The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1922-05-13
COURTS USuRPED POWER
WITHOUT GRANT OF Law
TO ISSUE LABOR ED|CTS
Continued from page ~

wage earners from any written,
oral or other attempt on their part
to acquaint the public with the facts
or present their side of the case
and they are informed that any vio-
1ation OF the injunction will be pun
ished at the discretion of the court
'conscience."
On the one hand, organized en-
ployers carry into effect we'll
planned nation wide campaign to
destroy trade unions; on the other
the equity court restraints trade
unionists from striking, or. if they
are on strike, restraints them from
communicating the facts connected
with the dispute through the press,
through public meetings. or other
wise. Their right to free speech is
deliberately destroyed. The employer
whP has been tire aggressor is left
frels and unhampered in the use of
hid constitutional rights. The wage
eAirner's hands are shackled, his
1pouth gagged and, so far as the
sxNourt Of equity may do SO, he is
incapable of doing any
timing for his self-protection.
Will the unions permit themselves
to be destroyed?
Is it to be true that trade-union
organizations shall exist only when
and where the employer grants
consent, and that if he objects,
equity courts will sustain him in
whatever efforts he makes to de-
stroy the trade-union organization
of his employees?
From the facts which have been
presented it is evident that in many
cases where an injunction is issued,
the wage Garner must choose be-
Constitution and the inhibitions,
commandments and edicts Of an
equity court.
Efforts to prohibit free speech, and
the right to form and maintain
trade-unions have been made in
other countries. as we'll as in the
United States. They have always
failed because an Intelligent, free
dom-loving people have refused to
tolerate any such tyrannical con-
ditions.
American courts of equity will meet
with similar response from the
mass Of American citizens. Love of
justice, of freedom. of equal rights
are too deeply imbedded in our
American institutions and too firmly
lngrained in the citizens breasts to
long permit Of those abuses by
courts of equity which we have
reviewed.
Labor will not permit itself to be
strangled without resistance, or to
BE- gagged by an equity court whose
authority for it usurped power is its
"conscience."
AS between our constitutional
guarantees and the edicts of equity
courts there can be no compromise;
one or the other must survive and
dominate. Neither the wage Garner
or the citizenship Of our~country will
long permit government by judicial
conscience" to supersede govern
ment by law, based upon the prin-
ciples enunciated in the Constitu-
ton.
For every wrong there must be a
serts labor. There must be redress
against this encroachment, this
usurpation, this de-constitutionaliz-
ing of America. There will be re-
dress! In the organization Of labor
lies the wage earners' strength.
Through organized labor star
cham bers-courts of equity from
which inequity issues, contempt and
all the inquisitorial proceedings OF
an un-American type will be de-
stroyed. The spirit OF the founders
and trainers of our Constitution
will again be given the breath OF
life that we may live to cherish and
to enjoy the blessings of a Free
America. :