The prime objection which labor urges against this use of the injunction is that it deprives the defendant of a jury trial when his liberty is at stake.The unions have always insisted that the law should be so modified that this right would accompany all injunctions growing out of labor disputes.Such a denatured injunction, however, would defeat the purpose of the writ; but the union leader maintains, on the other hand, that he is placed unfairly at a disadvantage, when an employer can command for his own aid in an industrial dispute the swift and sure arm of a law originally intended for a very different purpose.The imprisonment of Debs during the Pullman strike for disobeying a Federal injunction brought the issue vividly before the public;and the sentencing of Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison to prison terms for violating the Buck's Stove injunction produced new waves of popular protest.Occasional dissenting opinions by judges and the gradual conviction of lawyers and of society that some other tribunal than a court of equity or even a court of law would be more suitable for the settling of labor disputes is indicative of the change ultimately to be wrought in practice.
The unions are also violently opposed to the use of military power by the State during strikes.Not only can the militia be called out to enforce the mandates of the State but whenever Federal interference is justified the United States troops may be sent to the scene of turmoil.After the period of great labor troubles culminating in the Pullman strike, many States reorganized their militia into national guards.The armories built for the accommodation of the guard were called by the unions "plutocracy's bastiles," and the mounted State constabulary organized in 1906 by Pennsylvania were at once dubbed "American Cossacks." Several States following the example of Pennsylvania have encountered the bitterest hostility on the part of the labor unions.Already opposition to the militia has proceeded so far that some unions have forbidden their members to perform militia service when called to do strike duty, and the military readjustments involved in the Great War have profoundly affected the relation of the State to organized labor.Following the signing of the armistice, a movement for the organization of an American Labor party patterned after the British Labour party gained rapid momentum, especially in New York and Chicago.Aplatform of fourteen points was formulated at a general conference of the leaders, and provisional organizations were perfected in a number of cities.What power this latest attempt to enlist labor in partisan politics will assume is problematical.It is obviously inspired by European experiences and promulgated by socialistic propaganda.It has not succeeded in invading the American Federation of Labor, which did not formally endorse the movement at its Annual Convention in 1919.
Gompers, in an intimate and moving speech, told a group of labor leaders gathered in New York on December 9, 1918, that "the organization of a political party would simply mean the dividing of the activities and allegiance of the men and women of labor between two bodies, such as would often come in conflict." Under present conditions, it would appear that no Labor party could succeed in the United States without the cooperation of the American Federation of Labor.
The relation between the American Federation of Labor and the socialistic and political labor movements, as well as the monopolistic eagerness of the socialists to absorb these activities, is clearly indicated in Gompers's narrative of his experiences as an American labor representative at the London Conference of 1918.The following paragraphs are significant:
"When the Inter-Allied Labor Conference opened in London, on September 17th, early in the morning, there were sent over to my room at the hotel cards which were intended to be the credential cards for our delegation to sign and hand in as our credentials.
The card read something like this: 'The undersigned is a duly accredited delegate to the Inter-Allied Socialist Conference to be held at London,' etc., and giving the dates.
"I refused to sign my name, or permit my name to be put upon any card of that character.My associates were as indignant as I was and refused to sign any such credential.We went to the hall where the conference was to be held.There was a young lady at the door.When we made an effort to enter she asked for our cards.We said we had no cards to present.'Well,' the answer came, 'you cannot be admitted.' We replied, 'That may be true--we cannot be admitted--but we will not sign any such card.We have our credentials written out, signed, and sealed and will present them to any committee of the conference for scrutiny and recommendation, but we are not going to sign such a card.'
