Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1925-05-01


for the "anti-yeIlow dog contract
bill before the joint Ohio Legislative
committee hearings, as the best and
most complete exposition Of the prin-
ciple involved and as the ablest avail
able analysis Of the proposed Tena-
edy.)
fl declined at this time to again
address the committee it might leave
YOU under the impression that was
so thoroughly crushed and handicap
ped that did not dare indicate my
embarrassment. AS a matter of fact,
it is impossible for me to say any
thing in rebuttal, for the very reason
that what we have been discussing
this evening has not bee referred to
by the previous speaker.
But / want to again call your at
tention to a thought or two that he
expressed. He said we were endeav-
oring to set aside the law of contract.
/ think the gentleman is well aware
that the trade union movement is call
ed into court far less for alleged
breach of contract than one employer
calls another into court because of
alleged breach Of contract. II there
is any one thing which the American
trade-union movement is interested
in, it is in the sacredness Of contract,
and we base the whole success of our
movement upon our ability to carry
out all of the provisions of every con-
tract into which we enter with en-
ployers.
We are not attempting to destroy
the right of contract. We are in
stead asking you gentlemen to make
it impossible that the law Of contract
should grow into disrepute in the
State of Ohio because some manufac-
turers make a use of it for the pur-
pose Of destroying our essential right
to organization.
Neither are we attempting in what
we are doing to enforce unionism. If
we are unable to educate the Ameri-
can wage Garner so that he believes
that trade unionism is advantageous
to him, the laws that you might enact
to compel him to join unions would
be as fruitless as the efforts in some
communities : to enforce the 18th
Amendment and the Volstead Act.
But want TO Ieave this thought
with the committee. The question is
not new one. There have been men
who have sought to take advantage
of their knowledge Of American law
to deny other men, American citi-
zens, their essential rights. y
Immediately after the Civil War
and the proclamation which emaHci-
pated the negro from condition Of
slavery, some very clever constitu-
tional lawyers said to some men who
had owned negro slaves, "Oh, that is
ali right. We can explain a way by
which you can get around that Proc
lamation of Emancipation There is
= sacred right of contract in the Unit
ed States. Loan a negro Q few dollars
enter into a contract with him that
he must work for you until he has
paid his obligation, and you have that
negro as firmly attached to the PLAN
tatiOn as he was before the Civil
War"
In 1857, to prevent that misuse Of
the sO-ealIed law Of contract, Cong
ress enacted an antitpeonage law, and
in that law said that no contract en-
tered into voluntarily or involuntar-
lily to work for another to pay off a
debt was valid.
The United States Supreme Court,
every time a question arising under
the peonage law has been brought be-
fore it, by unanimous decision, has
held the law to be constitutional. Had
the Supreme Court not done so, slav-
cry would have been reestablished,
and not only the colored man, but the
white wage Garner brought under the
condition where, bolstered up by the
so-called low Of contract, we would
have been tied down for life to the
man who had loaned US $50, and in
stead Of having Shylock charging us
25 and so per cent, as they have done
under their so-called legal right, until
the state has said, "you can not
charge all the interest you want" we
would have had these same gentle
men engaged in bartering US and our
labor because we had at some period,
through our necessities, borrowed a
few dollars to save our families from
dire want. ffF
Now, gentlemen of the committee,
be not deceived. We are in earnest
In this matter. We are the ones who
have suffered from the operation of
. so-called contract, which is aimed
and intended to take from us one Of
the most essential rights of our Amer
lean citizenship, the right of volun-
tarily associating ourselves together
to protect our own interests.
Unless the State enacts something
of that kind there will grow up
within this State a group Of men
whose right to organize has been
taken away from them, and there will
be a condition where those of us who
are trade unionists will be denied
the right of even mentioning trades
unionism to these unfortunates. On
n 4. L =