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About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 1908)
O THE TAFT RECORD William Howard Taft has bien an officeholder from the aire of twenty-nine years until a few months ago. when he resigned t lie position of secretary of war to accept the republican nomination for the presidency. lie was never elected to any public office, but has been drawing a comfortable salary from the government for a quarter of a century. It was while on the federal bench that William Howard Taft handed down a series of injunctions which were of great and lasting injury to labor. These injunctions have been cited as precedents in a lour list of injunctions that have followed, until now trades unions are held by the courts to be trusts in re straint of trade. One of the first injunctions issued by Judge Taft was against the Bricklayers' Union of Cincinnati. The Union Bricklayers refused to handle the product of an un fair firm, holding that they were not compelled to do business with an industrial enemy. Judge Taft enjoined them from refusing to patronize this unfair concern or from counselling among themselves or with others with a view to curtailing the trade of this unfair concern. At the final hearing Judge Taft made the injunction perma nent and fined the union $2,500 for refusing to give its lid and patronage to a concern that was doinsr its utmost to destroy the efficiency of the organization. It was Judge Taft who sent Frank Phelan to jail for contempt of court, sentencing him to six months impris onment on the testimony of a hired spy a man named Dormer, who was an employe of the Field Detective agency of St. Louis. Dormer was hired by the receiver of the Cincinuati Southern road to spy upon the members of the American Railway Union. He went under the name of Williams and was given a position as brakeman. He joined the A. K. U.. and went out on strike with the rest of the men but he made daily reports to the receiver of the road. It was practically upon the unsupported testimony of this hired spy that Judge Taft sentenced Frank Phelan to jail for contempt, donying him a trial by jury. Branded Them as Conspirators. It was Judge Taft who branded the late I. M. Arthur. (J rand Chief of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and Frank V. Sargent. Oram! Master of the Brotherhood of lioeomotive Firemen, as conspirators, and enjoined them from enforcing the rules of their brotherhood. It was Judge Taft wh compelled Arthur of the Engi neers and Sargent of the Firemen lo use the naehinery of their brotherhoods to injure the membership at large, thus usurping the"functitins of thvr union. - Hea:so wrote an order which nullified the efforts of these two organiza tions lo benefit the membership, and compelled Arthur and Sargent to make his judicial ukase known through the channels of the organizations. It was Judge Taft who. in the famous Ann Arbor railroad cases, decided that a railroad employe, being a public servant, had no right to quit work when he pleased. Of this order Frank I. Sargent, then grand master of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, snid: What Sargent Said About It. 44 If a judge of the United States court may abolish the right of an employe, he remands him. unequivocally, to a servitude as degrading as the Spartans imposed on their helots, and it is this phase of the. strike which has aroused such intense concern and alarm." The same courts which have followed and improved upon Judge Taft's decision as outlined above, have also decided that the employe who can not cease work when he wants to may be fired by the employer whenever the employer so desires. In the now famous case of Vant 'leave vs. the Ameri can Federation of Labor, the i:: junction against the Fed eration was based upon Judge Taft's decision airainst the bricklayers in the Moo res case. In the case of Lowe vs. the United Hatters of North America the decision that trades unions are trusts in re straint of trade within the meaning of the Sherman anti-trust i Judge Taft's divisions in the cases against Arthur and Sargent. In this campaign William II. Taft has the undivided support of every union hater in the land. He is earnestly supported by VanCleave, by Post, by Parry, and others who have useu the courts to hammer organized labor into submission. "If you don't like it. go to Denver." was the insolent advice offered Jompers. Mitchell and other labor leaders by Vaut'leave and Parry and Cannon, when the labor leaders asked the republican national convention to insert an anti-injunction plank that would put organized labor on an even footinvr in the courts. Organized labor's representatives were accorded a scant ten minutes before the resolutions committee of the republican national convention. Judge Taft heartily en dorses the republican osition on the injunction question. This is natural, because Judge William Howard Taft is the father of the injunction as it is now used in indus trial disputes to render labor helpless in the face of giant corporations. Judsre Taft sent I'helan to jail for contempt on the testimony of a hired spy. He classed railroad men as serfs who could not cease their employment, but who could Ik discharged at the whim of the employer. He used the machinery of two trades unions to work an irreparable injury to their members and did it because federal judge is snpr me owing no allegations to any authority save his own judicial interpretations. The republican convention which ignored the just demands of labor nominated this same William Howard Taft for president. INJUNCTION BELLI Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! Injunction Bill, Of Politics You'll get