The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-12
Organized Labor Makes a
Criticism of Congress in
Annual Report of Council
Omitted States Is Reverting Days of the Feuda Era
and Attempting to Force Slavery on the Working
Classes" Report Says With Reference to Recent
Wage Cuts and Court Decisions

workers to cease work. Packing house
| employers were likewise guilty of vio-
lation of agreement The contest
going on among employers and The
/ printing trades union involves con-
ltemptuous disregard and fragrant vio-
/ lation of an agreement by employers
and their associations
Child Labor Decision Scored.
/ I'VE have recorded only these vio-
lations of agreement by employers
which are of national importance We
know of no similar period OF time IN
which there have been so many wan
ton violations of contract on the part
of great organizations of employers.
We submit that it is a vital essential
/ that there be a return of good faith in
industry. a return to standards of
morality which will restore the
pledges of men to their true and
proper meaning If it is impossible
to have faith in pledges given, then
the entire Industrial structure VIII be
undermined"
/ Turning next to courts, the execu-
| tive council protested most emphat-
ically against such unjust and in
humane decisions as that of the su-
preme court voiding the act intended
to abolish child labor in the United
States. Congress by this decision,
must keep its hands off when the
health and life and well being of the
nations children are concerned" the
report asserted lIldL TIE 81
preme court of today is far more
legalistic and less humane in its atti-
tude and temperament than was the
supreme court of 1918"
Says Judges Are Hostile.
THE year is marked particularly
with an increasing hostility of the
judiciary toward the effort of wage
earners to prevent deterioration of
their standards of life and labor" the
report continued, "snd we recon-
mended that an appeal be made to
that higher court of public judgment,
4 and that the public conscience be
aroused to the great and grave men
ace which confronts the perpetuity of
the constitutional rights and liberties
of all our people and as originally
conceived by the founders of our re-
public"
Instances of most fragrant abuses
of equity power" were declared to be
contained in Federal Judge Anderson'S
continuance of the "check-off system
of collecting miners union dues, and
in Federal Judge McClintic's decision
in West Virginia against strikers of the
same union in that state.
This latter decision the report char
acterized as conclusive evidence that
the injunction as used is devoid of all
sense of fairness and decency and that
our courts of equity can be turned
conveniently into instruments of the
greatest iniquity whenever it will best
serve the interests of souIess corpor-
atoms and a mad desire for wealth."
To Go Into Politics.
Possibility of relief from the con-
stitutional use of the writ of injunc-
ton" by legislative action lay in the
! political field, the report said.
The executive council described its
renewal of nonpartisan political cam
paign organizing in advance of the fall
elections and expressed satisfaction
2 the VUOndaTf1I1 RnfhuSia
pressed by every local organization
of labor in the effort which it is said
proved that Not only the wage earn
ers. but the great mass of our citizen
ship are crying for relief" The cam
paign effort will be to focus votes be-
hind a program of Opposition to COM
pulsory labor law" and opposition to
injunctions and contempt proceedings
as substitute for trial by jury" the
council said.
Congress has proved that only those
who are welI-to-do or control great
interests can induce it to listen" the
council said, in detailing the reason
why it asked the federation to enter
the campaign for satisfactory candi-
dates. These facts are slowly pene
/ trating the minds of the people. They
are beginning to realize the change
they thought they wanted has been
an injury instead of benefit. Unless
there is a change in the personnel (of
the house and senate) people can pre-
pare themselves for still greater and
greater suffering and injustice"
Kansas Court Law Dangerous"
THE idea seems to prevail that the
outcome OF the 1920 elections means
that every liberty of the people can
be taken away provided some individ-
Gal or group of individuals represent
ing the privileged few desire it for
their benefit" the report continued.
The statement is often made that if
the United States capitol could be
transported to the England of the fiji
tenth century. half the members of
congress would be to the manner
born"
State legislative bodies also were
taken to task in some cases. chiefly
in the matter of compulsory arbitra-
ton laws
The Kansas industrial court was de-
I scribed as IAN utter failure" and sim
liar legislation in Colorado was said
to be equally as absurd and fully as
dangerous"
President Harding was accused of
having contemplated "a system of in
duStrial laws similar to those which
prevail in Kansas when in his mes
sage to congress last December he de-
clared that in the case of labor or
CARNATIONS we might well apply SIM
liar equally well defined principles of
regulation and supervision Gas he had
previously recommended for corpora
tions). in order to conserve the pub
/ lies interests as affected by their
| operations"
TT is hardly believed possible the
report adds, that the president i'm
piled that the present administration
/ intends to further policy which will
Z deny Americas workers the right to
! cease working collectively and to de-
termine for themselves the conditions
under which they will give service.
Yet the language used leaves little
room for a different conclusion"
Labor Board Called Unfair
1.-THE decisions of the railroad labor
board have given satisfaction neither