benefits which would be payable during a period of two years to all of the then contributing employes of the manufacturer" the obligation of the manufacturer and of the employes to make further payments shall be suspended and "shall only be revived when the fund is again reduced to an amount less than the total maximum benefits which would be payable during a period of one year." In other words, the smaller the benefits necessary the sooner will there be relief on both sides from the obligation to contribute to the fund. One result of the Amalgamated Unemployment Insurance plan in Chicago is that it has necessitated the keeping of accurate records for each individual worker, showing the places and times of his employment, his wages, character of work, benefits received, and all other data necessary for the administration of the insurance fund. This collection of statistics will form a solid basis for any further constructive attempts to alleviate conditions of unemployment in the clothing industry. The Amalgamated hopes to establish in New York a plan of unemployment insurance similar to the one in Chicago. Impartial Machinery Another institution in which the employers and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers are jointly "civilizing the industry," is the "impartial machinery," which in Chicago traces its history to the initiative of Hart, Schaffner and Marx in 1911, and which in New York dates only to July of last year. Disputes arising in New York which cannot be settled in the shop are referred to a court consisting of the labor manager of the New York Clothing Manufacturers' Exchange, Mr. Boris Maruchess, and the general manager of the New York Joint Board of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, Mr. David Wolf. If these men fail to agree on a settlement the case goes to the Impartial Chairman, Mr. Jacob Billikopf, whose decision is final. The Impartial Chairman may have to decide what justice would require with respect to wages that should be paid, the amount of production to which the employer is entitled, the proper hours for work, the offenses for which discharge or other discipline is justified, the treatment that workers have the right to expect, the arrangement for laying off workers, rotation of employment in slack seasons, and all similar matters. The effectiveness of the impartial machinery is indi cated by the fact that out of 1,000 disputes during about ten months only 80 have been carried to the Impartial Chairman, and that all except 20 of these cases have been adjusted through his influence without the necessity of rendering a decision. Educational Activity Further activity on the part of the Amalgamated which is aimed to increase the personal contentment and efficiency of the workers consists of the educational program. Newspapers are published in English, Yiddish, Italian, Czecho-Slovakian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, and French (the latter for Canada). The English paper appears weekly, the others semimonthly or monthly. These papers, beside containing news of the trade, have so-called magazine features, and departments in which topics of general interest are discussed. These papers have an aggregate circulation of 140,000, which is the entire membership of the Amalgamated. The union also conducts study classes and carries on other educational activity at all its centers. In Chicago experiments are being made with "mass education." An auditorium seating 5,000 has been rented and concerts have been given there by opera singers and symphony orchestras. Lectures are delivered by authorities on matters of current interest. Admission is free to holders of Amalgamated cards, and whenever there is room the public is admitted. It is reported that the results are gratifying. The Clothing Workers do not have apprentice schools, and direct instruction in the trade is limited to demonstrations by experts in the Cutters' Union. In Rochester frequent lectures are given before the local unions, where the members also take part in debates on questions of economic and sociological interest. Thus the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, while providing entertainment for themselves in their educational program, are also clarifying their own views on the political society of which they form a part. Meanwhile they are learning through their impartial machinery to meet their employers half way in the adjustment of disputes. In their investment of unemployment funds, in their financing of co-operative housing schemes, and, above all, in their banking, they are deriving practical experience which should go a long way toward developing sympathy with the responsibilities and peculiar problems of those who mobilize money as their contribution of service for the general good of the commonwealth. UNIV. OF MICH Law and Labor A Monthly Periodical on the Law of the Labor Problem Vol. 7 LEAGUE FOR INDUSTRIAL RIGHTS 165 Broadway, New York City New York, August, 1925 No. 8 66 REALISM IN INDIVIDUALISM HOUGH the varying winds of circumstance wreck many a sailor, and often carry fools safe into harbor, yet as a rule it is the good sailor who reaches port. Men commonly fail or succeed in proportion to their innate ability. The attitude of attributing failure to external circumstances causes much ill-being. To acknowledge limitations without losing courage, and to build one's life upon what one is, rather than upon what it is pleasant to dream one's self to be, is a health-giving process." -Antioch College Leaflet. THE LEAGUE FOR INDUSTRIAL RIGHTS To Preserve constitutional rights in industrial disputes. Protect employer and employe against illegal strikes and conspiracies. Secure legal responsibility and integrity of contract. Safeguard industrial liberty. Create a public policy on industrial warfare. PUBLISHERS OF Law and Labor SUBSCRIPTION $5.00 THE YEAR MURRAY T. QUIGG, Editer CENTS THE COPY THE LEAGUE WILL APPRECIATE THE COURTESY IF DUE CREDIT IS GIVEN WHEN REPUBLISHING MATERIAL FROM LAW AND LABOR THE UNITED