UNIONS AND THE LAW.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 150, 19 March 1908, Page 6

UNIONS AND THE LAW.

The action of the Blackball Miners' Union in directing and continuing an indefensible strike, and the support extended to the strikers by Unions •and,": Trades Councils; throughout the country, have probably set', many people thinking of the. duties of Trades(Jnionism. and the. lengths to which they should be permitted to go. The subject is one that may profitably be considered in connection with an interesting development in the , industrial situation in America. It will be remembered that our cable news a' few weeks ago contained brief reference to some important decisions' delivered by the Supreme Court of the United States,. One of these judgments declared ! unconstitutional the Erdman law of 1898, which forbade railroads or other, carriers engaged in inter-State commerce l to discriminate against ' employees' because . of their membership in ! labour Unions. The. other decision declared that the Union " boycott " is. illegal'.when used in restraint of inter-state trade. These judgments,, taken with certain lower court rulings against picketing and blacklisting, are considered to be crushing blows to the worst practices of Trades Unions, and the New York " Post," in discussing the position, has a good deal to say that is appropriate for quotation in this country just now. In America, organised labour is a vastly more powerful thing than it is in New Zealand, but the successive encroachments which a section of TradesUnionism, working through a docile administration, ■ has - made upon individual liberty in New Zealand, and the recent. revelation of the predatory inclinations '• of the Unionist hierarchy, demonstrate that the difference between Unionism here and Unionism in America is not a difference of kind. In America the desire of, the Unions has been "to place themselves as a favoured class above and beyond the law," and we have all seen the same desire amongst leaders of organised labour in this country. The New' York "Post" attributes the methods of the American Unions to their determination to obtain for themselves the unfair advantages which they see being enjoyed by certain forms \of capital. ■

"Avoiding the laws .. . . they have sought to escape any responsibility for their actions, oven though thoy might bring to tho verge of ruin many employers who cnoso to say. whom thoy should employ and upon what terms. Wlion tho Courts used tho weapon of . injunction against them they have not been content, liko othor citizens, to suffer just and unjust judges alike, but have attempted to obtain special legislation, designed to tio the hands of the judiciary , . . It has been a Labour Trust that thoy havo aimed at, as plainly as the Standard'OH Trust has planned to establish an undisputed monopoly."

Just as the Dcnniston miners, dissatisfied with the Arbitration Court's refusal to vary the old award, contrived to obtain from Parliament a special Act to give them what the Court could not gin- tfiem, so in America the Unions have been "encouraged in their belief that they were the chosen among our people" by " the cowardly truckling of the average politician." Again, we must repeat, we are seeing the samo thing here. Our New York contemporary points out—and it is worth the attention of the New Zealand public—that, while the Unions have rightly abhorred the methods of the Trusts, they have copied the Trusts in forgetting "that equality for all the people is the fundamental doctrine of the Republic, and that the middle-class of small-salaried clerks, business workers, and farmers is as much entitled to consideration as either the ' predatory rich' or the organised Unions.'' The Supreme Court decisions seem to have at, last destroyed the supremacy of the Unions over the law. It is even hoped that the Illinois judgment against " picketing " will end such " sympathetic strikes," as are encouraged by New Zealand agitators, and an example of' which was the Chicago teamsters' strike, which tied up the city for weeks, and • caused enormous loss and suffering to thousands who had nothing to do with the garment workers whose 1 grievance originated the trouble. The "Post", observes, in .further comment:—

"If the Unions could be made to pay for the wanton injury done by their members (luring such a strike, it might make their leaders a little moro circumspect and a v little slower to expose their own followers to suffering and the needless loss of their positions . . . . Finally, anything which helps to bring , the Unions, under the law, and to make them responsible, law-abiding bodies, will help tho Unions to the extent of removing prejudices against them. The last thing that the Unions should wish for is the bieaking-down of the self-respect, efficiency, and independence of the American workingman. This would bo the' inevitable result, woro they to be ,allowed to go on unchecked after the . manner of tho last fow decades.'! This is a warning that is needed in New Zealand, for the Government, alternatively by action in the House, and inaction out of it when TradesUnionism rebels ■ against the law, is most decidedly encouraging Labour into the ultimately ruinous " belief that; they are the chosen of our peo r pie." ' The agitators are, of course, 1 beyond appeal of < any kind, but the rank and file of. Trades-Unionism are not. It is their business to control their leaders, and to remember that the great body of the public, and. ultimately the governing ; force. of : the country,; lies between and apart from what is called. " capital " on the one hand and Trades-Unionism on the other. ■ :