with a view to compelling those persons, or to aid another employer in compelling persons employed by him, to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment;

"Strike": "strike" shall mean the cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any trade or industry, acting in combination, or a concerted refusal or refusal under a common understanding of any number of persons who are or have been so employed, to continue to work or to accept employment; and

"Injury": "injury" shall mean any injury to the community or injury to a person or an employer in respect to his business, occupation, employment, or other source of income and includes any actionable wrong.

PREVENTION OF INTIMIDATION, ETC.-PENALTY

SECTION 4. It shall be unlawful for one or more persons (whether acting on their own behalf or on behalf of a trade union or an individual employer or firm, and notwithstanding that they may be acting in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute) to attend at or near a house or place where a person resides or works or carries on business or happens to be, for the purpose of obtaining or communicating information, or of persuading or inducing any person to work or to abstain from working, if they so attend in such numbers or otherwise in such manner as to be calculated to intimidate any person in that house or place, or to obstruct the approach thereto to egress therefrom, or to lead to a breach of the peace shall be guilty of a misdemeanor which, in the case of the employer, shall be punishable by the payment of a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) and in the case of individuals shall be punish able as a misdemeanor as hereinafter provided.

PROTECTION OF PERSONS REFUSING TO TAKE PART IN ILLEGAL STRIKES OF LOCK-OUTS

SECTION 5. No person refusing to take part or to continue to take part in any strike or lock-out which is by this act declared to be illegal, shall be, by reason of such refusal, or by reason of any action taken by him under this section, subject to expulsion from any trade union or society, or to any fine or penalty, or to deprivation of any right or benefit to which he or his legal personal representatives would otherwise be entitled, or liable to be placed in any respect, either directly or indirectly under any disability or at any disadvantage as compared with other members of the union or society, anything to the contrary in the rules of a trade union or society notwithstanding.

DEFINITION "INTIMIDATION" "INJURY"

SECTION 6. The expression "to intimidate" shall mean to cause in the mind of a person a reasonable apprehension of injury to him or to any member of his family or to any of his dependents or of violence or damage to any person or property, and the expression "injury" includes injury to a person in regard to his business, occupation, employment, or other source of income, and includes any actionable wrong.

SEPARATION OF POLITICAL FUND

SECTION 7. Contributions to a polical fund or to a fund to be used for the relief or support of persons on strike, collected or maintained by a trade union. or an association or organization of employes, shall be voluntary offerings and shall be kept separate from the dues or regular funds received for the payment of the expenses of any trade union, association or organization of employes. and a report, which shall include the names of contributors and the amount contributed by each, and an itemized account of disbursements shall be made to the commissioner of labor and factory inspection at least once each month after collection of such fund shall have begun, and such report shall be public record. No monies of such a fund shall be used in support of or in connection with an illegal strike.

SECTION 8. Any officer or representative of a trade union, association or organization of employes, who fails to make the reports herein required shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable as hereafter provided.

RIGHT TO WORK

SECTION 9. Nothing herein shall be construed in any way to infringe the inalienable right of every person to lawfully cease work or refuse to continue work or to accept employment.

REGULATION AS TO ORGANIZATIONS OF WHICH STATE AND CERTAIN OTHER EMPLOYES ARE MEMBERS-EXCEPTION

SECTION 10. No employe of the state or any of its political subdivisions shall be a member of any organization, the primary object of which is to influence the remuneration and conditions of employment of its members, provided, however, that this shall not include an organization the membership of which is confined exclusively to employees of the state or its political subdivisions, which is not affiliated with or subject to the domination or control of any other organization or group, which is not associated either directly or indirectly with any political party or organization and which is, in all respects, an independent organization; provided, further, that this shall not apply to any employe of the state, or any of its political subdivisions, who, when this act takes effect, shall have been for a period of one year or more, a member in good standing of an organization in which membership is prohibited hereby.

PENALTY

SECTION 11. Any employe in the public service who shall violate the provisions of this act shall be punished for the first offense by a disqualification from the public service for one month without pay; and if, at the end of such disqualification period, such public employe shall not have ceased such violation, or if ever again he shall violate the provisions of this act, he shall be dismissed from the public service and shall be ineligible thereafter to hold any position in the public service; and if thereafter he shall be found holding any position in the public service it shall be prima facie evidence of misdemeanor upon which conviction shall be had and he shall be punished as herein provided for misdemeanor. MEMBERSHIP AND NONMEMBERSHIP IN UNION NOT TO BE A CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT

SECTION 12. No person in authority in the state or any of its political subdivisions shall make it a condition of employment in the public service, or continuance of such employment, that any person shall or shall not be a member of a trade union, an association or organization of employes, or other organization; nor shall he impose any condition upon department heads or any other subordinate in authority, whereby employes in the public service who are or who are not members of a trade union, or of an association or organization of employes, or other organization, are liable to be placed in any respect, either directly or indirectly, under any disability or disadvantage as compared with other employes.

