The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-06-02
Big Business Joins Hands With
Labor, Is Charge.
Colonel Dean Takes Hand in
Wolff Packing Case.
D. R. HITE ALSO BEGINS ACTION
Both Attorneys Question Con-
stitutiOnality of 1. r. Court.
State Officials Look for Hard
Fight in Test Case.

State officials today professed to see
''big business joining hands with labor
leaders in an effort to destroy the
Kansas court of industrial relations
when they learned that Col. John S.
Dean, attorney for the Associated In
dustries, had taken a hand in the
Wolff Packing company case appealed
from the industrial court to the su-
preme court and that D. r. Hite, at
torney for the Wolff Packing COM
pany, had taken a hand in the Alex
ander Howat contempt case in which
the supreme court is expected to hand
down an opinion at an early date.
Colonel Dean and Hite have come
into these cases as "Amicus Curiae,"
which means as outsiders acting thru
friendship for the supreme court
Colonel Dean has filed a thirty-two
page brief in the Wolff Packing com
pany case in which he assails the court
and declares it unconstitutional and
Hite has filed a fifty page brief in
which he attempts to outline "consti-
/ tutional dangers which are threaten
| ing the new tribunal.
Questions Courts Constitutionality.
Colonel Dean, recognized as one of
| the best constitutional lawers in the
| state, has queStiond the constitution
ality of the industrial court since it
was first proposed. And in his brief,
which has been filed in the Wolff case
before the issues were Joined, he as
| serts the act is unconstitutional and
attempts to show the members Of the
| supreme court that it cannot attempt
to regulate the wages private business
| concerns pay their employees.
| The employees of the Wolff Packing
| company complained to the industrial
court several months ago when the
| company reduced wages and refused
| to sign a new union agreement. The
court held a hearing. Judge W. L.
| Higgins spent a day in the slaughter
pens watching the men work to deter
mine the number of hours that should
| constitute a day. Then an order was
and the number of hours the employees
should be required to work.
While the men did not get what
they wanted exactly, they appeared
satisfied with the order, but the COM
lpaIly appealed to the supreme court
and It is in this appeal case that Col
tonel Dean has undertaken to "givc
light to the court
The Dean brief holds that the Wolff
Packing company is private business
interest. Further, Colonel Dean ar
gues that the people could not be
made to suffer If this company were
to close down its packing plant entire
ly and never kill another animal. He
asserts meat is not essential to life
of people in the world today are living
and are enjoying good health without
ever eating any meat.
Also, the supreme court is told that
the Wolff Packing company can &c
into the "open labor market" and
hire men cheaper than the Industrial
court order permits and he asserts nc
court can compel a private industry to
pay higher wages than are required
by the labor market. And, further
Colonel Dean asserts the manufacture
ing of clothing and the producing OF
fuel are essentially private industries
An Emergency Tribunal.
Hite, in his "Amicus Curiae" briei
in the Howat case, dwells upon the
constitutionality of the industrial
! court act and takes the stand that the
legislature did not intend to give thi:
; vate business in normal times, but
merely intended to furnish an emerg
ency tribunal to which resort could be
had in times of danger.
State officials expressed themselve:
today as firmly convinced that "bil
business is going to make a harder
: fight to have the industrial cour
knocked out than Howat and his as
sociates have made, and they are o,
the opinion that the big test is going
to be made in the Wolff Packing com
pany case.
Members of the industrial cour
were reported to have been in confer
ence over the new attacks on the cour
this morning and two members of tn
court Judges McDermott and Craw
ford, were in consultation with Cover
nor Allen for almost an hour, but the!
; would make no statements and Gov
ernor Allen declined to be quoted ol
the subject.
The states brief in the Wolff cas-
; before the supreme court is bging pre-
: pared by Baxter D. McClain, attorne.
Il for the Industrial court, and Judg
Agan, of the attorney generals office
: and F. Dumont Smith, of Hutchinson