MINE WORKERS ANTI-SOCIAL POLICY 207 207 COOPERATION for the Protection of Industry Against Its Parasites. The fight for a sound Workman's Compensation Act in Missouri 208 IRA L. STONE 209 .... STRIKES BY BUILDING TRADE WORKERS TO UNIONIZE TEAMSTERS of Building Material Dealers in Westchester County, New York, Enjoined 209 PICKETS ENJOINED From Interfering With Drivers By Blocking Trucks and Cutting Their Ropes and Fixtures 210 ..... CLOSED SHOP EMPLOYER Fails to Prove Case Against Open Shop Employers. Loss of Business 211 212 POLICE ENJOINED From Arresting Speaker and Disturbing Assembly in Absence of Evidence That Assembly Would Be Unlawful 213 ..... JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTE Between the Bricklayers and Plasterers. Its History and What It Involves 214 CHANGE OF VENUE Applied for on the Ground of Bias in a Proceeding for Civil Contempt Should Be Granted 217 OFFICERS OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA ENJOINED From Selling Prison Made Goods Not Labelled as Such 218 COOPERATIVE MARKETING ACT OF ALABAMA Does Not Authorize Associations in Restraint of Trade .... 219 PARADE OF MEMBERS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN in Mask Attire Held to Amount to a Breach of Peace ANTI-KU KLUX KLAN LAW of New York Held Constitutional EQUITY WILL GRANT RELIEF Against Irregular Expulsion From Unincorporated Associations.. 222 STRIKE WHICH PREVENTS UNLOADING OF FREIGHT CARS Does Not Excuse Payment of Demurrage in Absence of Appropriate Contract Provisions 223 I. W. W. Held Not to Have Purged Itself of Criminal Syndicalism IS A PENALTY IMPOSED BY A COOPERATIVE MARKETING ACT Upon One Who Purchases From a Grower, With Knowledge That the Grower Thereby Breaks His Marketing Contract, Constitutional? LABOR'S PARTICIPATION IN THE CONDUCT OF INDUSTRY. Excerpts From An Address by Mr. Sam A. Lewisohn ..... COOPERATIVE MARKETING AGREEMENT IN A FISHERMEN'S UNION 226 228 230 The United Mine Workers' Anti Social Policy The anthracite coal operators say they do not want a strike. It is difficult to see how in the long run they can profit by a strike; it is easy to see how they must suffer by one because they have already lost business to other fuels through the fear of interruptions and shortages due to strikes. The public will not depend on the supply of a fuel which proves undependable. It will seek substitutes. It is also impossible to see how the coal miner can fail to be affected in his pocket-book by the same considerations which affect the operators. It is of very grave importance to this industry to have public confidence and good will. In 1920, the operators offered to arbitrate the union demands and the issues were arbitrated. In 1922, the operators offered to arbitrate the union demands. The union refused. In 1923 the operators offered arbitration. Again the unions refused. In 1925 the operators have urged arbitration and the continuance of mining without interruption and have advised an agreement for a long term with provisions for periodic wage adjustments upon agreed principles. For the third time the union has declined. The public is peculiarly interested in the coal industry. It should be represented in any major dispute covering a wage agreement for the entire anthracite field. The merits of the wage earner's claim to higher wages-higher than war wages, higher than the wages in nearly any other industry, wages which in terms of purchasing power have been advanced within ten years further than in any other industry-should be settled by impartial representatives of the public. If the union cannot be satisfied by a settlement arrived at by impartial persons, it can only be presumed that it will not be satisfied by any settlement that is reasonable. Settlements made in fear or through political acrobatics can never be the basis for durable solutions. Such settlements made as the price of buying off a strike invite the strike habit. There is no hope for a fair deal, there is no hope for a reasonable relationship between anthracite operator and miner, without resort to arbitration. The Law of Contracts or the Law of Force The theory of the law of contract is very old. It is comparatively simple and well understood. It is based It is based upon the notion that when one man has promised to do some definite thing upon explicit understanding that another will do some definite thing, neither may later fail to fulfill his promise without the consent of the other. If either party does fail the other may appeal to the law and, if the thing agreed to be done is not unlawful, the person aggrieved may have damages to the extent of his injury, or an order protecting him from further deliberate failure to perform if his injury cannot be compensated by money. The great advantage of this understanding of a contract and the right to appeal to law, is that it protects the weak man in dealing with the strong man and it provides for an impartial decision of the fact as to whether a contract has been broken or not. If enforcement of contracts is left to the power of the parties to it, either party considering himself the stronger might refuse to perform, might construe the contract any way he wished and perform so much of it as suited him, or arbitrarily charge the other with non-performance and retaliate without justification. In the performance of mutual undertakings, faith in which is necessary to a condition of civilization, man must rely upon the law of contracts or be submerged in the law of force. The possibility of appeal to the law for the enforcement of stated obligations is the only basis upon which to make an agreement as to things hereafter to be done. If either party to such an agreement may take the matter of its enforcement into his own hands, there is no ground for the hope that anything done today will be paid for in the future. If there is no law of contracts, every man is at the mercy of the strongest antagonist. In spite of the simplicity of this proposition and its enduring nature we read these surprising words in an