THE RAILWAY STRIKE AND THE FEDERAL INJUNCTION

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ATURALLY, great commotion has been caused in labor circles by the issuance of the sweeping injunction by Judge Wilkerson, of the Federal District Court in Chicago. It restrains the striking railway shopmen, their unions, and the labor unions affiliated with them in the American Federation of Labor, from interfering directly or indirectly with the operation of the railways. This of course is a temporary injunction, and arguments to make it permanent are to be held this week. This action of the Government, taken at the instance of the Attorney-General, brings up anew the often-debated question of the application of court injunctions to labor questions, or, as the labor leaders call it, "government by injunction."

There is no question that there have been acts of lawlessness and violence against railway property, and therefore against inter-State commerce, and it is probably true that acts of intimidation, violence, and threats have been used against railway workers who would not strike or others who have taken the places of strikers.

It might be said that the criminal law should be sufficient to restrain and punish these acts, but it has been well established that where such acts amount to conspiracy the use of injunctions is lawful and right. This was clearly shown in the Chicago railway trouble of 1894 by President Cleveland, who declared that abundant proof had been found that there had been resistance to Governmental functions both as regards the transportation of mail and the operation of inter-State commerce and that "conspiracy existed against commerce between the States." The conviction of Debs for disobeying a Federal injunction issued on just these grounds was unanimously sustained by the United States Supreme Court.

The present injunction is attacked by the labor leaders, not merely because they are bitterly opposed to the application of the injunction to strikes, but also because, as they allege, it forbids things that are not illegal. They would argue that where the acts forbidden are criminal under the law the restraint should come through the ordinary criminal procedure, so that this injunction would duplicate existing powers to deal with

SEPTEMBER 13, 1922

crime. They would further argue that, if things not now illegal are forbidden by the injunction as illegal, we should have what they call judge-made law. In this case their complaint rests chiefly on the fact that, in addition to forbidding violence, intimidation, and the like, the injunction practically forbids strikers and unions to induce others to strike or to refrain from taking strikers' places by "entreaties," "arguments," and what is generally known as "peaceful picketing." Whether this exceeds the proper function of injunctions remains to be seen when the matter goes before the higher courts.

Broadly stated, the argument against excessive use of the injunction is that it puts the power in the hands of individual judges to define what is illegal and to inflict punishment under the guise of penalties for contempt of court and without the intervention of district attorneys or juries. Under this view it is declared that in cases of acts committed outside the court-room the accused should have a jury trial. The sound view of this matter seems to be that injunctions have their proper uses in criminal as well as in civil cases, but that by their nature they are also subject to abuses and should be carefully guarded by definition and law. Years ago, when this question was under active discussion, The Outlook stated editorially: "It is an abuse of the injunction to use it for the purpose of preventing a body of workingmen from doing an act which they have a legal right to do, such as to unite in leaving their employer's employment or to persuade by peaceful means others from entering that employment." And in another instance The Outlook remarked: "Power should not be denied to the courts to prohibit and prevent wrong-doing; that power should be rather increased than diminished; but it ought not to be exercised without previous notice and hearing, save in very exceptional cases."

What the practical effect of the injunction will be on the present strike is a matter of some doubt. So far as it tends to prevent intimidation, interference with the mails, attacks on any employees (strike-breakers or not), or threats of any kind, it will receive the approval of all good citizens. It has lately been claimed by the railway executives that the places of the strikers were being

filled and that many of the strikers were coming back to work. If this is so, the injunction may prove a hindrance to an early settlement rather than otherwise. At all events, the country at large is practically unanimous in believing that the shopmen should have followed the example of the maintenance of way men and have shown a willingness to resubmit the questions involved to the Railroad Labor Board. And it is equally true that such steps should be taken by Congress and the Government as would make it impossible for the country to face every little while the threat of a general railway strike which would tie up the business of the country and produce almost inconceivable conditions of living, traveling, and carrying on of work.

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THE ANTHRACITE STRIKE ENDS FTER five months of diplomacy and conference, an agreement has been reached between the hard-coal miners and operators. Final confirmation by a tri-district convention of the United Mine Workers remains to be secured, and almost surely will be before this is read.

The terms of this treaty are satisfactory to both the contracting parties; to the miners because they retain their old wage scale, will have plenty of work, and have had their way in that the agreement affects the whole hard-coal industry, pushes forward the date for new contracts to August 31, 1923, and rejects any outside arbitration; and to the operators because they can now easily sell all the coal they can put on the market at high prices-and they have duly warned consumers of a highprice era by asking for a "mandate" (apparently by silent consent) approving the settlement on a high-price basis.