jour fill; Our chance is here and aeier fear Upn the rocks joor craft we'll steer. Wheo years ago job had the chance Yoa played tune that lade as dance, But sow we're coiing back at tod, Skidoo! Injunction Bill! Skidoo! was based upon THE SHERMAN RECORD When the safety appliance bill was before the Fifty-seventh Congress an effort wa made to fritter away time and defeat the bill by placing in it a provision authorizing a reduction in the number of airbrakes to be used in trains. On the motion to eliminate this obnoxious provision Mr. Sherman, although present, refrained from voting. When an effort was made to prevent the Department of Labor from being mad subordinate in the bill creating a Department of Commerce and Labor, a motion was made to recommit the bill with instructions to report a bill leaving the Department of Labor independent and giving it representation in the cabinet. Mr. Sherman, although present, refrained from voting. During the first session of the Fifty-ninth Congress, on the motion to suspend the operation of the eight-hour law as to alien labor employed on the Panama eanal. Mr. Sherman refrained from voting. i During the first session of the Fifty-ninth Congress, after it was well known that the house committee on judiciary had smothered all of labor's anti-injunction bills, and there was no hope of securing any legislation on this subject unless a caucus of the re publican members could be induced to take favorable action. On May 16, 1906. II. K. Fuller, representative of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Brotherhood of Lo comotive Firemen and Enginemen and Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, wrote Mr. Sherman a letter explain ing the situation. Mr. Fuller asked Mr. Sherman if he would be willing to sign a petition for an early call for a republican eaucus for the purpose of considering the sub ject. Mr. Sherman never deigned to answer Mr. Fuller's letter. Sherman's Bitter Opposition. Mr. Sherman is a member of the honse committee on interstate and foreign commerce. During the second ses sion of the Fifty-ninth Congress, when the bill limiting the hours of railroad employes was before that commit tee, Mr. Sherman endeavored to seenre the adoption of an amendment making it a crime for railroad employes to work more than sixteen consecutive honrs. This amend ment, had it been adopted, would have worked a great hardship and injustice to railroad employes for the rea son that it is the railroad companies and not the em ployes who" create the conditions under which employes are compelled to work excessive hours. The railway or ganization opposed the Sherman amendment, but Mr. Sherman tried his best to secure its adoption, his idea be ing to throw the responsibility on the employes and not ""upon the manageirient It " was on3Irr"SKerTnanr mo- " tion that the word "knowingly" was inserted in the bill, the effect of which was. had it finally been adopted, to put upon the government in each prosecution the burden of the proof that the railroad eompany had " knowingly" violated the law. It was Mr. Sherman who insisted upon substituting for the sixteen-hour bill submitted by the railroad employes one of his own. and one which con tained so many loopholes that the employes preferred to see it defeated rather than passed in such an objeetion able form. ' When the modified bili passed the house it went to a conference committee of which Mr. Sherman was a member. He voted against making the employe's bill n basis for the legislation. Wanted Longer Honrs. Mr. Sherman voted in conference to increase the hours of telegraphers from nine to twelve. Mr. Sherman voted in conference to limit the time in which suits could be brought against railroad companies for violation of the act from three to one year. Mr. Sherman, as a member of the conference com mittee on the railroad rate bill in the Fifty-ninth Con gress, favored' and agreed to an amendment which pro hibited railroad companies from issuing free passes to railroad employes and their families, and which also sub jected a railroad employe who solicited a free pass for himself or a member of his family to a fine of $1,000. This amendment was adopted by the conference committee and only beeanse thousands of telegrams of protest from rail road employes all over the country were sent to senators and representatives was it eliminated fro mthe bill. When the employer's liability bill was passed during the last session of congress. Mr. Sherman, although present, did not vote. On May 21, 1908, the republican members of congress held a conference in the house chamber to consider the question of anti-injunction legislation. Mr. Sherman, being opposed to such legislation, moved to adjourn sine die. The motion prevailed, and had the effect of preventing action on the matter. Mr. Fuller, national legislature representative of the three great railroad brother hoods mentioned, says: 4iAs the repreesntative of our organizations I persoi.ally attended the republican national convention held at Chicago, HI., June 16-9, 1903, and endeavored to have an anti-in junctio.'i plank placed in the platform df that party, and it. was commcn knowl edge iu Chicago at that time that Mr. Sherman, together with Speaker J. CJ. Cannon, of the national house of representatives, and other hous.? leaders, was in Chicago, ami worked aeainst the adoption of such a plauk. This statement. The Wageworker has over Mr. Fuller' own signature. The republican convention which ignored the just deipands of labor nominated this same James Schoolcraft Sherman for vice president. UinfflQOIl QlmM tort 57 Haters FcnoDBGOs arad Bo Mio Lata's 1?0gs. Mo m arefr-Jeisil feo oc 3C 3C DC DC DC u n O n I u o