The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-09-29
DAUGHERTY
INJUNCTION
DENOUNCED
CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
OFFER AID TO SHOPMEN

An offer to give the legal aid of
over a thousand lawyers throughout
the United States to striking rail-
way shopmen who violate the injunc-
ton obtained by the Attorney Gen
eral has been made by the American
Civil Liberties Union to the heads of
the striking shipments union, Bert
M. Jewell at Chicago and William H.
also wrote Attorney General Daugh-
erty at Washington, advising him of
their offer to the shopmen, and as
serting that "they have a right to
do those things which are prohibited
by the injunction and that only the
authority of the highest court will
satisfy us that they have not"
The letter to the union leaders fol-
lows:
"The injunction secured by the At
torney General against the striking
railway shopmen is the most sweep
ing single measure aimed at the civil
rights of working men in the long
series of gag measures which have
marked the past few years. 1t chal
lenges us to mobilize the resources of
this organization for whatever use
they may be to your organization in
opposing this injunction.
eve regard free speech, freedom
of assemblage and a free press as
natural rights which stand above the
Constitution That, indeed, is the
view of the supreme court, that the
Constitution merely guaranteed the
exercise of rights which were natural
to men anyhow. By those principles
we stand, both as the sole guaran-
tee of orderly progress and as the
only means by which issues can be
fairly settled. This Injunction will
settle nothing, nor will the use of
force in the hands of government or
employer. We are not concerned
with the industrial or political issues
involved in this strike. Whatever it's
merits, we are concerned only that
the solution should be worked out
with the utmost freedom of both
sides to state their cases"
The letter to the Attorney General
reads:
"The injunction which you have Sc
cured against the striking railway
shopmen forbidding the ordinary ex-
ercise of free speech, freedom of as
semblage and freedom of their press.
strikes us as a violation of those
rights guaranteed to every American
citizen and in principle utterly out
of accord with American tradition
and practice.
Furthermore, as a practical mat
ter, such injunctions onot settle the
issues involved. They make the gov
ernment partisan in an industrial
struggle and serve to prove the
charge of radicals that in industrial
crises the government will always be
found upon the side of the ruling
economic class while pretending to
act in the interests of the public.
eve do not expect, Mr.. Attorney
General. with the course that the
government has pursued, that you
will either ask to have this injunc-
tion withdrawn or modified. We
judge that the principles involved are
to be fought through the courts. We
have, therefore, addressed the en-
closed communication to the heads of
the striking shopmen's unions, offer
ing the services of our legal staff to
any of their members arrested for
upon the platform that they have
prohibited by the injunction and that
only the authority of the highest
court will satisfy us that they have
not"
The communications were signed
by Herman Thomas, acting chairman,
and Roger N. Baldwin, director
Smoke Olympia Capitol. iOc straight