But how about the third party to this controversy the silent bystander, upon whose shoulders the war cost is to be dumped? One estimate puts the cost of the strike at two billion dollars. The shortage of anthracite is about 40,000,000 tons. The resumption of actual coal production and distribution will be slow. It looks as if the consumer pays in two ways-in money and in discomfort. He is to get his coal on a hand-to-mouth basis, to use unfamiliar and undesirable substitutes, perhaps to endure actual suffering. Organized labor claims a great victory; the coal operators, hard

and soft, see a fine selling season before them; neither side has made much of a pretense of caring for the public interest.

The time to make such a ruthless labor war impossible in the future is while indignation is still hot. Congress should push the legislation before it, so as not only to provide a fact-finding commission which should put the hidden things of the coal industry into the light and, if possible, curb profiteering at the expense of home and factory, but should also provide a permanent National Coal Commission. The last (with the important omission of the word "permanent") is included in the terms of the strike settlement. Such a Commission should have effective powers, as should also the Railroad Labor Board. The lesson of this summer's strike is that Governmental regulation must prevail if Government ownership is to be avoided.

THE HERRIN MURDERS

Iwo months after the atrocious whole

TO

sale murder of workers in and about the Herrin mines the course of justice has proceeded so far as to obtain from a Grand Jury one individual indictment, that of Otis Clark, a union miner, charged with the murder of Mr. C. K. McDowell, superintendent of the Lester Mine-a crippled man who was first beaten up and then deliberately shot after surrender.

What really happened in Herrin was the result of a conspiracy to murder entered into by a considerable number of men. If possible, indictments should be procured on this basis. Inadequate as the results so far attained seem, it is a tribute to the courage and insistence of the Illinois Attorney-General, Edward J. Brundage, that even one man faces trial. He has been threatened with political ruin for insisting that Illinois should free itself from the disgrace of letting lawlessness and murder go unpunished. Whatever happens or fails to happen, he at least has done his duty.

The head of the Illinois miners' union, Frank Farrington, declares that the union will defend all members indicted by every possible means and that he appreciates the "magnitude of the agitation which is Nation-wide for convictions." No one is “agitating" for conviction of innocent men, but otherwise Mr. Farrington is right. The country is watching Herrin; it knows that a great crime was committed; it will not be content until the guilty are brought to justice.

GREETING TO BRAZIL

RAZIL celebrates her one hundredth

September 7. The nations of the world vill join with her on that date in mak

ing the occasion worthy of such a historic event. The United States, which has always enjoyed a close and growing friendship with the great Republic of South America, will be ably represented at the opening of the Centenary commemoration by a special mission headed by Secretary of State Hughes. When the United States celebrated its Centen

States Shipping Board vessels, have made it possible for thousands of persons from the United States to make the trip to Brazil, and there seems to be no doubt but that those who make the voyage will be well repaid.

THE EXHIBIT OF
OUR GOVERNMENT

HE United States Government in the

Dom Pedro II to convey her message of good will and congratulations. He was the only chief of state present on that occasion, and this Government and people have not forgotten the high tribute which it implied. President Harding expressed a desire to return in person the visit of Dom Pedro, but was unable to leave the country at this time; and so sent his chief Cabinet adviser to express for him the interest which this country feels in all that pertains to the welfare of this Republic of the South.

Along with the Brazilian centenary exercises there will open also in Rio de Janeiro on September 7 an international exposition, at which the principal countries of the world will have extensive governmental as well as industrial displays.

This Exposition will continue until March 31 next, and possibly for some months longer. It is believed that this will be one of the most interesting and most attractive world expositions which has ever been held.

With wonderful natural opportunities to start with, located in what is concede by all travelers to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, where a spacious bay of unsurpassed grandeur with a surrounding wealth of tropical color and richness of verdure adds greatly to the setting, the Brazilian Government has done everything possible to make the coming Centenary Exposition one that will be unique and worthy of lasting remembrance. In the generous preparations which she has made for celebrating her hundredth anniversary she deserves the praise of the world. In making these plans she has shown an energy, a determination, and a progressiveness which must call forth highest commendation.

