The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-10-29
LAW AND LABOR UNIONS {

TO the New York Herald:
 HIN your editorial article of October 6, III headed "The Constitutionality of the
 Rent Laws,' I note the following statement:
 There is no constitutional provision which the supreme court of the United States has enforced more consistently and
 without variance or shadow of turning, than the prohibition against the state. leg islation impairing the obligation of con- tract No state law attempting to do this has any chance of receiving the approval ot the supreme court.''
 Of course, if the supreme court will not approve state legislation impairing the obligation of a contract it necessarily follows that it will not approve the act of impairing a contract when done by any
 other power within a state.
 I have quoted the above, therefore, as
 the text of this letter, which is written for the purpose of holding that Congress and the state legislatures ought to enact
 laws forcing the labor unions to be incor-
 porated. If there were no other reason for this Requirement we would find sufficient one in the fact that while one of the
 basic and most consistently urged de-
 mands of the labor unions is for collec- tive bargaining, multitudes of instances prove that after they, as collective or ganizations, have been successful in fore ing responsible employers make con tracts with them they break those con- tracts at will and go on strikes of which many bring great inconvenience to the public and furthermore are characterized by anarchic destruction of the property of law-abiding people and by the unlaw- full mounding and killing .(murder) of citi- zens conducting business within their rights, and then shelter their organiza- tions from compensating those whom they have wilfully and ruthlessly wronged by the fact tAat they are not incorpo- lrated, hexce not responsible for the crimes their members have committed. Logical ly, they say: 'rYou cannot make our union pay for your building which we dyna- mited; you must pay for rebuilding It. you, as unoffending bystander. cannot make our union pay \the surgeon for treating your leg which we broke; you
 must pay him. Yet the strikes which brought about these crimes were official fly ordered by the organizations as such. Now. as to collective bargaining: Prob ably few employers would have objection to this method of bargaining if they knew
 they were bargaining with organiza- |tions vhich experience had proved to be or which the law had forced to become
 responsible. Mutual manifest responsibii- ity would inspire mutual confidence. hence dispel the distrust which past experience
 has undoubtedly justified employers m
 feeling when called to make contracts
 with labor unions. Really, neither public
 sentiment nor the law has the right 10 force a responsibile party to make a contract with party who inherently IS
 irresponsible or who has purposely made
 himself so.
 Such a contract would be on parity
 with a contract between a rock cliff and
 a fog which has risen from a marsh at its base. The fog is of unsubstantal.
 hourly changing composition; the suns rays can dissipate it, the winds can blow if away. etc, but the rock cliff must
 stay; 1t cannot move. So a factory. a mine br railroad cannot move away; it must stay. But the employees who conn pose the labor union, who come from any county. any state. any natioE can any day quit work (strike) in . body, and can, if they choose. move away in body Tor they can quit singly or in groups and no employees can force them to. stay, any more than the rock cliff can force the fog to stay.
 Bear in mind how that when the state charters a steam or electric railroad she not only consents for it to operate, but she also commands it to operate. to serve the public: and furthermore that the laws place penalties on the corpora |tion and it's officsrs if by their voluntary
 act its operation h suspended. thereby damaging tho public But these unions of employees at will exercise the power to suspend the operation of tho trains. thus hurting the public; and, not being incorporated are exempted from prose- cution for doing an act for which the
 company can be fined and the officers