pitalism. Compulsory arbitration or some
similar device must therefore replace such crudely restrictive and
oppressive measures as have hitherto been applied to the unions.

In the United States all "dangerous" strikes are at present throttled by
court injunctions forbidding the strikers to take any effective action,
and boycotts are held to be forbidden by the Sherman law originally
directed against the "trusts." Recently the Supreme Court decided that
the officers of the American Federation of Labor were not to be
imprisoned for violation of the latter statute. But the decision was
purely on technical grounds, and the court upheld unanimously the
application of the law to the unions. There is little question that the
attorney for the manufacturers, Daniel Davenport, was right when he thus
summed up the court's opinion:--

"It held that the boycott is illegal; that the victim of the
boycott has the right to go into court of equity for protection by
injunction; that such court has the right to enjoin any and every
act done in enforcing the boycott, including the sending out of
boycott notices, circulars, etc., that the alleged constitutional
right of free speech and free press affords the boycotter no
immunity for such publication; that for a violation of the
injunction the party violating it is liable to be punished both
civilly and criminally."

Against this law and the use of injunctions in labor disputes the
Federation of Labor has introduced a bill through Congressman W. B.
Wilson, which aims to free the unions from these legal obstacles by
enacting that no right to continue the relation of employer to employee
or to carry on business shall be construed as property or a property
right; and that no agreement between two or more persons concerning
conditions of employment or its termination shall constitute a
conspiracy or an offense against the law unless it would be unlawful if
done by a single individual, and that, therefore, such an act is not
subject to injunctions. While neither of the great parties has
definitely promised to support this particular measure, one party has
made a vague promise to restrict injunctions, and the leaders of the
progressive wings of both are quite definite about it. Nearly half of
the House of Representatives voted for the repeal of the Sherman law as
applied against union boycotts. Senator La Follette has demanded the
abolition of