Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/301/1/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 02:08:34+00:00

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1. The distinction between what is national and what is local in the activities of commerce is vital to the maintenance of our federal form of government. P. 301 U. S. 29.
2. The validity of provisions which, considered by themselves, are constitutional, held not affected by general and ambiguous declarations in the same statute. P. 301 U. S. 30.
3. An interpretation which conforms a statute to the Constitution must be preferred to another which would render it unconstitutional or of doubtful validity. P. 301 U. S. 30.
power, and this includes acts, having that effect, which grow out of labor disputes. P. 301 U. S. 31.
5. Employees in industry have a fundamental right to organize and select representatives of their own choosing for collective bar gaining, and discrimination or coercion upon the part of their employer to prevent the free exercise of this right is a proper subject for condemnation by competent legislative authority. P. 301 U. S. 33.
6. The congressional authority to protect interstate commerce from burdens and obstructions is not limited to transactions which can be deemed to be an essential part of a "flow" of such commerce. Pp. 301 U. S. 34-36.
7. Although activities may be intrastate in character when separately considered, if they have such a close and substantial relation to interstate commerce that their control is essential, or appropriate, to protect that commerce from burdens and obstructions, Congress has the power to exercise that control. P. 301 U. S. 37.
8. This power must be considered in the light of our dual system of government, and may not be extended so as to embrace effects upon interstate commerce so indirect and remote that to embrace them would, in view of our complex society, effectually obliterate the distinction between what is national and what is local and create a completely centralized government. The question is necessarily one of degree. P. 301 U. S. 37.
9. Whatever amounts to more or less constant practice, and threatens to obstruct or unduly to burden the freedom of interstate commerce, is within the regulatory power of Congress under the commerce clause, and it is primarily for Congress to consider and decide the fact of the danger and meet it. P. 301 U. S. 37.
10. The close and intimate effect which brings the subject within the reach of federal power may be due to activities in relation to productive industry, although the industry when separately viewed is local. P. 301 U. S. 38.
11. The relation to interstate commerce of the manufacturing enterprise involved in this case was such that a stoppage of its operations by industrial strife would have an immediate, direct and paralyzing effect upon interstate commerce. Therefore, Congress had constitutional authority, for the protection of interstate commerce, to safeguard the right of the employees in the manufacturing plant to self-organization and free choice of their representatives for collective bargaining. P. 301 U. S. 41.
"in commerce, or burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce, or having led or tending to lead to a labor dispute burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce."
(1) That in safeguarding rights of employees and empowering the Board, the statute, insofar as involved in the present case, confines itself to such control of the industrial relationship as may be constitutionally exercised by Congress to prevent burden or obstruction to interstate or foreign commerce arising from industrial disputes. P. 301 U. S. 43.
(2) The Act imposes upon the employer the duty of conferring and negotiating with the authorized representatives of the employees for the purpose of settling a labor dispute, but it does not preclude such individual contracts as the employer may elect to make directly with individual employees. P. 301 U. S. 44.
with accredited representatives of employees is likely to promote industrial peace, and may bring about the adjustments and agreements which the Act, in itself, does not attempt to compel. P. 301 U. S. 45.
(4) The Act does not interfere with the normal right of the employer to hire, or with the right of discharge when exercised for other reasons than intimidation and coercion, and what is the true reason in this regard is left the subject of investigation in each case, with full opportunity to show the facts. P. 301 U. S. 45.
13. A corporation which manufactured iron and steel products in its factories in Pennsylvania from raw materials, most of which it brought in from other States, and which shipped 75% of the manufactured products out of Pennsylvania and disposed of them throughout this country and in Canada, was required by orders of the National Labor Relations Board to tender reinstatement to men who had been employed in one of the factories but were discharged because of their union activities and for the purpose of discouraging union membership. The orders further required that the company make good the pay the men had lost through their discharge, and that it desist from discriminating against members of the union, with regard to hire and tenure of employment, and from interfering by coercion with the self-organization of its employees in the plant. Held that the orders were authorized by the National Labor Relations Act, and that the Act is constitutional as thus applied to the company. Pp. 301 U. S. 30, 301 U. S. 32, 301 U. S. 34, 301 U. S. 41.
