Evening star., 1950-01-25
The People Come First

The bill to amend the antitrust law
which has been introduced by Senator
Willis Robertson can be traced, not to a
desire to destroy unions, but to growing
realization that there must be some more
effective legal protection of the public
interest against abuse by the unions of
their great power.
1t seems to The Star that the intro
duction of this bill is a development of
some importance. 1t may not have any
immediate prospect of passage. Perhaps
there is some better legislative approach
to the problem. But here, at least, is
recommendation which has been carefully
thought out, and which is based on a
painstaking study of the facts and the
present state of the law as it applies to
those facts. There will be some who will
deny that there exists need for such an
amendment. But John L. Lewis is proving
to be persuasive witness on the other
side of that proposition.
Senator Robertson'S proposal has to be
appraised against the background of the
immunity which labor has acquired by
virtue of the laws and decisions of the
Supreme Court.
The Sherman Act was passed in 1890.
Congress did not intend in enacting that
statute to sanction unreasonable restraint
of trade by unions, and the Supreme Court
so held. Then, in 1914, the Sherman Act
was amended by adoption of the Clayton
Act. In its pertinent sections, the Clayton
Act provided that labor organizations were
lawful under the Sherman Act, and, fur
ther, that certain specific labor activities,
such as peaceful picketing, could not be
enjoined by the Federal courts. Neither
of these enactments, however, gave unions
immunity when they engaged in unreason-
able restraints, of trade or sought other
illegitimate objectives.
The big departure came in 1882, when
the Norris-La Guardia Act was adopted.
This act was an absolute prohibition,
except in the narrowest circumstances,
against any Federal injunction applicable
to labor unions. Finally in 1941, a five
man majority of the Supreme Court an
nounced the decision in the Hutcheson
case. The effect of this extraordinary
decision was to go far beyond even the
sweeping immunities extended by the
Norris-La Guardia Act, and to hold, for
all practical purposes, that neither the
criminal sections nor the treble-damage
provisions of the Sherman Act could be
invoked against any union activity arising
out of any kind of labor dispute.
This was the green light. A period In
which the injunctive power had often been
flagrantly abused to the detriment Of
unions and reasonable union activity was
succeeded by period in which unions
were put beyond the reach Of any effective
regulatory power. And it was not long
before consequences which should have
been foreseen began to be painfully evident.
It soon became apparent that union lead
ers were not much different from indus
trial leaders. Given great and uncon-
trolled power, some of them would abuse
it. And as the abuses grew it also became
clear that all of the people, not just the
big industrial bosses, were being made to
suffer.
Senator Robertson wants to bring this
situation back into balance by amending
the antitrust law. His amendment is not
designed to interfere with the pursuit by
unions of legitimate objectives. What it
would do is best summed up in his own
words: "The bill which I have offered
would in plain and simple language re-
move the immunizing effect of the Clayton
and Norris-La Guardia Acts from (union)
conduct which up until 1941 had been
almost universally branded as illegal and
against the public interest, and which
had always been regarded as outlawed
by the Sherman Act. 1t would leave the
Government free to go into court and
it would leave the court free to put stop
to labor union practices which are so
detrimental to the national welfare that
some remedy, beyond the temporary stop
gap remedy of the Taft-Hartley Act, is
essential to protect the people of this
country. The Sherman Act would then
again serve, as it originally served, as
brake on unions which seek to put their
own activities ahead of the national well
fare"
This, to many, will seem like drastic
proposal. It will seem increasingly less
drastic, however, as the American people,
whose welfare should come first, continue
to suffer at the hands of irresponsible
and uncontrolled unions and union
leaders.
A timely sales slogan is lying about for