Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-08-18
STOPPING STRIKES BY INJUNCTION
Clayton the Sherman Antitrust Law
Made 1t Impossible for Wilson to Follow the
Cleveland Precedent of 1894?

| GROVER CLEVELAND settled the
VI great railroad strike of 1894, which
affected the railroads in twenty.seven
States, by calling out the regular army
and by resorting TO the injunction.
| Attorney General Olney held that Debs
| and his associates were engaged in
conspiracy In restraint of commerce be-
tween the States, in violation of the pro-
visions of the Sherman antitrust law.
He sued out injunctions against them.
The Supreme Court of the United States
sustained the lower courts in their inter-
probation of the law. In justifying the
action of the Attorney General, Justice
Brewer, who wrote the opinion in the
Debs case in 1895, said:
1t was not bin Cof Injunction to
command a keeping of the peace, much
less was its purpOrt to restrain the de-
fendants from abandoning whatever
employment they were engaged in. The
right of any laborer or any number Of
laborers, to quit work was not chal-
lenged. The scope and purpose Of this
bill was only to restrain forcible OBJ
structions Of the highways along which
interstate commerce trains and mails
were carried.
Mr.. Cleveland, in the Princeton lee
ture in which he reviewed the history of
the strike and the action OF the Govern
ment, concluded by declaring that those
who were most nearly related
TO the troublous days may well
especially congratulate themselves on
the part which fell TO them in marking
out the way and clearing the path, now
hereafter guide our nation safely in the
exercise of the important functions which
represent the peoples trHst,"
The "unchangeably established" method
to which Mr. Cleveland referred was the
resort to an injunction 10 prevent strikers
from interfering with interstate COM
merce 1t worked in 1894. Within very
few days after the arrest and imprison-
ment of Debs the strike collapsed, and
the workers returned TO their posts. OF
course the regular army had something
to do with restoring order but so long
as Debs was at large the trouble con-
tinued. He disregarded the injunction,
and was punished for contempt of court.
Government by Injunction Denounced
II was in 1904 that Mr.. Cleveland en-.
tertained the view that the unchange-
able path had been marked out. His own
party and the labor organizations began
10 denounce government by injunction"
as soon as II was resorted TO. The Dem.
ocratic platform Of 1895 declared that
we especially object TO government by
Injunction as a new and highly danger
Gus form of oppression" referring TO
Clevelands course in 1894. The platforms
of 1900, 1904 and 1908 contained similar
condemnation of the resort TO the injunc-
tion.
The demand that the Sherman anti
trust law be so amended as to exempt
labor unions from its provisions was in
sistent for several years. But Congress
declined to make the exemption The
first Congress OF the present Admins
tration, however. took up the matter
and In the Clayton amendments 10 the
Sherman act Il provided that nothing in
the antitrust laws should be construed 10
forbid the existence OF labor organiza-
tions, and that no such organization and
no member Of such an organization should
be held or construed TO be Illegal com
binations or conspiracIes IN restraint Of
trade under the antitrust laws" The
amendments went further, for IN Section
20 they provided that no inlonctions should
issue in = dispute between laborers ana
employers except when irreparabls dam
ass 70 properly Bas Threatened The