editorial by Mr. John P. Frey on page 413 of the International Moulders Journal for the month of July, 1925: "The courts as a whole know but little of the practical problems which organized workmen endeavor to work out through collective bargaining. The conditions arising as a result of trade-unionism and collective bargaining have never been made the subject of law, neither should they be, for involved in collective bargaining is the personal relationship which exists between employer and employed. Nothing could be more fatuous, impractical and dangerous than the belief that the courts should be used to enforce the terms of a wage agreement. Nothing could be more disastrous to trade-unionism than such a belief, for if wage-earners were to be convinced that they could look to the courts as the source of power which would protect their wage rates and other terms of employment, they would lose the vital force which makes trade-unionism effective. They would no longer look to themselves and the intelligent collective strength of their organization as the essential condition, if fair conditions of labor are to exist. "There is but one sure, effective and lawful way by which trade-unionists can meet the situation when employers repudiate a wage agreement, and that is to collectively cease working. All of the law which could be enacted, all of the court decisions which could be handed down, all of the executive orders which the authorities might issue, combined into one force for the protection of labor, is as nothing compared with the power which lies in labor's hands to collectively refuse to labor when, for any reason, the conditions of labor are unsatisfactory." If these words mean anything, they mean that a collective bargain shall not be a contract, but it shall be a mere modus vivendi enduring at the mercy of that party to it who deems himself the stronger. It means that having suffered friendly conferences or burdensome strike in order to effect an agreement, the sacrifices made in con ference or in the strike have earned no values for either party, if the other party deems it to its interest to disregard the understanding. It would mean, therefore, that all that has been said by trade unionists in favor of collective bargaining would be without sincerity, since in this view a bargain should endure only at the will of the stronger party. It would mean that trade unions desired not that their claims should be recognized on their merits and enforced after recognition as the claims of other dealers are enforced; but that their claims should be imposed because they have the power to impose them: and that no acceptance of their propositions and no sacrifice made to get along with them should be permitted to work any limitation upon their arbitrary will. Co-operation for the Protection of Industry Against Its Parasites Bulletins of the Associated Industries of Missouri advise us of cooperation between associations of employers and labor leaders in Missouri in support of the compensation law enacted in the current session of the Missouri legislature. Representatives of employers and of organized labor consulted each other freely during the preparation and passage of the Act and cooperated to defeat the forces of accident lawyers and their coterie of retainers who opposed the Act. After passage of the Act, a petition was circulated for its reference to the people. The employers and labor leaders are still cooperating in support of the Act. A bulletin of June 25, 1925, says: "On Tuesday, June 17th, Mr. Arch McGregor, president of the McGregor-Noe Hardware Company, and chairman of the Springfield Branch of the Associated Industries of Missouri, called together in conference the leading business men, together with representatives of farm organizations and a number of Labor leaders to discuss methods of defeating the referendum. "R. T. Wood, president of the Missouri State Federation of Labor, agreed that his organization would cooperate to the fullest extent with the Associated Industries in any plan which might be adopted. Mr. Wood gave the Associated Industries full credit for securing the passage of the Compensation Act in spite of the powerful influence of the damage suit lawyers, unprofessional doctors and ‘a certain element of Labor in St. Louis and Kansas City that is a disgrace to trades unionism.' * * * "On Thursday, June 19th, a conference similar to that held in Springfield was called by F. C. Ralston, president of the Joplin Supply Company, and chair man of the Joplin Branch of the Associated Industries. R. T. Wood, president of the Missouri State Federation of Labor was present. A large number of business men, bankers and representatives of organized Labor were in attendance and offered their enthusiastic support to the plan of the Associated Industries looking to the defeat of the referendum on Compensation. "A joint committee of business and labor leaders was appointed to direct an active campaign of education on Workmen's Compensation in Southwest Missouri. This committee is comprised of six business executives and five officers of labor unions. "Thus for the first time in many years leaders in the business life of the state, together with chosen representatives of organized labor, have met around the table and agreed to co-operate to the fullest extent in the solution of a common problem." This is a happy illustration of the triumph of intelligence over prejudice. Representatives of both employers and employes, regardless of their attitude toward the issues of unionism, see the necessity for a fair and practical Compensation Act. Therefore, whatever prejudice they may have toward one anobtain a common end against their common enemies. other they have submerged in a common effort to They find they may unite for the protection of industry against those whose greed or stupidity will delay its progress. This is but one example. There are others like it. But it is one example which, profitably used, may be of benefit to industry and the society. which it serves. |