14. The right of employers to conduct their own business is not arbitrarily restrained by regulations that merely protect the correlative rights of their employees to organize for the purpose of securing the redress of grievances and of promoting agreements with employers relating to rates of pay and conditions of work. P. 301 U. S. 43.
15. The fact that the National Labor Relations Act subjects the employer to supervision and restraint and leaves untouched the abuses for which employees may be responsible, and fails to provide a more comprehensive plan, with better assurance of fairness to both sides and with increased chances of success in bringing about equitable solutions of industrial disputes affecting interstate commerce, does not affect its validity. The question is as to the power of Congress, not as to its policy, and legislative authority, exerted within its proper field, need not embrace all the evils within its reach. P. 301 U. S. 46.
16. The National Labor Relations Act establishes standards to which the Board must conform. There must be complaint, notice and hearing. The Board must receive evidence and make findings. These findings as to the facts are to be conclusive, but only if supported by evidence. The order of the Board is subject to review by the designated court, and only when sustained by the court may the order be enforced. Upon that review, all questions of the jurisdiction of the Board and the regularity of its proceedings, all questions of constitutional right or statutory authority, are open to examination by the court. These procedural provisions afford adequate opportunity to secure judicial protection against arbitrary action, in accordance with the well settled rules applicable to administrative agencies set up by Congress to aid in the enforcement of valid legislation. P. 301 U. S. 47.
17. The provision of the National Labor Relations Act, § 10(c), authorizing the Board to require the reinstatement of employees found to have been discharged because of their union activity or for the purpose of discouraging membership in the union, is valid. P. 301 U. S. 47.
18. The provision of the Act, § 10(c), that the Board, in requiring reinstatement, may direct the payment of wages for the time lost by the discharge, less amounts earned by the employee during that period, does not contravene the provisions of the Seventh Amendment with respect to jury trial in suits at common law. P. 301 U. S. 48.
CERTIORARI, 299 U.S. 534, to review a decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals declining to enforce an order of the National Labor Relations Board.
In a proceeding under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, [Footnote 1] the National Labor Relations Board found that the respondent, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, had violated the Act by engaging in unfair labor practices affecting commerce. The proceeding was instituted by the Beaver Valley Lodge No. 200, affiliated with the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers of America, a labor organization. The unfair labor practices charged were that the corporation was discriminating against members of the union with regard to hire and tenure of employment, and was coercing and intimidating its employees in order to interfere with their self-organization. The discriminatory and coercive action alleged was the discharge of certain employees.
then defines the terms it uses, including the terms "commerce" and "affecting commerce." § 2. It creates the National Labor Relations Board, and prescribes its organization. §§ 6. It sets forth the right of employees to self-organization and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. § 7. It defines "unfair labor practices." § 8. It lays down rules as to the representation of employees for the purpose of collective bargaining. § 9. The Board is empowered to prevent the described unfair labor practices affecting commerce and the Act prescribes the procedure to that end. The Board is authorized to petition designated courts to secure the enforcement of its orders. The findings of the Board as to the facts, if supported by evidence, are to be conclusive. If either party, on application to the court, shows that additional evidence is material and that there were reasonable grounds for the failure to adduce such evidence in the hearings before the Board, the court may order the additional evidence to be taken. Any person aggrieved by a final order of the Board may obtain a review in the designated courts with the same procedure as in the case of an application by the Board for the enforcement of its order. § 10. The Board has broad powers of investigation. § 11. Interference with members of the Board or its agents in the performance of their duties is punishable by fine and imprisonment. § 12. Nothing in the Act is to be construed, to interfere with the right to strike. § 13. There is a separability clause to the effect that, if any provision of the Act or its application to any person or circumstances shall be held invalid, the remainder of the Act or its application to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected. § 15. The particular provisions which are involved in the instant case will be considered more in detail in the course of the discussion. The procedure in the instant case followed the statute. The labor union filed with the Board its verified charge.
