Evening star., 1937-03-30
LABOR BARGAINING
ON ROADS UPHELD
Supreme Court Sustains
Rail Employees and Farm
Moratorium.

opinion by the supreme CouTI yesIel-
day.
In other important rulings the
court
% Unanimously affirmed constitu-
tionality of the amended Frazier
Lemke act authorizing a three-year
moratorium on farm mortgage fore
closures.
CD Upheld the legality of a Vir-
ginia statute creating a State milk
commission which set up the so-called
Arlington Alexandria milk market and
fixed minimum prices for milk.
90 Upheld the Government in It's
effort to punish George w. Norris,
Broken Bow, Nebr., grocer, for alleged
perjury growing out Of his primary
campaign against the veteran Senator
George w. Norris of Nebraska.
Stone Delivers Opinion.
The railway labor decision, awaited
by many as possible indication OF
the courts attitude toward the Wagner
relations act, was delivered by Asso-
ciate Justice Stone in a case brought
by the Virginian Railway Co. against
a group of its employees belonging to
the American Federation of Labor.
The Wagner act however, providing
for collective bargaining, does not ap-
ply to railroads.
Attacking the law, the railroad COM
pany asserted that one section, direct
ing the carrier to negotiate with the
representatives of employees certified by
the National Mediation Board, i'm
poses no legally enforceable obligation
and that it is unconstitutional because
1t deprives railroads of their property
and liberty Of contract.
Disagreeing with this contention,
the courts opinion said:
The peaceable settlement of labor
controversies, especially where they
may seriously impair the ability of an
interstate rail carrier to perform its
service to the public, is matter of
public concern.
Local Union Formed.
I'm considering the propriety of the
relief granted here, we cannot ignore
the judgment Of Congress, deliber-
ately expressed in legislation, that
where the obstruction of the company
union is removed, the meeting of en-
ployers and employees at the confer
ence table is a powerful aid to indus
trial peace"
Some of the employees of the road
had formed local union" after the
failure Of a strike by federation afdil-
1ates in 1922.
Continuing, Justice Stone said:
with the coercive influence of the
company union ended, and in view of
the interest of both parties in avoid
negotiation, as required by the decree
(of the lower COURT will not result in
agreement or lead to successful medi-
alton or arbitration, or that the at
tempt to secure one or another
through the relief which the district
court gave is not worth the effort"
He added that statute does not un-
dertake to compel agreement between
the employer and the employees.
AS to whether the act could apply
to employees not directly connected
with the operation of trains, he said:
Petitioner insists that the act, as
applied to its back shop employees, is
not within the commerce power, since
their duties have no direct relation
ship to interstate transportation.
Back Shop Duties Cited.
"The back shop employees are en-
gagged in making classified repairs,
which consist of heavy repairs on loco
motives and cars withdrawn from
service for that purpose for long
periods. When not engaged
in repair work the back shop en-
ployes perfom store order work and
the manufacture Of materials.
The activities in which these en-
ployes are engaged have such a rela-
ton to the other confessedly inter-
state activities of the petitioner that
they are to be regarded as part of
them.
The relation OF the back shop to
transportation is such that a strike
OF petitioners employees there, quite
apart from the likelihood of its
spreading to the operating depart
danger, substantial, though possibly
indeflnable in its extent, of Interrupt
tion of the transportation service.
The cause Is not remote from the ef-
feet. The relation between them Is
not tenuous. The effect on commerce
cannot be regarded as negligible.
Unanimous on Lemke Act.
The ruling in the FraZier-Lemke
case, also unanimous, reversed the
lower courts and held the act valid
because it contained mo unreason-
able modification of the mortgages
rights" Justice Brandeis, who deliv-
cred the opinion, also announced the
ruling Of the tribunal two years ago
absolute flye-year moratorium, and
was held unconstitutional on the
ground it took property without due
process Of law.
The present case grew out OF an
effort by Robert Page Wright, a
bankrupt, to defer sale of his property
under an overdue mortgage held by
the Vinton branch of the Mountain
Trust Bank of Roanoke, Va.
Wnll6 d OlACS-ySdi AAoAo~
torium, the amended act provided that
the stay might be abridged by the
courts upon a finding that the "emer-
sency" the legislation was drafted to
meet no longer existed.
Justice Brandeis said the court had
mo occasion to decide whether an
absolute stay of three years would
have been justified under the bank
ruptcy power.
I'VE are of the opinion" he added,
that, while the act affords the debtor,
ordinarily, a three-year period OF re-
habilitation, the stay provided for Is
not an absolute one; and that the
court may terminate the stay and
order q sale earlier"
The decision in the milk price case
had been awaited with interest here.
since the s1lit was filed by the High