The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-03-21
"Mode in America"

The injunction is a distinctly American
weapon used by the bosses in their struggle
with the workers.
The Injunction enables the employer to rob
the worklngman of every advantage that the
strike can net him as means OF self-de1ense.
The Injunction makes every possible effect
of every strike impossible. 1t is declaration
of martial law by the government IN behalf Oh
the bosses against the workers.
The injunction begins with the assumption
that the workingman has committed crime.
Il assumes that the workingman is guilty until
he can prove to a hostile judge, who is district
attorney, Judge and jury all in one. that he is
innocent. In the meantime the worker is
stopped from defending himself against the
bosses attacks The strike is crippled. That
is just what the bosses want.
The Injunction denies workingmen and
women the right to trial by jury. Trial by jury
IS supposed to be an inalienable right guaran-
teed the masses by the very Constitution which
the bosses are so anxious to praise-when it
pays them to. Worse still, the injunction de-
MES the workers the right to trial by jury when
they are charged with committing an act
against which there is no law on the statute
books. In other words, the injunction is used
to railroad workers to jail for doing things
which are not unlawful or against the law,
even as it is framed and interpreted by the
capitalists who control the courts and own
the judges.
Obviously the injunction is made-to-order,
made-in-America" weapon used by the gov
eminent on behalf of the exploiters of labor to
break up the organizations of the working
class and smash the strikes for better working
conditions and the right to organize.
It is for this reason that the working class
of America has dsregarded injunctions issued
by the bosses judges and has gone ahead in
violation and in defiance of injunctions Even
the most conservative labor leaders have defied
iniunctions and disregarded this form Of law
written in the blood of the striking working
men by the agents Of the employers, wearing
the togas Of hypocritical exploiting class
justice.
During the shopmens strike, when the
workers went out on strike to defend their
right to organize and against starvation wages,
the railroad capitalists secured the infamous
Daugherty injunction to smash the strike.
The railway workers did not pay any atten-
ton to this attempt Of the employing class gov
eminent to break their strike? Thousands of
workers went right ahead and violated the in
junction
No less than 1000 cases were investigated
by the Department of Justice and William j.
Burns for violation of the Daugherty strike
breaking injunction. At least 1900 working
men were charged by the Department of
Justice with violating the injunction
Within two months after the ukase was is
adeu Dy Czar Daugnerty against the railway
workers, lot were arrested for disregarding
the. injunction in the Chicago district alone
Forty workers were taken in Wisconsin and an
equal number in Nebraska
This did not brighten the workingen who
were bent on beating back the attacks of their
bosses on their homes and lives
The terrorism of the employers failed to
break the spirit of the workers who went on
with the fight. Injunction or no injunction
the railway workers went ahead to strike as
best they could, and held out in the face of
starvation and the united front of the Wall
Street government, the rail kings and bankers
This heroic conduct is typical of the attitude
OF the American working class towards in
functions.
This is the only treatment that iniunctions
deserve to get at the hands of the striking
workers in every industry, if the working class
Of this country is to save itself from abject
capitalist slavery.