The Board thereupon issued its complaint against the respondent alleging that its action in discharging the employees in question constituted unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of § 8, subdivisions (1) and (3), and § 2, subdivisions (6) and (7) of the Act. Respondent, appearing specially for the purpose of objecting to the jurisdiction of the Board, filed its answer. Respondent admitted the discharges, but alleged that they were made because of inefficiency or violation of rule or for other good reasons, and were not ascribable to union membership or activities. As an affirmative defense, respondent challenged the constitutional validity of the statute and its applicability in the instant case. Notice of hearing was given, and respondent appeared by counsel. The Board first took up the issue of jurisdiction, and evidence was presented by both the Board and the respondent. Respondent then moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction, and, on denial of that motion, respondent, in accordance with its special appearance, withdrew from further participation in the hearing. The Board received evidence upon the merits, and, at its close, made its findings and order.
twenty cities in the United States and a wholly owned subsidiary which is devoted exclusively to distributing its product in Canada. Approximately 75 percent. of its product is shipped out of Pennsylvania.
"might be likened to the heart of a self-contained, highly integrated body. They draw in the raw materials from Michigan, Minnesota, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, in part through arteries and by means controlled by the respondent; they transform the materials and then pump them out to all parts of the nation through the vast mechanism which the respondent has elaborated."
iron and the second being the manufacture of semi-finished and finished iron and steel products, and, in both cases, the operations result in substantially changing the character, utility and value of the materials wrought upon, which is apparent from the nature and extent of the processes to which they are subjected and which respondent fully describes. Respondent also directs attention to the fact that the iron ore which is procured from mines in Minnesota and Michigan and transported to respondent's plant is stored in stockpiles for future use, the amount of ore in storage varying with the season, but usually being enough to maintain operations from nine to ten months; that the coal which is procured from the mines of a subsidiary located in Pennsylvania and taken to the plant at Aliquippa is there, like ore, stored for future use, approximately two to three months' supply of coal being always on hand, and that the limestone which is obtained in Pennsylvania and West Virginia is also stored in amounts usually adequate to run the blast furnaces for a few weeks. Various details of operation, transportation, and distribution are also mentioned which, for the present purpose, it is not necessary to detail.
Practically all the factual evidence in the case, except that which dealt with the nature of respondent's business, concerned its relations with the employees in the Aliquippa plant whose discharge was the subject of the complaint. These employees were active leaders in the labor union. Several were officers, and others were leaders of particular groups. Two of the employees were motor inspectors; one was a tractor driver; three were crane operators; one was a washer in the coke plant, and three were laborers. Three other employees were mentioned in the complaint, but it was withdrawn as to one of them and no evidence was heard on the action taken with respect to the other two.
First. The scope of the Act. -- The Act is challenged in its entirety as an attempt to regulate all industry, thus invading the reserved powers of the States over their local concerns. It is asserted that the references in the Act to interstate and foreign commerce are colorable, at best; that the Act is not a true regulation of such commerce or of matters which directly affect it, but, on the contrary, has the fundamental object of placing under the compulsory supervision of the federal government all industrial labor relations within the nation. The argument seeks support in the broad words of the preamble (section one [Footnote 3]) and in the sweep of the provisions of the Act, and it is further insisted that its legislative history shows an essential universal purpose in the light of which its scope cannot be limited by either construction or by the application of the separability clause.
by reason of the limitation upon the federal power which inheres in the constitutional grant, as well as because of the explicit reservation of the Tenth Amendment. Schechter Corp. v. United States, 295 U. S. 495, 295 U. S. 549, 295 U. S. 550, 295 U. S. 554. The authority of the federal government may not be pushed to such an extreme as to destroy the distinction, which the commerce clause itself establishes, between commerce "among the several States" and the internal concerns of a State. That distinction between what is national and what is local in the activities of commerce is vital to the maintenance of our federal system. Id.
But we are not at liberty to deny effect to specific provisions, which Congress has constitutional power to enact, by superimposing upon them inferences from general legislative declarations of an ambiguous character, even if found in the same statute. The cardinal principle of statutory construction is to save, and not to destroy. We have repeatedly held that, as between two possible interpretations of a statute, by one of which it would be unconstitutional and by the other valid, our plain duty is to adopt that which will save the act. Even to avoid a serious doubt, the rule is the same. Federal Trade Comm'n v. American Tobacco Co., 264 U. S. 298 307; Panama R. Co. v. Johnson, 264 U. S. 375, 264 U. S. 390; Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Boone, 270 U. S. 466, 270 U. S. 472; Blodgett v. Holden, 275 U. S. 142, 275 U. S. 148; Richmond Screw Anchor Co. v. United States, 275 U. S. 331, 275 U. S. 346.
