t - International Brotherhood Of Electrical Workers

I106 The Journal of ELECTRIGCAL WORKERS and Operalors I
nin istratJe tribunal rarefuly to survey
before acting,
(3) For bring parties to and enforcing
graft and extortion. It is a sad day when
prosecution cannot stop this by means of
rmiuial anil pe sTI slatit'ts. Is the prosee. l
tion, of apone on ineoIne tait vioatoni to.
excuse the failutre of enforenlent of crimi
nal laws more diiretly applicblae? Or of
Fritz Kuhn for petty lar.eny to cover the
failure to prosecute a lultlitude of offenses
against eiil rightr?
(4) For agreelelts to fix prices. . hrn
these involve a direct relationship to labor
rates and hollrs, a rle ilPuestion weighted
on lalr'I id, is rpresented The evil can, as
have ilduinleI. be rea-hed without applying
this law to iaib r.
I5) For destroying an established sys
tern of lawfCul Icioeelre bargaining. I sup
pose this melalrs erss-pirketirig or di.sestailishment
of ompany unlsir. Cann.iot these
be left to the Wagner Art, iPid is not that
their proper sphere?
There nay be undisclosed, yet perstai
sie reason why the S herrnra Act is now
blieg pressed against ibtor unions. uth
reason nay be found in the President's
ownI estimnate of its negligih lie sults. There
was some upinor suncess in segregat tin g the
Standard Oil units, but ii, the American
Tbacer Comipany. United States Steel, Internatiorpal
Ilarester, IJnited Shoe Machincry,
Aluminum Co. of America, and like
cases, the ComlietitrWe lie!d has been arP is
praeticlly barren. Is it possiblr that, to
revive pLubic hopes in the Sherman Act, so
sgLnally ineffectiye sciule again st large captal
whose units are too strongly armored,
the sncielt weapon is no. to be tirnued
gaiilis trade onions. whose armor is
ihought to be i ess durahrle2 l'ilis would
Iueei, to be arl at.e..iPt by a legal ItatloohPtol(-
t tost reconstruct roul a single alilient
fossil "the skeleton of a prehiliric nala -
teidin'' with which to terlorize Ialor unionsL
itie tjee submissoion iuntil an,other period
pf IIoroIs i rnUlliy'' shall have nilled
oPer it. 'Ibi,, it is respectfully submitted.
is not Iay.-, I lie, rio tatmnike poicy
in the aPiniitrattt, of n laws, whose application
shoulid hie regasrd for the ch.anging
sees wrtught by social nid economic
forces.
Once, a long ti mte nago, when 'rhtdnle
Roosevelt's Atprnrnvy General, Philander C.
Knox, began eii:fliig the Sherman Act by
serving the nophlint opl the Northern
;eeuri .ties Colna nynu it iS relatdii th.t . P.
Morgan telephoned to advise that the effect
on Wall Street was not a happy one Knox
is said to have replied: 'The stock-ticker
P1(1n not tick in the )epartment ,f Justice.'
(IOn Iiight be oived to ineuire xhether time
is also unrecorded in the sanctuary where
repnses the Sherm an Act.
The law en furrement officer or judge
who is int sufietenly alert to c Irrlelate the
law to reality in falbei disputes does injury
mre irreparable hy far to society than any
allegedly tirPlaPful*' activity in pretended
violation'of anti trust laws does to sacred
rop rerty.
Unionismn is th result of the evL h lttflii of
a IaS relationship instead of the old
status of the individual workers in Industry.
That relationshilp demands concerted
action ive r broad areas, in whole industries.
in whatever time and plare the objective
of imrproverl rnditiuns