To all that nature has given Rio de Janeiro as a show place par excellence for exposition purposes, there will be added magnificent lighting effects, the latest that electrical artists can supply; and for this purpose alone the Brazilian Government has made a large appropriation. Those who recall what was done at San Francisco and at some of the previous world fairs in this country in the way of brilliant illumination may be prepared to see new and even more striking results at the Brazilian Exposition. Reduced steamship rates, which have been put into effect by the United

which later is to be the home of the American Embassy, has placed exhibits showing the varied and interesting activities of its different departments. The effort has been made by those in charge of the preparation of these displays to have them of educational value as well as attractive. The Department of Commerce, for instance, will show some of the important work being done by the Bureau of Standards and the Bureau of Fisheries. The Treasury Department will have a public health exhibit, and also portray some of the most interesting operations of the Bureau of American Engraving and Printing. forestry methods and developments in road building will feature the series of exhibits from the Department of Agriculture. The Geological Survey of the Interior Department, and the Engineers' Reproduction Division of the War Department, will co-operate in giving a display of how surveying and charting of the earth's surface are accomplished. Mine rescue work, safety devices which are employed, and other features will be included in the exhibit which has been sent by the Bureau of Mines. The War and Navy and the Post Office Departments; the American Red Cross: the Veterans' Bureau, with the work being done in vocational education; the United States Bureau of Education and educational institutions throughout the country; the Library of Congress-all these branches of Governmental activity will be clearly and compactly shown to the people of Brazil as well as to visitors from all other sections of South America, Europe, and other parts of the world who will be at Rio de Janeiro.

In addition to the Government exhibits, many manufacturing and business concerns in this country have sent samples of their goods, to be shown in a separate has building which been erected especially for the purpose. In other buildings the manufacturers and merchants of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Portugal, Argentina, Uruguay, and other countries are displaying the products in which they believe the people of Brazil will be interested and for which a market exists in the big South American Republic.

Brazil began her independence as an Empire one hundred years ago, when

POSTER OF THE BRAZILIAN CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION

Dom Pedro I at Ypiranga, on September HOPES FOR CUBA

7, 1822, formally declared the nation to

is encouraging to note that

be independent, and brede a Republie Itary Hughes, on the eve of his de

parture for his South American trip, issued a statement regarding the present state of affairs in Cuba which declares that what has been done indicates substantial progress toward a solution of the unhappy state of affairs which has been described pretty fully in The Outlook. It has been due to the activity of General Crowder, the representative of the President in Cuba, and to American firmness in declaring that reform was imperatively necessary that the new measures of reconstruction have been formed.

in 1889. Brazil has always been on friendly terms with the United States. Brazil's federal Constitution is closely modeled on that of this Republic; and in many other ways the close relations between the two countries have been manifested. The friendship between the United States of Brazil and the United States of America has grown with the passing of the years. This country, Government and people, sends to Brazil heartiest congratulations on the progress of a century and sincere wishes for its future happiness and prosperity. Our participation in the Brazilian Centenary should constitute another link binding tells the two nations closer together.

These measures, Secretary Hughes are five in number. Mr. Hughes believes that combinedly they

us,

will stabilize financial and business conditions and take much that is objectionable out of the political life of the island. The measures provide for the consolidation of departments on a business basis, for a better system of accounting, more responsibility in expenditures, and for the amendment of the judicial code to make the removal of members of the judiciary easier when there is cause for their removal, and the contracting of a foreign loan to pay the floating debt of Cuba and to make a start on necessary public works. A special commission is to be created to deal with the question of public indebtedness, and the Civil Service Law is to be modified so as to enable the executive to reorganize and improve the service.

These plans are all well designed for the improvement of Cuba's conditions. The bills have already passed the Cuban lower house. It remains to be seen whether the spirit of political dishonesty and of graft in governmental and business matters can be so reformed as to make the application of this legislation thorough and satisfactory.

THE TURCO-GREEK WAR

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REECE has ample reason to lament its own folly in restoring Constantine to the throne and reversing the policy of Venizelos. It was impossible for the Allies, whom Constantine had deceived and trifled with in war time, to feel

enthusiasm over Constantine's claims against Turkey in the after-war settlement. So the Turks under Kemal and the Greeks under Constantine have been left to fight the matter out, with varying results.

At the end of August, after a long period of cessation of the fighting, came news of a positive reverse for the Greeks. They were forced to evacuate important points in Anatolia, to abandon their plan of occupying Angora, and to show their military inferiority to Kemal's well-organized army of 100,000

men.

It may be, as the Greeks claim, that the Allies granted too much to Turkish greed for territory in Asia Minor and that conflicting interests among the Allies have led to the growth of a dangerous situation in the Near East. But, if so, Greece is largely to blame for allowing herself to be led by such a proved double-dealer as the time-serving Constantine.

What effect the recent renewal of hostilities on a large scale and the repulse of the Greeks will have on the projected conference at Venice to bring about the ending of the Turco-Greek War remains to be seen. It is not impossible that it may be postponed or abandoned. The