"SEC. 10(a). The Board is empowered, as hereinafter provided, to prevent any person from engaging in any unfair labor practice (listed in section 8) affecting commerce. "
"The term 'commerce' means trade, traffic, commerce, transportation, or communication among the several States, or between the District of Columbia or any Territory of the United States and any State or other Territory, or between any foreign country and any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or within the District of Columbia or any Territory, or between points in the same State but through any other State or any Territory or the District of Columbia or any foreign country."
rendered immune because they grow out of labor disputes. See Texas & N.O. R . Co. v. Railway Clerks, 281 U. S. 548, 281 U. S. 570; Schechter Corp. v. United States, supra, pp. 295 U. S. 544, 295 U. S. 545; Virginian Railway v. System Federation, No. 40, 300 U. S. 515. It is the effect upon commerce, not the source of the injury, which is the criterion. Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U. S. 1, 223 U. S. 51. Whether or not particular action does affect commerce in such a close and intimate fashion as to be subject to federal control, and hence to lie within the authority conferred upon the Board, is left by the statute to be determined as individual cases arise. We are thus to inquire whether, in the instant case, the constitutional boundary has been passed.
"(3) By discrimination in regard to hire or tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization. . . . [Footnote 4] "
order to safeguard their proper interests, we said that Congress was not required to ignore this right, but could safeguard it. Congress could seek to make appropriate collective action of employees an instrument of peace, rather than of strife. We said that such collective action would be a mockery if representation were made futile by interference with freedom of choice. Hence, the prohibition by Congress of interference with the selection of representatives for the purpose of negotiation and conference between employers and employees, "instead of being an invasion of the constitutional right of either, was based on the recognition of the rights of both." Texas & N.O. R. Co. v. Railway Clerks, supra. We have reasserted the same principle in sustaining the application of the Railway Labor Act as amended in 1934. Virginian Railway Co. v. System Federation, No. 40, supra.
Third. The application of the Act to employees engaged in production. -- The principle involved. -- Respondent says that whatever may be said of employees engaged in interstate commerce, the industrial relations and activities in the manufacturing department of respondent's enterprise are not subject to federal regulation. The argument rests upon the proposition that manufacturing, in itself, is not commerce. Kidd v. Pearson, 128 U. S. 1, 128 U. S. 20, 21; United Mine Workers v. Coronado Coal Co., 259 U. S. 344, 259 U. S. 407, 259 U. S. 408; Oliver Iron Co. v. Lord, 262 U. S. 172, 262 U. S. 178; United Leather Workers v. Herkert & Meisel Trunk Co., 265 U. S. 457, 265 U. S. 465; Industrial Association v. United States, 268 U. S. 64, 268 U. S. 82; Coronado Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers, 268 U. S. 295, 268 U. S. 310; Schechter Corp. v. United States, supra, p. 295 U. S. 547; Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 298 U. S. 238, 298 U. S. 304, 298 U. S. 317, 298 U. S. 327.
that they had become "a constantly recurring burden and obstruction to that commerce." Chicago Board of Trade v. Olsen, 262 U. S. 1, 262 U. S. 32; compare Hill v. Wallace, 259 U. S. 44, 259 U. S. 69. See also Tagg Bros. & Moorhead v. United States, 280 U. S. 420.
"are to a large extent manufactured without reference to preexisting orders and contracts, and are entirely different from the raw materials which enter at the other end."
"If importation and exportation in interstate commerce do not singly transfer purely local activities into the field of congressional regulation, it should follow that their combination would not alter the local situation."
Arkadelphia Milling Co. v. St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co., 249 U. S. 134, 249 U. S. 151; Oliver Iron Co. v. Lord, supra.
