STATE V. STRIKERS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 72, 18 December 1919, Page 11

STATE V. STRIKERS

THE ISSUE IN AMERICAN COAL CRISIS

A NOTABLE PRECEDENT

While the technical point at issue (in the 'miners' strike) is an alleged'viola-" lion of tho fowl Control. Act, and the United Slates Government has specifically disclaimed any purpose to interfere with the miners' right to strike, large industrial questions are. buuud to figure, directly or indirectly, in tho controversy. Labour is up in arms at the Adiiihus-, trillion's unexpected resort lo injunction proceed ings, which have always be.cn anathema to the American Federation, while oil tho side of the prosecution President Wilson has expressed himself as determined that the miners are not" to bo allowed to shutdown l.he industrial aim irai.'sportation iaciliiics 07 the country, and confident that in this particular ra'so they can be legally restrained iroiu so doing.

•The Government's case is set forth in ] tho brief tiled at Indianapolis. A great deal is made of the effect a prulonged striko would have on the railroads of tlie counu-y. The .Attorney-General poinls out that temporary 'impairment of tho operation •of the roads . would cause an enormous reduction in'revenues, and that (lie deficit 111 us incurred would have, to bo made up out »f the public treasury or out of funds derived from taxation. How it Would Hit Railroads. "if tho aforesaid strike, ordered by tho defendants to begin on midnight ui' October 31, I'Jlft," says the AUorncyGeneral in his brief, "becomes and remains effective, as the clefeiHtauls declare Dial: il, will, it will be impossible for Ihe operators of Ihe bituminous mines lo fulfil their aforesaid contracts for supplying coal to tho Director-Gene-ral of Railroads for Hie operation of Hie United Slates, and it will-thereupon become impossible for the Government of the United Slates, through' the Director of.Railroads, lo continue lo operate the railroads of the country, and the iperalion of freight and passenger trains, and tho transportation of persous and property by railroads throughout the 1 country will have lo.be discontinued and abandoned..

"Tho operating revenues of- the. railroads for the present year rill thus be enormously reduced below the average annual revenues earned'during the three years ended June 30, 1!)17, and tho deficit thus incurred will havo to lw made up and supplied by tho Government of the United' States under its iioresaid guarantees to the o'ffnors of the principal railroads of tho country of Minimi revenues equivalent to the average operating annual revenues for the tlireo years ended Juno M, 1917, out of the public 'Treasury and out of other revenues derived by tho Government from taxation.

"In addition to this, a suspension of tlio operation of the railroads will make it impossible, for the Government to continue the transportation' of the, mail, the Atany of tlio United States, the food supplier of the people, the raw materials essential to the industries of the country and the output of its factories, and will paralyse both intra and inter-State commerce." Used Against Debs, Very seldom in history has tho Government of the United States intervened in n labour dispute by the use of the injunction. It was said at the office of tlio Attorney-General that the last case of tlio kind came up. a quarter of a century ago, when Eugene V. Debs and other officers of I'tho American Railway Union were haled into court on contempt proceedings {trowing out of tho great railroad strike in Chicago in 18M. The case had many general if not technical points in common with the present one.' A widespread tie-up of the railroads was the principal (rouble involved in both cases, mid in bofli cases the Government sought —and in tho Debs case succeeded—tho breaking of the strike by resort'to the courts.

Tlic Moral Government noted on July 2, 1801., when the District Attorney for tho northern district of Illinois under the tlivoction of Richard Olnoy, . AttorneyGeneral, filed a bill .'of-, complnint in the U.S. Circuit Court fur, the Northern Dis-.ti-ict of Illinois against Tehs and liis fellow officers of tlio union. The complaint set forth the fact that twenty-two railroad companies operating in and about Chicago were involved in the strike, and Hint the roads wore under contract to cam- the U.S. mails.

Tlio Government told how in May. 18! M. a dismite had i risen between the Pullman Palace Car Company and its employees, and how Ihe officers of the rial way union sought to compel adjiistnient of that dispute by 'boycotting the cars of the company, and wero planning to extend that boycott by causing strikes 'among employees of all railroads attempting to haul Pullman sleeping cars. It was charged Ibat Pete and his fellow oflicers were responsible for violence resorted to in the stock yards and railway terminals of Chicago to prevent scabs from going to work. A Sweeping Injunction. The Court issued an injunction \'ery .sweeping in its character. It not only forbade all iiileii'oreiicy with trains of every character operating on the roads and tho employment of intimidation and violence against those who remained at work, but it went *a far as to prohibit the strikers from "inducing or attempting to induce by persuasion any of the employees of any of said railroads to refuse iir fail to perform any of their duties as employee* of any of'the said railroads."

The case eventually found its way to tho Supreme Court, where counsel for Dobs argued that all the; ads of the officers of the American Bnilwoy Union ■were for the purpose of bringing about aii adjustment of differences between Ihe Pullman Company and its employees, that the boycott of the Pullman sleepers was not for the purpose of obstructing commerce and that the Court had no jurisdiction in tho case. The Supreme Court tip'held tho conviction of Debs for contempt. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the Couit. Ho held that (he United Stales iiad a right to appear as a plaintiff in the suit because of its property interest in the mail. But he added this declaration, significant in the present conlroveisy: , . . "We do not (tare to place our decision upon this ground alone. "Kvery Government entrusted by the very terms of ifs being with powers ami duties to be exercised and discharged for the general welfare has a right to apply to its own courts for any proper assistance in the exercise of one and the discharge of the other, and it is no sufficient answer (oils appeal to one of those Courts that it has no pecuniary interest in the matter. "The obligations which it is under to promoto the interest of all; and to prevent the wrongdoing of one resulting in injurv to the general welfare is often of' itself sufficient to give it a standing in Court. Had Big Effect on Strike. "While it is not the province of Iho Government (o interfere in any mere ■nailer of private controversy bAiveen individuals, or to use ils great powers ie enforce the rights of one against 'lie ether, yet whenever the wrongs complained "of are such as affect the public ar. large, and are in respect of matters which bv the Constitution arc entrusted to Hit* care of the nation, and concerning which the nation owes a duty to all the citizens of securing to them their common rights, then the mere fad that the (ioiernmenl has no peciiniaiy interest in tho controversy is not sufficient In exclude it fi'o:n the Courts, or prevent it from taking measures therein to fully discharge those constitutional 1 The 'decapitating efi'ecl; of the injuncliun vin the strike was shown clearly e'-.ouHi by a hit of testimony given by one of I lie defendants before the United Stales Strike fiunniissxm and t[Uotcd in Justice Brewer's decisien: ''•Is scion as Ihe employees louml that wo were arrested and taken from the scone or net ion llmv became demoralised, iMirl that ended the strike. II was no! Ihe soldiers that ended the strike, it was ;ml ihe old brotherhoods'that ended the strike. II was simply Ihe I'n.'l-I Slatvs courts Iho! ended the strike. Our men were in a position that neyer would have been .shaken under any circimi-

stances if we had been purniittcd remain upon the Held anion" them." Onto wc were liken from l:lic scene ol actum and restrained from sending tcle-j-rains or issuinir orders or answering iiuestioiw, then tho minions of tho cor--porntious would be put to work. Our headquarters were t -mpnrarily demoralised and abaiido.-c::. and wo could not answer anv mos.--.i :■■■: The men went bid; to work ami ...- ranks vcro broken and tho strike u-> ' .-Aen up, not by tho armv and ncl ':■• any other power, lmt-simplv and *,-Vy by tho action, ot tho United Stnti'-i i-..-.';'". in restraining i:s from discharging our duties as officers and representatives of our employees."