Evening star., 1922-09-03


Mr.. Harding's cry of "baek to normally" with
out delay and accepted it as full approval of
their policy. - 4.
The campaign Of employers in industry had
for its object the reduction Of wages, the
establishment of non-union shop conditions
and the destruction of the unions which made
possible an effective resistance on the part of
the workers.
Unemployment became acute, reaching its
peak during the winter just passed. There are
exact figures but the best calculation seems
to be that fully four million workers were
thrown into idleness at the point Of greatest
depression. Z
The New Injunction Threat.
Not only were there these gigantic forces
at work in the industrial field such but
forces almost equally as aggravating were at
work in the political and judicial fields. There
has been during the past year a growing
tendency to resort to the use of the injunc-
tion in Industrial disputes for the purpose of
commanding workers to do those things which
they have lawful right to refrain from doing
and of commanding them to refrain from do
ing those things which they have lawful
right to do
There has been a persistent effort to bring
about the establishment OF government tri-
bunals for the compulsory settlement of in
dustrial disputes and for the prevention of
strikes. In most attempts of this character
the Railroad Labor Board and the Kansas
court Of Industrial relations have been accept
ed as models.
1T is true that because of the alertness of
trade unionists everywhere there has been
no extension Of the industrial court idea, but
the efforts Of those who favor such institu-
tions have not been relaxed for moment. 1t
has been sought to establish government tr-
bunals under one name or another in num-
ber of states and similar efforts have been
made to induce the national Congress to estab-
lish such an Institution.
Futility Of Industrial Boards.
1t is the prime purpose of such tribunals
to make strikes unlawful and to make II
obligatory for workers to give service under
conditions imposed by what amounts to judicial
decision. The inevitable results of the estab-
lishment of such tribunals have been found in
Kansas under the Kansas court of industrial
relations and on the railroads under the Rail-
road Labor Board.
Neither one of these outstanding examples
of the industrial court idea has succeeded in
preventing strikes On the contrary, in both
cases the utter futility Of the whole idea has
been completely demonstrated.
In the realm of judicial decisions there also
has been. much to create resentment in the
minds>of the workers. The decision in the cas-
of the Coronado Coal Company versus the
United Mine Workers Of America is naturally
the most important example in the field of
hostile court decisions In this case the de-
cision itself was favorable to the workers, but
the court went out Of its way to introduce an
obiter dictum which will apply in future de-
cfsions and which was in a most important and
far-reaching sense hostile to the voluntary or
ganizations of wage earners
The Child Labor Decision
Just preceding the Coronado case there
came the decision in the case of the child labor
law. For the second time the United States
Supreme Court declared this most benefcent
and necessary legislation unconstitutional Un-
der this decision the children Of our land were
again left prey to the avarice and greed of
employers. The resentment of our people
everywhere was aroused by this decision and
it may we'll be that as result the Supreme
Court eventually will lose its assumed power
to veto the acts of the Congress
All of these things have tended to create
suspicion in the minds of workers and have
made it matter of life and death for them