The labor world., 1922-07-01

o~~~ ~~oAAso Va sAAS PSOPAS oS0AI1SI
he most important actions taken
abor convention at its closing ses-
rs adopted by unanimous vote.
, Urges Four Amendments.
The program calls for a consti-
tutional amendment on child labor.
constitutional amendment to curb
the power of courts, an amendment
TO safeguard the right to organize
and an amer Idment to make the con-
stltution easier of amendment. In
addition program for immediate
legislation is provided.
The complete report of the COM
mittee, one Of labor's great, historic
documents, is as follows:
TheNsAmerican people are facing
a critical situation. Their very ex-
lstence as a democracy and gov
ernment of law is at stake. A judicial
oligarchy is threatening to set itself
up above the elected legislatures,
above the people themselves. :
To Break Down Liberty. =
"Profiting by the unsettled indus
trial conditions of the country and
the political apathy of the people,
which have followed upon the con-
clusion of the World war, the forces
OF privilege and reaction have en-
parked upon a concerted and de-
termined campaign to deprive the
citizens of their constitutional, Eber-
ties, to break down the standards of
life which the American workers
have laboriously built up in gener-
ations of suffering and struggle, and
to emasculate or destroy their most
effective weapon. Of resistance aad
defense-the labor unions. D..
Side by side with the implacable
anti-union drive conducted by pow
erful organizations of employers
throughout the Try, who exer-.
else their own >unquestioned right
to organize and yet brazenly deny
their employees the same right, the
unblushing subservience of many
public officials to the dictates of
big business and their undisguised
contempt for the interests of the
workers, the courts Of the country,
and particularly, the supreme court
Of. the United States. have within
recent years undertaken to deprive
American labor of fundamental
rights and liberties which hereto
fore have been accepted as deeply
and organically ingrained in our
system Of Jurisprudence. 49,.
:Jefferson's Pronhe<.x
cover a centur., ago Thomas Jef-
ferson said: II
1T has long been my opinion, and
I have never shrunk from its ex-
preston, that the germ of disso-
luton Of our Federal government,
is In the judiciary-the irresponsi-
ble- body working like gravity, by
day and by night, gaining a little
today and gaining a little tomorrow,
and advancing its noiseless step like
a thief over the field of jurisdic-
ton until all shall be usurped.'
The prophetic warning of the
great champion of American democ-
.racy threatens to come true.
What confronts the workers of
AH~~ASA@S<A - AAOS OAAC VI ScfCldl CASUAL
court decisions favoring the inter-
ests of property as against the hus
man rights of labor, but a series Of
adjudications Of the highest tribunal
OF the land. successfully destroying
a basic right or cherished acquisi-
ton Of organized labor, each form
Ing a link in a fateful chain con-
coS@ ,r11
workers of America. T.
Court Deals Blow.
Five years ago severe blow a.,
was dealt by the supreme court de-
cision in the notorious case Of the
Hitchman Coal and Coke company
VS.. Mitchell, which seriously limit
ed the right! of organized labor TO-
unionize establishments. .'he deci-s
sion did not receive the condemna-
tion it Justly deserved because pub
lie attention was almost exclusively
centered on the World war.
"On- Jan. g.. 1921, the supreme
court in the case Of Duplex Printing
Press company VS.. Deering. prac.
tically .nullified the portions of the
Clayton Act which were intended to
safeguard the rights Of labor in in
dustrial disputes and to limit the
power Of the courts to decide such
disputes by summary Injunction,
thus striking down with one fell
stroke the results Of unseasing aki-
tation of organized abor which had
extended over twenty years and was
designed to ,equalize before the law
the position of workers and en-
ployers. - 80 =
y :. Then Deals Another.
I'm December, 1921, the supreme
court by its decision in the case Of
Truax<vs. Corrigan. set aside as un-
constitutional state law which
limited the power Of the courts to
issue injunction in labor disputes.
thus frustrating the efforts Of labor
in all industrial states to secure re- S
lief from the arrogated authority
OF the courts -
In the same month the court IN
the case Of American Steel Foun. 3
dries VS.. Trl-City Central Trades
Council, virtually abolished the right
OF striking workers to picker, .o
matter how peaceably. authorized
the courts arbitrarily to regulate tho
conduct Of strikes, and set up 4 rule
limiting strikers to the stahoning 81