Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-06-23

To effectively comprehend condi-
lions created when labor injunction
Is issued, it is necessary TO have an
understanding Of the nights oil the
wage Garner.
The wage Gamers rights are identi-
cal with their rights as citizens; be-
inc a wage Garner neither decreases
Increases. or in any other manner
modifes or changes their citizen
rights. a.
eipal rights which are named IN the
Declaration Of Independence ana
guaranteed by the Constitution
One is the right of equality; the
guarantee that no citizen shall enjoy
any rights, privileges, or opportum-
ties that any other citizen shall mol
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 happi-
ness"
Every citizen is equally entitled to
free expression. whether under the
form of free speech or free press.
Every citizen is alike entitled TO
right of association, whether this be
membership in fraternal, political,
religious, social, trade-union, or 9TH
err 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 locality TO anoth-
err; 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 citizen is guaranteed his per-
sonal liberty, involuntary servitude
being expressly prohibited except as
a punishment for crime.
Every citizen charged with GRIM
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 reason
or no reason. Men may buy and sell
or refuse to buy or sell as suits their
taste, convenience, inclination, advan-
tage, 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
employee for 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 a member Of the
trade-union of his or any other in
dustry; they bear the same guaran-
tees as that of the right of an indi-
vidual to be or not to be a 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
functions 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-
ton; from peacefully assembling;
from enjoying the right of associa-
ton; from the enjoyment 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 fundamental and
constitutional rights is held to be in
contempt and subject to punishment
according to the judges Conscience"
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 employee, but
Immediately after its issuance the
Constitution Is suspended in this
sense, that the chancellor assumes
and presumes to define in his own
Technology what is peaceful assem-
blage, what is peaceful persuading
In every other controversy the law
upon the statute books defines and
controls the act and punishment foI
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 state court OF
equity made use of the writ of in.
junction to enjoin workmen from
protecting their lawful interests. II
was not until two years later wher
a federal court issued an injunction
the judge admitting that his actor
was without precedent. The issuanc,
of both these injunctions were a di
rect innovation upon the principle:
and practice of British courts o.
equity from which the American
courts inherited their rules, prac
tees, regulations and procedures.
Shortly after these two injunctioni
were issued many of the nation
leading jurists, state and federal, hel,
that these writs were not founded OF
sound law; that they were withou
precedent, and that they were viola
tive of the provisions of the fedora
constitution.
From the beginning of the use o
the labor injunction, the wage earn
ers have been informed by many o