"Whatever amounts to more or less constant practice, and threatens to obstruct or unduly to burden the freedom of interstate commerce is within the regulatory power of Congress under the commerce clause and it is primarily for Congress to consider and decide the fact of the danger and meet it."
are engaged in both interstate and intrastate transportation. There federal control has been found essential to secure the freedom of interstate traffic from interference or unjust discrimination and to promote the efficiency of the interstate service. Shreveport Case, 234 U. S. 342, 234 U. S. 351, 234 U. S. 352; Wisconsin Railroad Comm'n v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co., 257 U. S. 563, 257 U. S. 588. It is manifest that intrastate rates deal primarily with a local activity. But, in ratemaking, they bear such a close relation to interstate rates that effective control of the one must embrace some control over the other. Id. Under the Transportation Act, 1920, [Footnote 7] Congress went so far as to authorize the Interstate Commerce Commission to establish a statewide level of intrastate rates in order to prevent an unjust discrimination against interstate commerce. Wisconsin Railroad Comm'n v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co., supra; Florida v. United States, 282 U. S. 194, 282 U. S. 210, 282 U. S. 211. Other illustrations are found in the broad requirements of the Safety Appliance Act and the Hours of Service Act. Southern Railway Co. v. United States, 222 U. S. 20; Baltimore & Ohio R. Co. v. Interstate Commerce Comm'n, 221 U. S. 612. It is said that this exercise of federal power has relation to the maintenance of adequate instrumentalities of interstate commerce. But the agency is not superior to the commerce which uses it. The protective power extends to the former because it exists as to the latter.
The close and intimate effect which brings the subject within the reach of federal power may be due to activities in relation to productive industry although the industry, when separately viewed, is local. This has been abundantly illustrated in the application of the federal Anti-Trust Act. In the Standard Oil and American Tobacco cases, 221 U. S. 221 U.S. 1, 221 U. S. 106, that statute was applied to combinations of employers engaged in productive industry.
"That the act, even if the averments of the bill be true, cannot be constitutionally applied, because to do so would extend the power of Congress to subjects dehors the reach of its authority to regulate commerce, by enabling that body to deal with mere questions of production of commodities within the States."
"But all the structure upon which this argument proceeds is based upon the decision in United States v. E. C. Knight Co., 156 U. S. 1. The view, however, which the argument takes of that case and the arguments based upon that view have been so repeatedly pressed upon this court in connection with the interpretation and enforcement of the Anti-trust Act, and have been so necessarily and expressly decided to be unsound as to cause the contentions to be plainly foreclosed and to require no express notice"
(citing cases). 221 U.S. pp. 221 U. S. 68, 221 U. S. 69.
"if Congress deems certain recurring practices, though not really part of interstate commerce, likely to obstruct, restrain or burden it, it has the power to subject them to national supervision and restraint."
"intent of those unlawfully preventing the manufacture or production is shown to be to restrain or control the supply entering and moving in interstate commerce, or the price of it in interstate markets, their action is a direct violation of the Anti-Trust Act."
268 U.S. p. 268 U. S. 310. And the existence of that intent may be a necessary inference from proof of the direct and substantial effect produced by the employees' conduct. Industrial Association v. United States, 268 U.S. p. 268 U. S. 81. What was absent from the evidence in the first Coronado case appeared in the second, and the Act was accordingly applied to the mining employees.
everywhere," a result inconsistent with the maintenance of our federal system. In the Carter case, supra, the Court was of the opinion that the provisions of the statute relating to production were invalid upon several grounds -- that there was improper delegation of legislative power, and that the requirements not only went beyond any sustainable measure of protection of interstate commerce, but were also inconsistent with due process. These cases are not controlling here.
conception. It is equally true that interferences with that commerce must be appraised by a judgment that does not ignore actual experience.
"when there was no dispute as to the organizations authorized to represent the employees and when there was a willingness of the employer to meet such representative for a discussion of their grievances, amicable adjustment of differences had generally followed, and strikes had been avoided."
"a prolific source of dispute had been the maintenance by the railroad of company unions and the denial by railway management of the authority of representatives chosen by their employees."
The opinion in that case also points to the large measure of success of the labor policy embodied in the Railway Labor Act. But, with respect to the appropriateness of the recognition of self-organization and representation in the promotion of peace, the question is not essentially different in the case of employees in industries of such a character that interstate commerce is put in jeopardy from the case of employees of transportation companies. And of what avail is it to protect the facility of transportation if interstate commerce is throttled with respect to the commodities to be transported!
