Labor problems and labor legislation (1922) (14792417713)

Identifier: laborproblemsla00andr (find matches)
Title: Labor problems and labor legislation
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Andrews, John Bertram, 1880- (from old catalog)
Subjects: Labor laws and legislation Labor (and laboring classes)
Publisher: New York city, American associaton for labor legislation
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress



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heir efforts to prevent the growthof unionism they are assisted by certain SupremeCourt decisions. In one case the court declaredthat employers had a perfect right to dischargeworkmen for joining a union. In another casethis highest court in the country decided thata union had no right to attempt to organize menif they had agreed as a condition of employmentnot to join any union. These two decisions to-gether seem to make it possible for powerfulemployers absolutely to destroy all organiza-tion among their working force, although theythemselves have full scope to unite in manufac-turers or employers associations of various sorts.Nevertheless, the legal right to organize is nowgenerally recognized. To protect this right Con-gress a few years ago passed the Clayton act,which declared that labor is not a commodityand for a time it was thought by many that thiswould prohibit the laws against trusts frombeing interpreted so as to interfere with the (95) LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION
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CAISSON IN FULL OPERATION. Workers (sand hogs) at bottom of caisson work under atmospheric pressure to prevent water from flowing in. (96) SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDUSTRY existence of labor organizations. During thewar, in order to prevent serious unrest and con-sequent reduction of output, the governmentwent even further. Through the War LaborBoard and other bodies for the settlement of dis-putes it induced many anti-union employers,temporarily at least, to permit unions in theirestablishments. Following the war there were a number ofadverse court decisions, including those in theDuplex Printing Press case in 1921, and theCoronado Coal case in June, 1922, which, despitethe Clayton Act, seriously limited the freedomof trade unions. Strikes and Lockouts But while the right of labor unions to existis no longer questioned in this country, they arestill hampered in many of their activities.Forced labor is slavery, and therefore is not per-mitted in America except as a punishment forcrime. Hen