The Topeka state journal., 1922-06-21
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. ID. q.
LABoR NEETs VIII REvERsEs.

been shown by the record of events.
which include wage reductions all
along the line and adverse court &C
tions and decisions. This has been
admitted during the deliberations of
the labor leaders during the annual
meeting of the American Federation
OF Labor at Cincinnati.
AS one observer has put II, labor is
now fighting a rearguard action
That is to say, it is retreating but con-
testing every foot of ground it yields
and endeaYor.ng to prevent the re-
treats becoming a panic and a rout-
Thus far it may be said to have mar
shalled its forces in good order. but it
is automatic that a retreating army
does not grow in numbers or in
strength and it is apparent that the
leaders, from Gompers on down the
line are gravely concerned over -he
outlook This is not TO be taken as
meaning that there is any Likelihood
of a general breaking up of labor or
ganiZations, or that what is known as
the labor movement may be perma-
nently checked. But it does indicate
that labor has had 10 give up advan-
tages once gained and that it must
now prepare to resist attacks against
which heretofore it has felt itself to
be immune.
Labor emerged from the war in a
highly satisfactory position, from its
own viewpoint. Distinct advances had
been achieved. Wage levels were
higher than they had ever been be-
fore. Hours of labor had been re-
duced generally. with the eight hour
day and the 44-hour week established
in many ira des and industries. Puni-
tive overtime-pay at the rate of one
and a half times or even twice the
regular scale for every hour worked
in addition to the fixed work-day-
had come to be accepted as labor's
due. Collective bargaining was no
longer an empty phrase. Member
and bounds. and their treasures were
full to overflowing. One international
was said to have over $7.50O.00o in
its reserve fund.
Sought to Hold Gains.
Naturally the men in the fore
front of the labor movement were
keen to hold these gains and their
postwar plans were al TO that END.
They did not expect to maintain war
wages, but they did believe that the
principle of the living wage as mini
mum for all workers, with differen-
tials for skill, experience and hazards
of employme ent, had been so securely
esta blfshed that there would never be
a return to old wage levels However,
they reckoned without the business
depression that came and persisted,
and when they lost the steel strike
that was called in September. 1913,
and encountered vigorous govern
mental Intervention in the coal strike
of November following, their cause
and their plans may be said to have
received a setback.
In the transportation industry they
lost the national agreement as to rules
and working conditions which had
been negotiated with the railroad ad-
during federal control,
and certain groups of railway work
ers lost the extra pay for overtime
over eight hours a day.
But it has been in the courts that
labor has met with what may prove to
be its most serious reverses. Within
the last year the Injunction has been
used against the unions as never be-
fore, particularly in West Virginia,
where restraining orders of the most
sweeping character have been issued
against the United Mine Workers on
the plea of the anti-union operators.
The union has been restrained from
sending organizers into the independ-
ent fields and from making any eff
fort to organize the miners there.
Under the court orders union meetings
cannot be held and union members
cannot even discuss the union with
miners who are not identified with the
organization Also, suits for damages
have been brought by operators against
union officials and members
In only one instance has labor
sought to use the Injunction against
employers. That came as an unex-
pected development of a controversy
in the garment making industry in
New Y ork. when the union secured n
court order restraining the employ
erS from brea king a contract which
had been entered into with the union,
and was so Singularly successful that
it was thought labor might undertake
to make frequent use of the weapon
so often used against it. However,
union leaders are so vehemently op-
posed to the injunction in Industrial
disputes that it seems they will not
seek to use it even when it might be
to their advantage.
JOltS From the Supreme Court
First of a series of jolts which la
bor received in the supreme court of
the United States was the decision
holding the secondary boycott to be
illegal. That was not regarded as vital
to the cause of the workers. but
came the decision declaring the new
child labor law to be unconstitutional.
The unions had fought long to get
some kind of a law regulating or
abolishing child labor. and their hopes
in that direction have now been twice
blasted by the highest court in the
land.
The more recent decision of the su-
pre1ne court in the Coronado case is
the most signal defeat that labor has
cision the liability of the unions to be
prosecuted for restraint of interstate
commerce in violation of the Sherman
law has been esta blished,
the leaders If labor have
always believed, and had reason to be-
lieve, that they and their organiza-
tions were immune from any such at
tacks. There was a crumb of COM
fort for the union in the decision, for
it set aside a judgment against the
defendants which with costs and fees
amounted to some 100000. and funds
Of the mine workers to that amount,
which had been tied up by the lower
court. will eventually be released.
The full force and effect of this
decision may not be known for some
time-not until it has been Interpreted
and applied by the courts in other
cases. On the face of it, however. it
appears that any union that calls a