ssts aside the freedom of the press It forbids the USE of any kind of publicity by the i-wurke1s to ask or to indncg other workers not to take their places in the plant or to come out and join the union Specifi- tcaIlv the companies asked that the unions be forbid den to repeat such n Q O itices in the PoHSh Daily and Weekly ssZCgda- as the following, which the unions had inser4ed=
 I've are asking all working men not to go into the shops of the 1li- r1ofs MaIleable Iron Company as there Ia a strike there Be sure and keep away from the plant- The conferences lvfth the company are BuTe to be c1s- Icessful- The meetings ta1ep lace at IzTehgter Hall WehEter and R obey ,freefss s- -sThe c-oxarnsssttees Jan 11ieha- lick, Stan1slas Kaznsaos1zd, Josef Duda- .
 what beccGnes of the freedom of the press if a plain. unthr catching state zflent like that can be for9idden pubit- cation both in newspaper and by
 mat assault on the freedom or fhs s.oreas and on free speech and on the fright of the workers to address their l1e1Ipw workers Wou1d seem fo pc as Tar Tar Izm corporation employers could go in I E4he use of tnjunct4ons- But these Chi Ecago fighters against union labor 7aave tried to use the power of the courts to staxve fhe workers and fhe1r 9anafaaes-
 rqae fnfunc4zon prohibits the Amer 4can Tederat10n of Labor and the Ch1- Icaxo Federation of Labor and all un- lion men and an o6&aer people from s7aezDfnz the strikers with money or I-rs4aa saZgpeerfea. or 1rie1 credit. or with sxew 1oba or with any other kind of EaasastAnce or reward
 If these underpaad foundry work s@rs and naolders and other striking xnonev, after six weeks of heroic lstrugg1e and sacrifice for their fan1i- lilies, they are to be branded as crim- finals and put in jail for contempt of court if they accept a loan or a gift them over into fhe day of better in- ldustr1a1 justice
 If zxa7on labor, national, or state. or city, or local. helps these Chicago atrfkerz to win their particular bat t7e in the general fight of the work E4n< people, then all union labor is to he in contempt of court and is to be punished.
 Could anything be clearer than is tl,e attempt of these Chicago employ CTS to prevent all co-operation and or seanfzaffon by the workers for the workers mutual protection? Their cha11enge in these Chicago in5uncf1on' is challenge to the whole labor movement
 They make the attempt to destroy union labor and this attempt to starvt their striking workmen into subn1s sion with the bold and unvarnishee declaration that they want the courei to guard their profitsi They boldl1 declared in asking for the fn5unc ton, that the strike was keeping then from making 6. lot of money. The! said they had material on hant which would be vaIueless unless Ia bor would. give it a value nd yet, o1 that admission their own profits de pended on the labor of the workers Athey asked that the workers be starv <esI (<lr. fr-xxf eraf 1T eight or nine hour day and an in crease in wages less than the increas'