The Connecticut labor news., 1922-03-17
By JOHN P. FREY

the bnSl1SI1 Cases, O1 lllC NdSSS
 in the neighboring states. Every variety of views and doctrine can be found. Authority is abundant for almost every proposition. Judge Andrews stated the case simply and briefly and i'll 1t announced what every lawyer, judge and student knows to be the fact, that the prece- dents for and against the issuing Of an injunction restraining certain acts by tradc-unionlStS are such that the attorneys for both sides can present all almost limitless number to support their contention that an injunction should or should not be issued. One judges "consCiencc" will not permit him to issue an injunction as requested by the employer because ot his conviction that to do so would abrogate the wage e-earner'S constltu- tional rights; that it would int1ict a grave injustice; that 1t would permit his court to be used by the employer as an additional and Weighty club with which to beat down labor. Another equity judge becomes a partisan of the employers, and his conscience" permits him to shackle labor's hands during an industrial dis pute He issues his restraining orders, commanding the Wage-earners to re- frain from doing certain acts, and carrying out certain policies tor thelr self-preservation which the employers have an unquestioned right to do and which they enjoy without legal or judicial interference.
 How the "Conscience" Has Worked in Some Cases. Let us examine the equity con :A I,o- I the Vermont case of State vs. Stewart:
 "The exposure of a legitimate business to the control ot an as sociation that can order away it's employees and frighten away others that 1t may seek to era- ploy, and thus be compelled to cease the further prosecution of it's work, is a condltoin of things utterly at war with every prin- ciple of justice and with every safeguard of protection that citizens of our system of govern ment are entitled to enjoy. The tendency of such intimidation Is to establish over labor and over all industry a control that IS un- known to law and that is exer- ! cised by a secret association of conspirators, actuated solely by personal consideration and whose plans carried into execution, usually result in violence and destruction of property" In the Massachusetts case ol Sherry vs. Perkins, the court said:
 '"Ghe wrong is not, as argued
 by the defendants council, libel
 upon the plaintiffs business. It is not found that the inscriptions
 upon the banner were false, nor
 do they appear to have been in
 Encouragement to the plaintiffs
 business. The scheme in pursu-
 ance of which the banners were injure the plaintiffs business, not by intimidating workmen so as
 to deter them from keeping or making engagements with the plaintiff. The banner was
 standing menace to all who were,
 or wished to be in the employ
 ment of the plaintiff to deter
 them from entering plaintiffs
 premises. Maintaining 1t was
 continuous unlawful act, injuri- ous to the plaintiffs business and property, and was a nuisance such as Court of Equity will grant relief against"
 The extent of jurisdiction of an equity court in industrial disputes has, however, been challenged by a number of most able federal judges.
 In contrast with these two cases there are many vigorous dissenting opin-
 ions; what follows is one of these. In his dissenting opinion in the case of Hopkins vs. Oxley Slave
 Company, United States Circuit Court, 1897, Judge Caldwell said: Labor is not the ward of chancery. A Court of Chancery has no more authority to inter fere with labor organizations in
 the conduct of their business l than it has to interfere with the trusts and of combinations or capital in the conduct of their business and in case of strike l or boycott, as long as each side I is orderly and peaceful, they must be permitted to terminate their struggle in their own way without extending to one party
 the advantitious aid of an in junction"
 In future articles there will be re- produced a number of searching criti- cismS and condemnations of the in 1 functions issued by equity courts,
 which are contained in the decisions
 and opinions of number of the l