The Connecticut labor news., 1922-04-14

cipal rights which are named III the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by the Constitution?
 One is the right of equality; the guarantee that no citizen shall enjoy any rights, privileges, or opportuni- ties that any other citizen shall not equally enjoy. In other words, under our Constitution, class privileges and class distinctions are prohibited and therefore should not exist.
 Every citizen is alike entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of hap pinesS."
 Every citizen IS equally entitled to free expression, whether under the form of free speech or free press.
 Every citizen IS entitled to the right of association, whether this be mem bership in a fraternal, political, re- ligious, social, trade-union, or other lawful organization.
 Every citizen has the right to free locomotion; the right to go from one part of the country to the other, or from one place in a locality to an other; to use freely the streets and highways.
 Every citizen has the right to peacefully communicate information to others.
 Every citizen has the right to enter into, or leave the service of another, or refuse to work for another.
 Every citiben is guaranteed his per sonal liberty, involuntary servitude being prohibited except as punish ment for crime.
 Every citizen charged with a crim- inal violation of the law IS guaranteed a trial by jury.
 Every citizen is entitled to give or withdraw his patronage from an in dividual, company, or corporation en- gagged in retailing, wholesaling, min ing, banking, manufacturing, trans portation, or other business for req son or no reason. Men may buy and sell or refuse to buy or sell as suits their taste, convenience, inclination, advantage, whim or caprice.
 All rights enjoyed by one group of citizens are equally guaranteed to all other groups of citizens. All cit izen rights are equal or equivalent. The employers right to discharge an empolye for a reason satisfactory to himself or for no reason is CO., equivalent of the employees right to quit the services of an employer for a reason which Is satisfactory to him or for no reason. Here is the very crux -of free agency-the exercise of free men.
 The employers right to member ship in associations of employers of the same or other industry is CO., equivalent with the wage earner's right to become member of the trade-union of his or any other in dustry; they bear the same guaran- of tIa rhf 0f vidual to be or not to be member of any religious denomination.
 Any action which interferes with these rights is un-American, as well as contrary to the Constitution.
 One of the main objections to the injunctionS issued against Workmen during labor disputes is that these judicial edicts, among other things, have limited and, in many cases, wholly set aside the very rights guar anteed us by the Constitution. In junctions have restrained workmen from peacefully persuading or induc- ing others to do that which otherwise has been deemed lawful to do; from peacefully communicating informa- tion; from peacefully assembling; from enjoying the right of associa- tion; from the enj oyment of free locomotion; from the right to quit work and to pay strike benefits; from the right of free speech and the right of free press. Any attempt on the part of the workmen enjoined from the exercise of these fundamen- tai and constitutional rights is held to be i'll contempt and subject to pun ishment according to the judges "ConSclenCe.
 Perhaps the greatest criticism that may be directed against these injunc- tons is that in the absence of a strike the Constitution stands as the bond of mutual relationship between all alike-employer and employe but immediately after it's issuance the Constitution Is suspended in this sense, that the chancellor assumes and presumes to define i'll his own terminology what is peaceful assem- blaze, what is peaceful persuading In every other controversy the law upon the statute books defines and controls the act and punishment for unlawful assemblage and unlawful suasion, while in a labor injunction the judge gives his own definition and his own judgment and punish ment.
 Although there were numerous labor disputes previous to, and par ticularly after the Civil War, it was not until 1888 that a state court oi equity made use of the writ of in junction to enjoin workmen from protecting their lawful interests. Ii was not until two years later when a federal court issued an injunction the judge admitting that his action was without precedent. The issuance of both these injunctions were a di- rect innovation upon the principles and practice of British courts oi equity from which the American courts inherited their rules, prac- tices, regulations and procedures.
 Shortly after these two injunctions were issued many of the nations leading jurists, state and federal, held that these writs were not founded or sound law; that they were without nrecedent. and that they were viola