PUBLIC CONTRACTS

SECTION 13. No person in authority, in the state or in any of its political subdivisions, shall make it a condition of any contract, made or proposed to be made with the state, or any political subdivision, or of the consideration or acceptance of any tender in connection with such contract, that any person employed or to be employed by any party in the contract shall or shall not be a member of a trade union, or any association or organization of employes, or other organization.

BREACH OF PUBLIC CONTRACTS-PENALTY

SECTION 14. Any employe in the public service of the state or any political subdivision of the state, who shall wilfully break a contract or service (written, oral or implied) knowing, or having reasonable cause to believe, that the probable consequence of his so doing, either alone or in combination with others, will

be to cause injury or danger or grave inconvenience to the community, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor which shall be punishable as herein provided, and he shall be forever barred from again entering the public service.

PENALTY GENERAL

SECTION 15. Except where it is herein otherwise specifically provided, violation of any of the provisions of this act shall be a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) or imprisonment for not more than one year.

CONSTRUCTION

SECTION 16. If any portion of this act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

Executive Vice President, National Association of Manufacturers,

11 West 42nd Street, New York, New York.

DEAR MR. WEISENBURGER: With the advent of the NRA and the program of the American Federation of Labor to unionize American industry, local labor leaders organized Union activities in this community. Our plant was not only the busiest, but was actually employing a larger number of factory workers than any other plant in Aurora; therefore, their organization efforts were concentrated on this company.

This start was made in the late summer of 1933 and by September we knew that a Federal Union, with a charter from the A. F. of L., #18415, had been created among our employees. Near the end of 1933, a Shop Committee guided by one of the A. F. of L. organizers from Chicago approached us for recognition as the chosen representatives of our employees who belong to the Union. The Shop Committee was composed of four of our employees and one outside Union man, who had been retained as a business agent for our new local. After meeting with this Committee two or three times about the first of the year, and after satisfying ourselves that they did represent a certain group of our employees, and after chiding them a bit for finding it necessary to retain an outsider on the Committee, we told them quite frankly that in accord with Section 7-A of the National Industrial Recovery Act, we would be glad to meet with them and bargain collectively for those Lyon employees whom they represented.

Since that time, they have come to us periodically with requests for consideration. To a large extent these requests have been for increased wages, either collectively for Lyon employees or individually for certain men who seemed to be out of line with other men in our plant. Among other requests, they wanted the company to permit Union bulletins on our factory bulletin boards. They also wanted us to guarantee the employment of all present workers, irrespective of the amount of work on hand or the variable degree by which it fluctuated by department and by product and spread the work 100 over this entire group.

Throughout this ten-month period of dealing with this Shop Committee, we have treated them in a friendly manner, met with them when they requested, and acted upon the subjects presented promptly. At the same time, we have maintained the prerogative of running our business and of determining which requests we would refuse and which ones we would grant. For example: We refused to permit Union bulletins on factory bulletin boards, and they finally put up a small outside bulletin board on a lot across from the plant. We have watched very carefully the precedence we have established in handling all requests, so that our record is clean-as far as complying with the National Industrial Recovery Act-and at the same time we have avoided commitments which would permit the Union to capitalize upon what they have obtained for their members.

As soon as the President's general employment agreement was proposed, the last part of July, 1933, we accepted the conditions and put them in force immediately, while our own code was pending. Then as soon as the code for the Business Furniture, Storage Equipment, and Filing Supply Industry was approved in November (a code which we had helped originate and get approved), we put all of the provisions of that code into effect immediately and we have followed religiously these code provisions, so that even the Shop Committee have intimated on several occasions that our company had more than lived up to the NRA and our code of fair competition.

