The Connecticut labor press., 1920-08-07
HOW ABOUT THE
 EMPLOYER WHO
 CLOSES UP SHOP ?
If Strikes Are to Be Considered Illegal Shut Downs
 Must Be Also.
ARE EVEN WORSE
Production Getting a Body Blow by Big Corporations
 Playing Politics.

Many protests have been made of late against frivolous and vexatious strikes on the part of workingmen. So much inconvenience has been caused by these Walkouts that 1t has been seriously pro- posed to limit the right to strike, and Kansas already has such a law, which It IS attempting to enforce. If 1t is a punishable offense for labor to throw down its tools, asks the New York World, how are we to deal with the employer who, acting i'll the same spirit, closes his shop?
 The American Woo1en company. which has shut down most of it's mills is in politics as well as in business. Its industry Is founded on the protective tariff. and it's political faith has always been that of the party whose first ob- ject Is to safeguard and enrich big business. The present suspension of operations Is explained by an alleged cancellation of orders for cloth, but men in the trade denyNthat such is the fact, and already associations of pro- ducers of clothing for men and women are announcing higher retail prices for the fall and winter and justifying them on the ground that the supply of wool ems IS to be short
 Practically every discussion of reme- dies for high prices ends with a de- mand for increased production. Besides the complaint against strikes, 1t has that notwithstanding generous wages it's product has diminished This is the grievance of such manufacturers as have been accused of profteering, all though no proof of it Is found in their books or i'll the excessive dividends they have been earning. One thing, however Is plain. A labor strike does not neces- sarily stop production. A strike by cap ltal IS certain to do so.
 The American Woo1en Company escaped prosecution not long ago. by a judicial ruling that cloth is not cloth ing in the meaning of the Lever Act On this technica1ity a case carefully prepared by the Department of Justice came to naught There is an intima- ton that the New England shutdown, throwing tens of thousands of people out of work, was vengefu1 in its ir- spirat1on and intended as warning against further interference. Perhaps a more powerful consideration was the purpose alleged by the American De- signers' Association, which is to create a scarcity and thus check the tendency
 
 the cost of clothing.
 Such a policy would come properly under the head of conspiracy against the public. We have had several out law labor strikes-that Is, strikes en- tered upon in violation of contracts and union rules and without any wel1-de- fined purpose. If the American Woolen Cofnpany's shutdown Is intended to in tiss'idate the government and perpetuate extortion, 1t also is an outlaw strike The people are the principal victims. Tle locked-out mill operatives may find work at big wages elsewhere, but with a prearranged scarcity of cloth the con- sumner will pay the new levy or practice self-denial
 In regard to this situation 1t is we'll to remember that most of the convic- lions of prohteering have been of deal CTS in clothing for men and women. Outrageous as the methods thus dis closed have been, they neco cause no surprise when conditions in the basic industry are as they now appear to be.