These questions have frequently engaged the attention of Congress, and have been the subject of many inquiries. [Footnote 8] The steel industry is one of the great basic industries of the United States, with ramifying activities affecting interstate commerce at every point. The Government aptly refers to the steel strike of 1919-1920, with its far-reaching consequences. [Footnote 9] The fact that there appears to have been no major disturbance in that industry in the more recent period did not dispose of the possibilities of future and like dangers to interstate commerce which Congress was entitled to foresee and to exercise its protective power to forestall. It is not necessary again to detail the facts as to respondent's enterprise. Instead of being beyond the pale, we think that it presents in a most striking way the close and intimate relation which a manufacturing industry may have to interstate commerce, and we have no doubt that Congress had constitutional authority to safeguard the right of respondent's employees to self-organization and freedom in the choice of representatives for collective bargaining.
against the Company's entering into any contract concerning rules, rates of pay and working conditions except with a chosen representative was "designed only to prevent collective bargaining with anyone purporting to represent employees" other than the representative they had selected. It was taken "to prohibit the negotiation of labor contracts generally applicable to employees" in the described unit with any other representative than the one so chosen, "but not as precluding such individual contracts" as the Company might "elect to make directly with individual employees." We think this construction also applies to § 9(a) of the National Labor Relations Act.
self-organization and representation, and, on the other hand, the Board is not entitled to make its authority a pretext for interference with the right of discharge when that right is exercised for other reasons than such intimidation and coercion. The true purpose is the subject of investigation with full opportunity to show the facts. It would seem that, when employers freely recognize the right of their employees to their own organizations and their unrestricted right of representation, there will be much less occasion for controversy in respect to the free and appropriate exercise of the right of selection and discharge.
The Act has been criticized as one-sided in its application; that it subjects the employer to supervision and restraint and leaves untouched the abuses for which employees may be responsible; that it fails to provide a more comprehensive plan -- with better assurances of fairness to both sides and with increased chances of success in bringing about, if not compelling, equitable solutions of industrial disputes affecting interstate commerce. But we are dealing with the power of Congress, not with a particular policy or with the extent to which policy should go. We have frequently said that the legislative authority, exerted within its proper field, need not embrace all the evils within its reach. The Constitution does not forbid "cautious advance, step by step," in dealing with the evils which are exhibited in activities within the range of legislative power. Carroll v. Greenwich Insurance Co., 199 U. S. 401, 199 U. S. 411; Keokee Coke Co. v. Taylor, 234 U. S. 224, 234 U. S. 227; Miller v. Wilson, 236 U. S. 373, 236 U. S. 384; Sproles v. Binford, 286 U. S. 374, 286 U. S. 396. The question in such cases is whether the legislature, in what it does prescribe, has gone beyond constitutional limits.
creation and action of administrative bodies. See Interstate Commerce Comm'n v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 227 U. S. 88, 227 U. S. 91. The Act establishes standards to which the Board must conform. There must be complaint, notice and hearing. The Board must receive evidence and make findings. The findings as to the facts are to be conclusive, but only if supported by evidence. The order of the Board is subject to review by the designated court, and only when sustained by the court may the order be enforced. Upon that review, all questions of the jurisdiction of the Board and the regularity of its proceedings, all questions of constitutional right or statutory authority, are open to examination by the court. We construe the procedural provisions as affording adequate opportunity to secure judicial protection against arbitrary action in accordance with the well settled rules applicable to administrative agencies set up by Congress to aid in the enforcement of valid legislation. It is not necessary to repeat these rules which have frequently been declared. None of them appears to have been transgressed in the instant case. Respondent was notified and heard. It had opportunity to meet the charge of unfair labor practices upon the merits, and, by withdrawing from the hearing, it declined to avail itself of that opportunity. The facts found by the Board support its order, and the evidence supports the findings. Respondent has no just ground for complaint on this score.
the right of employees as guaranteed by the Railway Labor Act of 1926. The requirement of restoration to service of employees discharged in violation of the provisions of that Act was thus a sanction imposed in the enforcement of a judicial decree. We do not doubt that Congress could impose a like sanction for the enforcement of its valid regulation. The fact that, in the one case, it was a judicial sanction, and, in the other, a legislative one, is not an essential difference in determining its propriety.
