its protest against legislation prohibiting workers the use of the strike, and affirm its repudiation of legislation involving the imprisonment of workers participating in industrial disputes.*

The purpose of compulsory arbitration is the prevention of strikes. Its advocates assume that the public is more seriously concerned in the consumption of wealth than are the workers in its creation; that the interruption of industry through strikes is more disastrous to the public than is continuous, indefinite labor under compulsory conditions to the workers.

There are, indeed, any number of things which we discover in our lifetime that other people consider we are in duty bound to do, but we do not on that account necessarily do them. Whether or not a man will perform some particular task must be in the nature of things left to his decision.

The public may have a bad time of it if steamers do not sail, or trains do not run, or if telephones fail to connect, because dockers have refused to load the steamers, firemen have refused to stoke the engines, and telephone girls have refused to attend the switchboard. But no one of these workers, nor all of them together, can be forced, successfully forced, to serve the public on the terms it dictates, as vital as the going and coming of the public may be.

Every proposition to make strikes illegal or ineffective is fought by organized labor more stren

uously than are all other measures for labor regulation. The most conservative, as well as the most revolutionary labor union man, believes that the only defense of free labor against slave labor is the unimpaired right to strike.

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 billDemocratic 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.

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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

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.