On or about April 1, 1934, in anticipation of further requests for increased wages, which requests we had turned down on two previous occasions, several of the leading companies in our industry, including four or five plants located in Aurora, automatically announced a 10% increase in wages, thereby putting our minimum wage actually 10% above the 40¢ per hour called for by the code, and all other wages proportionately 10% higher. We did this at a time when it took away what credit the Union might have obtained if we had waited for the pending request from them and then granted it in reply to their request. This summer, when our total production volume fell off slightly, we laid off approximately 10% of our employees over a period of four weeks, because we wanted to get the total employees more in line with current production ahead of the factory. Then, without waiting for any reaction from the Shop Committee, we announced that thereafter we would endeavor to avoid layoffs by shutting the entire plant for half days or full days occasionally, to keep total hours in line with work ahead of the plant. It was at this time that the Shop Committee urged upon us an agreement not to lay off any more employees and we refused to commit ourselves to any such arrangement,-maintaining that we would always use the shutdown method in preference to layoffs. During the last year, the membership in this Union has fluctuated considerably. We make it a point to know as much as we can about their activities and their membership. At one time, they had signed up approximately 60% of our employees, but a b'g majority of these never paid dues and on Labor Day, 1934, there were only about 20% of our total factory employees paid up and in good standing in the Union. At this time, upon advice of Chicago leaders, they realized that they had to make a drive for membership, so for two months they have been making that drive. They have reduced dues, made it easy to make partial payments, appointed committees to work outside of working hours on all of our employees and get the plant completely organized. We know that they have had considerable success and probably about 50% of our employees are paid up members at the present time.

We know, furthermore, that when they have the plant sufficiently organized, it is their purpose to demand a 30-hour week (as contrasted with 40-hours maximum in our code and consistently followed by us), with the same pay for the 30 hours as they are now receiving for 40 hours, and also to demand a closed shop with the check-off system, based on the Houde decision that if a majority of our employees want Union representation, that representation can bargain collectively for all employees. So far these last two demands have not been presented to us, but we anticipate them and we know that when they come, it will mean a showdown of some kind.

Throughout these last ten months, our policy has been to follow the NRA, bargain collectively with the Shop Committee for those employees whom they represent, likewise, bargain individually and collectively with any other em

ployee or groups of employees, maintain a friendly attitude and thereby avoid an open break or complaint lodged in the Regional Labor Board, whose decisions are invariably pro-labor. But, at the same time, we have very carefully determined when and how we will concede a request and we have not made it easy for the Union to take credit for specific accomplishments in behalf of their members.

We know that the majority of employees in our plant are not interested in the Union; they have no desire to pay Union dues and they are satisfied with the treatment accorded them by the company, both before and since the NRA. The majority of these employees have been with us ten years at least, and they have been fairly treated. The local officers and Shop Committee, however, are using every possible pressure upon all of our employees to join the Union. They are intimidating them with the statement that the plant is going to be a closed shop. We know, through our employee friends, that it is becoming more and more convenient and easy for even a loyal employee to join the Union and pay his dues.

Knowing these conditions in our plant and knowing the pressure being used by the Union, and believing that it must sooner or later come to a showdown, the constant question in the minds of our management is: "What can we do about it?" We have felt that our policy of dealing with them was demanded by the law. We have felt that we preferred to avoid a dispute being turned over to a Regional Labor Board, because the manufacturer doesn't seem to get anywhere when such an event occurs. We have refrained from open propaganda against the Union or the need for a Union, because we felt that would only agitate the situation. From time to time, we have capitalized on one or two decisions; for example, we addressed a letter to each employee at his home when we raised wages last April 10% above the code provisions, "In accord with the President's recommendation to industry and in agreement with the other major units in our own industry."

We issue an employee paper once a month called "The Lyon News". In each of these issues is one management article which we have written in all cases to encourage proper thinking by our employees and proper cooperative responsibilities on their part for the job to be done. I am attaching a copy of our last issue and you will note the article on page 2, over my own signature. This article at least implies our position, without directly offending the Union and without making it too evident propaganda.

We wish there was some way of getting to our employees who are not Union-minded or who are at least on the fence, so that the efforts of the Union to organize this plant would be made more difficult and perhaps eventually defeated. We have acquainted our foremen and division superintendents with all the facts and we have encouraged personal contacts with individual employees as mouthpieces from the management to the men. So far this method has not proved successful, because the Union membership is increasing. We know, in two or three instances, that so called working foremen, paid on an hourly basis, are also members of the Union.

I have tried to give you this complete picture in detail, so that your organization might give us some advice and help. I presume our situation is typical of hundreds of identical situations throughout the country. Specifically, we would like your advice, based on the best thought of your organization and on the experience of other companies with whom you are familiar, on the following points:

(1) Do you feel that our method and policy to date are sound and should be continued?

(2) Do you feel that there is any method we should deliberately adopt to buck the Union organization?

(3) Do you feel that open and evident propaganda through shop bulletins, letters to employees, employee meetings, etc.. would be advisable under present conditions?

(4) Would you be inclined to take some step to force an open break with the Shop Committee and the Union at this time, or would you follow along as we are doing, purposely attempting to delay an open break until the law