Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-09-15
LABOR'S MAGNIFICENT PROTEST
FORCES INJUNCTION ADVO-
GATES ON DEFENSIVE

The federal injunction against rail
road shop men is another proof-if
one were wanted-that the most dead
ly attack against the constitution al
ways comes from professed friends.
Representing the administration,
the attorney general secretly journey
ed to Chicago and with no previous
announcement appeared before Federal
Judge Wilkerson, who listened to his
weird tale of law defiance and con-
spiracy.
The judge did not question the
statements, one of the most important
of which has been proven a tissue of
falsehoods by an eastern paper.
No one of the 100000 shop men was
cited to appear. No one was per-
mitted to challenge the attorney gen.
erals story.
He even announced that he will use
his office to protect the anti-union
shop, and this injunction judge did
not tell him to keep within his sworn
duties and not publicly volunteer to
act as "capper" fo runion-smashing
employers.
To complete the picture the Judge
issued a general and all-inclusive
"thou-shalt-not edict that sweeps
away every constitutional guarantee
from half a million citizens and all
others who would aid or sympathize
with them.
This assault on constitution and
law has never been equaled. A mob
would be incapable of dealing such a
blow to government.
To say that 100000 strikers can not
communicate with each other or their
friends; that they cannot distribute
money to feed their wives and babes,
that they can do no other thino that
would tend to encourage and solidify
their ranks is to bring the judiciary
and the federal administration into
contempt that will be hard to efface
from the memory of a large section of
the American people.
Because they refuse to accept a
wage reduction by the railroad labor
board, the attorney general says the
shop men are attacking govern
ment." The attorney general and his
friends should read the platform Of
the political party that placed them
in their present positions. That plat
form says the board should depend
on moral suasion to enforce it's de-
cisions.
Recently the federal trade commits
sion ruled that the proposed steel
merger is contrary to law. Attorneys
for the steel merger announce that
the decision will not affect their plans.
Has any one heard the attorney gen
eral denounce the steel mems "attack
on government ?"
The reception the administration
injunction is given by trade unionists
can be judged by the fact that in not
a single instance have workers urged
that it be obeyed.
Everywhere is heard the cry of de-
fiance. The storm has alarmed the
in junction advocates, who realize they
have made mess of things. With
the agitation for a general strike the
injunctionites fear to enforce their
order. They see they have gone too
far and are sending out inspired
stories to their friendly press that
'the government will permit the in
junction to be modified"
Even though it be modified the in
junction remains the same hated pro-
cess that destroys government by law
and elevates a judge to the rhree-in
one position Of lawmaker, law en-
forcer and eXecl'lioner.
The trade un,cn movement does not
accept this anarchy. Workers insist
on rights IN iHr the constitution and
the law. They object to placing them
selves in the mower of one in1iyidual
20 be subject to his prejudices and his
moods, rather than to law.
ernment by injunction.