The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-29
Senator Calls Temporary Injunction
 Violation of Constitution of U. s.

SerVat1On Of pubic convenience or
 comfort It must be rigidly applied.
 No exception can be justified by arbi-
 trary court orders, even though | acquiesced in by the public in the
 anxiety of citizens to secure indus
 trial peace The Federal courts on the pretense of public convenience or
 necessity can not exercise power de
 nied them by the Constitution to the
 impairment of rights or the abridge-
 ment of priyiliges which the Con gress itself is forbidden to ignore, abridge, or impair.
 The question of fact and of legal
 interpretation as to whether the in junction issued<by the Chicago court in the shopnten's strike is open to the
 objections mentioned, or to any of them, involves consequences which transcend in importance present 1n- dustrial disputes, and which are asso- ciated with the future happiness and liberty of our people
 It may be that instances have occurred where strikers or their sym pathizers have deliberately con tributed to the impairment of rail way equipment, and in all such cases penalties should be imposed with promptness and with hrmness The correct procedure, however, Is by in dictment and prosecution so that the accused may have trial and be con fronted with the witnesses against him.
 On the other hand, the diminution in the railway repair forces, caused by the shopmen's strike, and the em- ployment of less-skilled workers in their places, as everyone knows, has caused bad order condition in many cars and locomotives, and Tn spite of the constantly increasing number of repairmen being employed by the railroads bad-order cars and 1ocomo- tives are accumulating by reason of natural causes This condition will continue throughout the early future, because the railroads can not secure repair workers sufficient in numbers and efficiency completely to perform normal repair services.
 > Every bad-order locomotive and car operated in the passenger bus1- ness menaces the safety of passen- gers and of the operatives. Every locomotive and freight car operated in bad condition in the carriage of freight endangers property and the livess of the freight train operatives. Roads Break Laws But Go Unpun-
 ished
 To safeguard life and property the Congress enacted the safety appli- ance laws and the locomotive and knows that the railroads are daily using cars and locomotives in bad order in disregard of these laws Ev- eryone knows that lives are being lost and property IS being destroyed be- cause of the condition of the railway equipment. The Attorney General has made no effort, so far as public | goes, to enforce these | laws, but their violation has been acquiesced in through sympathy with 1 the effort to break the shopmen's i strike.
 Why has no effort been made to enforce safety appliance and inspec- ton laws? The answer, of course, is that their rigid enforcement would make more effective the shopmen's strike and increase the difficulties en- countered by the railroads in break ing and defeating the strike
 No other explanation exists for the failure to enforce these laws.
 Thus the shopmen, who had accept ed the Presidents first proposal. are treated by the Government as out laws, and the railway executives, who declined the Presidents proposal and made the Presidents efforts to settle the strike unsuccessful, are relieved of responsibility in the further con duct of the controversy To say the east, the President and the Attorney General have placed between the -ailway managers and executives and he strikers the power of the Govern-1 nent an army of United States mar shals and deputy marshals, and hold n the background in readiness to move the military and naval forces 1f the Government-all this in the name of law and order and for the administration of justice and i'm oartia1ity
 However, since the 18th of August ast this injunction has been issued md men, known and unknown, labor ITS named and nameless, some organ cations specified and other orgainZa- ions not named, have been enjoined according to the terms of this writ rom the exercise of what any awyer must admit are their legal tights, as we'll as from the exercise ,f unlawful acts and yet the depart nent of justice has not moved, so far IS the record shows, to apply to the dllIOdQ eHeCullNSS luS IuIS lidl lHSy |, must observe the Labor Boards de ision, while all the power of the , Government is in practical effect be- ng employed and exerted to compel he workers to do what the execu- ives are impliedly excused from oing. The sober final judgment of he lawyers of the United States and f the people of this country will con emn the extent to which the Chi ago Federal court has abused its ower and authority at the instance f the Attorney General, as oppres- i've and as inconsistent with the I rinciples of liberty as expressed in { he Constitution.
 Ran On COnfra cf Work T