Evening star., 1937-03-25

Autumn is an In $S$*$# @
dlcatiOn Of how David r.vr.r-.
Lands ranks in
his profession as teacher of law
For these reasons it is pertinent
today--in order to understand the
future-to examine the text of care
fully prepared address just delivered
by Lands before the Eastern Confer
ence OF Law Students in which he
made not exactly defense of sit
down strikes as practiced today, but
OF the right Of workers to stop pro-
duction as means of securin- salts
faction OF their grievances. The
paragraph which reveals what Lands
is thinkin. about-and to a certain
extent what Secretary Perkins meant
when she said the legality OF sit-down
strikes is still undecided-reads as
follows:
I'VE have witnessed for some years
the effort of employees to bring about
recognition Of their claim to be free
to persuade others to refrain from
taking their places, who by such action
would diminish the effectiveness of
their own economic pressure. In
recent months we have seen the ad-
vancement of a new claim to take
measures that will effectively prevent
all production until grievances are
satisfled-action that in its economic
effects is the counterpart of the lock-
out, but because of the absence of any
relationship such as the lockout pos
sesses to property, finds itself with
doubtful traditional legal justification.
New Concepts May Arise.
THE eventual outcome of such a
claim will depend in part upon the
emphasis that law will give to the
concept of property and its inv1oia-
bility in its industrial and corporate
setting to economic pressure of this
type-and in part, perhaps on the
capacity of our law to devise new con-
cepts and mechanisms to meet the
!, eeds out Of which this type of eco
nomic pressure has been born"
1t will be noted that Lands uses
the word doubtful" to qualify ira
ditional," namely, that sit down strikes
merely have behind them no tradition
OF legal justification. which can be
taken to mean, Of course, that be-
cause they do not possess such legal
justification on precedent they may
now be declared legal as a necessary
part of a system Of social and eco
nomic justice.
In Europe, of course, Russia, Italy
and Germany have distinctly modi-
fed the traditional concepts of prop
erty. Private property as an institu-
ton has been under attack in America,
where many so-called liberals think
that the state should own various
businesses in entirety, or compete with
existing private businesses till the
property of the private owners is
rendered worthless. form, indeed, of
gradual conflscation.
Lands reveals how the process OF
creating new rights" comes out OF
the evolution Of law itself He says:
The history of our law is replete
with illustrations of the creation OF
new rights. In the employer and
employe relationship, the right of
employees to quit work together for
the simple end of improving the con-
ditions of labor found recognition
only in the early nineteenth century.
Indeed, the right to strike, and
through such economic pressure to
force collective bargaining, found no
recognition in this country until the
turn of this century.
But this insistence upon collective
bargaining refuses to stand still. 1t
Is pushing itself now from a claim to
use economic pressure toward the ac-
complishment of this end to an in
sEtence that the law itself shall i'm
pose duty upon the employer to
endeavor conscientiously to arrange a
collective labor contract with his en-
ployes when a majority of them so
desire"
The foregoing in substance is what
the Wagner labor relations act has
provided and 1t remains now for the
Supreme Court to say whether COM
pulSory agreement, in so far as it
affects action OF the employer, is an
impairment of his freedom of con-
tract This particular point has not
arisen In any lawsuit as yet, but If
the Wagner act is sustained in part,
as seems reasonable to expect, the
next step will be the determination
OF controversy hinging on the sup
posed obliga ton of the employer to
come to an understanding with ma
jority Of his employees on terms Of
contract, even when he feels such
terms would be economically danger
Gus for him to grant If he intends
to keep out of bankruptcy or receiv-
ership.
1t is very important, of course, who
shall define the supreme la,y of the
land. Lands wants President Roose-
welt to be given the power to add six
new justices at once to the Supreme
Court, and he insists that this is
necessary because of the previous
decisions of members of the court.
It is but another way of saying that,
given a friendly Supreme Court, the
sit-down strike, as an economic wea-
pom, will some day win approval II
embodied in statute.
What is generally overlooked by
Vic ka1lOlo oCAlOoA "a OAIOu6AAt ~ t4A6t
the right to strike and the right to
picket plants where production has
stopped has not gone unlimited here
tofore, and that the simple use Of
physical violence or physical intimi-
dation to attain an economic end has
never before been sanctioned by law
or by the courts, and yet it exists as
. weapon largely because OF an alli-
ance between labor and the politicians.
To say that the right to strike has
been universally recognized, or that
picketing has been sanctioned, Is to
say that all the incidental violences
connected with strikes have also been
sanctioned.
What Lands and his colleagues in
the New Deal are working toward Is