Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1921-02-24
Opposes Government lnjunc-
tons In Industrial
Disputes
DEFIES GOVERNMENT
Meeting of Labor Organization at Call
of President Gompers-Organized
Labor Faces Grave Crisis is Belief

Washington, Feb. 2l.-Open rebel.
lion against the enforcement by tht
Government of judicial injunctions II
industrial disputes was declared yes
terday ,oy the 200 representatives Of
100 American labor organizations
who met here at the call of President
Gompers, of the American Federation
of Labor.
At the close of an all-day session
the conference adopted a statement
prepared by Mr.. Gompers which de-
picted organized labor as being
ground between industrial autocracy
and Bolshevism, denounced the open.
shop movement as cloaking cam
paign to destroy unionism and flung
defiance to the Government OH the
injunction question.
'rrhe injunction, as it is now used
and abused in LABOR disputes, is with,
ous sanction either in the Constitution
or in the fundamental law of the land,
said the statement.
at is a pure usurpation Of power
and authority. The only possible Sne
practical remedy in the face of a pow
er so usurped and so completely un-
justified lies IN a flat refusal on the
par: of labor to recognize or abide by
the terms Of in;unctions which seek 10
prohibit the doing Of acts which the
workers have lawful and guaranteel
right 20 do, or which seek to compel
workers 70 do those things which they
have lawful gnd guaranteed r:ghs to
ref1fse to do.
aThis is the only immediate course
through which labor can find Relief
and this course it purposes to pursue
La,ar realizes fully the consequences
of such q course, but in the defense OF
American freedom and of American IN
st;;ut:ons it is compelled TO adept this
course, be the consequences what they
may"
If organized labor should carry out
this threat in any Of the cases N
which unions have been restrained by
notions from employing methods
of coercion held contrary to law, the
Government would face a challenge
to arres. the offenders and hale them
into court for contempt.
Tie union leaders profess to believe
that with the open shop movement
growing, wages falling, unemploy-
ment increasing, high prices and pro-
fiteering con.;nuing and the courts
outlawing some of their methods or
ganized labor faces the gravest crisis
in it's history. They are going PACK
to their organizations to help raise a
great war chest with which to fight
the employers and Government en-
forcement Of injunctions.
l.abor's "bill of rights was set
forth in the following declarations for
which the union leaders ask public
support and recognition"
H..
The right of the working people
of the United States to organize 1noo
trade un:cnS fer the protection OF
their rights and; interests;
Tie right to, and practice Of. col
lective bargaining by trade unions
through representatives of their own
choosing;
The right to work and to cease work
collectively;
The right collectively to bestow or
withhold patronage;
The right 10 the exercise of ccllec-
tive activities in furtherance Of the
welfare ct labor. "'
Legislative and other proposals. the
adoption of which la'oor will seek tc
procure, were summarized thus:
Enactment by Congress Of legisla
ton which shall protect the worker:
in their organized capacity aeains
the concept that there is q propert,
right in the labor Of q human being
"No application OF the use OF in
functions in industrial disputes whep
they would not apply in the ,abseuc
Of such disputes; =. - .r
Prohibition Of immigration for
permit of not less than two years. +,
More general application Of the il