Respondent complains that the Board not only ordered reinstatement but directed the payment of wages for the time lost by the discharge, less amounts earned by the employee during that period. This part of the order was also authorized by the Act. § 10(c). It is argued that the requirement is equivalent to a money judgment and hence contravenes the Seventh Amendment with respect to trial by jury. The Seventh Amendment provides that, "In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved." The Amendment thus preserves the right which existed under the common law when the Amendment was adopted. Shields v. Thomas, 18 How. 253, 59 U. S. 262; In re Wood, 210 U. S. 246, 210 U. S. 258; Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U. S. 474, 293 U. S. 476; Baltimore & Carolina Line v. Redman, 295 U. S. 654, 295 U. S. 657. Thus, it has no application to cases where recovery of money damages is an incident to equitable relief even though damages might have been recovered in an action at law. Clark v. Wooster, 119 U. S. 322, 119 U. S. 325; Pease v. Rathbun-Jones Engineering Co., 243 U. S. 273, 243 U. S. 279. It does not apply where the proceeding is not in the nature of a suit at common law. Guthrie National Bank v. Guthrie, 173 U. S. 528, 173 U. S. 537.
requirements imposed for violation of the statute, and are remedies appropriate to its enforcement. The contention under the Seventh Amendment is without merit.
For dissenting opinion, see p. 301 U. S. 76.
* No. 419, National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.; Nos. 420 and 421, National Labor Relations Board v. Fruehauf Trailer Co., post, p. 301 U. S. 49; Nos. 422 and 423, National Labor Relations Board v. Friedman-Harry Marks Clothing Co., post, p. 301 U. S. 58; No. 365, Associated Press v. National Labor Relations Board, post, p. 301 U. S. 103, and No. 469, Washington, Virginia & Maryland Coach Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, post, p. 301 U. S. 142, which are known as the "Labor Board Cases," were disposed of in five separate opinions. The dissenting opinion, post, p. 301 U. S. 76, applies to Nos. 419, 420 and 421, and 422 and 423. The dissenting opinion, post, p. 301 U. S. 133, applies to No. 365. The opinion in No. 469 was unanimous.
"Section 1. The denial by employers of the right of employees to organize and the refusal by employers to accept the procedure of collective bargaining lead to strikes and other forms of industrial strife or unrest, which have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce by (a) impairing the efficiency, safety, or operation of the instrumentalities of commerce; (b) occurring in the current of commerce; (c) materially affecting, restraining, or controlling the flow of raw materials or manufactured or processed goods from or into the channels of commerce, or the prices of such materials or goods in commerce; or (d) causing diminution of employment and wages in such volume as substantially to impair or disrupt the market for goods flowing from or into the channels of commerce."
"The inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract, and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership association substantially burdens and affects the flow of commerce, and tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners in industry and by preventing the stabilization of competitive wage rates and working conditions within and between industries."
See Note 2 supra, p. 23.
"Provided, That nothing in this Act, or in the National Industrial Recovery Act (U.S.C. Supp. VII, title 15, secs. 701-712), as amended from time to time, or in any code or agreement approved or prescribed thereunder, or in any other statute of the United States, shall preclude an employer from making an agreement with a labor organization (not established, maintained, or assisted by any action defined in this Act as an unfair labor practice) to require as a condition of employment membership therein, if such labor organization is the representative of the employees as provided in section 9(a), in the appropriate collective bargaining unit covered by such agreement when made."
§§ 416, 422, 41 Stat. 484, 488; Interstate Commerce Act, § 13(4).
See, for example, Final Report of the Industrial Commission (1902), vol.19, p. 844; Report of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission (1902), Sen.Doc. No. 6, 58th Cong., spec. sess.; Final Report of Commission on Industrial Relations (1916), Sen.Doc. No. 415, 64th Cong., 1st sess., vol. I; National War Labor Board, Principles and Rules of Procedure (1919), p. 4; Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin No. 287 (1921), pp. 52-64; History of the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin No. 283.
See Investigating Strike in Steel Industries, Sen.Rep. No. 289, 66th Cong., 1st sess.
"SEC. 9. (a) Representatives designated or selected for the purposes of collective bargaining by the majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for such purposes, shall be the exclusive representatives of all the employees in such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, or other conditions of employment: Provided, That any individual employee or a group of employees shall have the right at any time to present grievances to their employer."
See Virginian Railway Co. v. System Federation, No. 40, 300 U. S. 515.

References: § 10
 § 10
 § 2
 § 7
 § 8
 § 9
 § 10
 § 11
 § 12
 § 13
 § 15
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 § 9
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 § 10
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 § 13
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