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CHAPTER XII

LEGISLATION AND THE UNIONS *

Auxiliary to direct action-Dangers of state action-Warning from Australia-A. F. of L. and anti-trust law-BartlettBacon bill - Restriction of immigration - Seamen's bill— Democratic political measures-Congressional measures advocated during four Congressional sessions-A. F. of L. state legislative measures summarized.

THE distinctive characteristic of labor unions is voluntary association; the voluntary association of workers among themselves and in all of their industrial relations. When unions turn in the pursuit of their ends from voluntary association to state protection they are usually prompted by some event or series of events which have thwarted their voluntary efforts. Their legislative activities are the by-products of direct action, that is, of collective bargaining, trade agreements, boycotts, strikes.

As the courts render adverse decisions to labor union efforts, the unions turn to the legislatures to secure state endorsement of their position or needs. In spite of the mass of legislation instigated by them, they are keenly alive to the dangers of state action. In commenting editorially on compulsory arbitration, Samuel Gompers observes that "strike after strike

*See also Chapters on Boycott and Arbitration.

occurs in New Zealand, and the Australian Commonwealth under laws providing for both compulsory arbitration and wages boards. Experience of the workers in their efforts to abolish industrial injustice has demonstrated that this legislation is ineffective for that purpose, but is destructive of liberty and progress. The important element in securing results is the spirit, the resourcefulness, and the initiative of the people themselves. Nothing is a substitute for intelligent initiative. Time after time men have put their faith in theories, methods, and legislative devices. They have found all agencies impotent to secure the welfare of the people unless under the control of a people able and alert in their own interests. They have found theoretically imperfect machinery producing most gratifying results if only permitted the development and exercise of initiative.

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South Australian industrial legislation is based upon the principle that the government should take over the responsibility of securing industrial justice and peace. But the government has been most sensitive and responsive to the employers' interests. Employers have found the Arbitration Act a legal and effective method of weakening unions." 1

This attitude toward state control of labor conditions and labor unions the Executive Council of the American Federation expressed in reporting its conclusions and recommendations on a minimum wage for women.

If it were proposed in this country to vest authority in any tribunal to fix by law wages for men, labor would protest by every means in its power. Through organization the wages of men can and will be maintained at a higher minimum than they would be if fixed by legal

enactment.

But there is a far more significant ground for opposing the establishment by law of a minimum wage for men. The principle that organization is the most potent means for a shorter work day and for a higher standard of wages applies to women workers equally as to men. But the fact must be recognized that the organization of women workers constitutes a separate and more difficult problem. Women do not organize as readily or as stably as men. They are, therefore, more easily exploited . an industry which denies to all its workers and particularly denies to its women and minors who are toilers a living wage is unfit and should not be permitted to exist . . . legislation of this character is experimental and sufficient experience with it has not been had to enable us to secure . . . information as to its tendency and its effect upon wages and industrial conditions. ...2

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When Theodore Roosevelt was president, he denied the postal-clerks, as government employees, the right of petition as well as organization. It was an object lesson to labor unions suggesting what they might expect from government ownership or control.

The most important legislative measures advanced by the Executive Council of the American Federation and its state organizations apply to the defense of labor organization and labor union tactics.

During 1913-14 the National Executive Council was largely occupied in an effort to secure a federal statute which would exempt unions from classification under the Sherman Anti-trust law as combinations in restraint of trade. The courts had so interpreted the law in the case against the United Hatters and the suppression of their boycott; in the injunction against officers of the American Federation for the publication of the Buck Stove and Range Company in their "We Don't Patronize" list. Under the same interpretation officers of the United Mine Workers and of the Western Federation of Miners had been indicted during their West Virginia, Colorado, and Michigan strikes.

These efforts of the courts to so construe the law signified to labor the dissolution of its unions. The opposition fight which the American Federation waged against such construction was long and costly to organized labor. The position of the Federation is quoted at length on account of the importance of the issue.

Without further delay, the citizens of the United States must decide whether they wish to outlaw organized labor. Only a few months ago the officials of the United Mine Workers were indicted under the Sherman Anti-Trust law because they helped the miners of West Virginia to break the shackles by which the mining companies held them helpless objects of exploitation. The mine operators forced the constituted authorities of the state to do their bidding. The miners could ap

peal to no one for justice. Their only defense lay in their ability to enforce their rights through their united, organized power. To strip them of that defense is the purpose of the litigation begun by the indictment charging that organization with restraint of trade. These same officers of the United Mine Workers have again been indicted under the same "anti-trust law because they are helping the miners of Colorado to resist the tyranny of the Standard Oil Company, which seeks to evade compliance with labor laws of the state. The "indicted" officers of the miners are (call it "conspiring," if you please) engaged in an effort to rid the state of Colorado of government by mine guards in order to reëstablish civil government, government by law.

The Federal grand jury's indictment charges the officers of the miners' organization with establishing a monopoly of mine labor in the United States and Canada and with organizing a conspiracy to restrain interstate

commerce.

The law of the land assures to workers the right to organize. All who have any knowledge of the world of industry concede that without organization the wageworkers are helpless victims of the industrial forces that are seeking their own self-interest. Practical men of business refuse to deal with a weak union, for its agreements would have neither advantage nor force; but as a matter of course they recognize and deal with strong unions, and adjust their business to conform to the new situation. It follows, then, that control of all the workers in a trade increases the success and the efficiency of the organization in securing better terms for a greater number of workers, and in turn protects the fair employer from competition with producers who care not how they grind their employees so long as they also grind out profits.

The right to organize is a sham, a trick, a deceit,

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